As the world continues to modernise so the hem line rises. In the 60s the mini skirt was it! With the youth in revolt and striving to carve a more liberated path, they took a risk by putting themselves more out there with their clothing choices and behaviour. Since then each decade has progressed in taking even bigger fashion risks. Today, about 50 plus years later we have never lived in a world more advanced, more free and more open to change. Yes this century has its faults and flaws as the decades before did too but the fact that young girls can choose what they want to wear. How they want to wear it with much less disdain from ages past is revolutionary.
Which brings me to Generation Z’s expressions of a life lived free. It involves wearing as little clothes as possible and goes hand in hand with liberating experiences that involve music and festivals.
The revolution started at the point where feet were not even exposed in public, to showing a bit of ankle, then leg, onto knee-length to mid-thigh length, rising to a mini and then a micro-mini. Talk about levels. If you thought the length of clothes couldn’t get shorter, it 100% does.
These young people’s lives revolve around social media and celebrity culture. Kim Kardashian is a huge influencer of fashion and an outfit she wore very recently will be inspiring ready-to-wear brands. It was a swimsuit/bodysuit inspired dress that highlighted her butt and had a sheer skirt attached to it.
Young women today are more in touch with their sexuality and comfortable with showing off their bodies. As they feel its an expression of freedom and empowerment to be who they are authentically. Instead of concealing what makes them a woman, they are revealing it.
There is a clear connection between the more revealing cut of clothing and the extremely liberated youth. Which means clothing and communication must connect to break through the clutter of retailers selling very similar items.
The youth want to wear what they want so when you sell clothes to them, speak to them like they can wear what they want. It’s all about freedom of being and expressing yourself and your body unashamedly.
Article by Gabrielle Mixon
TrendER Insights’ Fashion Researcher, Communicator & Trend Analyst
