Emma Zajdela

Much to my dismay.

But I guess a takeaway, I mean, yes, you only study dresses.

We can't say definitively it applies to suits or blue jeans or stuff.

But a takeaway might be if the stuff in your closet is deeply out of style, just wait 20 years maybe.

Absolutely.

Or if it's a little bit out of style, maybe pair it with something that is in style and then you become this optimal distinctiveness and you just become cool again.

Are there any other places where the pattern broke where fashion is not cyclical?

Well, I will say, as I mentioned, from the mid-1980s, we start getting a lot more diversity of styles.

That's true for hemlines, and that was true for the necklines and waistlines as well.

We think that this is because there's less conformity in society overall, or you could think of it also as just more acceptance of diversity.

So women in particular are wearing different kinds of styles.

That's become acceptable.

There's just also so much more information now through social media, for example.

There's a big acceleration of trends.

So you need to, there's just many more trends that are coexisting at the same time.

All right.

Well, I'm about to put on my Von Dutch hat and head to the commercial break here.

I'm here with Emma Jaidela, a mathematician at Princeton.

Emma, I've enjoyed the chat.

Thanks for sharing your research with me.