Predictions for the Future of Fashion, Part One: Ultra-Casualwear
What are the limits of casual clothing? And other thoughts
This is the first part in a multi-part series discussing highly-speculative ideas for the future of fashion. Hope you enjoy!
Clothing has been getting more and more casual for decades, and I expect this trend to continue. In the future, people will tend to wear fewer overall articles of clothing, of simpler designs, and sometimes covering less of the body.
But considering how casual fashion has already become, how much more casual can we go?
T-shirts, basketball shorts, and flip-flops are already fairly commonplace options. They could become more widely accepted in a range of settings. In colder climates, hoodies and sweatpants would occupy a similar role.
One driving factor for ongoing casualization is the greater acceptability of athleticwear in a variety of settings. This has already happened with sneakers and yoga pants, and I foresee this trend continuing. This may even extend to swimsuits being used as casual clothing, as is already the case in tropical locales.
In addition to swimsuits, we might see underwear as outerwear becoming a true trend, for reasons of fashion, convenience, and practicality. (Bianca Censori, the wife of one Kanye West, is ahead of the curve on this.) Less-covering clothing could be useful to beat the heat if global temperatures go up in the future. Some athletes opt to publicly exercise while shirtless, and sometimes exposing part of one’s chest (such as with low-cut shirts or bare midriffs) can be a fashion statement, as below:
Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) shoes are already commonplace, including products like Crocs and and the even-simpler EVA slippers that have recently become popular.
Jeans and sneakers may be seen as viable “business casual” or “semi-formal” options. Khaki shorts and polo shirts may occupy a similar category. For true formalwear, we will continue to evolve away from full suits as the only option, with more people wearing button-down shirts with or without blazers, and with slacks or khakis. Neckties will continue on their way out.
Headwear will remain nonstandard except for baseball caps and similar hat designs. Fun fact: wide-brimmed hats went out of style around the 1950s because it was difficult to wear them when sitting in a car seat, and I don’t see that trend changing. When not wearing baseball caps, people might feel more compelled to style their hair as a fashion statement.
Some high-schools report their students are wearing pajamas to school. Why not? Taken to its logical conclusion, this could end up with people wearing Snuggies in public, or something like a long t-shirt as a unisex single-item outfit.
Those are all my thoughts for now. The next installment in this series will be about sun-protective clothing - for the purposes of coping with a warmer climate and to prevent skin aging. Until next time!
Kids have been wearing pj's to school since I was a kid 20 years ago :p any idea when that started?
I wonder though how fashion can get more casual then sweatsuits, then I remember that about 25% of the kids at my daughter’s high school come to school in their actual pajamas, with socks and crocks.