People’s “must-have” fashion items tend to spring to mind when thinking of modern-day trends and items. Bubble skirts, leopard print, maxi denim skirts, all having their five minutes of fame before falling into fashion oblivion. These trends tend to follow a very specific timeline, and this is something seen throughout history. This is intrinsically linked with class, money, and social standing.
The best way to look at trends and the journey they take nowadays is to look at the history of foods, especially the history of spices in England. From the invasion and colonisation of India, there came a flood of spices into the market. Most people in the country at the time were eating and living simply, not having the money or desire to eat such delicacies, and the working lower class did not partake. This could also be linked to the church – living and eating simply is virtuous. The rich had the money and influence to ignore this edict, especially during the Catholic period.
However, the upper class and the rich started to compile their spices. Even if they had the worst spice tolerance, the idea was not to season the food but to showcase the owning of it. They could buy from exotic lands and did not care if it rotted or stayed uneaten. This is similar to the Victorian treatment of the pineapple, which would often sit on upper-class mantle pieces and rot (- they were also unaware of how to properly eat them.)
Then, the East India Trading Company was born, creating a monopoly in spice trade and shoehorning most spices into the UK. This merchant fleet was then responsible for the boom of spices coming into the country. While this spice boom, a period of spice in the kitchen and spiced exciting food, was booming in the country, the upper class started to simplify their cooking. Simple dishes, salt, pepper, roasts. ”Meat should taste like meat.” The upper class then returned to simple dishes, which stayed embedded in the country (for multiple reasons, including a religious shift and other cultural reasons. Most take India as an example of spiced food, but the thought behind that was that Jains and Hindus primarily don’t eat meat. And in Europe, meat was the main part of the meal, and thus, everyone wanted to taste it.) This classist anti-spice revolution stayed until rationing was introduced into the country because of the world wars, which solidified the so-called “bland food” stereotype into the British psyche.
What did this mean for the buying and selling of spices? They became more readily available, more and more people in lower classes had access, and thus – were not commodities anymore. It no longer had that designer feel to it; it no longer appealed to the rich as a showcase of their wealth. Now, it was quality meat and vegetables that showcased wealth.
Now, why is this relevant?
Think of the cowboy boot. High-quality, leather or suede and for people who work in dusty fields/on farms. With the rise of Western films in the 40’s, they started to enter Hollywood, becoming more fashionable. Cut to the 21st century, with Vogue articles highlighting their rise and fall (and rise again), with reference to Bottega, Copenhagen Fashion Week, and with images of lots of different models styling them, this popular “couture” phase highlights the beginning of the Cowboy boots trend journey.
Enter festival season, enter Taylor Swift, enter fashion mainstream. (If you want another example of something just starting to fall into this phase, think of the chainmail outfits that people have seen from New York fashion school, and then let us think of the Castlecore trend highlighted in the Pinterest trend predictor. While I don’t think chainmail will be as big of a trend due to the expense of the metal, it has entered into a less designer space.) Now, we are seeing lesser fashion brands creating cowboy boots – still in leather, still high quality, without the vogue designer price tag. Kurt Geiger and Ted Baker are shops that can still be seen as a luxury but start to introduce the item into the wider perception.
If they did, the cowboy boots remained popular, and more and more people wanted to buy them. Influencers were promoting them, or they were being incorporated into fashion videos, fashion blogs/vlogs; if everyone wanted a pair, they would go into the high street. Zara, Bershka, Urban Outfitters, H&M, this is the East India Trading company level. The commodity is turning up everywhere. Now, you can turn around and always see a cowboy boot, not just boots, stickers, graphic T-shirt prints, earrings, and keyrings. (BOWS, this was the worst victim of this phase. However, bows have always had a presence in fashion. Cowboy boots have not.) People do not feel so unique or fashionable anymore. “Chuegy” would be what the kids call it. This is when the product, and in this case, the cowboy boot, starts losing quality or becomes easier and cheaper to market and sell. Pleather, bad quality stitching, and many other reasons cause them to be seen as bad quality, cheap, and nasty. The market is now flooded with cowboy boots, and no one wants them.
“And when everyone is super, no one will be.”
