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People are confessing the worst fashion trends they fell for in a hilarious confessional

Travis Kelce is kind of one of them.

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Unknown men in top hats (groom and ushers?) by Wakefield, … | Flickr

Remember that time Travis Kelce wore a top hat on stage at his girlfriend Taylor Swift's London concert? Well, he almost didn't remember either.

On his New Heights podcast, with his brother Jason Kelce, they flashed a picture of Abe Lincoln. Travis says, "That would never be me because I'd never be seen with that f-ing hat on." Jason laughs uproariously. Shortly after, Travis pensively recalls, "I remember wearing a top hat not too long ago." He's asked, "Where did you wear a top hat?"

Travis replies (complete with an English accent), "When I was in London!" He tries to cover for himself. "So I got caught in my own lie. I enjoy wearing those, but only in front of 80,000 people." (Jason kindly tells him he pulled it off.)

Taylor Swift L GIF by MOODMANGiphy

Top hats aren't the only accessories or articles of clothing someone might wear and later regret. A Redditor posed the question, "What's the most cringe-worthy fashion trend you've ever followed?"

People from all generations chimed in. They mostly agreed with one another, though "crocs" seemed to inspire some debate.

AT LEAST HE AVOIDED THE SOUL PATCH

One person opted to share a whole slew of bad decisions: "I did the whole super-thick Vans, baggy jeans full of holes, silver chains. Every t-shirt had graffiti or aliens on it. I think the most cringe-worthy was my 6-inch faux hawk. It looked more like a wave about to crash onto the shore. Kind of like I had walked face-first into a wall or something. Luckily, I was too young to sport a soul patch."

season 1 bass GIF by PortlandiaGiphy


DECADES OF BAD DECISIONS

An older commenter shared two decades of embarrassing choices: "In the 1950s, we wore crinoline petticoats that we dipped in gelatin and hung out in the sun to dry and stiffen them. In the 1960s, we teased our hair, sprayed it, teased it again, sprayed it until it was like steel wool."


Hair Tease GIF by BuzzFeedGiphy


BELL-BOTTOM BLUES

The Seventies weren't spared either. One Reddit user admits they wore "leisure suits and saddle oxfords in the 70s." Another proclaims, "Bell bottoms!" (Though, if you saw the Superbowl, it looks like Kendrick Lamar might actually be bringing those bell-bottoms -or at least a boot-cut pant - back in style.)


Kendrick Lamar GIFGiphy

LOW-RISE AND PRINTED

Many agreed that low-rise jeans and "print trends" now make them cringe.

One exclaimed, "OMG, the print trends! Owls, birds, mustaches, bacon, keep calm logos, the silhouette of two women sitting down."

Another admitted that the low-rise jean trend meant they could never sit down. "Low-rise jeans... I had to stand everywhere I went."

season 3 lol GIFGiphy


WHERE ARE YOUR EYEBROWS?

After someone mentioned bleaching their hair, another upped the ante: "I see your 2000s bad bleach dye jobs. I raise you... plucked eyebrows so damned thin that when it was fashionable to have thicker eyebrows, well, tough sh-t. Because we plucked them all out years ago. Now, I’m condemned to draw part of my eyebrows on until I leave this mortal coil or thin eyebrows come back around. Whichever is first, I suppose."

Make Up Teacher GIF by Teachers on TV LandGiphy


OUR MVP…

And this might be a personal favorite, due to its wonderfully cringe-worthy randomness: "You ever heard of the trend where you just wear a jester hat everywhere? Yeah, me neither, but for some reason, I did that throughout my teenage years into my twenties."

Glow Up Court Jester GIF by BBC ThreeGiphy

fashion
Pop Culture

She re-created famous fashion ads to make a great point about diversity

"The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too."

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

A classic pose.


From a young age, Deddeh Howard was enthralled by fashion and its role in culture. Unfortunately, she was never really able to see herself in it.

"Something that always bothered me when you see these amazing images [was] that very rarely you ever see a black woman on them," Howard, who grew up in West Africa but now resides in Los Angeles, wrote at her blog, Secret of DD.

"Black girls are almost invisible," she wrote.

So Howard created "Black Mirror," a photo series in which she re-creates famous photos with herself in place of models like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, and others.

Howard's partner, Raffael Dickreuter, shot the series. As its title suggests, it holds a "black mirror" up to the fashion world. The project's goal is both to make people notice the lack of diversity in the fashion world and to provide inspiration to other non-white models.

Deddeh Howard, Gucci, fashion world, diversity

The shades of Gucci.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

superstar, glasses, education, celebrity, representation

Glasses make you wiser.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Kendall Jenner, Calvin Klein, underwear models, black models

The original sexy.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Of the models featured on the fall 2016 runways, 75% were white. There's a major need for a diversity boost.

Sometimes, that lack of diversity can be downright embarrassing. Earlier this year, one fashion show featured models walking to Beyoncé's "Formation," a song Essence described as a "wholly and undeniable a tribute to Blackness — particularly Black girl power." The problem: The show didn't feature a single non-white model.

ethnicity, equality, Guess fashion

Guess who rides motorcycles.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

David Yourman, high fashion, racial inequality

Classy and feminine.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Louis Vuitton, handbags, upper class,

A bike ride with expensive accessories.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

lingerie, Victoria\u2019s Secret, feminine

The lingerie pose.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Dolce & Gabbana, little black dress, stars

Thinking "Breakfast at Tiffanys” maybe?

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Diversity, representation, and visibility play key roles in shaping ambition and self-acceptance in the real world.

It's important to be able to see yourself in the world, and it's important to know that someone who looks like you can succeed.

"The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too," Howard wrote on her blog. "For that reason diversity in ad campaigns is in my opinion much more important than you might think."


