The Five Worst Fashion Trends of All Time

Five Worst Fashion Trends, From Ancient Rome to 2010

Fashion is all about innovation, but not every idea is a winner. There have been countless fashion failures throughout history, some of which have even caused disfigurement and death. If you dream of becoming a fashion designer, training at fashion design school can help you avoid becoming another "Don't" on the fashion timeline. Take a look at the following fashion trends for a glimpse of what not to do.

Five Examples of Fashion Design Gone Wrong

1. Lead Makeup

Back in ancient Rome, lead (which can cause neurological disorders, skin ruptures, infertility, and death) was a key ingredient in makeup worn by the upper class. The ancient Romans used white lead, or cerussa, to lighten their faces, and red lead was the blush of choice. White lead resurfaced in the 15th through 18th centuries as men and women painted it on their faces to achieve fashionable white skin. The side effects of this fashion statement ranged from facial scarring to death, and lead remained a major makeup ingredient through the 19th century.

2. Corset

Fashion designers want to create clothes that are striking and flatter a woman's curves, but the corset took this concept too far. Made popular in the 16th century, corsets were constructed of everything from iron to whale bone and were designed to compress women's waists to unnaturally tiny dimensions (think fifteen inches or less). Corsets emphasized the curve at the waist, true, but they also rearranged organs and cut off the circulation through a woman's midsection. Today's control-top pantyhose are much friendlier.

The '80s, '90s, and Now

Fashion design trends in recent years haven't been as deadly, but a few of them have been downright ugly.

3. Parachute Pants

Fashion design in the 1980s took risks in color, line, and, in the case of parachute pants, size. Billowing parachute pants (also called Hammer pants) became popular in the late 80s thanks to rapper MC Hammer. Both men and women wore these unflattering pants, and the trend persisted into the early 90s.

4. Bare Midriff

You can thank pop stars like Britney Spears for this unsavory trend, which began in the late 90s and replaced fabric with six-pack abs. Suddenly shirts stopped above the belly button, and exposed stomachs were everywhere you turned. Luckily, this trend cooled off as people realized that a bare belly, no matter how toned, just isn't classy.

5. Crocs

The side effects of lead makeup and corsets imply that safety and comfort should have a place in fashion, but Crocs push the comfort factor to its limit. Clunky and made of synthetic plastic, Crocs took footwear by storm in the early 2000s, and they're still running wild. While not every shoe has to be a Christian Louboutin heel, fashion designers can package comfort in a more aesthetically pleasing form.

At fashion design school, you can learn to avoid fashion pitfalls of the past by understanding the history, theory, and art behind fashion design. Fashion is constantly evolving, and with the right training, you could have a hand in the five best trends of the future.