I don't have any 20 year clothes and did not think this existed until I met my wife. At least half of her wardrobe is 20 years or older. It is astonishing but turns out when you buy really good pieces, they do last. And it really reveals just how shoddy most fast-fashion-ish clothes are.
I hope in 20 years I have some of the same things! Would love to know what has held up for her. I absolutely want more 20-year quality pieces in my size.
HAHAHAHA I own (for posterity) my most preposterous raver jeans with 40" openings at the bottom of each leg which I bought at Pac Sun at the Holyoke Mall in 1998. (I went to MHC!) I also own a denim jacket from 1988-90 with an airbrushed skyline of New York (twin towers) and my name in glitter on the front from a store called Unique that is now the NYU Bookstore. The jacket fit a couple of years ago still and I wore it but probably doesn't now. I buy those sort of pants that are supposed to last forever and I don't buy a lot of pants, but as someone who has, since 2005, been 7 different sizes not to mention pregnant and now menopausal I cannot fathom 20 year pants.
Gah! Holyoke Mall. I grew up in Amherst in the 80s and that was the fancy mall. You were lucky if you could convince someone to drive you there. Otherwise there was only the Old Mall and the New Mall. I did recently thrift a men's sweater my 15 year old self would have totally purchased at Chess King (a men's store) in 1985 (New Mall ofc).
I am 57 so 2005 feels like last week to me haha. I have SO MANY old clothes and shoes. Shopping fills me with rage, it makes me so uncomfortable, so once I buy something I see no reason to shop again unless absolutely necessary. I don’t keep up with trends or fashion which probably helps in me continuing to wear things for FOREVER. Off the top of my head - I bought my Hunter wellies when my daughter learned to walk so we could stomp in rain puddles together. She is now 27. My ugg boots are 22 years old. You can buy new fluffy inserts when yours get worn down. I’ve resoled them twice. I gave my doc martens from high school(1980s) to my daughter to wear. Pregnancy made my feet grow so that was traumatic, having to buy new shoes. I still wear my concert tshirts from middle school to bed and sometimes out in public. A man chased me down the street a few years ago here in Brooklyn, offering me anything from his store in exchange for the Bauhaus tshirt I had on. I said no thanks. My leopard coat I bought when my daughter was a baby. My motorcycle jacket I bought in 1985 in London. My coach wallet in from 1994 when a friend worked there and got me an employee discount. My Kate Spade purse is from 1998, my first mother’s day. I have vintage cotton housedresses from the 1950s that I bought in the 80s I still wear. I wear jewelry from middle school still. I don’t think I have ever gotten rid of jewelry. I rotate it in and out. I have one “fancy” dress I bought about 20 years ago that is my go-to for weddings. I’ve got a fall J Crew black velvet coat from the mid 90s I still wear. I joined a gym for the first time in 2012 because my daughter’s HS was like a block away from one and I decided I needed to start doing yoga to stay limber. I had to buy workout clothes(ugh shopping. Title Nine had great built in bra tops and skorts) So yeah those are my workout clothes 13 years later. I do buy new undies and socks regularly. And new sneakers every year to replace my worn out ones. I loathe jeans, so chafing, so all my pants are stretchy leggings/sweatpants. I haven’t bought any since I moved 6 years ago. I guess those are all about 10-15 years old? I don’t feel attached to pants the way I get to shirts and dresses and coats and shoes. Oh and the few skirts I own(4) are all Boden skirts I bought at least 15 years ago. I am so out of step with fashion and I’m ok with that.
I’m an older person and I have a fair number of 20 year clothes. I think that as the years go by, Corinne, you will find you have 20 year or older clothes because your style likely will be more settled and you seem to like well made things. But that may be just me.
Yes I’m glad you mentioned the elastic-y EF pants that are falling apart! Therein lies the paradox: the clothes with the most fit flexibility tend to have limited lifespan because the stretch poly content will lose shape and break down (tho not actually biodegrade) over time and with wear, whereas as tough natural fibers like 100% cotton twill & canvas allow the least adaptability to changing bodies! Indeed, 20 years is not a reasonable standard for pants for most people
I have Pendleton wool flannel shirt in black watch plaid that my father bought sometime prior to 1992 and I wore once a week throughout the 90s. I don’t wear it much anymore, partially because it was massively oversized on me in the 90s and now is just sized, and partially because it’s way more fragile. But i will wear it occasionally still, especially when I have a bad day.
As a historian I am obsessed with this piece! I do not want my 2005 beginning of grad school bootcut jeans, I don’t even have jeans I like right now.
