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Why have people dressed the same for the past 20 years?

The '50s and '70s were totally different as were the '60s and '80s. Why does it still feel like 2005?

via Canva

What year is it?

In 1974, “Happy Days” debuted on TV, and it was a nostalgic look back on the 1950s when greasers wore leather jackets, listened to Bill Haley and the Comets, and drank milkshakes at the local diner. It was a stark comparison to the feeling in the country at the end of the Vietnam War era, where long hair, fringe, and polyester were all the rage. The funny thing is that those eras were only about 20 years apart, but fashion, hairstyles, and culture had changed significantly.

A similar comparison to “Happy Days” could be made to “Dazed and Confused,” a film about teens in 1976 Texas who wore puka shells, satin shirts, and Kangol hats released in 1993 when young Americans were obsessed with grunge and hip-hop styles. But what if someone in 2025 made a film about 2005? Would there be a big difference in any of the fashions or hairstyles? How long would it take to notice that the film is set in the past?


Writer Jason Pargin ("John Dies in the End") recently had a viral hit on TikTok with a video asking whether fashion has changed in the past 20 years. He did so by showing the characters in “The Office” who could walk into any building in corporate America in 2025, and no one would think they’re a time traveler. “The only signifier of which era you're in is what kind of phones they're using and how big the monitors are on their desks,” Pargin notes.

@jasonkpargin

From dec 2023, we got some interesting theories on this

Some commenters felt that Pargin chose a poor example of stagnant style because office attire changes more slowly than streetwear. "The Office is a bad example because business casual hasn’t changed much," one commenter wrote. "Suits from the '60s still look about the same today, with fit slightly changing over the years. Office wear hasn’t changed much, but casual and fashion keep evolving."

Pargin’s video sparked a passionate discussion on various social media platforms. Many people on X felt that he was right and that culture had stagnated because of the internet.


Others agreed, referencing “stuck culture,” defined as “a perceived stagnation in cultural innovation, particularly in media, where there is a notable recycling of ideas and a lack of groundbreaking content.”



Some people say that styles have changed, especially among young people, but older people haven't noticed.


Pargin’s video inspired a response from TikToker Kevin Earl, who believes that economics has played a significant role in why fashion doesn’t change as quickly as it once did. In 2025, clothing is more likely to be mass-produced than in previous decades, and manufacturers want a sure thing, so they produce cheaper clothes that appeal to everyone.

“When considering mass-produced clothes, the kind of stuff available to everyone. Think about the clothes at big box stores like Target, Walmart, Old Navy, places like that. Most of the clothes for sale there have pretty much been the same the last 20, even 30 years. A lot of cheap, basic t-shirts, jeans, tank tops, stuff like that,” Earl says. “Basically, these big stores aren't trying to design and sell clothes that are human-centric. Rather, they're trying to squeeze as much profit as they can out of a minimum viable product.”

In a way, just like Hollywood has been churning out the same predictable superhero films for the past 20 years, clothing manufacturers have been doing the same for your wardrobe.

@kevinearl93

Why have people looked the same the last 20 years? #2000sfashion #2010sfashion #2020sfashion #jasonpargin



Living in a stagnating culture is a drag. But it does open up opportunities for excitement. A stagnating culture means anyone who does something fresh and exciting is bound to capture people’s attention. If the slow pace of change bums you out, take it as an invitation to create something that stands out and captures everyone’s attention. In a world that’s gone beige, a pop of color can really grab people’s attention.

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Heroes

This Canadian city has big plans for your old T-shirts.

"It's the circle of life..."

True
Savers

There's one in every closet.

It's torn at the hem and along the neckline. There are stains all over — some you remember, some you don't. It's been washed so many times that it's see-through, making it simultaneously the definition of comfort and completely unwearable in public — which is fine because it has shrunk in some places and stretched in others and hasn't really fit right in years.

Sometimes shabby-chic just isn't a really good look. Image via iStock.

It's your favorite T-shirt, and it really needs a new home. Markham, Ontario, wants to give it one.

This small-but-mighty suburb of Toronto has been recycling for a really long time.

