Who really wants to grow up?
Since we were children, getting older has been the dream; growing up and being able to live life the way we want to. Little kids try on their parents’ clothing, wobbling around in high heels with too-big ties hung around their necks. They grapple with mascara wands and order their siblings around, certain that they’re ready for that grand, distant idea of maturity.
Now that we’ve actually grown up, however, it seems that all anyone focuses on is the reclamation of youth. While trends have always been cyclical, the recent styles entering the spotlight have seemed to surround trends sourced from the last decade, rather than years prior.
From the Y2K resurgence — marked by baby tees, low-waisted jeans and rhinestones — to the bow-filled era of the “coquette” trend, Millennials and members of Generation Z have revisited integral pieces of their upbringing through fashion.
This isn’t only prevalent within the fashion industry, though. Pop culture focuses almost entirely on the beauty and freedom associated with youth — not to mention, the inevitability of its departure. Think of the number of songs about this very topic; it’s no surprise that musicians are at the heart of this cultural phenomenon.
Taylor Swift once wrote, “Never Grow Up.” In the song, she recounts memories of her youth, singing to her past self about the joys of childhood. She reminds the listener that adulthood can feel cold and lonely; there’s nothing quite like the safe embrace of a parent before striking out on your own.
Ms. Swift wasn’t the first to sing about this topic — not by a long shot. Bob Dylan, with his hit song, “Forever Young,” sent up a prayer for eternal youth. John Cougar Mellencamp used the song, “Small Town,” to pay homage to the place where he grew up, urging his listeners not to take their hometowns for granted. The Who — an iconic English rock band — employed the line, “I hope I die before I get old,” in their 1965 song, “My Generation,” to state the obvious: all anyone wants is to stay young.
No matter where you look, the desire for adolescence reigns supreme. It’s true that alternative fashion and the punk movement may have guided bands like The Who through their call for youth, but even in the modern day, artists like Olivia Rodrigo routinely document their coming of age through music and fashion.
While Rodrigo has opted for cute stickers and butterfly imagery in the wake of her fame, it clearly acts as an ode to her time spent as a child actor and the difficulty of being taken seriously in adulthood. She integrates themes of naïveté and heartbreak into her music, with many of her videos and artistic concepts being reminiscent of coming-of-age movies from the 1990s and 2000s.
Between the 1995 release, “Clueless,” where Alicia Silverstone demonstrates her fashion expertise with a fully computer-automated try-on haul, and films like “The Princess Diaries” (2001) and “Pretty Woman” (1990), the movie industry aimed to represent the teenage desire to play dress-up. Whether it’s Anne Hathaway becoming princess-ready or Julia Roberts treating herself to a shopping spree, these women acted as mouthpieces for society’s greater pining for early life.
This rings true in fashion today, a great example being the Mary Jane shoe. According to an article from The Cut, the shoe first entered the scene when American cartoonist Richard Felton Outcault created the character, “Mary Jane,” based on his own daughter. In the cartoon, the young girl wore “little black shoes with a strap across the instep.”
The modern Mary Jane, as well as many other styles originally advertised for young girls, has now been reclaimed as a channel for strength within femininity. We see the same thing happening with items like ballet flats, straight dresses and pleated skirts. Articles of clothing that were once considered dainty and delicate are now being used in entirely new ways, affiliating stereotypical women’s clothing with a sense of quiet rebellion.
The desire for simplicity is universal; that’s why the yearning for youth is so powerful. More than this fashion trend showcasing a return to girlhood, however, it showcases the power of nostalgia. Play dress-up, dance around in your room and embrace everything childhood has to offer. Dressing yourself is always a form of power; now it’s time to prove it.
