A look at my prom picture from 1980 provides a wealth of information on how styles change over time, along with significant comic relief. Light brown suits? Fabrics not found in nature? And what’s with that tie? As we leave adolescence and join the workforce we quickly notice that even professional clothing styles seem to rotate through a never-ending series of changes, almost as if a system in New York was sending out random instructions to all clothing sales associates…“Three-button suits were last week, today it’s two-button again.”
Those with enough patience and a large closet can rest easy knowing that everything they have ever purchased will be in style again, if they wait long enough (well maybe not that particular tie.) Of course, this is style obsolescence, a variant of planned obsolescence, and its a big driver of product sales in our culture.
We experience this constant churn of products throughout our lives, from the consumer electronics that seem designed to fail right after the warranty expiration date, to the (some would say planned) inability to construct a road surface that will last more than one winter, thereby guaranteeing more road work for the next summer.