Most ridiculous fashion trend?

[CaptainStoner]

I love fashion. Even the bad fashion. Even the most obnoxious, pointless, ridiculous trends. I love it because it is pointless and ridiculous. I love watching people take fashion seriously, using it as a form of self-expression, analyzing and evaluating it, and using it to make statements. I love when people claim to not understand fashion or try to reject it, thereby proving they're just as influenced by it as the most dedicated fashionista.
I love watching trends grow and change, and pondering the reasons for the development of particular fads today and throughout history. I love how fashion trends reflect the historical events around them -- the liberation and then masculinisation of the female form in the 1920's as women gained rights, and the power suit of the 80's as women began to be seen as the working equals of men. I love how one choice by the right person can set a trend that lasts decades, Coco Chanel falling asleep in the sun for example, led to the suntan replacing powder-white skin as the ideal. Fashion is an integral part of the human experience, no matter what anyone says -- a wonderful, whimsical part of the human experience, and whether or not one chooses to partake in the trends, I feel sorry for people who cannot enjoy it for what it is!

I think the most annoying one to me is the trend of males wearing their pants below the ass. But there are cultural factors at play in addition to just clothing choices, and your post is right on.
I can honestly say, in my area, I believe I started a mini-trend in 1991. Converse sneakers were buy-one-get-one, so I got one white and one black pair, and a la Star Trek, wore one of each. It caught on among a few kids over the next few years.
I'd take artistic and even questionable choices any day over bland-ass-look-like-everyone-else mediocrity.

 

[kitsune]

Uggs (or any clothes with fur, real or fake)
shiny / sparkly shoes
platform shoes
high-heeled shoes
pointed shoes
flip-flops with a flower over the toes
tans (real or fake)
chains
cowboy hats (unless the wearer actually works outdoors)
boots with spurs (unless the wearer rides horses)
belts with gigantic buckles
gigantic sunglasses
makeup
eye shadow
nail polish (French manicures/pedicures look awesome though, it's solid colors on nails that I don't like)
earrings over 1/2 inch in size (the larger the earring, the less my estimation of the wearer's intelligence, sorry)
facial hair
perfume / cologne

I can accept one tattoo if it's small, simple, tasteful, meaningful, monochrome, and coverable, and has no writing. I've only ever seen one tattoo that met all these conditions though.

 

[scotpens]

I love fashion. Even the bad fashion. Even the most obnoxious, pointless, ridiculous trends. I love it because it is pointless and ridiculous. I love watching people take fashion seriously, using it as a form of self-expression, analyzing and evaluating it, and using it to make statements. I love when people claim to not understand fashion or try to reject it, thereby proving they're just as influenced by it as the most dedicated fashionista

Speaking for myself (as I often do), I don't give two mouse turds about fashion. I hate shopping for clothes and trying on clothes. I'll let every piece of clothing I own fall to pieces before I spend money on new schmattas. If social mores and weather permitted, I'd go around naked.

I love how one choice by the right person can set a trend that lasts decades, Coco Chanel falling asleep in the sun for example, led to the suntan replacing powder-white skin as the ideal.

Is that true? It has the ring of a modern myth. I always assumed that tanning became fashionable in the post-World War I years because of the increase in outdoor recreation, particularly beachgoing and swimming, and especially among stars of that new entertainment form, the cinema. Having a tan became associated with exercise and health, rather than being the mark of an outdoor laborer or farm hand.

Of course, today we know there's no such thing as a "healthy tan" -- but that's a topic for another thread.

 

[thestrangequark]

^That is exactly what happened, and it was Chanel who pioneered the look by accident. Because she was the prime example of a star spending leisure time in the sun.

As to fashion, I think it affects you more than you may be considering, simply by the degree to which it affects culture in general.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I read recently that a tan is going out of fashion in Australia. Two of my nieces love in Queensland but aren't really tanned at all. The message about protection from skin cancer seems to getting through to Aussies.

 

[scotpens]

I read recently that a tan is going out of fashion in Australia.

Is that possible? That's like drinking going out of fashion in Ireland!

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The big nerdy glasses on people who don't even need glasses.

 

[JiNX-01]

High heels. Never have so many suffered so much for so little.

Jan

^ This!!!

 

[Goliath]

High heels. Never have so many suffered so much for so little.

Jan

^ This!!!

If there's one thing more ridiculous than a woman in high heels...

...it's a man in high heels.

Seriously--what was the guy in that picture thinking? Nice bearskin, pal. Are you getting ready to re-enact the Battle of Waterloo? If so, you might want to re-think your footwear.