♪ (ragtime music) ♪
- (FBE) Today, you are not going to be reacting to a video.
- (mock disappointment) Oh!
Okay!
- Uh-huh, okay.
I just am filled with trepidation.
- (FBE) You are going to be reacting to fashion.
- All right, man, I'm into fashion.
Mr. Fashion, they call me.
- Oh, I love fashion! I'm a fashionista.
I'm just a plate of fashion, honey.
- (FBE) You're gonna be reacting to modern fashion.
- Yeah, I could use an update. (laughing)
- I guess it has its pros, and its cons.
Too much glitter I think sometimes.
- If only I had their body and their looks.
If I were younger, I would use whatever they use now.
(movie reel clicks)
- (FBE) What do you know about modern fashion today?
- Uh, very short shorts.
Bare tummies.
- Fashion today seems to be, uh, looking stupid is in.
- It seems to be kind of a confusing potpourri of undecision.
- I don't like the one that is like when they wear the pants,
like, halfway down.
As the older generation, you know, we wear it almost pulling too far out.
- (FBE) The first thing we have for you today
is an item of clothing that can be traced all the way back to the 1800s.
- Oh, way back there, in the 19th century.
- (FBE) And, today, they're as popular as ever.
These are jeans.
- Oh, okay. Levis?
- Okay. These are, uh, second-rate jeans,
I could tell right off the bat.
- (FBE) Those are called skinny jeans. - Skinny jeans, okay.
- (FBE) Do you ever wear skinny jeans?
- Uh, no.
- Too skinny isn't good.
- I would find it uncomfortable. How do you move?
And if you have to sit, you know,
do you hike your pants up/down?
- (FBE) So the first thing we have for you today
is something that was really popular in the '80s
and is now back in full force today. - Oh really?
- (FBE) These are patterned leggings.
- I like it! It looks cool.
- When I go in the stores, I would grab something like this--
(gasping) and then I'd go, wait a minute, I'm 67.
I can't get away with this anymore. But I wish I could!
- If you were a tiny, young girl, it would look great.
- I didn't wear leggings in the '80s.
Or maybe I did for PE class or something,
but not run around clothing, no.
- (FBE) The next thing we have for you today
is a popular type of top. - Okay, let's see what we got here.
- That's kind of a fun top.
It's very patriotic.
- All right, this for both gender?
My daughter pretty much wears the same thing.
- (FBE) Is this something you'd ever wear?
- Hey, I wouldn't wear them.
I don't think these are really apropo for the elderly, okay,
because you're gonna hang out and bulge out.
- (FBE) The next thing we have for you is very popular with girls today.
- Oh, crop tops.
"Babes club"?
No apostrophe.
- "Babes club."
I don't know how they wear the strangest things.
- If I wear this, my tummy would come out.
- On the young girls, this looks great.
A woman of a certain age can't have a sleeve like this.
- (FBE) And to finish off the modern wardrobe,
we've got one more thing for you. - Yeah, all right.
Fashion hat.
- The bane of my existence.
I never liked baseball caps!
- My granddaughter, the way she wears it is backwards.
She says, grandma, wear it backwards!
- This is the one I love. Oh yeah.
Oh, that's practical, isn't it?
Well, I guess you're protecting your neck from the sun.
- If I'm going to wear a hat, I want a hat that covers everything
and the sun can't get to you.
This, you get sun on the back of your neck,
your ears, the sides.
As you get older, you tend to have bigger hats.
- (FBE) Well, you might not want to hear this...
- Uh-oh.
- (FBE) ...but it's time for you to try everything on.
- (laughing) I can do that.
- You're kidding.
- What? No, no, no.
Are you serious?
- If it's me, I don't think-- I don't think I fit in that skinny jeans!
- Everything is so tight. (laughing) My god, you'll see my bulges.
- You're talking me about putting on those particular pants?
- (FBE) Yes. - What, are you kidding?
- (Josie) I have to sit down.
Old ladies sit down when they put their pants on.
- (Libby) I'm telling you straight out that this stuff is not big enough.
