I’m trying to think of particular styles or looks that have fallen out of favor due to a particular person or group of people. The obvious one is the Hitler mustache. I don’t know how popular it was before his rise but no one has one now.
Another possible one is the Karen, aka an inverted bob that wants to speak to the manager. That one might have fallen out of disfavor just because styles change but I’m still blaming Karen.
Others?
There is the old Hollywood legend that undershirt sales plummeted after Clark Gable appeared bare-chested in It Happened One Night. I don’t know how true that is. Mentioned here: Clark Gable: He’s Just Not That Into…Undershirts | Lisa's History Room
Similarly, the story is that John F. Kennedy didn’t wear a hat to his inauguration, and killed the men’s hat. In fact, Kennedy did wear a top hat at the inauguration. He took it off to take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address, but so did Eisenhower and other Presidents.
^ Did Kennedy’s assassination put the kibosh on the Jackie pink-pillbox-hat-and-matching-suit look?
I believe Princess Diana appearing bare-legged at Royal Ascot (ie, without stockings on) one year pretty much killed the idea that women must wear stockings/pantyhose with a skirt/dress.
Waldo ruined the horizontally striped shirt.
Target and Best Buy have ruined red and blue polo shirts.
I don’t know how true it is, but I read somewhere that Alexander the Great ruined beards for everyone. Most men back then wore beards and had long hair, but Alexander supposedly trained his soldiers to grab the enemy’s beard or long hair as a tactic. Soldiers were forced to be clean shaven and to cut their hair short after that, and fashion followed suit.
He also ruined the name Adolph, a perfectly fine good luck symbol (aka the swastika), jack boots, and the Roman salute.
Orange face makeup for men has been ruined for about 75% of the population, though the other 25% may well find it attractive and manly.
Similarly: not many people bust out with a two-arms-above-their-heads “V for victory” gesture, post-Nixon, unless they are doing so ironically.
One of the things that ticks me off about white nationalists (you know, besides the obvious) is how they’re trying to appropriate the “A-OK” gesture as some sort of symbol of the movement. I use the A-OK all the time. But now it’s listed by the Anti-Defamation League as a symbol of hate.
I don’t enjoy my Red Hat red hat much anymore.
George V for some reason didn’t want to wear spats one day. After he appeared at an event without them, attendants were removing discarded spats from the potted plants afterward.
Here’s a Chanel suit from the 1990s that looks pretty similar.
In fact you can search for “Chanel suit” and see a whole bunch of post-1963 examples. Not so much the pillbox hats, though.
In all fairness, that looks was already mocked by most people before a certain somebody became so notable for it.
I don’t wear aloha shirts as often as I used to, either.
Talking about how fashions affect retail sales, this idea could apply to other consumer products besides clothing.
Broccoli sales plummeted (perhaps only briefly) when then-President George Bush the Elder publicly said he didn’t like broccoli and wouldn’t eat it.
Yes, but these days, broccoli is more popular than anyone named Bush.
Right, and if we’re going fictional there’s also The Joker ruining the purple suit, and anything red with white trim will associate you with Father Christmas.
It’s one thing I notice when travelling; you can see colors like this all around in cultures that are less familiar with these characters.
Burberry suffered a bad knock when their signature check became associated with chavs and hooligans.
I certainly got rid of all my red and mostly-red caps. I’ll miss a couple but not so much that I want to risk the misunderstanding.
My mom had the little Chanel suit before Jackie had one - it was a purchase from when she went to Paris with my grandparents and they went to a runway walk [my grandfathers business at the time was among other interests, custom looming woolens] where Grandfather bought it for her. Until about 1984, when the house partly burnt down it was still in her closet and she wore it whenever it popped back into fashion.