Terrible Trends

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The National Post’s Rebecca Tucker recently presented a few trends that need to go:

A fashion-forward friend once quipped, “When I see someone wearing Crocs, I immediately know we have nothing in common,” so it comes as no surprise that news of Toronto’s first-ever Crocs emporium, set to open up on Toronto’s ĂĽber-trendy Queen West stretch, doesn’t exactly have local fashionistas over the moon with excitement. But style snobs, take heed: This won’t be the first time a not-so-attractive piece of apparel has risen to inexplicably ubiquitous popularity, but has failed to withstand the test of time (as Crocs presumably — or hopefully — will). Here then is a roundup of recent, terrible trends that have since faded into oblivion — or your local Value Village.

Cargo pants
Thanks largely to baggy-clothing champions Limp Bizkit, Korn and their fellow rap-rockers, cargo pants were de rigeur in the late ’90s and early part of this decade. Characterized by pockets aplenty and enough slack in each pant leg to accommodate a second wearer, cargo pants remain practical for military personnel and those on safari, but since the advent of the skinny jean, they are no longer acceptable in the mainstream.

Modrobes
Toronto-based clothier Modrobes, with their rainbow-hued, wide-legged, raver-friendly polyester pants, rose to popularity around the same time as cargo pants. Like Crocs, their foray into fashion fame facilitated the opening of a Modrobes boutique on — you guessed it — Queen West. The store closed in 2006, and after a decade-long run, the Modrobes brand no longer exists anywhere but thrift-store clothing racks.

Frosted Tips
The popularity of this hair-colouring trend coincided with the rise and fall of studio-manufactured boy bands such as N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Sported largely by men, this hairstyle involved the meticulous spiking of one’s hair, either preceded by a bleach-blond dye-job mimicking overgrown roots, or the application of specialized, coloured “spiking gel” to the hair’s outermost inch.

Trucker Hats
Many thanks to Ashton Kutcher for this one. The trucker hat was popular for such a brief time — between 2001 and 2003 — that the sheer volume and variety available was nothing short of astounding. The mesh-backed, stiff-brimmed caps were most often worn by men, most often adorned with beer logos and were most often spotted at gatherings wherein other men were addressed as “guy.”

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