Long before the baggy clothing crazy hit in the mid to late 1980s and onward, I had taken to wearing baggy cuffed pants and oversized suit coats. I guess I was sort of a trend setter.
 
Though it wasn’t my true inception in the process, but one day, while walking down the street, I had found this used clothing store on Melrose, back when Melrose was a thing here in L.A. I walked in and was blown away. They had tons and tons of very clean suits, pants, and sport coats from the 1940s. Back when baggy was the thing. I was so blown away, I didn’t buy anything right then, I was a bit overwhelmed. Later that evening, I had gone and picked up my then girlfriend and brought her back to the store with me. This was at a time when the traffic wasn’t so horrendous in L.A. I bought a few items and continued to go to that store until they final closed a few years later.
 
Times and trends change. That’s just life. And, if you hold too tightly onto a trend, when that trend has changed, you look kind of stupid. Though I’ve always remained oversized in my clothing choices, I kind of miss the freedom of those days and the style that once was, that was once again, at least for me.
 
Recently, there has been this massive push to get the young and the stylish and the trendy to wear these very baggy jeans and stuff. I noticed it beginning maybe a year or so ago. I mean these pants are really exaggeratedly big. More and more, as I look around, I see the young falling prey to this trend of Forced Fashion, as that is what they are wearing. …I guess that’s the thing about youth, you want to be cool, you want to fit in.
 
But, in all of this, think about how much personal choice has been removed. Take a look at your own life. Think back through your memories. Think about what you wore back when and what you no longer wear?  Take a look at what you wear now, how you wear it, and why you wear it. How much of it/that was a product of your own creation and how much of it/that was you simply taken part in a trend? How much of what you wear is based solely upon you wishing to impress the eyes of that someone else?
 
We each have a choice to make in life.  Choice is all around us. But, how many of us make a choice compared to how many of us simply follow the trends?
 
How about you? How much of what you choose to do, what you choose to wear, is defined by YOU verse how much of it is defined by what you are force fed by whomever it is out there that is force feeding you?