Ralph Lauren once said, "I've never wanted to be in fashion. Because if you're in fashion, you're going to be out of fashion."
He's got a point. Because for all the benefits of risk-taking designers and genre-bending street style stars, the very nature - and Instagram-fuelled pace - of modern fashion dictates that there's going to be plenty of rubbish put out along the way.
Running the gamut through the year so far, here we present 8 of our least favourite trends from 2017.
Remember when band tees had a moment last year?
Ha, us too.
Cargo Trousers
While hardly cracking the mainstream, we can't help but notice the many-pocketed monstrosity of the cargo pant seeping its way back into certain sections of the menswear world.
Maybe it's a backlash against the prevalence of the super skinny look (more on that later) that's dominated for the last 8-10 years, or perhaps it's meant as an ironic "IDGAF" retro statement... whatever it is, we hate it.
Bucket Hats
Not this again? There's a reason why every single year for the past five the bucket hat has been put forward as a summer trend, only to totally run out of steam before August even rears its head. If you're really into trout fishing: Fine. If you're a small ginger toddler at the beach trying desperately to protect your delicate, ghostly neck: Also fine. If your name is Liam Gallagher: Maybe 20 years ago.
Otherwise, just leave it be.
Oversized Everything
While we're all for the experimentation surrounding shape, size, cut and silhouette that's been growing in scope and popularity over the last few years, 2017 saw the oversized trend pushed to new and increasingly bizarre limits.
Widening the cut of your trouser, or extending the sleeve of your hoodie/sweatshirt is one thing, but when XXXL jackets that skim the pavement start becoming the new normal then it's probably gone far enough.
Those Kurt Cobain Sunglasses
Nothing says, "I'm an aspiring Soundcloud rapper who vacuum packs my Supreme t-shirts after every wear" quite like pair a of these bad (very bad) boys.
Dungarees
Imagine you went to a petrol station in rural Kansas, having driven past thousands of miles of corn fields and flat earth into the solitary heartland of America, where life is slow and 'trends' are more commonly-associated with the rise and fall of cattle market prices, and you told the guy in the John Deere hat and overalls working alone behind the dusty counter that dungarees were a big city fashion trend?
"The fuck you say to me, boy?"
"Dungarees, they're a trend! I've driven thousands of miles to tell you."
"Get the hell out of here..."
Exactly.
Crocs
"Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, (or the high-end appropriation of Crocs) we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us."
- Chronicles 20:9
Super Skinny Jeans
Tiiiight jeans, bare ankles, some kind of tasseled loafer and a shirt with three or zero buttons undone (no in between): this is the uniform of 2017's ubiquitous, muscle-bound Fuccboi. Yes, we've already poured scorn on a trend that was thrust (literally) before the eyes of the public due to the inexorable and inexplicable popularity of Love Island, but there's always room for a bit more.
Repeat after us: No One Cares About Your Quads, Brah.
'Ugly' Trainers
Proof that in 2017, what we want (or at least trendy people who get to stand behind the DJ booth at Fashion Week parties and nod at the plebs want) is to pay lots of money to look like Jerry Seinfeld.
