​Fads, trends– we hear these terms all the time. There’s always something “trendy” making the rounds in different aspects of life: food, activities, and usually, clothes. But why do these fads come back into style, and what do they say about us?

Think about trends or concepts that have returned from the past and how they differ today. In the 90’s, eyebrows were skinny although people today lean toward a full brow. Clothing-wise, we’ve seen many old trends return. Bomber jackets, bodysuits, tube tops– the list goes on and on. How come there’s a noticeable pattern of clothing styles released and how do they become popular again? The answer lies within the marketing of the existing companies. The truth is, inventing a new fad for production is risky. Wasting money to manufacture a product without any evidence to say it’ll be successful can bring a company crashing down. When business gets slow, shops have to take a look back on their past years and identify the clothes that did work for them, the fads of the past.

It doesn’t matter whether people’s affinity for the old trends will remain because there’s a different consumer market. If something was a hit with teens of the 80’s, the main reason probably still underlies the reason its comeback succeeds. It isn’t celebrities making appearances that suddenly changes everybody’s mind about a fad, it isn’t customers instantaneously deciding they want an old trend back, it’s the top dogs of clothing companies that take a look at their stocks and revamp their old products that worked. Even after the release of the updated items, it isn’t necessarily up to the customers to decide if it succeeds again. Once the article returns to stores, it takes a couple purchases to convince other companies to follow their lead and release their old products, bringing about a flood of old trends into the modern market. Following the unleashment of the modernized products, shoppers don’t have any choice except to embrace it, completing the cycle of the trends.

There’s no identifiable secret as to why these fads return and why they rope in such success when they do. There isn’t a pattern in pleasurable aesthetics between generations– it’s a marketing tactic of companies. So how can you be on the lookout for trends that’ll make a comeback? Take a look back at the old trends that made waves in the past, as they’re bound to return.