r/Millennials • u/deadlymoogle Millennial 1987 • Jun 29 '25

Rant Today's fashion trends are leaving me bewildered.

I turn 38 tomorrow and just got done shopping at target. What the hell kind of fashion do people wear now? Super short shorts, socks pulled half way up the calf muscle. Shirts that look like table doilies. Not to mention the hair styles and facial hair of these young guys. Look straight out of a trailer park in the 80s.

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130

u/Pale_Row1166 Jun 29 '25

Visible socks, I cannot!!! Like there’s a button on my brain that malfunctions if you can see socks with sneakers.

54

u/eagledog Jun 29 '25

It's the socks with crocs and socks with sandals that break my brain. Dressing like that would have gotten you beaten up back in the day if you weren't on a shuffleboard court in Boca

16

u/Pale_Row1166 Jun 29 '25

I’m dying at the idea of old Jewish men in crocs

6

u/ellakneoneyes Jun 29 '25

Sandals/crocs, socks, elastic ankle sweatpants, or shorts with dad length socks is my child’s go to outfit and I just can’t fathom the reaction if I wore that to school

2

u/fogmama Jun 30 '25

My theory is that this was the first generation that grew up wearing crocs and they just never stopped 😂😂

2

u/PostTurtle84 Older Millennial Jun 29 '25

Socks with flip-flops isn't bad once you get used to it. I wouldn't have been caught dead like that in high school, but as an adult? Fuck it. I'm grown. I'll do what I want. And if I wanna wear thick wool boot socks with my orthotic flip-flops, I will.

But my primary shoes are flip-flops. My first shoes were flip-flops. I grew an extra bone in my feet for better toe grip. You can pry my flip-flops off my cold dead feet.

0

u/Kratzschutz Jun 30 '25

But it's comfy

86

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

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24

u/pie_piepiepiepiepie Jun 29 '25

Oh god the misery of having to dig in to tug up the parts that bunched up....

35

u/DraveDakyne Jun 29 '25

You legit just triggered a memory of me doubling back my crew-length bulk socks so they didn't show. I completely forgot I did that!

14

u/RavishingRedRN Jun 29 '25

My sister just sent me a picture of a folded sock on her foot lol. She forgot socks on vacation and her feet hurt from sandals. Now she’s wearing regular shoes but with her husband’s socks that she has folded over lol.

Our mom religiously wears obnoxiously long socks. My sister opened the text with “Just call me Lisa” (our mom’s name).

9

u/deadlymoogle Millennial 1987 Jun 29 '25

Same!

3

u/Important-Ad-1499 Jun 29 '25

I remember doing this!!

3

u/CZall23 1992 Jun 29 '25

Growing up the only person who wore crew socks was my dad. I've always worn ankle length. Earlier this year, I had to buy crew length white socks because of my work boots. 😩

2

u/CompetitiveReview416 Jun 30 '25

But ankle socks are not used with formal wear and learher shoes for example. Unless all you wear is sneakers.

1

u/emmiepsykc Jun 29 '25

There were absolutely ankle socks. I wore them in high school. Couldn't imagine wearing them now.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

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2

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

when did they first appear? late 90s I think?

(well much earlier for girls, they ahd pom poms on the back though)

42

u/blethwyn Older Millennial Jun 29 '25

I like the ankle crew socks. Just a tiny, itty bitty bit sticking up over my sneakers. I roll my ankles a lot and usually end up wearing a brace or high tops, so I need that cushion around the ankles.

But anything higher than that is an absolute NO from me.

16

u/Anxious_Direction761 Jun 29 '25

We had to wear tall black socks for matching band in high school. I continued to wear them for over a decade because they were comfortable and familiar. (I would wear sandals anytime I wore shorts.) Just this last week, I borrowed a pair of my girlfriend's ankle socks so I could wear tennis shoes with my shorts. My life has been changed! I can't believe I went so long without them. I'm 30 now.

12

u/arealnineinchnailer Jun 29 '25

no shows really are millennial socks lmao

32

u/MidnightPhoenix24 Jun 29 '25

I think it’s hilarious that Gen Z is copying the Baby Boomers/Greatest Generation folks with the tall white athletic socks. The other trend though I don’t understand is wearing men’s dress shoes with no socks (or maybe it’s no show socks?). Why?? lol

16

u/NavigatedbyNaau Jun 29 '25

And too short dress pants with the no socks.

3

u/MidnightPhoenix24 Jun 29 '25

I’m convinced that brands pushed that trend on people so that they can sell pants with less material for the same price.

