20 years does the trick!

Sometimes it happens when rescuing an old piece of clothing from the attic, or occasionally it’s when you see a bunch of teens wearing a trend familiar from your own formative years. Sooner or later, we all ask ourselves the same question: Why do so many trends make a comeback? Did you know that there’s a rule behind it?

This rule is known as the ‘20-year rule’, and what it means is that fashion follows cycles that repeat every 20 years. We go from ‘love it’ to ‘hate it’ to ‘meh’, only to end right back at ‘love it’. An essential element of this rule is the feeling of nostalgia that these trends stir. And yet we tend to see trends first show up on people too young to have these nostalgic associations. So, what's the deal?

It’s easy. Every two decades a new generation of young adults appears. These young adults are still experimenting and defining their styles, often leaning towards clothing styles that feel ‘new’ and ‘retro’ to them. And that’s how they end up watching older series and films or looking at old photos because they give them an even better handle on the culture and its style. The films they watch evoke a sense of longing for or absence of something they’ve never known. The result is that this generation ends up wearing trends of the past.

30 years is overshooting it and a decade isn’t long enough

Beware, this rule really only kicks in after around 20 years. When something is say, only a decade old, it won’t kindle the right sense of nostalgia. Ten years ago is still recent enough for young adults to have consciously experienced it. They recognise the trends as things their parents or other role models wore, which is what makes them seem old and tired. At the same time, the culture feels too distant if you go back as far as 30 years. We hit the magic number 20 by homing in on what lies between too long ago (30 years) and not long enough ago (10 years). That explains then why young adults fall hook, line, and sinker for 20-year-old trends.

What happens next is that other generations, those that lived these trends in real life, pick back up on them. By seeing the new generation outfitted in clothes they once loved, a sense of nostalgia is awakened in previous generations. Seeing these clothes on the street makes them feel sentimental and before you know it, they're on board with the ‘new’ trends.

It’s a great explanation for why so many trends from the 70s and 90s have made a comeback over the past decade. Just look at celebrities past and present.

We can clearly see that this rule is pretty accurate. What next? Well, we can apply this rule to make predictions about what will become fashionable in the coming years. And the results? Especially the 60s, 80s, and the noughties will be a sense of inspiration in the years to come. The 1960s are famous for chess patterns, A-line dresses, and eyelet lace. On the other hand, the 1980s offer puffed sleeves, ‘big’ shoulders, and denim. From the noughties (the 2000s) the main showstoppers were low-rise trousers, pastels, glitter, and metallic. Check out a few of these inspiring examples and Fibre Mood patterns that recall the trends of these decades.