Does Gen X Have No Style?

IF MEMES dictated a generation’s cultural currency, Gen X would be irrelevant. Across social and mainstream media, it is baby boomers, millennials and Gen Z who are mocked for their myriad sartorial missteps. Consider the savage TikTok attacks that GenZers wage on millennials’ love of side parts and skinny jeans or the pervasive “OK, boomer” taunt. How has Gen X (that includes me and anyone else born between 1965 and 1980) sidestepped meme-ification? Is our digital footprint too small to dissect? Are our style choices so infallible they’re immune to scrutiny? Or is it that we, in 2023, have no distinct style at all?

The late ’80s and ’90s, when most Gen-Xers came of age, was a raw time of traded mixtapes and xeroxed ’zines; of Lilith Fair and “Prozac Nation”; of gangsta rap and grunge. It was when seven strangers were first picked to live in a house and have their lives taped for MTV; and when checking one’s email involved a cacophony of fuzz, bleeps and dings until…“You’ve got mail.” Gen X experienced an almost entirely analog youth, and then had a front-row seat for the transition to a world that’s anything but.

Before Instagram and Twitter, we communicated through personal style. Doree Shafrir, 46, a Los Angeles author and co-host of the podcast Forever 35, recalls that a shared aesthetic—one comprising slip dresses, Dr. Martens and baby tees—united her and her college best friend. “People used to find each other through our fashion and style,” she said. 

Because social media wasn’t there to massively influence fashion and fuel comparisons, “stylish people had to develop their own internal compass of what expression through clothing meant,” said Aya Kanai, head of editorial at Google Shopping. Many Gen-X wardrobes were built on a foundation of sturdy basics and vintage finds. And, said Noelle Sciacca, senior fashion lead at the RealReal, “Gen-Xers mastered the art of mixing contrasting prints and fabrics in an effortless, cool way.” 

Today, the Gen-X look is a mature evolution of those founding principles. “In 2023 it’s a blend of practical minimalism with eclectic touches that nod back to the notion of fashion as self-expression,” said Sciacca. Fleeting trends and flimsily made fare play little part. Growing up, “Gen X trawled thrift stores…for well-made or just desirably weird clothes” to find their style voice, said New York fashion historian Jessica Glasscock. “I think engagement with utilitarian deadstock and vintage pieces [has] enabled Gen-X shoppers to crankily turn their nose up at 21st-century fast fashion.”

For Gen X, style and capital-F fashion are not synonymous. Consider the infamous 1993 Perry Ellis runway show where Marc Jacobs turned grunge-kid staples like flannel shirts and black-string chokers into luxury commodities. The designer sent pieces from the collection to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love; the rockers burned them. “The self-made, the authentic, the personal expression unfiltered by the business of marketing—these things mattered,” said Glasscock. “Clothes were not valuable because they were expensive…The person made the clothes cool, not the other way around.” 

That applied to celebrities and civilians alike. On and off screen, generational icons including Winona Ryder, Lisa Bonet, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix, dressed in the same clothes we did—not the luxury designer versions. That meant I could—and did—look for Chloë Sevigny’s ringer tee from “Kids”; Janeane Garofalo’s Peter Pan-collar babydoll dress from “Reality Bites”; and Janet Jackson’s paper-bag jeans from “Poetic Justice.” New York producer Alan Lopez, 47, remembers that he “sought out low-top Chucks in the same color as Ferris Bueller’s and wore creepers to transport myself into a John Hughes alternate dimension.”

Fashion and its trends are cyclical. But many Gen-Xers have never really shelved what they wore in the late ’80s and ’90s. The floral feminine dresses; slouchy cardigans in ’70s-carpet shades; oversize plaid shirts, loose jeans and leather jackets are as much a part of the Gen-X wardrobe now as then, said Sciacca. In recent years, Ryder has done press briefings in leather jackets, combat boots and baggy jeans.

The same or updated versions of the pieces I’ve long loved—a green army jacket, Chuck Taylors, Levi’s 501s, slip dresses—still fill my closet for two reasons: their timeless versatility and the Gen-X tendency to hold the things we treasure close, perhaps because we saw so many become obsolete (cassette tapes, landlines, “The Real World”). 

 Gen-X style might not inspire snarky memes, but it’s far from irrelevant. Sartorial signatures we relied on then and now are slinking into high fashion, said Sciacca, citing the plaid-print leather shirt and leather jeans Kate Moss wore on Bottega Veneta’s spring runway. And U.S. Google searches for Gen-X fashion trends have risen over 170% in 2023 compared with 2022. Said Kanai: “Maybe Gen X is finally getting the spotlight we so very much do not crave.”

Don’t You (Forget About These)

Old-school Gen-X staples, updated for 2023

The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.