If you’ve been keeping up with today’s latest shows like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “My Life with the Walter Boys,” then you’re no stranger to their recent fashion flops. Belly’s prom-dress-turned-wedding-gown and Jackie’s business formal first day fit show just how far removed we are from the iconic fashions from “Sex and the City” and “Gossip Girl.”
When you look back at characters like Carrie Bradshaw, Rachel Green and Blair Waldorf, it’s clear that modern TV fashion is no longer trend-worthy in comparison to the icons of the early 2000’s.
According to InStyle, Rachel Green’s iconic use of print, slip dresses and baby tees in the show “Friends” are still trendy today, and have shown up in dozens of recent fashion trends. The “Rachel Green Haircut” also circulated social media earlier this year, leaving girls across TikTok running to their local hair salon for a trim.
Monica and Rachel’s use of baby tees and chic office-style are something I see mixed into almost every college girl’s closet, and never go out of style.
Another fashion icon of the 2000s we all know and love is Carrie Bradshaw. While most people know her for chasing her situationship Big across Paris, Carrie’s unique fashion choices and extensive shoe collection made her one of the best-dressed women on TV.
British Vogue said that trends we see today such as name plate necklaces, tube tops and the “little black dress” were all made popular by Carrie herself.
It’s like she said, “I like my money where I can see it, hanging in my closet.”
More recent shows seem to have missed the memo on what teens and young adults are actually wearing these days.
Belly, the star of Amazon Prime’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” has rightfully been under some scrutiny for her extremely questionable fashion choices.
For starters, no matter how much of a broke college student Belly is, a silk, white prom dress is never acceptable for your own wedding. According to TikTok users @silverliningsplaybooks and @teamconniebabyforever1, fans felt that Belly’s outfits were too immature for someone in their early twenties and not representative of what people her age actually wear.
We also need to address the awful disco party outfit she wore in season 2. I know it might be a controversial take, but come on. If you saw anyone wearing an outfit like that to a costume party, you’d probably also see them getting hated on all over YikYak the next morning.
Shows like “Never Have I Ever,” “My Life with the Walter Boys” and “Riverdale” also sparked some commentary from viewers who argued that “there are more problems with how [the teens] look” than with their actual portrayal of the character.
While there are definitely shows that got it right like “Outer Banks” and “Gossip Girl,” I wouldn’t be caught dead in half of the outfits I’ve seen some characters wear, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
“The clothes they dress teenagers in is ridiculous. It’s not representative of teenagers at all. Nobody wears that. It’s so annoying, how hard is it to get it right?” said Isa Molliner, a junior here at UM.
Lets just hope that future costume designers will finally get it right and show what their viewers are actually wearing. I think it’s time they started visiting real school campuses to avoid dressing their characters in an embarrassment of an outfit.