Review/Roast: My Family Members' Fashion Sense

Recently, my mom discovered some never-before-seen family photos, giving me the perfect opportunity to roast my family and laugh at them (and myself) for how weird we all used to look. I did so in the video below, however, I'd also like to analyze these photos in reference to their context, specifically, whether or not the subjects of the photos are on-trend with the time period it was taken. 


While reviewing these photos, I noticed some credit due to my parents and family for dressing to trend and dressing my sister and me to trend. My family being the fashion-forward people that they are subscribed to some of the most promising fads of their time. 


Soul Patch
This was my dad's attempt at a soul patch, when he was 18 or 19. Soul patches are extremely representative of the 90's, so my dad may have even been ahead of the trend as he shows off his facial hair circa 1989. For those, unfamiliar with the soul patch, it is essentially a carefully trimmed portion of facial hair, or "patch" of facial hair located on the chin. Soul patches were also voted the Number 1 item from the 90's that should never resurge by College Humor in 2011. However, my dad's pictured soul patch is perfectly to trend in this photo.

Straight-Across Bangs
As mentioned in my video, the haircut with chopped, straight across bangs was apparently a huge trend in the late 90's/early 2000's- or at least it was in my family. My mom had my sister and my hair cut in the same way for more than 5 years and, after looking through these photos, it appears my grandmothers also subscribed to that 'do. The two photos below on the left were taken in the early 2000's.



After some research, it seems that the 2000's were characterized by straight-across, Zooey-Deschanel bangs. This accounts for my bangs as well as those of my sister and cousins- we all had them. I've always given my mom a hard time for this repetitive choice in hair, but she was just following the trends. Giving us the look of our time. This does not, however, account for my grandmother's bangs, as pictured above in a photo from the 80's. This leads me to think this hairstyle is possibly just adored by the women in my family regardless of the current trends.


 Denim on Denim
My family hit this trend hard in the early 2000's. Below is a photo from 2001, with my mom on the far left rocking this trend right next to another woman not in my family with the same idea.

The younger people in my family were also dressed to this trend- frequently. Below you can see a couple cropped instances of this, specifically in overall-dress form.



 The denim-on-denim trend is pretty well known as characteristic of 90's, as we remember Justin Timberlake's denim suit and Brittany Spear's matching dress. In this case, my family may have been dressing slightly behind trend as we dawned our denim in the early 2000's as well. As the trend has made a comeback in recent years, it's really grown on me, allowing me to harbor little embarrassment for my denimed-out kin.

Verdict: My family looked fly 
Overall, my family, especially my parents were more on trend than I expected. My mom will be happy to know that she was right and I was wrong for my complaints concerning her off-trend stylings. We were relatively fashionably dressed throughout my childhood, according to the trends of the time, so, I'd like to take this time to thank my mom for her fashion-forwardness. Special recognition is to be had for both my parents, who, turns out, were young, hip people subscribing to the fads of the time- just like me now!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Land, Legacy, and Leasing: the Future of Our National Forests

Image
( This blog post was written for use by Conservation Colorado and does not necessarily reflect my own political views.) A Colorado forest and the threats to its future Our public lands are what give Colorado its reputation as a beautiful, wide-open place, and what brings thousands of people to live and explore here every year. But President Trump’s administration and their “energy dominance” plans threaten many of the wild places we love and put them at risk for industrial development. At the same time, the administration’s attempts to limit input from everyday people would take the public input out of public lands.  Fortunately, the Trump administration hasn’t succeeded in silencing the public. We can still make change —  especially when it comes to the public lands in our backyard. For many West Slope members of Conservation Colorado, this is the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre Gunnison National Forest. The Forest Service created the exist...
Read more

The Internet: a Pedophile's Paradise, a Parent's Nightmare

Image
If you go to Google News and search "pornography" your return will include pages like this: and pages thereafter of child pornography case after child pornography case.  It then dawned on me, I hear about child pornography an awful lot. Is this something that has always gone on, but technology only now has the capabilities to communicate in full? Rather, could we be living in a spike of child pornography popularity? It's the latter. We are living in a spike of child porn distribution According to former U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, "a historic rise in the distribution of child pornography," is being observed by lawmakers and persecutors throughout the U.S. Holder also reported a decrease "is in the age of the victims," overall, as more cases with younger children arise. Psychologists have found  child pornography addicts are prone to progress to younger and younger children as their addiction continues. A...
Read more

Natural Selection- Swipe Left

Image
My roommate and I were discussing technology and dating recently, and how certain new traits may be selected for in the evolution of our species as a result of their cooperation. Humans and most other organisms evolve by the development of advantageous genes which translate into certain traits. The traits which are selected for are the ones that make reproduction a more likely outcome, thereby passing down genes that turn out to be adaptive to a specific environment. So, we got to thinking, if internet dating results in successful marriages, partnerships, and consequential offspring, and if this was a condition of our species reproductive cycle for a long enough period of time, then traits that make internet dating successful would be naturally selected, eventually evolving our species. So which traits make you a good internet dater? I was thinking impulsivity- many dating apps rely on snap judgment and positive/negative feeling associated with an image, or small set of images,...
Read more