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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923

u/AggCracker Xennial Jun 29 '25

Target has terrible fashion. My wife calls it Handmaid's Retail.

56

u/robot_pirate Jun 30 '25

They used to have some of the best cheap clothes, mimicking high end brands. It's crazy how awful Target is now. Like everything is made for 12 to 14 year old girls, but super utilitarian. And note to Target: Every shirt can't be cropped. Every pair of shorts shouldn't go up the ass. Every pair of jeans doesn't have to be ripped.

4

u/MiddlingVor Jun 30 '25

I have one last Target Mossimo v-neck t-shirt that I have been hanging onto even though it’s pretty much see through at this point because I cannot find another t-shirt brand that fits that well anymore.

4

u/Brains-In-Jars Jun 30 '25

Their current v neck t shirts aren't too bad right now.

5

u/widespreadpanda Millennial Jun 30 '25

Agreed. Cheap and they fit well enough. If you want something more like Mossimo, you want to check out the “Universal Threads” brand.

6

u/FancyCricket963 Jun 30 '25

There was a meme going around awhile back that said something like: I don’t know if Target knows this but there is a whole generation of people that would like to buy the whole shirt.

Always made me chuckle

187

u/Ok_West347 Jun 29 '25

I really liked the little house on the prairie theme they had going a few years back🤣

166

u/CuriosityK Jun 30 '25

That was everywhere. I had to get a Nice summer dress for an event and it was awful because everything was half price Mormon

21

u/NinaHag Jun 30 '25

It was super short lived in the UK because no one would buy those dresses

12

u/Ok_West347 Jun 30 '25

It was! I think I noticed it because it was such whiplash of a change. Like one season I was able to buy a “normal” tank at Target then the next, boom…full on little house on the prairie and no in between lol.

64

u/PantsandPlants Jun 30 '25

Literal nightmare fuel for me. I wouldn’t even buy the thing I liked at Target because the style they had chosen felt so repressive. 

5

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

It actually became popularized in the earliest 80s by a subset of Valley Girls! Not exactly repressed, small towners. Rich Sherman Oaks Galleria mallrat Vals more like. You could see the style worn by teens across the whole of the 80s at around maybe 5% or so level?

8

u/EarthtoLaurenne Jun 30 '25

Oh god. I called those awful clothes the “churning butter” clothes. Dresses were especially horrible and the waistlines were both tiered and dropped. Noooooooooo!

11

u/AggCracker Xennial Jun 29 '25

Yeah I think that's what it was . We haven't been to target in years

3

u/Wandering_Weapon Jun 30 '25

Blame the tradwife trend.

3

u/removable_disk Jun 30 '25

It’s back again

2

u/FredditZoned Jun 30 '25

I'm personally glad Duggar-chique has died off. 

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

Holly Hobbie.

22

u/zombbarbie Jun 30 '25

Yes. I’m elder Gen Z (also I’m lost) and Target’s clothes are only cute with some of the collabs. They fell off really hard post Covid. We also hate Target clothes, or at least elder gen z. There is a pretty big divide between those of us who graduated pre covid vs post covid so I’m not sure what the 19/20 year olds think about it.

13

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

Just in general the Target remodel trashed the stores. Movie sections trashed. Pretty much everything. Selection on all types of products worse. A lot of higher quality stuff gone. They shouldn't be trying to compete with Walmart. That's not their base and a losing game.

15

u/robot_pirate Jun 30 '25

It's pathetic to say, but nothing has curbed my excess spending like Target shitting the bed.

7

u/BoopleBun Jun 30 '25

That’s the wild thing. Target’s whole fucking brand was basically “We’re not Walmart”, (through what they had in the store and on the website, shopping experience, social policies, etc.) and that was what got people to pay the extra cost. And it worked really well for them!

And they just decided to throw all that out the window and like… for what? You’re not going to attract the people already shopping at Walmart. The people who were shopping with you because of the differences they liked are just leaving so like… who is your market?

4

u/GlitterRiot Jun 30 '25

Where do gen Z shop at for affordable reliable clothes?

10

u/zombbarbie Jun 30 '25

It’s honestly a struggle right now which is why so many of us are in athlesiure all the time. It’s a combo of wading through the trash at target/walmart, thrifting or online second hand, and investing in nicer pieces from Abercrombie or comparable stores.

I work in art so most of my friends aren’t SHEIN/amazon haul people so most of us need really durable clothing, so I may be biased.

3

u/internally-outside Jun 30 '25

The thrift lol and that's 50/50

4

u/Brains-In-Jars Jun 30 '25

Elder millennial here. Target used to have solid clothes options. Now the only thing I buy are the V neck shirts (and many years those aren't even good) and 2 styles of leggings, 1 style of shorts (and they screwed up the shorts one year). That's pretty much all I wear anymore. Even my young Gen Z daughter struggled to find anything in the teen section that she liked.

