Is Imitation Flattery? When It Comes to Archival Fashion, Cazzie David Isn’t So Sure.

As I’ve watched these homages unfold on my feeds over the last several months, I’ve wondered if they signal a stagnancy in the fashion world. This trend, which combines two mainstays of American culture–idol worship and upcycled nostalgia—seems akin to the current state of the film industry, known for churning out regurgitated IP and making superhero sequels over, and over, and over again. Or maybe it’s just an attempt at a leg up in an oversaturated culture—that because another celebrity wore it before you, their clout might be heaped onto you by fashion osmosis. It’s as if referencing another moment is an added accessory to the outfit, like a coveted handbag. But it’s unclear to me if clout works that way, and anyway, who’s to say if the original celebrity would even approve of the whole endeavor?

There’s of course a clear difference between a genuine homage and co-opting an iconic moment in hopes of creating your own. I won’t name names on the latter, but the result sometimes feels anemic and stale. On the former, an authentic homage that comes to mind is Miley Cyrus honoring her godmother Dolly Parton’s iconic bouffant at the Grammys, or any time Kate Middleton has emulated her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana.

People say that mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, but as someone who has a younger sister, I have to call bullshit. Mimicry can be a sincere form of flattery, but with it can also come the potential to devalue the original by turning it into a caricature of itself. This has always been the problem with pastiche. Each time a look is replicated, it’s prone to losing its original subtlety, the same way a meme gets blurrier the more it’s memed, until, eventually, the original has lost all its meaning.

Recently, stylist Molly Dickson styled Kaia Gerber in a recreation of the Hervé Léger dress her mother, Cindy Crawford, wore to the 1993 Oscars. “I thought it would be amazing to pay tribute to Cindy’s iconic moment,” Dickson told Vogue. A few weeks later, Susan Sarandon’s daughter Eva Amurri re-wore her mother’s 2003 Donna Karran Oscars dress to the Metropolitan Opera Opening Night Gala. “Swipe all the way to see where I got this vintage @donnakarran dress from..” she wrote on Instagram.

Larry David and Laurie David at the 2004 Emmys.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Cazzie David, wearing her mother’s dress in 2024.

Courtesy of Cazzie David

I happened to ransack my own mother’s closet in need of something to wear to a friend’s wedding last weekend. Obviously my mom isn’t Cindy Crawford or Susan Sarandon, but in light of this new trend, I felt differently as I snuck into her closet, less like an angsty teen in need of something to wear, and more like I was rifling through a rack of old classics ready for their comeback. I pulled out a John Galliano for Christian Dior dress that she wore to the 56th Emmy Awards in 2004. When she saw a picture of me wearing it “without her permission,” however, she wasn’t pleased, to say the least. Moreover, I accidentally cut my ankle and almost stained the lilac fabric with my disgusting blood.