The things I have that are 20+ years old? A backpack by a small business local to my hometown, a very stretchy brown Gap skirt that I bought the summer of 1998 and wore for years (and feel sentimental towards, mostly because it has survived), and a yellow velvet clutch (Banana Republic, I think) that I used for a friend’s wedding.
Somehow these things have made it through a million moves and two different storage unit experiences; I think I’m just as proud of my 5-10 year shoes. The only things I have en masse in the 20 year club are books, notebooks, and some framed posters/pictures/photo albums.
More important I only just learned about the lantern pants when I tried on a velvet pair on sale at the Manhattan Nordstrom after Christmas. They made me feel so cool but I could not imagine the use cases for velvet pants! Alas.
Oh how I loved my hand me down Marc by Marc Jacobs sweaters! They were so soft…so I know a woman who still owns and wears clothes that she has hd for probably 40 years. Setting aside for a minute the fact that her body hasn’t changed (we won’t get into why) it’s because she has an INSANE amount of clothing and will wear things less than one time a year!!
I can see a 20 year jacket, especially if it’s an overcoat style with space for size fluctuation. But pants?! Wow. The jeans I’m wearing now are some of my oldest, at about 5 years, and they’re heavily mended. Otherwise I definitely have some handknit sweaters that are 10+ years old and still in rotation. I think I have a couple of those deep-V indie sleaze American Apparel t-shirts in my drawer (which don’t get worn, but I guess could be?) but might be going on 20 years old now. But that’s it. Multiple moves, size and style changes, etc. I’d line to think some of the pieces I have now could be worn in 20 years, but I guess we’ll see if it’s by me or by my daughter!
I thought about this a lot this summer when I went through many bins of clothing that have been in storage since my life changed quite a bit in 2020 and now I work/teach from home. I no longer need so many ' fancy' sweaters and 'business' like skirts and trousers. I also found I had a huge storage of tees and leisure-y things that had been stored from a previous move. And I was getting rid of vintage that I've had for nearly 20 years that never quite fit in my 20s and I had finally come to terms with the fact that it was not about to suddenly tailor to my now more visibly aging body... I have benefitted from the fact that my body hasn't fluctuated much once I became an adult .There are still lots of tees and tops that fit me from my college years. And I was very fortunate to have an affordable apt in my 20s so didn't move during my early adulthood ( ie I still have a lot of stuff from that time). I have noticed how much clothing quality has gone downhill even from brands previously trustworthy as being double stitched and made to last. Besides the vintage which I sold to a lovely mother-daughter vintage selling duo, I still have a lot of the clothes and am planning to go through it again and keep any sweats/cotton that I can easily wear no matter my taste just bc I don't think its possible to buy tees and sweats that last anymore. The blouses/skirts etc I'll keep donating etc. But I'm planning to also look through with an eye to asking my seamstress/costume savvy friends to potentially alter some more structured things to be wearable now. I don't buy new clothes a lot, thrift most, and have been excited about dying and re-tailoring things I thought I couldn't wear anymore. Lastly my mom recently unearthed a very emo navy blue corduroy jacket that the lining is falling out of that I used to wear ALL THE TIME as a high school kid. It fits if I don't button it and I'm planning to get the lining fixed and wear it as a blazer when I want to nod to my early emo self. It's fun to revisit ourselves as we evolve ( and don't) through these moments of expression. Currently my 20 year pants are someone else's - sweet vintage men's sailor jeans that come in lots of sizes on Etsy and I love thinking they are already older than I am and I hope to wear them for another lifetime. Talk about made to last! Great topic :)
Well, I’m 31, so none of the clothes from 20 years ago fit me 😂 but i do think about some of them and wish i could buy them in my current size! (Denim coveralls with bell bottoms, I’m looking at you!)
I just, last year, made myself get rid of the concert T-shirts I was hanging onto from when I was in my teens and early 20s. They weren't wearable anymore, even over other shirts--they were just mostly shreds from being worn and washed for SOOO many years :'( I have a Carharrt coat (men's) that's over 20 years old, and 2 denim jackets (both Levis) that are over 20 years old. And, I still have 2 flannel shirts and a fleece lined denim jacket of my dad's that have to be at least 40+ years old <3 You are the same age as my daughter, Corinne--she'll turn 39 in June of this year--so I can remember so much about what happened 20 years ago when she graduated and started working as a veterinary assistant! I was wearing the same kind of clothes then as now--T-shirts, light wash high-waisted jeans, and denim jackets. I guess I'm sort of resistant to change/trends ;)
for me, there's a lot here. I'm a little bit older than you, and I do think things made 20 years ago and earlier, even some fast fashion things, were better made and lasted longer. I have changed size a lot in 20-30 years, but until maybe 5 years ago or so, my best friend from high school was still wearing a few pieces that she wore in high school (shockingly, she realized she did not have a healthy relationship with food). she is still straight-sized and as we are into our 40s realizing that our bodies are still changing and that she can't even count on clothes to still fit 5 years later has been a huge shock to her system.