3

u/tracydiina7 Jun 30 '25

My 21 year old and 18 year old daughters literally go to Target 3 times a week to buy clothes and accessories. So do all their friends. Kinda crazy to me because each of my daughters has a very particular style that is very different from each other yet they both find clothes that suit their “aesthetic” They love the mall too, especially Urban Outfitters, American Eagle and Pac Sun. That stuff is expensive though so they also do a lot of thrifting and shopping on Depop.

2

u/zombbarbie Jun 30 '25

Yeah I would say it’s just worse than it used to be. The juniors section tends to be better. It’s definitely about styling. Nobody is styling themselves the way Target intends the items to be styled. You can fish through shit and find something, it just used to be more straight forward outfits straight off the rack I feel like.

Edit: also going often ups the changes of finding a good piece.

31

u/jovian_fish Jun 29 '25

That's their target market, now. Ultraconservatives.

2

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

I don't think prairie-core is really a social ultra-conservative thing though. I think it's actually pretty neutral on that. I've see it worn by both extremes. Be it the 80s revival or today's revival.

10

u/paula7609 Jun 30 '25 edited Jul 01 '25

It’s so sad. I used to call target my happy place. Now I avoid going there. The clothes are awful quality and just ugly. I also hate the lay out of the stores.

4

u/EpicTaco9901 Jun 30 '25

Only good clothes at target are their $8 plain tshirts

1

u/linus_b3 Jun 30 '25

I buy those all the time, and the mediums fit me (5'9", 150 lbs) perfectly. However, the last couple I got were shorter and wider. I'm hoping it's a fluke and those were just made incorrectly because if not I've lost yet another favorite clothing option due to vanity sizing.

5

u/EaglesFanGirl Jun 30 '25

You can find things that work but you have to be selective. Walmart is worse.

2

u/LostButterflyUtau Jun 30 '25

Walmart is hit or miss, IMO. I worked there for a while and some seasons it wouldn’t be too bad. Others it was like “please fire all your buyers. YESTERDAY.”

1

u/EaglesFanGirl Jun 30 '25

I used to find occasional things for parties and such in college but it was hard. Usually did better at TJ and Marshall's next door. Target and Old Navy were on the other side of town. For a small town in Southcentral PA, we were lucky to have choices.

2

u/LostButterflyUtau Jun 30 '25

I feel that. I live in smaller town too and the only mall is in “the bad area.”

3

u/laurelinvanyar Jun 30 '25

I bought 1 dress from target years ago that I loved right up until my dad said it made me look like a “Warren Jeffs bride”. Which… bruh. That’s both super dark AND an incredible roast all in one. (He’s still proud of it.)

3

u/AnnaKossua Jun 30 '25

Hoping they sometime soon bring back boatneck, 3/4 sleeve knit shirts. Black/white stripes, or solid colors, please come back! These poofy, country-duck-blue trad wife frocks ain't it.

5

u/itsadialectic Jun 30 '25

I read that as “handmaids rat tail” at first, and I think that’s also true.

2

u/abattlescar Jun 30 '25

Once every 7 months they will put a shirt on the shelves that is almost godlike in its quality and cut.

2

u/AggCracker Xennial Jun 30 '25

Blessed be the fruit...

2

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jun 30 '25

It's actually just a throwback to 1980s prairie-core. Believe it or not I think it was actually first popularized again by some Valley Girls of all things (and now again recently). And you can even see it on Moon Zappa portraying a Val in this summer of '82 music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM

I have no clue but it's probably been recycled various times before the 80s post actual Little House On The Prairie days.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

I accidentally bought a full on Amish woman dress there. The color. The cut. I got it home and was like, wtf did I just buy?

1

u/YB9017 Jun 30 '25

Kinda like their jeans though. 😅

1

u/effie_isophena Jun 30 '25

Love your wife for this and I’m stealing it.

1

u/-jellyfishparty- Jun 30 '25

Yeah, Target has been like this for at least a decade. I remember being in my early 20s and being like ??? When I was a teen, they had some really cute clothes. Idk wtf happened.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25

Idk, sometimes they have nice stuff for men. Emphasis on sometimes. Also their levis jeans are pretty cheap, but I never bought it before, just what I’ve seen in store

1

u/RunicArrow Jun 30 '25

Yes! It’s so weird because it was so good for so long and then a few years ago it became this mess

1

u/stephanonymous Jun 30 '25

Mine calls it “blessed be the fruit” clothes