Is style stuck in a 2 decade rut?

[LaMedicine]

I offered to buy my mother a pair of saddle shoes, and she looked at me with this stern look on her face: "Honey, I'm not 20 anymore." Apparently saddle shoes are a "youth item" to my mother.

How strange! I guess it all depends on what era you grew up in.

It's not as much youth item, as it is that age appropriate clothing was the norm, and the codes were well observed. By the time I was growing up, saddle shoes were grade school kids item, not something a high schooler would wear. High schoolers wore penny loafers, flats (ballet shoes type) on dress up days, and Keds on athletic days, and the grade schoolers couldn't wait to shed saddle shoes and claim penny loafers to show they were all grown up.

Offer your mothers penny loafers, and they probably won't decline.

 

[rue]

It's not as much youth item, as it is that age appropriate clothing was the norm, and the codes were well observed. By the time I was growing up, saddle shoes were grade school kids item, not something a high schooler would wear. High schoolers wore penny loafers, flats (ballet shoes type) on dress up days, and Keds on athletic days, and the grade schoolers couldn't wait to shed saddle shoes and claim penny loafers to show they were all grown up.

Offer your mothers penny loafers, and they probably won't decline.

That makes sense! The woman also mentioned she couldn't wait until she was able to wear penny loafers. Was this the same always or was this just your generation? I'm asking, because Lizzie has mentioned several times that the girls that wore them in the 40s grew up and would still wear them occasionally as adults.

 

[LaMedicine]

Post WW II, 50-60's and on, I'd say. Also, probably more in big cities than smaller towns and rural areas.

 

[rue]

Post WW II, 50-60's and on, I'd say. Also, probably more in big cities than smaller towns and rural areas.

Thank you for answering I was just curious, because that woman really threw me for a loop.

 

[Edward]

I took my son to school today and noticed that not much has really changed since I was in school. Same kids wearing the same ubiquitous jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes---no difference. One kid had a bi-level mohawk and one had curly hippie hair but still nothing new there. Of course my son goes dressed the same way I did with dark colored khakis and a long sleeve button down shirt.

Whether he wants to or not?

I still see most all of what's been described as 90s fashion every day of the week on the streets up here -- every once in a while you'll even see an 80s perm. The main difference, I guess, is that our demographic here is much much older than the more fashionable areas -- the median age is something like 46, and you'll find a lot of people still wearing the same thing they were wearing twenty years ago. We're old here, and we're cheap.

I have long (and when I say long, I mean since I was about sixteen) believed that there is an age at which we stop changing our style. Most people I have observed get to their mid thirties and then spend the rest of their lives dressing as they did then. I certainly think that will be true of me, and I've seen it so often that it really is the norm.

David Letterman was the moron to blame for all those morons wearing sneakers with suits -- it was "hip and edgy" when he did it in 1982, but now it's just a tedious cliche for second-rate standup comics and software developers. If the stick-it-to-the-man crowd really wants to be edgy and rebellious, wear saddle shoes with a tux. That'll get you noticed.

I remember going to church at the turn of the nineties in a two-piece suit (my first) with a printed t shirt under it, and those massive, white basketball boots (which we always called baseball boots) that were popular in the Eighties. Sometimes it was a much-loved "Adolf Hitler's European Tour" t-shirt (you know the one.... the Nazi WW2 campaign presented as if a tour by a rock band.... with Russia and England stamped "cancelled").

I know I'm getting old when I hear what we're all calling Converse by the more specific name, "Chucks" or "Chuck Taylors". I had no idea when I first heard "Chucks" that it was referring to the high-top Converse that most of us wore at some point when we were younger!

Another example: hoodies. When I was a kid, they were hooded sweatshirts, but now they're hoodies. I guess a new name is given to an old item to make it seem new?

RD

Converse.... over here, I gre up calling Chuck Taylors "All Stars" (hi-top and low-top being the variants)... that is generic over here. I wonder whether that's because the Chuck Taylor name wouldn't really mean anything here in terms of celebrity? As distinct from Fred Perry (at one time anyhow.... by my generation, of course, it had become a brand rather than the name of a famous sportsman. A true shame, as his image is a beacon of civility, a clear indication that even on the field of sporting endeavour there is simply no excuse for grown men to wear short trousers).

You know you're old if you call them "gym shoes." And you were only allowed to wear them in gym.

Ha, I still call 'em gutties.....

lol I can imagine someone telling me that. I get the most odd comments.

I offered to buy my mother a pair of saddle shoes, and she looked at me with this stern look on her face: "Honey, I'm not 20 anymore." Apparently saddle shoes are a "youth item" to my mother.

