Body And Gen Z Trends

What is it about Gen Z fashion trends that offers a much more diverse array of people a seat at the table?

- Nida Naeem

Whether or not you ardently follow trends, you’ve got to hand it to the fashion gworls: No matter what size or shape, they’re rocking all that’s hot and doing it only for themselves (and maybe their IG faves). You could argue that some people are just born with more confidence, but this collective idc-as-long-as-it’s-chic attitude has been built over years of body positivity and fat acceptance activism.

For many of us, a large part of growing into our own means learning to feel comfortable in our skin and figuring out a personal sense of style. But these journeys start way before we’ve figured out the growing up we wish to do – the media we’re exposed to as children and the opinions of friends and family on our bodies give way to deep conditioning.

Years later, as trends come back through the revolving door of the fashion cycle, millennial tastemakers embrace trends they wouldn’t dare wear during their adolescent years. So we ask, does the revival of essentially exclusive trends from the past offer us an opportunity for a do-over?

TABLOID ICONS

The image of Paris Hilton in super low-slung Frankie B jeans is seared into the mind of anyone who was around during the Noughties. The heiress and then style icon was all about midriff-baring styles. Good for her, but the body ideals Paris and her ‘It girl’ peers helped cement did a number on young women who looked nothing like her.

“I was a teenager in the early 2000s when low-rise jeans were all the rage. It was all skin-and-bones, with people flaunting their shoulders and hip bones. I couldn’t even find my hip bones, and that really affected me,” shares designer Nitya Arora, who helms jewellery label Valliyan.