This article originally appeared on 12.08.16

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representation
Joy

Man's 'high fashion time travel' video takes us through 12,000 years of insanely cool outfits

He even travels to the future in style.

@wisdm/Instagram

So. Much. Yes.

There are tons of mesmerizing fashion history videos online where women take viewers on a stylish adventure through Victorian gowns to flapper dresses to bell bottoms and beyond, just to showcase all the ways that women’s clothing has evolved.

But it’s been just as thrilling of a ride for men’s fashion, and Wisdom Kaye, dubbed “TikTok’s best dress guy” by Vogue, has a video to prove it.

In a video titled “High Fashion Time Travel,” the model-stylist-photographer ambitiously takes us on a style journey that begins all the way back to 10,000 BCE, aka the Paleolithic Era.

Granted, folks from the Paleolithic Era wish they could have worn such luxurious pieces, but his inspired designs still remarkably capture the essences of each time period while adding his own artistic flair.

Did we mention he even “travels” to the future? Watch below:

You might have noticed that after the 1900s, he gets very specific with which dates he’s representing (1954 vs the 1950s, for example). Perhaps this is to convey very particular, even fleeting trends that history was actually able to record. Which is certainly a nice touch, instead of applying a generic fashion identity to an entire time period. It’s almost like he’s really good at this?

With over 6 MILLION likes on Instagram alone, it feels safe to say that folks certainly think so.

“Can’t imagine the amount of time and effort you put into this🤯maaaaaad respect to you👏” one person wrote.

Another added, “the best thing my eyes have ever witnessed.”

It’s also interesting to see how, for both men and women, the 20th century forever changed the way we prioritize casual comfort (t-shirts FTW!) and how we continue to incorporate more diversity and experimentation with gender expression as a way to focus on self expression, and individuality. A special thanks to passionate folks like Kaye who can really convey our own ever evolving humanity through fashion.

By the way, there’s more eye candy where that came from. Kaye can seemingly make high fashion out of anything, from popular cartoon shows to comic characters to text fonts (yes, really), and will regularly take on fashion challenges prompted by his followers.

@wisdm8 Replying to @user9381720148560 ♬ original sound - Wisdom Kaye

Give his TikTok and Instagram a follow so you don’t miss out on any incredible looks he’s bound to be serving.

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fashion
Family

60 models. 12 sizes. One photo project to change how we view the human body.

What's size got to do with it?


Categories are great for some things: biology, herbs, and spices, for example.

Image via

But bodies? Well, putting bodies into categories just gets weird. There are around 300 million people in America, but only 12 or so standard sizes for clothing: extra-extra-small through 5x.


That's why designer Mallorie Dunn is onto something with her belief — people have different bodies and sizing isn't catching up.

Dunn has found that the majority of clothing sizes stop at an extra-large, yet the majority of women in America are over that. "And that just doesn't make sense," she says.

All images via Smart Glamor, used with permission.

Human spice rack, only, a LOT more variations of flava. ;)


That's why she started a project around her clothing label, Smart Glamour, to document the bodies of models according to their sizes — and to show how one size can look very different on different bodies.

In pursuit of creating a fashion environment that's kinder to all bodies, Dunn has dedicated herself to educating consumers about sizing.

First, she found 60 people of 12 different sizes and took their pictures.

Then, she put five women at a time in the same size of skirt and shirt to show how diversely beautiful human bodies are and to prove that everyone looks different in clothes no matter what size they have on.

She hoped to show people that 12 sizes don't even come close to capturing the beauty of the human form.

All these models are wearing the same size ... but do they look the same?

"No matter what size you are that's not what dictates your worth or your beauty."

"I had a convo with a friend of mine who was like 'Yeah, if I went from a medium to a large, I'd be fine with it, but if I went from a large to an extra-large, that wouldn't be OK' and I was like, 'Why???' And she had no rational reason behind that," Dunn said, describing a conversation we've all either had, started, or heard. "We've been taught forever that the bigger something sounds, the worse that it is."

Dunn's project also shows just how arbitrary and narrow-minded clothing sizes are.

Sizes really are just numbers.

Unlike the images we are presented both in clothing ads and in entertainment and media, human beings aren't, as Dunn remarked, "robots who come out on a conveyor belt ... we're all shaped differently."

The pressure to look one way is obnoxious. And kinda dangerous.

"We've been taught forever that the bigger something sounds, the worse that it is."

There's so much weight — no pun intended — on being the "right" size.

"You put an 'extra' on top of a 'large,' and suddenly it's the end of the world," Dunn said of her experience in fashion sizing. "... And it really doesn't mean anything, it really only means that there's an extra inch of fabric."

One extra inch of fabric.

3 in 4 girls report feeling depressed, guilty, or shameful after just three minutes of leafing through a fashion mag.

But I'd like to imagine a world where everyone can try on clothes and leave the emotional burden of worrying about fit to the clothes.

Instead, let's focus on what looks good on our bodies. Let the clothes handle the emotional roller coaster of not fitting, and you just live your life in the body you've been given.

Dunn, who has worked for fashion houses for her whole career, puts it bluntly: "Clothes are not made for all bodies. ... We shouldn't then think when something doesn't fit us that it's somehow our fault."

Dunn's models also have a group on Facebook where they support each other, compliment each other, and generally lift each other up. Model Stephanie describes it this way: "We see the beauty in one another and help each other to recognize our own beauty at the same time." Fashion leading to body optimism and confidence? Yes, please.

And Dunn herself drives a hard line when it comes to feeling good in the skin you've been given. Her philosophy is this: No matter what size you are, that's not what dictates your worth or your beauty.

Self-worth not based on appearances. That's a category we can all aspire to "fit" into!


This article originally appeared on 07.27.16

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