As we move into 2023, it’s important to reflect on our experiences and discoveries during 2022, to continue the things we like and scrap the things we don’t. The most important reflections, of course, are those about fashion. It’s clear that 2022 was a year of fashion successes or, more controversially, “fashion fails.” Our style writers reflect on which trends are coming with us into the new year and which ones we’re leaving behind.
— CC Meade, Style Beat Editor and Kaya Ginsky, Senior Arts Editor
Corset Comeback
2022 or 1830? 2022 is The Year of the Corset Comeback. We’ve all heard the age-old aphorism “history repeats itself,” but I didn’t really believe it until this past year. With the exception of the pandemic, I hadn’t seen anything from history make an appearance in my modern life — until the return of the corset. Corsets have been featured this past year in everything from Urban Outfitters to frat outfits to Broadway musicals like “Six.” Corsets, which were first worn and became popular in 1830, were originally made of whalebone and steel and were used to provide shape to the torso. Though corsets were used in the past as a wardrobe tool to alter both men’s and women’s body shapes, corsets are now a vital piece of a going-out fit. They can range in color and style, but they maintain somewhat of a similar shape, accentuating the waist and natural curves in people’s bodies. Though 2022 was the year corsets made an official comeback, rising from their 19th-century coffin, I expect them to absolutely stick around for 2023.
Daily Arts Writer Constance Meade can be reached at meadecc@umich.edu
Birk Bostons or Barefoot
The 18th-century German shoe brand, Birkenstock, came to America as a sandal in the ’60s, as hippies who preferred barefoot living sought untailored, comfortable ware. Since then, Birkenstocks grew beyond the hippie crowd to anyone looking for a durable, largely natural shoe. As Seventeen article “6 VSCO Girl Shoes” (referencing the 2019 casual, preppy wave), says, two-strap Birkenstocks have a “Cali vibe.” This year, we switched coasts to the Boston clog. Bostons have more heartiness and cover for the East Coast, with a suede top and classic cork sole. With “ugly shoes” trending and chunky clogs showing up in every type of outfit, fashion ‘it girls’ Kaia Gerber and Kendall Jenner tipped social media into a Boston craze by merely wearing the shoe. This fall, the hot gender-neutral shoe sold out in most natural tones, especially the coveted taupe. The clogs became a commodity for online resellers, with some pairs selling for over $300. These shoes can be worn with any outfit: long skirts, ripped jeans, chunky knits — but they go best with pajamas. If you have not broken in the backless Bostons over many years, your foot slips out the back, leaving you shoeless as a real, dogs-out hippie.
Daily Arts Writer Kaya Ginsky can be reached at kginsky@umich.edu.
Names, Images and Likenesses
In June 2021, the NCAA instated a rule allowing “college athletes to benefit from name, image and likeness opportunities.” Instantly, college merch stores sold hundreds in merchandise toting athlete names and athletes received high royalties to match. 2022 was the first full year you could wear a jersey with a college athlete icon/crush/friend’s last name on it.
M Den manager, DeArron Haygood, discussed how the NCAA rule has changed how the Ann Arbor staple and other athletics brands have approached business.
“Since the new NIL program we’ve sold so many more of our inventory (of) … custom jerseys,” longtime M Den manager, DeArron Haygood said.
This year, as football phenoms like JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum led the Wolverines to their second championship season in a row, their names became household names printed on thousands of jerseys. Haygood calls this year’s college jersey trend, which exploded in football season and around the holidays, his favorite trend yet at The M Den. This winter marked the beginning of the height of the college jersey trend at Michigan, but the college jersey is here to stay.
“I’m always excited to see customers excited about buying a Michigan product,” Haygood said. “People have always always wanted to get jerseys with their favorite player on the back. But it’s something that has never been able to be done … Now that we’re able to do it, people are just really excited.”
Daily Arts Writer Kaya Ginsky can be reached at kginsky@umich.edu.
Sweats Forever
Sweatpants and sweatshirts were reborn in the pandemic era, as consumers decided that comfort comes first. Sweat-sets evolved from lazy gym wear or remnants of an early 2000’s flashy trend, to a respected “outfit.”
As Louis Vuitton’s late creative director Virgil Abloh collaborated with brands like Nike, Abloh’s influence expanded beyond luxury spheres. A combination of sporty street style and tailored fashion became en-vogue, with models/disciples like Kendall Jenner donning sweat-sets and baseball hats. Inspired by models’ “wear anywhere” looks and a hybridizing pandemic lifestyle, 2022 saw effortlessly cool, monochrome sweat sets. Sweatshirts were carefully styled, cropped and consciously oversized for versatility. M Den Manager, DeArron Haygood reflected on 2022 as the year of the cropped sweatshirt, for both consumers and brands. Today’s loungewear, though styled and silhouetted, is a genre which embraces its “chill” roots. Haygood noticed that this year, faded and distressed sweatpants, which we now see in stylish faux-vintage looks, only increased in popularity.
As in years past, we use sweats to flex our favorite logos, from the bygone Juicy script, to Off White arrows to the undying block M. Even before the style world’s embrace, comfortable fashion was indispensable for busy college lives. Now that it is true ‘fashion,’ we can expect sweats to stay for good while changing every season.
Daily Arts Writer Kaya Ginsky can be reached at kginsky@umich.edu.
Platform Shoes
The only trends I am confidently aware of are those that I noticed in my own dressing: what changes took place, what pieces and ensembles I gravitated toward as the year, my self-perception, the people and circumstances surrounding me changed. These things are fluid and ever-changing, and so must be my clothing choices.
Perhaps the most intriguing personal trend I picked up, in the final months of 2022, was platform boots. I have a single pair — tall, black, high top, lace-up, slightly square toe and block heel. I have noticed other people wearing platforms, though often low tops, this year. I liked the boots because they were ‘cool.’ And why not wear them? When I walked down the street, the heels forced me to walk fully upright, correcting my natural, forward-leaning, I’m-a-runner-and-I-have-to-get-where-I’m-going-unnecessarily-fast walk, which I am self-conscious of when I remember to think about it. That was one reason to wear them.
Why were these the boots I reached for on the first day of classes? I told a friend that I chose them so I could “be tall” and “intimidate people.” It feels natural to turn to clothing as the means by which to achieve these desires, misguided as they may be. Regardless of the intimidation factor, which clothing can only do so much for, platform shoes give us height we don’t have. They literally bring the wearer above their peers. There’s something, too, in the way they bring us closer to the runways we tend to associate with high fashion, by giving us the height of models, and also, I would argue, by making walking more difficult. Each step is more intentional in platforms. Each step means something. You become more aware of the clop of each shoe on the sidewalk, admire how far each stride takes you when your legs are two inches longer, how much more efficient you are.
You can’t walk lazily in platforms without tripping. Your heels will scuff into the ground. They demand that you pick up your feet with each step. Walking itself becomes an act of purpose, of achievement, something you can do successfully. They are an example of the way fashion cannot be haphazard — it is intentional, even when a wearer chooses to ignore it as much as they can, and especially when they choose to lean into it.
I bought my black platform boots in high school and scarcely wore them until last month. Why? I thought they were cool enough to buy years before I felt cool enough to wear them. I think people can tell when you’re wearing something that you don’t feel comfortable in. The clothing itself cannot determine how the wearer wears it, whether they feel it is appropriate to take on as a second skin, perhaps the more important skin, the one all others see.
For those of us who saw 2022 as a year of personal growth — and isn’t every year that way to some extent? — maybe our platform shoes are the physical manifestation of this. An outward display of the internal inches we gained.
Senior Arts Editor Erin Evans can be reached at erinev@umich.edu.