Let me be clear: this is not me being a hater. There is plenty of fashion I could be a hater about, so trust and believe you would know if that was my aim… I have neutral feelings towards these items on other people, even positive ones, but if it came down to me buying them I would not choose not to. These features are bothersome enough to me (again, TO ME) that if I saw these on a thrifted or vintage item it would be enough to deter me from buying it. Many of these examples, as you will see, have personal connotations for me that give me the ick, and that is going to vary between individuals. I think this is a useful exercise to do for yourself too, particularly if you find yourself frustrated with trends!
Ripped Jeans
I was maybe 7, at Target, and was picking out new shoes for a new school year. I remember putting on a pair of pink tennis shoes with frayed edges and an elasticated tongue to show my mom. She immediately said no. When I asked why, she said only — “ripped edges are trashy.” Trashy. That was pretty much the end of it, I was never allowed to have ripped jeans and never really asked. Even in adulthood shopping with my own money, I have tried on ripped jeans, ones with minimal rips, or only a rip on one knee, or the ones with raw unfinished hems. I was open to it, but just never liked them on myself. To be fair, I guess have worked for many years of my adulthood in lab settings where jeans with large rips in them aren’t safe, so it just didn’t become practical for me. I will say, the only pair of denim shorts I have are cutoffs that I made from a pair of vintage Eddie Bauer jeans, so I’ve been able to shake the aversion to raw edges to some extent.
Decorative Rivets
Many of us have icks around trends that were popular when we were younger, when we were were exploring our identity through clothes. These are trends that were so ubiquitous and we were so burned by that we can never imagine participating in them ever again. In behavioral psychology, this is called a Conditioned Taste Aversion (what’s the one food you can never eat again because you threw it up one time?) E.g. low LOW rise jeans are pretty much anathema to millennials and elder gen z. For me, it’s decorative rivets. So many slouchy bags, belts that were basically all rivets, tops and jeans that laced all the way up the back and sides. I thought it was Not Cute then and I don’t like it now, even if it’s more toned down. Those Ganni shoes? Ugly. These Reformation moto boots have few enough rivets that if I was given them as a gift I think I would like them, but I probably wouldn’t buy them for myself. This JW Pei bag on the other hand? Nope. And that’s okay! It’s good to know these things about yourself and save money.
Ruching
At some point when I was in middle school consuming many hours of Say Yes to the Dress, ruching was described as a way to soften and hide the parts of your body that you don’t like about yourself. I don’t know why, but that never sat well with me. And I don’t think it was because I had some precocious sense of body neutrality (the opposite in fact) but to me it always felt like the pushup bra of dresses. Adding bulk is the last thing I want to do. We all laugh at that Pnina Tornai dress now, and maybe I would have been pro-giant rhinestone/giant skirt at the time, but the ruching ALWAYS bothered me. And now it’s back! File this one under “scarred from overuse” as well.
Contrasted Stitching
I’m not talking about the occasional buttonhole with red thread here, but all over using the wrong thread that doesn’t match the fabric or leather. I don’t really have a good reason, I just don’t like it.
Serged Edges
Okay, I do know where this one comes from. As a seamstress, if a garment has serged edges I will not be buying it. It looks unfinished! Don’t piss me off.
Paperclip Jewelry
This is actually a new one! I’m not sure what it is about the paperclip chains other than they seem so ubiquitous that they just can’t last forever and are destined to get thrown away, which I don’t like because I don’t like waste. One of my favorite interior design YouTubers, Caroline Winkler, describes light fixtures as “the jewelry of the home.” I only include this because it helped me make sense of why I am so picky about jewelry. I am equally picky about light fixtures! My favorite jewelry is usually super dainty — I wear this necklace almost every day. And maybe that’s really boring but I’m working on it! This is an area where I need to do more exploration and growth to find what I really enjoy, and I am definitely my own worst enemy in that I am always annoyed that I don’t have any jewelry I like but then never take steps to actually figure out what I like and invest in it. However, I DO know what I DON’T like. I guess I’m being a little bit of a hater now… do you really like paperclip jewelry or are you just wearing it because it’s there??
Now I am dying to know… what are YOUR illogical fashion aversions? Restack or drop it in the comments :)
1. crew neck T-shirts under V-neck jumpers.....just can't do it. Maybe it's my age but something about the round neck under the V neck is just off-putting even if that's the defining style of how people wear jumpers now.
2. Huggie hoops. Something about them always reads 'conservative office dress code version of/too afraid to commit to an actual hoop' and also they look rather graceless to me, there are small delicate hoop earrings that are pretty too but it irritates me that the huggie version became so ubiquitous, somehow I only ever see them worn by the kind of women who in a previous fashion cycle would be the office fashion police and frown on any earrings bigger than a stud (forget the actual hoop)
3. oh and I hate paperclip jewellery too, I'm ok with a DIY made from actual paperclips like kids sometimes do in school but commercial versions are just off-putting to me since they don't look any better than what the kids do for free, I don't care how many pave diamonds a brand put on it.
HA! The icks! I love this so much.