I’ve worked in fashion for well over a decade, and I know good clothes inside and out: who makes them, who wears them, and how cool, interesting people are putting them together. A big part of my job is helping others decide what pieces are worth their hard-earned money — and, of course, how to squeeze the most styling juice out of their purchases. But I also have a dirty little secret: Lately, I have absolutely no idea what to wear myself. Celebrities are pairing dresses with jeans like it is 2002 again, and influencers are hitting the runway show circuit in nearly naked outfits. And when it comes to editors like me, who have traditionally flocked to and from the same specific trends together, an elaborate buffet of TikTok-created “aesthetics” and increasingly over-the-top runway collections have left many of us confused and wondering: Which way is the style insider zeitgeist shifting?
I find myself consumed with this question one afternoon at the Bustle Digital Group offices. It’s around lunchtime and I’ve fully decided that I hate the pants I chose that morning. Despite coming from a very fancy designer label, they feel too cropped, too tailored to my waist … too something I can’t really put my finger on. As I start Google searching the style to see how the brand styled them in a lookbook instead of attending to, you know, actual work, I received an audio message from a friend who works in fashion public relations. “I’m going shopping right now because I don’t know how to get dressed anymore,” she exclaims as I sneak into a hallway to listen.
Wardrobe befuddlement is crystalizing as a theme with my contemporaries across all corners of the industry. A few months ago, WhoWhatWear co-founder Hillary Kerr posted a lengthy caption on Instagram about losing — and looking for — her personal style on Instagram, while fashion writer and journalist Lauren Sherman took to her newsletter, Lauren In The Afternoon, to explore her own evolving tastes. (“Like everything else, my style has once again changed,” she wrote. “If not completely, enough to stress me out a little.”) Just last week, WSJ Off-Duty published a package about two writers, in their 40s and 60s, relearning how to get dressed after the pandemic. And when I mention writing this article to any editor, writer, or publicist friends in passing, they laugh and sort of grimace. “Let me know what you find out,” they say.
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Christian Vierig/Getty Images Entertainment
“I do find myself just standing in my closet being like, ‘I don’t want to wear any of this, but …….