They've recycled newspapers for nearly three decades, later expanding to aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastics, then electronics, then composting. There are places to drop off appliances, household waste, and old electronics. But until recently, there was nothing for textiles. That's a problem for nearby landfills.

Landfills: A great place for hungry birds — not a great place for your clothes. Image via iStock.

A 2015 survey of Ontario residents found that only 15% of unwanted textiles in the region were recycled.

For the Markham region specifically, that meant that about 4,425 tons of textile waste ended up at the garbage dumps every year, making up about 7% of their volume. City sanitation workers knew it was happening — they already operate a "clear bag" program for waste so everything on its way to a landfill is easy to see. And with fast fashion encouraging consumers to buy cheap, quick clothes with short lives, the mountain of textiles in the local landfill was only going to get bigger.

For the government of Markham, this felt like something they could fix — or even eliminate completely.

Their first step in taking on textile waste was talking to the people of Markham about it. What they found out was fascinating.

They discovered that residents were open to donating and recycling more of their textiles, but that they only wanted to pass on their nicest articles of clothing. Claudia Marsales, Markham's senior waste manager, described the city's findings to the CBC. "People only thought you could donate something that was perfect."

While that's very thoughtful, it misses the second life that many less-than-perfect textiles can have after being recycled. Less-fashionable or rewearable clothes, along with other unwanted textiles and fabrics, can be repurposed in many fascinating ways: making automotive rags, home insulation, carpet padding, diapers, landscaping fabrics, even "smart skin" for medical researchers. There are second lives for clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, furniture fabric, mattress padding, backpacks, rugs, cushions, curtains, and, — since it's Canada — winter outerwear and gear.

Earlier this year, the town introduced "Markham Tackles Textiles," a new program designed to make fabric recycling easier than ever before.

Now there are adorably designed textile donation bins located in convenient places around the city where people can drop off unwanted textiles. A local charitable organization sorts through the donations and preps them for their second life.

Pictured: your old clothes and bedding, en route to a brand-new life. Image via iStock.

The nicest and most fashionable clothing and bedding donations will head to local charity thrift shops for sale. Others will be bundled into 1,000-pound bales and sold to private companies for reuse in a variety of industrial purposes. Only when all other opportunities for reuse are exhausted are some products sent on to the landfill.

Getting serious about textile recycling is one more step toward sustainability for this Canadian city.

It's already Canada's first "monarch-friendly" city, devoted to protecting the habitat of the popular but endangered butterfly. It operates one of the largest solar-powered installations in the region. Markham is focused on local food and green transportation, managing a community seed library, regular farmers markets, and a 125-mile network of bike paths. Now it's committing to another incredibly ambitious goal: recycling 100% of unwanted textiles in the community.

For Claudia Marsales, this textile recycling program is also part of a campaign to educateMarkham residents about the social andenvironmental effects of disposablefashion and encourage them to think about the end-of-life for all fabric products they buy.

As for that unwanted old T-shirt you can't seem to let go of, this might be the perfect place. As Marsales told the York Region this month: “The message is we will take every piece you have.”

Heroes

5 ways companies are making gorgeous clothes that are the opposite of fast fashion.

True
Savers

It's easy to get a little carried away when shopping — after all, so many new clothes are so cheap these days.

Most of us are at least a little guilty of taking advantage. In the United States, we are buying five times more clothing than we did in the 1980s.

And we all know how much the '80s had going on. GIF via Kool-Aid Koolers.

I mean, if you could buy five shirts for the price of one, why wouldn't you? The world of fast fashion gives us more options to mix up our wardrobes whenever we feel like it. And if you're like me, more clothes means not having to do laundry as often.

Cheap new clothes — and more of them — can feel awesome in the moment. But our trend-of-the-moment shopping habits are actually doing damage in a number of ways. One of the problems: We are barely recycling any of our leftover clothes.

The average American throws away about 80 pounds of textile waste every year.

It's no question that number will continue to grow unless we start donating them (hello, thrift stores!) or buy less. As more information comes out about the harm fast fashion is causing to the planet, consumers and companies are starting to think twice.

People are beginning to see through the craze that is fast fashion and into a more thoughtful and eco-friendly approach.

