9 Fashion Rules That Millennials Can Learn from Gen X

Like so many Gen X style loves, this print was popularized by older musicians like David Lee Roth and Debbie Harry, then worn by their teenage admirers and Gen X performers like Victoria Beckham. This animal print is a little more rock ‘n’ roll, graphic and overall extra than the usual cheetah spots used as a fashion print. Wear it head-to-toe for a sleek look, with simple accessories, not the arm full of bracelets or hair bow that would have  been paired with it in Gen X’s time.

Generation X’s New Wave music scene embraced neon T-shirts, shorts and accessories as a modern, urban signifier. And honestly, we’ve always had a soft spot for the glowing green, yellow and orange pieces, although it’s come in and out of widespread style since then. Today it’s decidedly in—A fashion designer friend told us to think of neon as a neutral these days, and wear it with khaki or colorblock it with other neon pieces. Avoid pairing it with black, she said, since that was the style in the bygone disco era.

Thanks to MTV, which debuted in 1981, Gen X was the first to welcome wild style musical artists like Boy George and Cyndi Lauper into our homes. We copied their heavy eye makeup, contoured cheeks and blood-red (and sometimes black) lips to varying degrees of success. Today, the beat goes on (witness the viral popularity of Euphoria’s glittering looks), but the trend is to stick with accenting one area, like the eyes or lips, and downplaying the rest of your makeup. Unless you’re headed to see Taylor or Bey of course, and then, all controls are off.

Gen Xer Lauryn Hill layered her oversized overalls over a T-shirt and a long-sleeved button-neck shirt; today the look is still oversized, but more likely to be belted. Case in point: When actor Sadie Sink wore overalls in Stranger Things, the hit sci-fi show set in the 1980s, she looked perfectly period. Today, she told Vogue, “I’m embarrassed to admit how much I wear these… think I wear them a little bit too much.” The millennial loves them so much, she inspired her stylist Molly Dickson to design a pair in a new collab with Madewell. As for how to rock overalls in 2023, Sink pairs them with a bucket hat and creepers.

While chunky boots and slip dresses were the height of early ‘90s grunge, such as in this Perry Ellis collection designed by Marc Jacobs in 1993, today Gen Xers wear the look with leggings and skinny black pants. And—hot take—a fashion designer Gen Xer we spoke to recommended pivoting from the ubiquitous Dr. Martens brand to paratrooper jump boots with a zip on the inside. Not only is the look less punk rock and more utility chic, the inner zip makes getting into and out of the boots faster than the old iteration of big black stompers.

In the shifting fashion sands of time, some designs have mercifully drifted away: Case in point, the late ‘90s trend for micro-rise jeans that showed the then newly-ubiquitous G-string undie when the wearer sat down. Instead, millennials have wisely looked to an early Gen X fashion silhouette, the mom jeans, for revival. These high-waisted pants might have front pleats in the front like a trouser or flat control panels, nip in toward the waist and out over the hips then ease downward in a tapered leg. Extra stye points if your jeans are acid-washed, perhaps one of Gen X’s most divisive innovations.

Generation X suddenly woke up one day and we were all wearing hot-hued Lycra leotards. Well, not exactly but pretty close, because a perfect storm of Olivia Newton-John’s Physical video (1981) and the Jane Fonda Workout (1982) propelled America into stretching, sweating and then just hanging out in body-revealing stretch clothes. Today the look even has a name, athleisure, and it’s a monster fashion category that’s forecasted to become a more-than $330 billion business. While micro-trends in the category come and go, best to leave the 80s’ penchant for tights underneath leotards in the historic videos, and instead embrace today’s more relaxed streetwear looks that include lightweight sweatpants, butt-flattering leggings and for fun, the occasional graffiti-patterned crop top.