This is priceless..... I mean, you're saying here that, in effect, while we all smugly point and laugh at folks today dressing like children in our eyes, the folks who actually lived through the era we dress to are often doing the same thing at us? lol

I love my saddle shoes. Wore them to an academic conference in Washington last year one day, with my black linen suit, forties tie, white shirt, white cotton newsboy. Half a dozen people made comments along the lines of..... what's that big golf tournament? In a good way. I suppose the one place most people see saddle shoes these days are golf spikes...

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

Kids worldwide seem to have been imitating American Rappers for the past 20 years or so

[video=youtube;5phqDvrWNZc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5phqDvrWNZc[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

That makes sense! The woman also mentioned she couldn't wait until she was able to wear penny loafers. Was this the same always or was this just your generation? I'm asking, because Lizzie has mentioned several times that the girls that wore them in the 40s grew up and would still wear them occasionally as adults.

The first big saddle fad was on college campuses in the mid-to-late thirties -- they were practically obligatory with women in their mid-twenties during that period, and from there they trickled down to high school and younger ages. These were predominantly brown-and-white saddles -- although black and whites did exist, they were nowhere near as common or as popular during the prewar era. The college kids wore them as dirty as they could possibly get -- clean saddles were the mark of a poseur.

Interestingly, before their discovery by the Class of 1937, rubber-soled saddles were considered athletic footwear, worn primarily by squash players and enthusiasts of other such gym-based games. For them to be adopted by college kids for street wear was seen in pretty much the same way that sneakers were seen when they started showing up outside of gym class.

As La Medicine notes, the black-and-white saddles became predominant as a schoolkid staple in the mid-to-late fifties, by which time brown-and-whites had practically disappeared.

Penny loafers first became a fad during the war, when they were part of the dad's-old-shirt-and-rolled-up-dungarees uniform adopted by high school girls of that era, and remained very popular with that age group into the next decade.

 

[kamikat]

I know I'm getting old when I hear what we're all calling Converse by the more specific name, "Chucks" or "Chuck Taylors". I had no idea when I first heard "Chucks" that it was referring to the high-top Converse that most of us wore at some point when we were younger!

Maybe it's a regional thing? I've always called Converse All Star shoes "Chucks" and I'm edging up to 40. The first person I knew to wear them was my older sister's boyfriend, who called them Chucks, around 1979-80ish.

 

[Edward]

The first big saddle fad was on college campuses in the mid-to-late thirties -- they were practically obligatory with women in their mid-twenties during that period, and from there they trickled down to high school and younger ages. These were predominantly brown-and-white saddles -- although black and whites did exist, they were nowhere near as common or as popular during the prewar era. The college kids wore them as dirty as they could possibly get -- clean saddles were the mark of a poseur.

Funny, I remember the same thing when I was at school - primary school especially as we wore trainers all the time then (leather "dress" shoes were required at Grammar school). If your trainers were identified as "new" they would be "Christened" by being stamped upon with others' dirty feet - while you were still wearing them, of course.

 

[sheeplady]

Offer your mothers penny loafers, and they probably won't decline.

Oh, my mother hates penny loafers. But that's a personal thing- she has always hated loafers. lol

I was surprised about the saddles- my mother grew up in the 1950s (born in the 40s) and they apparently were seen as something that you put away once you "stopped going to the sock hops." (Her words.) My mother loves saddle shoes on me and was really excited when I got a pair. So it goes along with what you are saying- they are not so much a "youth item" but something that my mother considers inappropriate for her to wear, but ok for me. Granted my mother is in her 60s.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

The Crying Indian was one of the first campaigns to save the earth from pollution:

[video=youtube_share;j7OHG7tHrNM]http://youtu.be/j7OHG7tHrNM[/video]

AHA - I knew I'd seen that image before! Thank you, Rue!

P.S. Think he needs to make a comeback...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was buying salt today, and it occurs to me that the Morton Salt girl hasn't changed her look since the late sixties -- it used to be she'd be updated every ten or fifteen years, but she's had the same look now since 1968. Isn't she long overdue? Doc Martens perhaps? Ripped fishnets? Mohawk? Tattoos? Surly attitude? Drooping cigarette?

 

[rue]

The first big saddle fad was on college campuses in the mid-to-late thirties -- they were practically obligatory with women in their mid-twenties during that period, and from there they trickled down to high school and younger ages. These were predominantly brown-and-white saddles -- although black and whites did exist, they were nowhere near as common or as popular during the prewar era. The college kids wore them as dirty as they could possibly get -- clean saddles were the mark of a poseur.

