Gen Z’s obsession with everything retro needs to officially stop. Y2K sparkles, wired earphones and headscarves are still tolerable enough, but fringes? A line needs to be drawn.
Out of all the fashion trends from decades past and all the new, innovative designs we have, was the best we could do really fringe? Despite uninterrupted access to and knowledge of fabrics, designs, and innovations, this year we still decided to channel the duster from Beauty and the Beast. Don’t get me wrong, I love fringes, but only in the culture and era they belong to. The Native Americans used fringes for practical reasons, such as to wick rainwater from their clothing, and they reduced waste by using the scrap pieces. The cowboys made them chic in a rustic way. I mean, give me fringed, leather chaps and cowboy boots and Yee-haw. Even the 1920s flapper dresses look great. But fringes on modern clothes are simply hideous.
For the latest resurgence, though, we have Chanel to blame. The Parisian luxury fashion house’s Spring/Summer collection featured the hideous embellishments in everything: earrings, dresses, tops, skirts, and jackets. And where Chanel goes, other fashion brands usually follow: Taller Marmo’s ugly dresses, Gabriela Hearst’s disastrous creations, Sabyasachi’s terrifying tasselled leather bucket bags, Burberry’s unappealing jackets and Balmain’s dresses that looked like a frazzled, unkempt chicken.
