The death of uncool?

I came across this article just now. It seems to have some good points, but I'm not sure it's completely on the money.

The article claims that the proliferation of categories of aesthetic things is an indication that nothing is uncool anymore. There's no one 2011 sound for music, there is no one 2011 school of interior design and there is no one 2011 fashion for clothing. Things don't go out of style anymore; they simply add themselves to the list of categories from which one may choose one's aesthetic.

I think this is closely related to the idea of Permanent Style, and may even have set the stage for the timelessness idea to take hold. Because there is no focus in current fashion, no main trend that everything follows to one degree or another, there is this notion that a style from any fashion period as far back as anyone cares to look (which, as it happens, seems to be only about a century at most) is still stylish, and since it's decades old and still acceptably fashionable, it must be permanently so.

There are problems with both of these ideas, but I think they're from different angles. I've already explained why Permanent Style as a concept is a fallacy: the notion of permanence in fashion is a recent invention of amateur revisionist fashion historians. Thus "Permanent Style" is no more or less than the current trend in men's fashion. It's an attractive idea; it pairs nicely with the movement toward better-made, longer-lasting products, since a pair of shoes that lasts forever is no good if it's hopelessly outmoded in a few short years.

The problem is that those "timeless" shoes will be boring after a while, and we'll want something new, at which point, I suppose, the Permanent Style movement will be pushed off into its own little category to be retained by its most passionate supporters.

This proliferation of categories does give people more choices, and it's harder to be completely wrong in aesthetic matters these days, but a person can certainly be uncool. It's just that the criteria are subtler, and everything hangs on execution. A fellow who posts a picture of himself on a style forum is more likely to be accused of "trying too hard" than probably any other insult, which makes me think that apparent effortlessness is the current ideal in the absence of a more specific fashionable silhouette. "Trying too hard" has never been cool, but now it's almost the only way to be uncool.

So do whatever you feel like, as long as you do it well. And make sure that the effort you put in doesn't show.