Mary Marxen walks down the street in a vintage tweed jacket from the 1940s, sequined ballerina slip-ons reminiscent of the 1980s, delicate pearls that are so 1920s and a back-combed ponytail styled like mods of the 1960s.
Sound interesting?
Marxen, 17, dresses like many other teens who are mixing styles from different generations.
“I get a lot of strange looks from adults,” Marxen said. “Sometimes, teachers will look at me, laugh, and say, `What are you wearing?”‘
Teen girls such as Marxen are making a mark by borrowing looks from fashion history, mixing varied trends from different decades and pairing them to modernize them.
“The look is natural and eclectic,” said Marxen, a high school senior in Sacramento. “It’s fun to find stuff from your mom or grandma’s closet and throw it together.”
Marxen’s favorite borrowed items from family members’ closets include her mother’s pearl necklace and cardigan sweaters.
Borrowing styles from past generations has always been done, noted Barbara Beccio, academic director of the fashion department at the Art Institute of California in San Francisco.
What makes this generation of style thieves interesting to Beccio is the choice of combinations. Instead of reviving the style of whole decades at a time, teens today are mixing and matching.
Why do teens today seemingly lack their own unique generational style?
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Gia Pia Bandini, owner and editor of the online fashion magazine www.fashionfinds.com, said there is not much originality being presented to teenagers.
“The fashion of today lacks certainty because we live in an uncertain time,” Pia Bandini said. “Old styles represent a comfort zone, where kids feel validated and secure because the looks have already happened and been accepted.”
Many designers also are playing it safe by creating clothes based on past trends. They find inspiration in old television shows, magazines and popular culture.
Teens are a powerful economic force, and the fashion industry willingly caters to their desire for vintage clothing.
The look is about pairing the conventional with the unconventional. Teens today are beginning to rely less on revealing skin as a shock factor and more on eye-catching combinations of clothes.
Gootee explained that she likes the classy look of vintage clothes but enjoys pairing that style with completely contrasting modern elements.
Marxen and Gootee predict that the funk in fashion will give way to tailored, modest elegance.
Still, the looks predicted to gain popularity in the near future resemble styles prominent during other times in history. They are looks that have been mastered before and are, therefore, approved as guaranteed sophistication.
“I see no ceasing in this borrowing of trends,” Pia Bandini explained. “Fashion is a reflection of the times, and until people feel relief in the world, there will be no real change.”