Retro style, or “vintage-inspired”, is a style in music, films, trends and other art forms that refers to new things, that display characteristics of the past. This is kind of a general definition. For the sake of this article, I’ll refer to the retro culture when I’ll talk about the culture of the ’20s up to, and including the ’90s. This way, we’ll be able to see how the culture in which our parents and grandparents grew up in, shaped the culture of the present day and how it is still relevant, even after almost 100 years.
To understand how the old influences the new we have to see why people are attracted to ways of doing things that are obviously outdated. The answer to that, in my humble opinion, is because human beings are fascinated by a story well told.
We grow up listening to our grandparents telling us stories about how great and satisfied their lives were when they were younger. We grow up listening to our parents’ retro music. This is why it’s normal to be fascinated by the ways of the past. And the more you find out about them, the more interesting they seem.
There are so many information sources out there about this period, you cannot say you don’t know who The Beatles were, for example. You can find out anything about the past century, not only about the last 60 years.
If you are looking for information for a great depression essay for high school you’ll find resources about that too. So the access to information, to a well-told story, encourages people to be inspired by everything vintage.
Nowadays, huge brands are inspired by retro fashion. Channel does it for their amazing clothes, and even Nike does it for their cool looking sneakers. Creating casual footwear inspired from the 80’s and 90’s and creating such hype behind it is huge.
You can see modern houses, or even office buildings with the paint still wet on their walls, inspired by retro design. And don’t even get me started with the fascination everyone has for vintage cars! Limited editions and old school models increase their prices every year.
Watches are the same. An older model of Rolex has more chances of increasing in value, rather than decreasing. This shows just how interested and fascinated we, the young generations are about the value time gives to an object or an idea.
So, it’s somehow normal. Having a period of time presented to you in an idealistic way will attract you. It doesn’t matter that the ways of the past might seem outdated. When the young generation has contact with a period of time presented to them in a romantic way, they’ll show interest.
Students nowadays are interested in classic rock music. Lots of modern-day music genres are inspired by the classics of rock n roll. Influences of the old school type of jazz can be seen in all the hip-hop genres. So in music, there’s pretty much nothing new invented but only interpreted in different ways.
So, the old ways of doing things will always present interest to the younger generation. We can see how the retro culture affected the lives of the young generation, by looking at popular music they listen to.
The style presented today by the big fashion brands is heavily inspired by vintage designs, created by brilliant designers years ago. The real struggle nowadays is coming up with something original, especially when the creations of the past years were so brilliant when they came up.
In my opinion, the duty of the new generation is to get inspired by the creations of the past and with that knowledge, to create something better when it comes to everything: music, fashion, literature and design.
Guest Writer:
Emma Rundle is a modern-day digital nomad. She travels the world looking for inspiration from the past, to her modern-day articles. Writing and learning about everything new and old makes Emma an amazing content writer.
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