- (Gary) I've got to hold my breath here.
One, two, three. (grunting)
- (Melvin) I guess it's a good thing that I wore clean underpants today.
- (Johnny) Oh my! Tight.
- (Josie) I should have worn my girdle.
- (Gary) Whoa! Oh, shoot! I put my feet into that rip.
- (Phil) I think my circulation is being cut off.
Call a nurse, please.
- (Holgie) Hey, I think I look great.
- (Vera) What a wonderful color combination you've got here.
- (Josie) Can I come out? - (FBE) Yeah, come on out.
- These are nice jeans. I mean, a little light--
a good weight.
- Actually, these pants fit pretty well.
See, I'm not so bad for 75, right?
- Let's go fast because I can only hold myself in for so long.
- (FBE) What do you think now that you're wearing modern fashion?
- I'm thinking the pants are too tight.
- I feel really uncomfortable and exposed.
- Maybe when I was 16, I could get away with this.
- I don't think I'm gonna wear this to go out.
- I like things to be a little longer, so this gets hidden.
- It's cute if it's backwards, I think, huh?
And then with this tag on, mm-hmm!
- I'm stylin', man.
How about-- how about this shot?
You want a date?
You taking me to lunch?
- Do you think I look stylish? - (FBE) I think you look great.
- Tssh!
- (FBE) So how would you say that today's fashion
compares to fashion of your time?
- I'd say we had some goofy looking trends
back then as well as today.
- Fashion always, um, reinvents itself.
- In the 70, you know, the shorts that both men and women wears
is like this short!
- People used to be self-conscious about the hair,
and then the dress should be feminine.
- Right now, you really have to be in good shape to wear these clothes.
My mother would not have let me out the house in this.
- (FBE) Is there a time in your life when you wore something
that your parents just hated? - Yes, mini skirts.
My legs were really pretty before.
- I'm not sure it was my parents who hated it so much,
but the school was very upset about how short our skirts were.
- Colored jeans were just coming in.
A friend dared me to get a pair of red ones,
and I got a pair of red jeans,
and my parents were very upset.
- You're not supposed to wear nylons at a certain age,
and you were not supposed to wear makeup at a certain age,
so I guess, now that I think back, yes.
- (FBE) Why do you think that, as people get older,
they tend to not keep up with the fashion trends
the same way they did when they were younger?
- It's a hassle.
Uh, dry cleaning bill is high. (laughing)
- When you're young, you want to be fashionable.
And as you get older, you want to be comfortable.
- For the majority of people, though, you know, you start disapproving.
"How can people wear that? How can they do that?"
I don't feel that way.
If I could get away with it, I would wear it!
- They go to parties and my younger-- my friends who would say,
"Look at that lady. Wow, she's trying to look young.
It doesn't suit her."
- They're not concerned with impressing anybody
or worried about who is gonna say something
or look at them or care.
- Things that look great on you at 16 are not gonna look great at 67.
Whatever you try on, even though it may be trendy,
you gotta be realistic about, like, but does it look good on me?
- (FBE) And, finally, what do you think people will think of this style
when they get older and they look back on it?
- (scoffing) They'll laugh.
They'll laugh-- and it'll all come around again, you know?
They'll get old and go, "Oh, I wore that in my twenties."
- Most people think their own style, their music, their culture,
their clothing, everything today, that's alway the best.
Those people in the past, they don't know.
- Maybe they'll think it's okay.
Maybe they won't think it's that bad.
Because, like now, I would look at myself from before,
the clothes that I would wear, it didn't look bad.
- They'll probably think, "Jesus, did I wear that?"
Actually, you know, that's not true.
I'm thinking of my granddaughter now.
She looks pretty good most of the time.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Elders React.
- Want to see more? Hit that subscribe button.
- Goodbye, guys.
Can I please take this off now?
- Hey, guys, it's Kyle, associate producer here at FBE.
We've had the teens react to '80s fashion,
the elders react to modern fashion--
what type of fashions should we have what generation react to next?
♪ (ragtime music) ♪