Seeing the opening of the new Superdry Athletic Essentials shop in London Westfield reminds me of how cyclical the world of fashion, retailing and customer taste is.
To many seasoned retailers and customers such as myself, it probably takes us back to the world where brands such as Hollister, American Eagle & Aeropostale ruled the world of casual young fashion.
We couldn’t get enough of those branded t-shirts and hoodies. The bigger, the bolder, the ‘fluffier’ the branding the better.
It was a high that descended rapidly into yesterday’s trend. From a gold-rush to a commercial dessert. To a place where you couldn’t pay customers to wear such products anymore.
So despite how tired some of us might feel about such styling, have Superdry really joined a new wave of hysteria over these preppy vintage designs? Is Generation Z simply discovering something for the first time?
Let’s think back to our own experiences. In hindsight what we saw, touched, heard and bought in our youth was probably not the most original, but because it was new to us it was the most exciting clothing, music and culture of our lives.
And did we not hate to be told by the generations above that we were only getting a second-rate copy of what has already been done before?
Let’s face it the cyclical world of fashion is based on repetition and the re-invention of the already re-invented.
Occasionally there is the totally new, but I’m sure most young designers are taken aback by how much re-styling of past products is part of the commercial process. The punk, the jungle, the military…and yes the preppy, re-worked and re-packaged.
So let’s be happy for Gen Z’s with their new experiences, and let’s be grateful, as businesses of both new & vintage clothing, that we do forget the fading faux pas’ of our yester-years, and we embrace our fashion re-inventions with a new enthusiasm, some nostalgia, and maybe even just a sparkle of special memory.