In With the Old

BY MALKA FLEISCHMAN

Much like history, fashion repeats itself. We live in a culture of nostalgia, observing trends of the past, admiring styles associated with specific periods and bringing back looks to satisfy our own personal tastes. Nowadays, as new fashion trends show up on social media just as quickly as they disappear, it can be hard to fully curate your own unique style and commit to it. Because of this, I find it quite useful to use the past as a way to reinvent and innovate. Although there’s always space for fresh, new ideas, it can also be fun to bring back the old and style it in your own way. One trend that I’ve given some thought to as of late are utility, uniform type clothes, such as cargo pants, jumpsuits and fanny packs. 

Cargo pants were first used by the British military during World War II, and then introduced to the U.S. military shortly thereafter. Their intention was very much geared towards practicality and function, rather than style and fashion. Despite the fact that cargo pants are still routinely used as uniforms for the army, police forces, firemen and some medical services, they have very much permeated the fashion world. The first noticeable appearance of cargo pants in fashion came in the mid 90s and lasted into the 2000s. They were first worn by big name hip hop artists, and were very quickly picked up by both high fashion and fast fashion brands. Even now, utility clothes never truly left the scene and have definitely made a comeback in recent years. 

What’s changed, however, is that cargo pants have now gone truly mainstream. They are no longer limited to just hip hop fans, but rather everyone. From influencers, to models, to self-proclaimed e-boy/girls, to Vassar students, everyone seems to like cargo pants. We see them in everyday looks and on the runway. Just look at Prabal Gurung (Spring/Summer 2019), Monse (Spring/Summer 2019), Tibi (Spring/Summer 2020) and Fendi (Spring/Summer 2020). 

Utility wear isn’t just limited to cargo pants, though. Other items of clothing and accessories that have made a comeback that are worth briefly mentioning include jumpsuits, utility vests and fanny packs. Much like cargo pants, most of these items were created for function over fashion. Since then, utility clothes have been reinvented and no longer exclusively serve their original purpose. The fanny pack came back in the 80s and 90s, and they were worn by tourists and rave-goers. The utility vest became a favorite within the fishing and hunting community, and the jumpsuit, while always having a space in fashion, was quite popular during the 70s disco era. 

Today, all of these items are back in a whole new way—it’s not just skiers or embarrassing dads that wear fanny packs and cargo pants. It’s young people who style utility clothes in a new way and high fashion brands that create sleeker designs. In men’s Spring/Summer 2019 fashion weeks across the world, we saw brands like Off-White, A-COLD-WALL* and Louis Vuitton do their own versions of utility vests. Especially in the Dior Fall/Winter 2019 collection, we saw new versions of all forms of utility wear—fanny packs, jumpsuits and utility vests alike.

Finally, some food for thought—up until this point, all I have actually done is bring to light the fact that these trends have come back in new iterations. However, it is also valid to dig a little deeper and think about why it is these particular items have come back and what that says about our society. Cargo pants and jumpsuits both come from working class uniforms, but in their second or third iterations within the fashion world, they were used almost entirely for style rather than function. It is then interesting to think in terms of class and economic appropriation. I’m not saying that cargo pants or jumpsuits coming back is a bad thing; it’s just interesting to think how a piece of clothing that used to say so much about a person’s lifestyle now says something completely different. People still wear cargo pants in the military, for example. Policemen and hunting aficionados still wear utility vests, factory workers are sometimes obligated to wear jumpsuits and tourists still wear fanny packs. So, why are they also so prominent in current fashion trends and give off an image of style rather than function? 

It’s hard to say how anything becomes popular, but it might be interesting to think about how today, we are living in a technological era. Everything around us seems to get sleeker, as if that is equivalent to modern, but that doesn’t have to be true. Perhaps wearing chunky, oversized items that are full of pockets and compartments goes against the idea that simplicity is best. Utility wear defies the idea that technology must get smaller and faster, or that we as people must also do the same. There is a constant incentive for everything and everyone to get smaller, but there’s a breaking point, and with that comes the rejection of skinny, tight clothing, and the acceptance of oversized wear with more layers, pockets and compartments. 

I don’t know how long this trend is going to last. All I know is that from now on, I’m going to try and think about where my sense of style or fashion preferences come from. Part of innovation in fashion is accepting that old trends can come back and have new lives and new meanings, but it is also thinking about how these new lives differ from the old ones and why.