The Eternal Revival
“Fashion is dead”, we hear many cry out, alluding that nothing new has happened since the early 1990s. But I would like to point out that fashion, as soon as it died, transcended its ‘demise’ through a peculiar form of tightly timed reincarnation. What seems to happen is an almost regularly scheduled revival of old trends. At least where trends in the global West are concerned.
In the ‘90s we witnessed the revival of the ‘70s fashion, in the ‘00s it was all about the ‘80s. The end of the ‘10s saw the resurrection of the ‘90s, and like clockwork, the new ‘20s are copying the early ‘00s. One could say it is a meticulously orchestrated 20-year revival cycle. And then it was yesterday when I saw a girl on the street recreating a shortly lived ‘emo’ look that was popular from 2007 to 2010 that I realized the pace was quickening. I was instantly reminded of the prophetic words uttered by Jennifer Saunders’ character Edina Monsoon in Season 2 of Absolutely Fabulous (1994): “Soon we will be reviving what we had last week!” This statement followed a brief complaint on the revival of the ‘70s back in the day. Have we now transcended the 20-year cycle and shortened the nostalgic reminiscence? We will see what the new seasons bring.
Perhaps we can agree that what is at hand here is just another case of the Golden Age thinking, only transposed to fashion: “It was all better back in the day.” This is not entirely surprising, because being here and now requires effort. And after all, who would be interested in the drab of today when we can fantasize about yesterday? But let’s see what the cards would say! What lies behind the constant revival of trends?
Hand-stencilled Jean Noblet Tarot trumps, reproduced by Jean Claude Florny.
The first card down is the Temperance, and let us not go immediately to the function of moderating, but stop and marvel at the visual of looking back while pouring matter from one pitcher into the other. How amazingly appropriate. From this act of nostalgic decanting, we go straight to the struggle of Force. Why did we go from reminiscing into forcing the beast’s jaws open, only to end up walking away scratched and torn? What seems to be happening is that in this act of reshuffling the past and trying to give it new life we force the act so fiercely that nothing of substance remains to be admired anymore, so we walk away no better off than yesterday. On to a new journey. But I wouldn’t be doing my job here if I did not investigate what it is exactly that we are looking back at. I pull another card to see who or what from the past will meet the gaze of the angel of Temperance. Surely enough, the Devil appears. As he likes to preside over addiction and attachment, it is clear that this look into the past has nothing to do with clarity but that is simply an ill-informed conditioned response. The fallacy of the Golden Age, if you will. We dive into the past looking for something meaningful and enriching to take back into the present, but we end up with nothing useful. Revise, repeat, and move on. But to what? I pull another card for the Fool.
On to a new delusion, it seems. A circle devoid of any clarity, or repetition for the repetition’s sake. It seems that we are simply stuck in a collective pattern that is only there to boost the market for a short while and give us an illusion and the good old days are back. Nothing more, nothing less.
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