What The 20 Year Rule is in Fashion and Why it Exists

I'm sure everyone even mildly interested in fashion has heard of the 20 year rule. 

But for those uninitiated: what actually is it?

Boiled down: The 20 year rule is the idea that every 20 years, fashion trends will resurface and become popular again. For example, the most recent being the resurgence of 'Y2K' and 2000's fashion; like low rise jeans and baguette bags. 

Destiny's Child in 2001 

A 2023 product from the fashion giant Fashion Nova

But the 2020s isn't the only time this has happened. All over the world, in all different time periods this has happened. And while the 20 year wait is obviously a trend within the rule, repetitions in fashion can span ever farther. 

For another example: the 1960s and 1920s were perfect twins in social breakthroughs at the time: women's rights and kitchen slavery were being brought forward into the light to be spoken and discussed, 'free love' and sexual liberation were hot on every-ones tongues, haircuts were short and dresses even shorter. The general silhouette women desired seemed more and more androgynous with a boyish box shape. 

Famous silent film star, Louise Brooks, who pioneered her french bob and was seen as flapper culture personified. 

Mary Quant, the British fashion designer named an 'instrumental figure in the 1960s London-Mod and young fashion movements' sporting a similarly sharp and short bob. 

Like I said the fashion rule dictates that every 20 years - give or take - certain fashion designs and trends repeat themselves and come up again. But why does this happen? There are multiple theories to explain this: 

One would be simple: Fashion designers and influences are either subconsciously or consciously taking incorporation from fashion they see their parents and older people wearing. As children we are mouldable and impressionable. We most likely see photos of our parents at our age, watch movies from before our time, see our older sisters and family dressing in fashions of decades before us as we pick apart in our mind things we like and things we don't from them. We sneak into our mothers wardrobe and steal her kitten heels and cargos. We rummage our older sisters drawers and laugh at the silliness of her whale-tail thong, or we fumble about in her platform sandles. We play hide and seek in our grandmothers closet and smell the old mothball scent of her colourful shift dresses she used to parade around in as a teenager. We shape ourselves from our past and we remember the women we loved, and the clothes we loved them in.

George Taylor's 'Hemline Theory' cleverly states how fashion changes based on the financial economy we find ourselves in. For example: the roaring '20s were filled with long legged flappers showing off their beautifully elegant silk stockings. Expensive fur coats, jewels, sparkles, pearls were all the rage. With the great depression: silks were no longer affordable or in-fashion. Furs, sequins, glitters, other unnecessary pretty add-ons were scrapped as they were just that: unnecessary and pricey. We saw this theory working again during the economic frustrations in the COVID-19 pandemic. Cheap, low-quality websites like Shein began becoming all the rage and the norm as we began filling our closets of both timeless and trendy outfits. During this economic change: 1990s was fresh in everyone's minds as curtain bangs, buckets hats and crop tops were everywhere you looked. 

Another possible explanation is the de-stigmatisation and popularity of thrifting thanks to apps like Tiktok and Instagram. During the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s and further on: thrifting, bargain bins and charity shops were a thing of desperation for most working-class families. Lots of children were made fun of for their second hand, old-style clothing. Although, recently, Tiktok influencers specifically have popularised the 'hobby' of thrifting through the new-found important of 'sustainable fashion' and the higher cost of living. Whereas before charity shops and bargain bins would have been labelled 'trashy' or 'council estate' now they seem to be a trend. Ignoring the classist implications of such a trend (since that talk would indeed require another whole blog post) this means that fashion from the past, or so called 'out of date' styles were back in as people were buying older and older clothes from these second-hand shops. This also meant that more and more influences were rocking these looks and piquing their fans interest at older fashion trends from the past. 

But no matter the reasoning for the 20 year rule in fashion: I can safely conclude that it will never fully go away. From a 15th century noble woman gasping giddily at the matching puff sleeves of a 1930s housewife, to a 1920s flapper spinning and showing off her dress to a London Mod, I have a feeling that repetition may be - in its most poetic sense - a beautiful thing representing the unity and truely wholesome humanity of the human race.  

- This blog post had a BIG HELP from: 'Why Do Fashion Trends Come Back?' by currentboutique.com