Here are five unique ways products and materials are being reused to make clothing and accessories today:

1. Food ... that you can wear?

As if coffee wasn't already the best, now it can be worn.

I can't even fathom the number of times I've dumped out coffee grounds after making a cup of joe. When you multiply that times the millions and millions of people who make coffee every day, that's a lot of coffee grounds going to waste.

Singtex, a company from Taiwan, is turning those wasted grounds into fabric for clothes. They use an innovative technology named S.Café that incorporates coffee grounds into fibers to help control odors and protect fabrics from ultraviolet rays.

Image via How Can I Recycle This/Flickr.

It's official: Coffee has superpowers.

You know what else does? Coconut. Coconut is known for a lot of uses, such as milk, oil, and suntan lotion. The company Cocona has found another way to use it: by turning coconut shells into yarns and fibers.

The threads they create through activated carbon from coconut shells provide a lightweight and comfortable product that can stand the test of time in a variety of products.

Image via Cocona.

Other foods are being used to create clothes, too, like sour milk and wine. A sour milk dress! Can you imagine? Maybe someday we'll all be wearing food. Can you turn Cheetos into yarn?

2. You can now take your airplane seat everywhere you go.

When Southwest Airlines decided to redesign their cabins in 2014, that meant getting rid of 80,000 leather seats.

Looptworks, a company from Portland, Oregon, knew they could put those seats to good use. They teamed up with Southwest to turn their old leather seat covers into fashionable products like purses and duffle bags. And fashionable they are.

Image via Looptworks, used with permission.

Even better is the process of making them. The Baltimore Sun reports that the company is working with Garten Services, a nonprofit that trains and employs adults with disabilities, to deconstruct and clean the seats before turning them into bags.

3. Dumpster fashion is the new black.

Artist and environmental advocate Nancy Judd is turning heads with her business Recycle Runway. Whether she's creating clothes from old Barack Obama campaign flyers, aluminum cans, crime scene tape, or even the vinyl top of a convertible, Nancy's designs always have one thing in common: They're pure garbage.

This is made of CRUSHED GLASS. Images by Nancy Judd, used with permission.

A cassette and video tape coat, helloooo!

Epic dress made of aluminum cans. I'm obsessed.

She says she got into "dumpster couture" when she realized that art and fashion could be used to raise the public's environmental consciousness. And she's stuck to that idea over the years, using all of her creations to educate about conservation.

She told The Wall Street Journal that she once spent 400 hours unspooling cassettes and crocheting the crinkled tape into a fake-fur coat — taking a very literal approach to the term slow fashion.


4. Your clothes could come from the big blue sea.

A massive project is underway in the Mediterranean, and you may see people wearing it someday.

It's called "Upcycling the Oceans" and is an undertaking by the group Ecoalf. Their goal? To transform the plastic debris found in the Mediterranean into thread to make fabric.

They're seeing a lot of success, having already collected 39 tons of garbage since September 2015.

They hope to show that not only is cleaning the oceans possible, but the materials collected can be recycled into pellets, thread, fabric, and other products.

Image via Ecoalf.

5. Using only what large manufactures leave behind.

Advancements in technology have made fast fashion the norm: large scale production at ridiculously fast speeds. That model, while bringing in huge profits, comes with a whole host of problems. One of them that often gets overlooked is all the material wasted in production.

The average garment factory wastes up to 40% of its perfectly usable materials. Cambodia-based company tonlé is holding them accountable — and creating a smart business out of it.

Tonlé takes the scraps that manufactures don't use and turns them into beautiful products. About 90% of their materials come from big garment factories, and 10% are made from local and sustainable suppliers.

By doing what the large manufactures won't, they are helping to offset the huge global impact fast fashion has on the planet while showing what true sustainability means.

Is fast fashion on its way out? Probably not. But it's neat to see people creating — and demanding — fashion that's a little gentler on the planet.

Not everyone can whip up a dress from coffee grounds or turn their old Paula Abdul cassette tapes into an outfit. But these creative approaches to fashion are a great way to get people to think outside of the mass-produced clothing racks, and about how to reuse things they already own.

After all, clothes are way more fun when they're unique — and Earth-friendly.

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