Free Pattern Friday – What’s New Is Old

Urban Outfitters, flagship of a generation’s trends. If you see it here in the morning it’s all over the streets of Williamsburg by evening. Sure, their prices are a little ridiculous ($88 for a cotton skirt? I don’t care if it has a Navajo eagle printed on it), and they keep pushing the extraordinarily irksome glasses-as-pure-fashion-accessory (you know those glasses ads where people who clearly don’t need glasses are wearing glasses and you think ‘gee, they’d look better without the glasses on? Welcome to New York), but it can’t be denied that Urban Outfitters clothes those who put way too much effort into looking effortlessly hip (visible effort/enthusiasm = move to Portland).

While a lot of their catalog reveals a shift from ironic 80s to completely straightforward 90s appropriation (moving past Kelly Bundy and on to Season 1 of ’90210′), something about this latest ‘strong shoulder’ craze seemed…familiar. Hmmm…big shoulders…big….shoulders…biiiiig…….shoulderrrrrs…..

Oh, that’s right, the 40s*, which was sniped by the 80s, and now again by the…uh, can we call ourselves the aughts? Is that cool? We can call ourselves the Teens next year, ending this whole etymologic dilemma. Yes, during the War Years fashion reacted much like a frightened owl, sending shoulders soaring outward in defensive trajectory, adding angles to curves.

Considering we’re at war (both overseas and on drugs; how’s that one going by the way?) and dealing with numerous long-term natural disasters, it’s hard to fault fashion for reverting to a defensive posture, but it’s irksome when the new guard pretends they thought it up first.

*the 17 and 1800s also each had their variations on big ol’ sleeves, but specifically enpointening the shoulder was a 40s specialty. If you can find it check out ‘Le Suprême Bon Ton’, a series of illustrations mocking 1800s fashions, including the ‘balloon sleeves’ of young ladies where they’re portrayed as flying away on a light breeze.