Stressing About The Latest Trend Makes You Look Old

There I said it. All of you folks stressing about how to part your hair and whether you should part with your tan suede ankle booties? You look incredibly out of touch. Stressing about the latest trend makes you look old. Don't let these so-called style experts make you look old with their marketing ploys.

Microtrends are a Scam

These trends are all bullsh*t anyway. It's all an attempt for someone to go viral. In this day and age of the 24-hour news cycle and every TikTok an opportunity for 15 minutes of fame, you'll have so-called experts creating things to worry about and a bunch of fame chasers emphasizing them.

And right now, it's so hot to tell women over 30 that they're horribly out of style. These things you bought 3-10 years ago that you're wearing now are so out of style they make you look… omigod they make you look your age!

It's all a ploy to make you click, heart, follow, and buy. It's all a scam. You must burn your skinny jeans immediately and buy new ones (and then shoes to go with the new jeans and tops to fit with the new jeans and shoes and…). You must start anew, or you look like a clueless old lady, and no one will ever love you, respect you, or find you attractive. You must spend excess, create waste, and keep up not with the Joneses but with the generations behind you. And that makes absolutely no sense at all.

History Repeats Itself… But Now It's In Your Phone

Every generation teases the ones before them about how they dress. Hello Mom jeans and Grandpa sweaters. But did our parents feel shame when we teased them for their generational cliche fashion? Nope, they had better things to focus on.

• Those jeans were comfortable, and made it easy to wrangle a kid into a carseat, pick up toys off the floor, while also making it easy to get dressed in a jiffy. And when they got sticky fingerprints on them, they were durable and simple enough to toss in the washer and dryer.
• That cardigan sweater easily goes over a shirt and jeans. The v-neck and length is like a retiree's blazer; it feels familiar. Pockets for necessities and a silhouette that looks good unbuttoned and thrown on without much fuss. Heck, you can nap in it and remain comfortable.

And why do these items have nicknames we know so well? Because those garments went from being “dated” to being stylish. As we see with 2024 fashion trends embracing trends from several previous decades… fashion is cyclical. Hell, the side part became fashionable at the end of 2023 when, just in 2021, we were all called dated for not having middle parts. Don't try to keep up, it will just waste your money and your time that could be spent on more enjoyable things.

Chasing Trends is Not Cool

Remember Amy Poehler's character in the original movie Mean Girls? She was a “cool mom,” trying to dress like her daughter and her daughter's friends. She offered mocktails and condoms and wanted all the high school gossip. She was a try-hard, or as the kids say these days, a pick-me girl. And try-hards, regardless of the generation, are never cool.

Chasing the trends to look hip to a younger generation is incredibly uncool. What's cool is wearing whatever TF you want to wear without shame. If that's skinny jeans with tan suede ankle booties and a fitted blazer, then do it with pride. You're a grown-ass woman, and you have earned the right to wear what brings you comfort and joy.

Chasing trends is not only uncool, it's aging. One may think that keeping up with the trends keeps us looking youthful, but doing it with desperation and at the expense of personal style, comfort, and joy is not stylish, not cool, and not youthful.

What is youthful is taking risks with fashion while taking opportunities to play with your style. Trying new things because it keeps you thinking and changing and evolving not because some woman on Instagram told you what to do. Remember what brought you joy when you were 16, or 25, or 32 and see if a concept of that may bring joy now. Wearing what makes you happy, what provides comfort and joy.

A New Dress Will Not Change Your Life (Nor Will a New Cut of Jeans)

I've been saying since 2005 that a dress will not change your life. The same holds for the shape of your boot's toebox, the cut of your jacket, and the leg opening on your jeans. It keeps you young to try new things, but it won't make you look youthful or stylish to embrace current trends just because you feel a younger generation considers your style to be aging.

Do you think the women of Advanced Style have ever been worried about what a younger generation thinks of their shoes? Do you think Tracee Ellis Ross, Tilda Swinton, Carla Bruni, Queen Latifah, Brandi Carlisle, or Joan Collins is chatting with their stylist to ensure their attire is GenZ approved? Eff no, they're wearing what gives them comfort and joy. It may fit the trends, it may not. What is stylish is they're doing it on their terms.

Trust Yourself, You Fabulous Grown-ass Woman

Stop the noise. You're a grown-ass woman, and you will not look cool or hip or youthful getting rid of perfectly good clothing that makes you happy to follow what some younger so-called expert preaches. Try new things and break out of your routine, but always focus on yourself, your comfort and joy, your needs, and life and world. The less you listen to others and the more you listen to yourself, the more stylish your wardrobe and your life.

But What If I Want an Update?

Please understand, I am not saying it's uncool and aging to update a wardrobe… if you want to. If you're feeling like you're a different person, or you feel stuck, or you're ready for a change then do it! Consider using a stylist or a service like Fashivly to get a personal experience instead of taking the advice from a stranger who doesn't know you, your needs, your size, age, and may have questionable style and education on the subject.

Change is good. Change keeps us young. But when it's change for others instead of for ourselves, it can actually age us. Style is knowing yourself and dressing the part, not following the herd. I promise you, wearing what you already own is way cooler than shopping willy nilly to appeal to those who could be our children.

I'll continue to provide real-life style advice here at Wardrobe Oxygen, navigating real trends (not the microtrends that come and go), and showing you how to have big style with a smaller closet and without buying a whole new wardrobe!