I wonder if perhaps this is one way in which fat folks have been forced to learn to deal with the need to buy new clothes more often. I have seen claims to buy things for life, and, like you, I love it when we can, but most of the time I am incredibly skeptical. not only that, but, if I'm honest, a part of my brain follows it up with, "yeah, if you're tiny." and maybe that isn't fair.
to actually answer your question, I do have things that are that old (or older), but I keep them because of sentiment, and they are boxed away. I don't know if I will always keep them, and I'm not hoping to fit into them again. I have them because I loved them or fell in love while wearing them or thing that they are the sort of thing that my brother's kids might one day love the way I loved stealing my dad's 1970s green corduroy pants in high school.
the things that mostly last me 5-10 years these days are shoes and coats. there are some other pieces (pants, shirts, dresses) that last around that long, but they aren't the things that are in heavy rotation for very long. they tend to be the pieces that I keep for certain occasions, which I can only do because I have the space.
I am hoping that as my body has settled a bit into a size that there will be more things I'm wearing now that will last 5-10 years. as someone else pointed out, I am a bit more settled, both in my body and in what I like. but really, I try not to think about that. I try to focus on what is good value for me now that I enjoy because I deserve clothes that fit this body :)
I do have a few things but I don't think they count because I don't think they'd fit. Also, they're really memorabilia: a high school hoodie with my name embroidered on it (I got this when I turned 13 which was 22 years go!), a shirt from middle school that says "Class of 2008" but was given to us in 2003/4, and plenty of school spirit t-shirts that deserve to be made into a t-shirt quilt instead of sitting in the bottom of the closet.
I don't have any 20 year clothes and did not think this existed until I met my wife. At least half of her wardrobe is 20 years or older. It is astonishing but turns out when you buy really good pieces, they do last. And it really reveals just how shoddy most fast-fashion-ish clothes are.
I hope in 20 years I have some of the same things! Would love to know what has held up for her. I absolutely want more 20-year quality pieces in my size.
HAHAHAHA I own (for posterity) my most preposterous raver jeans with 40" openings at the bottom of each leg which I bought at Pac Sun at the Holyoke Mall in 1998. (I went to MHC!) I also own a denim jacket from 1988-90 with an airbrushed skyline of New York (twin towers) and my name in glitter on the front from a store called Unique that is now the NYU Bookstore. The jacket fit a couple of years ago still and I wore it but probably doesn't now. I buy those sort of pants that are supposed to last forever and I don't buy a lot of pants, but as someone who has, since 2005, been 7 different sizes not to mention pregnant and now menopausal I cannot fathom 20 year pants.
Omg shoutout to the holyoke mall!
Gah! Holyoke Mall. I grew up in Amherst in the 80s and that was the fancy mall. You were lucky if you could convince someone to drive you there. Otherwise there was only the Old Mall and the New Mall. I did recently thrift a men's sweater my 15 year old self would have totally purchased at Chess King (a men's store) in 1985 (New Mall ofc).
I am 57 so 2005 feels like last week to me haha. I have SO MANY old clothes and shoes. Shopping fills me with rage, it makes me so uncomfortable, so once I buy something I see no reason to shop again unless absolutely necessary. I don’t keep up with trends or fashion which probably helps in me continuing to wear things for FOREVER. Off the top of my head - I bought my Hunter wellies when my daughter learned to walk so we could stomp in rain puddles together. She is now 27. My ugg boots are 22 years old. You can buy new fluffy inserts when yours get worn down. I’ve resoled them twice. I gave my doc martens from high school(1980s) to my daughter to wear. Pregnancy made my feet grow so that was traumatic, having to buy new shoes. I still wear my concert tshirts from middle school to bed and sometimes out in public. A man chased me down the street a few years ago here in Brooklyn, offering me anything from his store in exchange for the Bauhaus tshirt I had on. I said no thanks. My leopard coat I bought when my daughter was a baby. My motorcycle jacket I bought in 1985 in London. My coach wallet in from 1994 when a friend worked there and got me an employee discount. My Kate Spade purse is from 1998, my first mother’s day. I have vintage cotton housedresses from the 1950s that I bought in the 80s I still wear. I wear jewelry from middle school still. I don’t think I have ever gotten rid of jewelry. I rotate it in and out. I have one “fancy” dress I bought about 20 years ago that is my go-to for weddings. I’ve got a fall J Crew black velvet coat from the mid 90s I still wear. I joined a gym for the first time in 2012 because my daughter’s HS was like a block away from one and I decided I needed to start doing yoga to stay limber. I had to buy workout clothes(ugh shopping. Title Nine had great built in bra tops and skorts) So yeah those are my workout clothes 13 years later. I do buy new undies and socks regularly. And new sneakers every year to replace my worn out ones. I loathe jeans, so chafing, so all my pants are stretchy leggings/sweatpants. I haven’t bought any since I moved 6 years ago. I guess those are all about 10-15 years old? I don’t feel attached to pants the way I get to shirts and dresses and coats and shoes. Oh and the few skirts I own(4) are all Boden skirts I bought at least 15 years ago. I am so out of step with fashion and I’m ok with that.
