Every decade has its fashion trends. 
The ’80s had parachute pants. The ’90s had ripped, baggy jeans and flannel. But over the past 10 years or so, the fashion trend is to make everything “skinny.” 
Skinny jeans, skinny ties, slim-cut T-shirts, slim-cut oxfords and even slim-cut suits are all examples of this push toward being thinner, skinnier and slimmer idols of fashion. 
The best way to prove this theory in men’s fashion is by purchasing a new suit. If you walk into Dillard’s and drift into the men’s formal section, all the major brands such as Perry Ellis, Calvin Klein and Murano are taking the slim
approach. 
However, it’s not as though the cuts are made exclusively for thinner people, it’s just the way the clothes are designed and tailored these days. For instance, you can still get a large, sometimes extra-large, slim-cut shirt or blazer. 
How does this make sense? Why is everything being made tighter?
Lisa Wade, an associate professor and chair of the sociology department at Occidental College in Los Angeles, recently published an article in the Huffington Post called “You’d Be Shocked at What These Fashion Editors Are Editing Out of Their Photos.”
The article explores and exposes some of the dirty tricks fashion editors use in portraying their models. Nowadays, photos are being edited to make extremely thin models look less skinny, editing out rib cages and hip bones to give a falsified portrait of the model. 
This means the ordinary consumer is sometimes striving to look like specific figure that doesn’t even really exist. 
Wade said this plays into the trend of “skinny fashion” in that high fashion is not only exclusive, but often class-oriented. 
High fashion brands, mostly marketed and controlled by the upper class, are no longer selling just exclusive and expensive clothes but also the idea of “leanness,” she said. 
Wade said leanness is now part of what people want to achieve when flipping through their favorite fashion magazines. This is another way for the upper class to distinguish themselves from other groups and possibly justify class inequality, she said. 
“Fashion is always changing,” Wade said. “And [wealthier] people are always changing to be different.”
Skinny fashion can be a way of branding yourself and consumers should be wary of the image they are projecting in their outfits.
Wade said one of the best examples of this in the fashion realm is the “hipster” crowd. Paring flannel and skinny jeans to look like a lumberjack is a common trend amongst hipsters. 
Hipsters, with more frequency, have been compared and deemed almost complementary with “trustafarians,” a term applied to young people living a carefree lifestyle supported by their wealthy parents or trust funds. 
Their general attire usually includes sporting dreadlocks, high quality flannel or button-ups and, yes, skinny jeans. 
Though it may be a bit extreme to label all skinny or slim items as an example of upper-class oppression, consumers should be cautious of what trends they are falling into. 
It’s important to be distinguished in choosing what to wear, but it is more important to build a wardrobe around what makes you feel and look good. 
There is nothing wrong with wearing a nice pair of skinny jeans, and skinny ties are more fashionable anyways, but people should not be fitting their bodies to clothes instead of the other way around.
Michael Tarver is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Houma, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter
@michael_T16.

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Emily Brauner

skinny jeans are taking over the fashion industry.