Millennials dress however they want We have made all possible mistakes, and precisely for this reason we now know who we are
Each of us, as children and maybe even as teenagers, fantasized at least once about “what it would be like to be grown up.” Back then, being grown up probably meant being in your thirties or something close. And now that we actually are in our thirties, we couldn’t be further from the idea we once had of ourselves. In a world that seems to offer few points of reference, we’ve still managed to build our own form of rebellion. If we stop for a second and ask, “What does a thirty-year-old dress like today?” the answer is simple: however they want.
The millennials’ past, between Cioè and Polyvore
After years of chasing trends rather than setting them, of micro-aesthetics and performance anxiety (including aesthetic performance), Millennials - raised between MTV and Instagram - have finally reached a stage of conscious freedom. After all, we’ve tried it all: padded headbands, cringe slogan tees, wedge sneakers, and jeggings. We’ve survived some truly embarrassing style eras. We learned how to do makeup from grainy YouTube tutorials and pages of Cioè, and discovered fashion through endless Polyvore sets. We were tragic, but we made it. Now it’s our time to be cool. So yes, we still want to wear crop tops, tracksuits (if we feel like it), or a lace bodysuit when we need to feel sexy. Dressing how we want means embracing change and moving through different phases - sporty today, girly tomorrow, minimalist the next - and that freedom comes from experience.
A new kind of adolescence
In some ways, our approach resembles that of Gen Z: but while they often perform authenticity, we live it unapologetically. And there’s a big difference: most of them skipped adolescence altogether, or at least the awkward aesthetic phase that comes with it. While we were frying our hair with supermarket straighteners in pursuit of the perfect side bang, they were mastering a Dyson AirWrap at 13. While we smudged electric blue eyeliner under our eyes, they perfected the art of contouring. Just think of thirteen-year-old Blue Ivy Carter (Beyoncé’s daughter, by the way) on the red carpet with her grandmother Tina Knowles: stunning in a blush-pink silk gown with a corset bodice, feather stole, and matching jewelry set. The best we could hope for back then was a Hilary Duff-inspired look. Sure, the early 2000s aesthetic has something to do with it, but so does a new way of understanding childhood and adolescence. The new generations seem to have grown up within an already polished, filtered, and coherent aesthetic. We, on the other hand, are still building ours. And today, that slightly chaotic freedom has become our superpower.
@officialnancydrew Replying to @elysecarnagie if you were younger and wondered why your mom continued to wear Mom jeans long after they were fashionable, this is the exact reason why. People often gravitate towards what they wore in their 20s, and continue to wear that throughout long period of their life. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with us, it just depends on if you enjoy following trends, if you enjoy experimenting, etc. also, we need to note that creating a new wardrobe is a large amount of work, so that should not be thrown under the radar. But yes, this way of dressing has been out of style for quite a while, including the slouchy hats that I discussed my past video. ##millennials##fashiontrends##2010sfashion##fashiontiktok#greenscreen original sound - lindsey louise
Do we just want to stay young?
And yet, from the outside, someone might say we’re just trying to stay young. And maybe they’d be right. Why should we want to grow old, anyway? It’s not about being eternal Peter Pans or avoiding responsibility - it’s about doing it our way, through a style that represents us as individuals and doesn’t box us into one specific phase of life (which, honestly, we couldn’t even define ourselves). In that sense, leaning toward a younger style is more about survival than denial. It’s not a rejection of fashion, it’s a rejection of expectations.
@laurenagans I kinda like it here and I looove my handy dandy little neck lamp. Highly recommend for all your stitching, crafting, puzzling, reading etc . . . . #millennials #millennialmom #sketchcomedy #momsoftiktok #millennialmemes original sound - Lauren Agans
So yes, we’ll keep dressing however we want. We’re still learning to understand ourselves better, to build a style that’s ours, not dictated by ever-shifting microtrends. We’ve learned (or at least should have) what doesn’t suit us, and what makes us feel confident and powerful. And that’s what we hold onto when life feels overwhelming. We can move effortlessly between different versions of ourselves and the best part is, we don’t have to pick just one.