Goodbye 2010s

Welcome to the first post on the Aesthetics Pending blog. It's crazy, I'm a recent graduate of Texas Tech University and I'm literally electing to publicly post a short essay once a week. Anyway, I'm loving the process, it's a great feeling. Now to start off... if you look photo above you will see a picture of some storied names in fashion. Most notably Kanye West and Virgil Abloh (rest in peace). Every single one of these gentlemen are dressed like trash. This photo was taken by Tommy Ton at 2009 Paris Fashion Week. While I could dedicate an entire submission to dissecting these fits, this blog is based on the era that allowed and encouraged these fits to exist; the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Yeah, we're talking about the era that copied the retro 80's aesthetic in the sloppiest way possible. Studded belts, poor color matching, wearing more than 35% neon on an outfit, and a level of maximalism that puts maximalism to shame. It goes without saying that I despise this era of fashion and culture. It's no secret that fashion and music from previous decades always finds its way back into the mainstream. I believe that the late 2000s and early 2010s is the exception to the rule. Let's do a quick dive into what was popular back then. You have bands like The Fray, LMFAO, The Black-Eyed Peas (circa 2008), 3Oh3, Three Days Grace, Metro Station, The Ready Set, and sadly many more. On the fashion side of things, we have people wearing fedoras unironically, button-ups tie no blazer, drawstring hoodies as a statement piece, and off brand Thriller jackets side eyes Will.I.am. To clarify, when I bring up the drawstring hoodie, I'm referring to the ones that had a visible zipper, some wacky print, and strings that tighten the hood. Oh god! Plus, leather pants that had cargo inspired pockets. Anyway, as you can see, I could go all day. Now that we've glazed over what is honestly a very small sample size of what I despise from this era, we should delve into why it won't be making a return.

Of all the recent decades, the 2010s found a way to produce the absolute worst vibes. A complete lapse in the trials of human creativity. Why on God's green earth would we allow this, this, this poison... to make its way back to our eyes and ears. We're talking about the era where Will.I.am is considered a visionary (in 2008 standards). Do we really want to hand Will.I.am the keys to the cultural zeitgeist again? The answer is no. Embracing the 2010s would be such a genuine step back from the direction that fashion and music are currently taking. At that time, every other song was made for clubbing! And the clothes we produced were meant to complement that space. Please God leave this shit in the past! I genuinely think we've improved so much since this era that we'll just... skip over it. I think it's more likely that we start a renaissance in fashion similar to that of the renaissance era of the 14th-17th century. If you're reading this and you're thinking "that period wasn't that bad". Go look in your phone, Facebook, or photo album. Look at what you walked out the house looking like, what we all looked like leaving the house. Tell me you want that same look for a future generation. I think you guys get the idea. I no longer need to go on about this topic. The moral of the story is that your favorite Ellie Goulding track is never going to be back on the Billboard top 10.