I’m an older person and I have a fair number of 20 year clothes. I think that as the years go by, Corinne, you will find you have 20 year or older clothes because your style likely will be more settled and you seem to like well made things. But that may be just me.
PS I also have my parents’ Pendleton shirts.
Yes I’m glad you mentioned the elastic-y EF pants that are falling apart! Therein lies the paradox: the clothes with the most fit flexibility tend to have limited lifespan because the stretch poly content will lose shape and break down (tho not actually biodegrade) over time and with wear, whereas as tough natural fibers like 100% cotton twill & canvas allow the least adaptability to changing bodies! Indeed, 20 years is not a reasonable standard for pants for most people
This is SUCH a good point, Molly!
I have Pendleton wool flannel shirt in black watch plaid that my father bought sometime prior to 1992 and I wore once a week throughout the 90s. I don’t wear it much anymore, partially because it was massively oversized on me in the 90s and now is just sized, and partially because it’s way more fragile. But i will wear it occasionally still, especially when I have a bad day.
My partner has a few Pendleton wool shirts that my GRANDFATHER gave to him more than 20 years ago! That company knew how to make a piece that lasts.
As a historian I am obsessed with this piece! I do not want my 2005 beginning of grad school bootcut jeans, I don’t even have jeans I like right now.
The things I have that are 20+ years old? A backpack by a small business local to my hometown, a very stretchy brown Gap skirt that I bought the summer of 1998 and wore for years (and feel sentimental towards, mostly because it has survived), and a yellow velvet clutch (Banana Republic, I think) that I used for a friend’s wedding.
Somehow these things have made it through a million moves and two different storage unit experiences; I think I’m just as proud of my 5-10 year shoes. The only things I have en masse in the 20 year club are books, notebooks, and some framed posters/pictures/photo albums.
More important I only just learned about the lantern pants when I tried on a velvet pair on sale at the Manhattan Nordstrom after Christmas. They made me feel so cool but I could not imagine the use cases for velvet pants! Alas.
Nothing from 20 yrs ago. I purge regularly. I have changed sizes and body shapes so so many times in 20 years
Oh how I loved my hand me down Marc by Marc Jacobs sweaters! They were so soft…so I know a woman who still owns and wears clothes that she has hd for probably 40 years. Setting aside for a minute the fact that her body hasn’t changed (we won’t get into why) it’s because she has an INSANE amount of clothing and will wear things less than one time a year!!
I can see a 20 year jacket, especially if it’s an overcoat style with space for size fluctuation. But pants?! Wow. The jeans I’m wearing now are some of my oldest, at about 5 years, and they’re heavily mended. Otherwise I definitely have some handknit sweaters that are 10+ years old and still in rotation. I think I have a couple of those deep-V indie sleaze American Apparel t-shirts in my drawer (which don’t get worn, but I guess could be?) but might be going on 20 years old now. But that’s it. Multiple moves, size and style changes, etc. I’d line to think some of the pieces I have now could be worn in 20 years, but I guess we’ll see if it’s by me or by my daughter!
