Fashion Cycles and Baggy Pants ...

Well, I still have the creeping crud so it will be another day of pigging out on all forms of media. Right now, I am listening to Armstrong & Getty on the radio and CNN on TV with captions. I'm also reading a lot of my favorite informational blogs.

My brain is back but not functioning fully yet so some strange stories are capturing my attention.

The Houston City Council wants to create new legislation that will regulate the bagginess of baggy pants worn by young men. You know the annoying look I am talking about: the low-riding pants that look impossible for walking and droop so low that we are all exposed to the butt cracks of an assortment of sizes and shapes.

Would it be any better if they were attractive?

Not particularly.

On the other hand, I remember how we dressed in the 60s which I'm sure was equally appalling to older people as baggy pants are to us now. We wore our tie-dye t-shirts, fringed leather jackets, boots, granny dresses, dirty jeans (preferably dirty enough to stand up on their own), peasant blouses and anything else we could find with wild, swirling neon pastels. I was certainly among them with the exception of the dirty jeans. That was too far into the abyss for a budding fashionista but all the rest, I wore with relish. When it came time to give up my rose-colored granny glasses and cut my long blonde hair, it traumatized me for life!

I adapted quickly to the fashion of the 70s and if Barbra Streisand wore it in "A Star Is Born", I found it, bought it and wore it, too. If I couldn't find it (remember.. no eBay then :), I made it. She was my fashion shero of the time. I had lots of polyester pants suits with bright-colored blouses, a curly perm to match and could have passed for Barbra if it hadn't been for my short, stocky body build, an obviously British bone structure and lack of money.

We all did the disco thing and thought it would never end. Remember those little gold leaves we wore around our necks? I was one of the last ones on my block....

The 80s came along and it was rather ill-defined fashionwise. Annie Hall did it for most of us and we layered as much as we could. I liked the look but it truly didn't work for a short chick like me. That was meant for tall, lanky Diane Keaton types.

In the 90s, did anyone get dressed? I don't remember. By that time, I was back to Bohemian wear. Lots of ethnic clothing, big clunky jewelry, Birks and colorful socks during the winter. Since I lived in Colorado for a good portion of the 90s, those socks were important! Grunge. Was that 90s?

Now we come to the 2000s. Baggy pants, wrap blouses, jeans, jeans and more jeans. Distressed jeans. Baggy jeans. Tight jeans. Black jeans. Blue jeans. We live in a sea of denim.

Thailand Gal has gone completely Thai. There's nothing particularly noteworthy. If anything, it seems to be going back to the 60s again.

All of this to say ~ while the baggy pants may be annoying, this too shall pass. Let's put legislative power to more important things. Fashion trends change with the wind and, if anything, there is a push now for the skinny leggings. Audrey Hepburn on Gap ads. "The skinny black pant." Needless to say, I will not be buying those. If I wake up as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn one day, I'll consider it ~ as long as I can keep my Hmong needlework tops.

Peace all,


Thailand Gal
~*~*~*