The Get Down

As students in college, when we get home from a long day of classes, there’s one place we immediately go to: Netflix. This week I opened up my Netflix account and was suggested to watch the new Netflix Original Series, The Get Down. I had seen the advertisements for it ever since it came out last month and with a little time on my hands I decided to give it a try.

After about half way through the pilot, I realized how much I was thinking about the costumes in the show. I kept thinking about how amazing it would be if we still dressed like they did in the 1970.

Screenshot from Netflix's The Get Down

   
I thought about it though, after a while of watching, that many of us young people, do dress like this today. It’s called thrifting. Fashions from previous decades are now becoming popular again. For example, in the past couple of years, high wasted pants with crop tops have come back in style, as seen on the actress on the left (Shirly Rodriguez). This style of pants can be purchased at stores everywhere, such as Zara, for an affordable price.

www.zara.com

My favorite thrift store back home, in Austin, Texas, is called Blue Velvet (http://bluevelvetaustin.com/). This store even organizes its clothes based off of the decade they belong to. So a rack may only contain clothes from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, etc. Another thrift store I like back home is called Passport Vintage. This thrift store advertises its latest fashions on Instagram, often including the decade the clothing item is from in the captions of its posts. 

 Instagram: passportvintage

The question then becomes why do we wish to dress like we belong in the past? Simple: movies and television.

Movies and television shows have always held an escapist element. We are escaping from the everyday humdrum of our own lives to experience action, excitement, romance, and everything else (such as fashion) that we will never experience in our own day. And isn’t this what thrifting and even fashion is today? Are we young people now using fashion to escape, sort of like our Netflix accounts? 

JULIA COPPEDGE