I thought about this a lot this summer when I went through many bins of clothing that have been in storage since my life changed quite a bit in 2020 and now I work/teach from home. I no longer need so many ' fancy' sweaters and 'business' like skirts and trousers. I also found I had a huge storage of tees and leisure-y things that had been stored from a previous move. And I was getting rid of vintage that I've had for nearly 20 years that never quite fit in my 20s and I had finally come to terms with the fact that it was not about to suddenly tailor to my now more visibly aging body... I have benefitted from the fact that my body hasn't fluctuated much once I became an adult .There are still lots of tees and tops that fit me from my college years. And I was very fortunate to have an affordable apt in my 20s so didn't move during my early adulthood ( ie I still have a lot of stuff from that time). I have noticed how much clothing quality has gone downhill even from brands previously trustworthy as being double stitched and made to last. Besides the vintage which I sold to a lovely mother-daughter vintage selling duo, I still have a lot of the clothes and am planning to go through it again and keep any sweats/cotton that I can easily wear no matter my taste just bc I don't think its possible to buy tees and sweats that last anymore. The blouses/skirts etc I'll keep donating etc. But I'm planning to also look through with an eye to asking my seamstress/costume savvy friends to potentially alter some more structured things to be wearable now. I don't buy new clothes a lot, thrift most, and have been excited about dying and re-tailoring things I thought I couldn't wear anymore. Lastly my mom recently unearthed a very emo navy blue corduroy jacket that the lining is falling out of that I used to wear ALL THE TIME as a high school kid. It fits if I don't button it and I'm planning to get the lining fixed and wear it as a blazer when I want to nod to my early emo self. It's fun to revisit ourselves as we evolve ( and don't) through these moments of expression. Currently my 20 year pants are someone else's - sweet vintage men's sailor jeans that come in lots of sizes on Etsy and I love thinking they are already older than I am and I hope to wear them for another lifetime. Talk about made to last! Great topic :)
Well, I’m 31, so none of the clothes from 20 years ago fit me 😂 but i do think about some of them and wish i could buy them in my current size! (Denim coveralls with bell bottoms, I’m looking at you!)
I just, last year, made myself get rid of the concert T-shirts I was hanging onto from when I was in my teens and early 20s. They weren't wearable anymore, even over other shirts--they were just mostly shreds from being worn and washed for SOOO many years :'( I have a Carharrt coat (men's) that's over 20 years old, and 2 denim jackets (both Levis) that are over 20 years old. And, I still have 2 flannel shirts and a fleece lined denim jacket of my dad's that have to be at least 40+ years old <3 You are the same age as my daughter, Corinne--she'll turn 39 in June of this year--so I can remember so much about what happened 20 years ago when she graduated and started working as a veterinary assistant! I was wearing the same kind of clothes then as now--T-shirts, light wash high-waisted jeans, and denim jackets. I guess I'm sort of resistant to change/trends ;)
Sidebar - love that you went to Smith! Such a great school. Sister and an aunt went there and always loved my visits.
loved this piece!
for me, there's a lot here. I'm a little bit older than you, and I do think things made 20 years ago and earlier, even some fast fashion things, were better made and lasted longer. I have changed size a lot in 20-30 years, but until maybe 5 years ago or so, my best friend from high school was still wearing a few pieces that she wore in high school (shockingly, she realized she did not have a healthy relationship with food). she is still straight-sized and as we are into our 40s realizing that our bodies are still changing and that she can't even count on clothes to still fit 5 years later has been a huge shock to her system.
I wonder if perhaps this is one way in which fat folks have been forced to learn to deal with the need to buy new clothes more often. I have seen claims to buy things for life, and, like you, I love it when we can, but most of the time I am incredibly skeptical. not only that, but, if I'm honest, a part of my brain follows it up with, "yeah, if you're tiny." and maybe that isn't fair.
to actually answer your question, I do have things that are that old (or older), but I keep them because of sentiment, and they are boxed away. I don't know if I will always keep them, and I'm not hoping to fit into them again. I have them because I loved them or fell in love while wearing them or thing that they are the sort of thing that my brother's kids might one day love the way I loved stealing my dad's 1970s green corduroy pants in high school.
the things that mostly last me 5-10 years these days are shoes and coats. there are some other pieces (pants, shirts, dresses) that last around that long, but they aren't the things that are in heavy rotation for very long. they tend to be the pieces that I keep for certain occasions, which I can only do because I have the space.
I am hoping that as my body has settled a bit into a size that there will be more things I'm wearing now that will last 5-10 years. as someone else pointed out, I am a bit more settled, both in my body and in what I like. but really, I try not to think about that. I try to focus on what is good value for me now that I enjoy because I deserve clothes that fit this body :)
I do have a few things but I don't think they count because I don't think they'd fit. Also, they're really memorabilia: a high school hoodie with my name embroidered on it (I got this when I turned 13 which was 22 years go!), a shirt from middle school that says "Class of 2008" but was given to us in 2003/4, and plenty of school spirit t-shirts that deserve to be made into a t-shirt quilt instead of sitting in the bottom of the closet.