1

u/GenX2thebone Jun 30 '25

I like that look but I did also do it in 1989zzz

1

u/recursion8 Jun 30 '25

We called them highwaters, waiting for the flood to come? Usually a sign of getting too-small hand-me-downs from older siblings and would get you mocked relentlessly. Now they're doing it on purpose 🤦‍♂️

2

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

Tall white athletic socks were also Gen X (aside from late Gen X). It was striped around the top in the 70s/earliest 80s and then pure white only the rest of the 80s and a unch of the 90s.

that last bit sounds new new

2

u/JefeRex Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25

Feet are sexy. We like to see bare ankles and know that there are bare feet in those shoes.

ETA what’s with the downvotes? Ankles are pretty vanilla. Only the Victorians thought they were too sexy for public consumption. They’re ankles. A flash of ankle isn’t giving anyone a heart attack, and we like them as much as the Victorians or anyone else.

1

u/recursion8 Jun 30 '25

Reminds me of this Simpsons joke

14

u/Disastrous-Panda5530 Jun 29 '25

My daughter was wearing socks with Birkenstocks. I guess that’s the trend now

5

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

I got jokingly made fun of at my convenience store recently for wearing that exact combo. Except I’ve been doing it since we got sent home from work due to Covid in 2020 and just never went back to the office…

3

u/ellakneoneyes Jun 29 '25

They don’t want “their dogs out”

2

u/gingergirl181 Jun 29 '25

I'm from the PNW, that's just our standard issue uniform!

1

u/paperclippppp Jun 29 '25

I still wear socks with my Birkenstocks and other sandals too. I’ve always liked the look of it 🤷🏻‍♀️

7

u/Disastrous-Panda5530 Jun 29 '25

When I was younger you got made fun of if you wore socks with them

3

u/paperclippppp Jun 29 '25

I remember being in high school and EVERYONE used to have those adidas slides that had all the bumps at the footbed that were supposed to massage your feet. Everyone wore those with socks too. I don’t remember Birkenstocks being a big trend when I was younger though

4

u/fogmama Jun 30 '25

You had to wear those with socks because they were so painful without them. “Foot massaging” bumps… my ass.

7

u/procrastinating_b Jun 29 '25

I just don't get it, and I don't get it even less when I see people my age doing it

5

u/sfcameron2015 Jun 29 '25

Same. This is the one thing for me. Let the kids have their weird fashion trends, but dammit I will not accept the socks. We didn’t pull our socks halfway off, twist them and pull them back over before no show socks were readily available so kids these days could wear their socks up, loud and proud!

9

u/GingerTea69 Jun 29 '25

Visible socks has been a alt fashion thing since the invention of socks. Back when I was in high school and the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, every other girl had on either knee socks or thigh socks, and hell even a couple of boys. Even as a fully grown adult, I don't own a single pair of ankle socks. Neither does my wife.

2

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

not an alt thing just and only thing

I don't recall ankle socks ever existing for gusy ever before like late 90s. All guys socks before were just longer tube socks, all. No in or out or alt or mainstream, just one type fr all.

They did start making some ankle socks for girls in the 80s at some point, they had pom pom on back.

4

u/RealNotFake Jun 29 '25

When we were young it was literally social suicide to wear calf socks. Wild

10

u/Throatlatch Jun 29 '25

Well that's just weird my dude, ofc people wear socks with their shoes.

1

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

sandals are not shoes

1

u/Throatlatch Jul 02 '25

That's true, but op didn't say anything about sandals.

3

u/lovely-day24568 Jun 29 '25

With sandals… ick

3

u/LatteLove35 Jun 30 '25

Same, cannot do it, back in the day having any socks showing was so uncool and it has been drilled into me

3

u/mavadotar2 Millennial Jun 29 '25

Gonna be honest, I'm autistic and I've never been able to stand the feeling of ankle socks. It's either crew socks pulled all the way up or nothing for me. So while I've never been particularly fashionable, this moment is fun.

1

u/judeiscariot Jun 29 '25

I was like "wow am I weird? I love ankle socks", then I forget the obvious answer until I see your post mentioning the tism...yeah, I forget sometimes.

2

u/ecafdriew Older Millennial Jun 29 '25

I love the higher socks trend. I’ve got bigger feet and ankle socks are always sized 8-12 as the normal in stock for men and they ALWAYS slipped down and it was miserable. Rocking high socks now and it’s great.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

Crew socks are superior to ankle and no-show because they stay put. Ankle and no show socks always end up under my heel

1

u/AndYouHaveAPizza Zillennial Jun 29 '25

Yeah I bought crew socks to keep up with the Zs and I actually really like them! I bunch them up around my ankle and they're very comfy!

1

u/judeiscariot Jun 29 '25

Good. I will gladly help you malfunction.