Interestingly, before their discovery by the Class of 1937, rubber-soled saddles were considered athletic footwear, worn primarily by squash players and enthusiasts of other such gym-based games. For them to be adopted by college kids for street wear was seen in pretty much the same way that sneakers were seen when they started showing up outside of gym class.

As La Medicine notes, the black-and-white saddles became predominant as a schoolkid staple in the mid-to-late fifties, by which time brown-and-whites had practically disappeared.

Penny loafers first became a fad during the war, when they were part of the dad's-old-shirt-and-rolled-up-dungarees uniform adopted by high school girls of that era, and remained very popular with that age group into the next decade.

Thank you for clarifying that Lizzie

 

[rue]

Maybe it's a regional thing? I've always called Converse All Star shoes "Chucks" and I'm edging up to 40. The first person I knew to wear them was my older sister's boyfriend, who called them Chucks, around 1979-80ish.

I think it must be a regional thing. I grew up calling them Converse.

 

[Flicka]

I think it must be a regional thing. I grew up calling them Converse.

I honestly never heard them called anything but Converse, but then I speak a freaky foreign tongue so what do I know?

I was buying salt today, and it occurs to me that the Morton Salt girl hasn't changed her look since the late sixties -- it used to be she'd be updated every ten or fifteen years, but she's had the same look now since 1968. Isn't she long overdue? Doc Martens perhaps? Ripped fishnets? Mohawk? Tattoos? Surly attitude? Drooping cigarette?

Cigarettes would never do today. They might be sued! I'm thinking she'd be manga-like with huge eyes - and wearing pink, of course. Probably with looooong lashes. A hint of sexiness, too.

 

[Undertow]

I was buying salt today, and it occurs to me that the Morton Salt girl hasn't changed her look since the late sixties -- it used to be she'd be updated every ten or fifteen years, but she's had the same look now since 1968. Isn't she long overdue? Doc Martens perhaps? Ripped fishnets? Mohawk? Tattoos? Surly attitude? Drooping cigarette?

Good idea! We should pitch this to the Morton's people. Picture this: twenty something with cigarette, beer gut, tattoos and piercings; holding a crying baby in one arm and a very small packet of salt in the other. And she's madder 'n' hell!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The first big saddle fad was on college campuses in the mid-to-late thirties -- ...

To add to Lizziemaine’s comments…


Styles take twists and turns. Consider the American saddle shoe: it first appeared around 1900 as a yachting shoe. By 1915, a version of it was also marketed by Brooks Brothers (n the photo below) as a “racquet shoe” for tennis. Around 1920, Princeton students began wearing it on campus (usually with linen knickers) and at summer resorts. By the mid 1920s, the A.G. Spalding Co. was selling saddle golf shoes.

The Crash of 1929 put a temporary end to the saddle shoe’s popularity, at least among the 'upper crust' … then, in the later 1930s, high school students began wearing in earnest an inexpensive version made by Spalding and its competitors. The rest is history…




Around 1935, penny loafers, originally called “Norwegian peasants’ shoes”, became popular in the U.S. when wealthy American men picked up pairs during vacations in Northern Europe. Ironically, they went on to wear these chilly-clime shoes in decidedly warm-weather resorts: Palm Beach and Bermuda. Even back then, penny loafers were often worn sockless (as seen in the 1930s image below).

Shoe importers began shipping penny loafers in from Norway. Then, in 1936, a Maine shoemaker, G.H. Bass & Co., found a way to cut costs: by manufacturing penny loafers locally. Bass (and its imitators) made penny loafers affordable to high school students. (Incidentally, early Bass loafers were made for men only, so girls would buy small men’s sizes to wear.) Again, the rest is history…


.

 

[scottyrocks]

I think it must be a regional thing. I grew up calling them Converse.

Me, too. Or 'Converse All-Stars.' It was a status thing. Up until Pumas and Adidas arrived, everything else was second rate. And after the arrival of P's and A's, Converse dropped in popularity like a rock off a cliff. Never heard of them being referred to as 'Chuck Taylors' until here.

 

[jamespowers]

Me, too. Or 'Converse All-Stars.' It was a status thing. Up until Pumas and Adidas arrived, everything else was second rate. And after the arrival of P's and A's, Converse dropped in popularity like a rock off a cliff. Never heard of them being referred to as 'Chuck Taylors' until here.

Add me to the Converse list. I never heard of them as Chuck Taylors until now.

 

[jamespowers]

Whether he wants to or not?

No. That is his edict not me. He won't wear anything but a long sleeve shirt. I can't even slip him a short sleeve with a collar.[huh] I have to force him to wear something else when he is playing in the yard. :eusa_doh: