Fashion Anxiety

 Have you been noticing what I have been noticing recently? An awful lot of striped shirts.No, sorry. I haven't noticed them. A nigh-on ubiquity of loafers. Noticing what someone wears on their feet? Twice as many suits as a couple of years ago.You are very observant and a fine mathematician. Jumpers worn over the shoulders, Euro-style. Really? A whole lot of gold jewellery. Being so unobservant is making me feel pretty useless. Rugby shirts, polo shirts. Ah, that's better. I notice a rugby shirt when I put it on. Plus, most remarkably, plenty of heels, even in daytime. I don't wear heels in the daytime or the evening, I'm afraid.  Remember when we all thought heels were dead. I didn't even notice when they were alive...

A Bacchante
William Etty (1787-1849)
Photo Credit: York Museums Trust [CPublic Domain]

Introducing the two most potent fashion tribes of the moment, the neo-yuppie and the neo-preppie, as identified by one Sean Monahan. Monahan is an American trend forecaster who is arguably the most influential sociocultural whisperer in the world today, A trend forecaster and a sociocultural whisperer. Wow, do I need to bend the knee?

He is the man who, among other coinages, came up with "normcore" way back in 2013, to describe a mode of dressing that was deliberately bland. Sensational. Did he win a fashion award or the Nobel Prize? Also of particular note was Monahan's deployment, four years ago, of the term "vibe shift" as a way of labelling that moment when, erm, a vibe shifts... Don't you mean when there's a significant change in social dynamics or cultural trends, where a once dominant social wavelength starts to feel outdated?

"When there is a shift in consumer tastes" says Monahan, who, in a green cricket jumper, is himself  channeling neo-preppie when we talk, "it tends to be about something big."

That something big is, he continues, that people are feeling "insecure about where they fit in the grand scheme of things. It's a chaotic time and people are worried about their status and security, so there is a shift away from casual. When there are recession indicators, when people worry they are going broke, they try to dress more powerfully, more formally. They want to present as if they are doing better than they are."... I'm really worried now that I haven't been worried about my status, security and going broke. So should I go and put my suit on straight away?

What we wear is never just about what we wear, he continues. It also offers a way to tune into wider shifts in the world... How profound.

What does he say to those who argue that clothes don't matter? He laughs, then grows serious. "Clothes and how you you present yourself to the world, they matter deeply. That moment of casualisation we have been through, of everyone dressing so schlubby, it just made you feel awful. Yes. I couldn't get out of bed for days. Working from home and wearing sweatpants all the time, then taking that out into the world. A disgrace, an absolute disgrace. It affects how you perceive yourself and how you behave. Indeed. A wolf in sheep's clothing and dressed to kill.

At the heart of all Monahan's work is desire. Often people don't know why they buy what they buy, he says, or may even be actively deluding themselves. "Consumers can be hypocrites," he says, smiling. "As a trend forecaster you kind of have to reverse engineer what is going on. Then you can work out what people's desires are, even if they don't understand that themselves," Oh to be a trend forecaster.

(Anna Murphy, The Times, 2025)