My old roommate Dana told me this back in 2013, in the fitting room of what’s now-defunct mall. “Just buy one good crop top, they’re basically a wardrobe basic at this point, you’ll never have to think about this again.” I bought the top. White, ribbed, quality material, good fit all around. And then somehow by 2016 high waisted everything went so aggressively out of style that said top spent the next four years in my drawer looking less basic and more like prison documentation of the mullet I had at the time. Dana was confident. Dana was wrong. Crop tops are not a basic you buy once and cry into when you inevitably lose; crop tops are a basic you buy exactly once per cycle because fuck if you know when that’ll be.
Like that’s the real answer lurking beneath all of the Google searches no one wants to admit they’re doing at 11pm while staring at their torso in a dressing room. “Will crop tops go out of style.” Yes, duh, obviously they will.
Constantly. Every few years they’ll completely die and we’ll all switch to wearing our shirts pulled inexplicably up to our rib cages for no reason other than trend editing. And then just as quickly they’ll be back. Usually partnered with some bottom half trend that makes whatever old crop top you just found look slightly off even though nothing about that top itself has changed. I’ve leaned this lesson enough times now, refreshing every reseller app for literally that one category that I would honestly wager money on it happening again before I’d wager money on most other things in life. But here’s the thing about that wager, the two things that decide whether or not the crop top in your drawer right now is a future winner or futurelosers…. are nothing to do with that crop top itself.
The Cycle Is Real And It’s Defined By What You’re Wearing Underneath More Than The Top Itself
Let me level with you, let you in on the game, right underneath the cute lil fiction every salesperson feeds you when they pat you reassuringly on the shoulder and say “Crop tops? Those never really go out.” Crop tops, by their very nature as the top half of an outfit, are dictated almost entirely by what’s happening underneath them. They can’t stand alone to rise or fall on the trend market, they have to pair with low rise or high waisted or any of the hundreds of rises fashion comes up with every cycle. When low rise was popular, a crop top made practical sense, both pieces lined up correctly, there was room between your waistband and the top and it filled that space nicely. Fast forward through enough trauma jeans wise and that same crop top worn over suddenly high waisted leggings looks like a rejection spell went off on your waistband and your shirt flew up to greet it. There is literally nothing wrong with the top, but nobody wants to wear something that looks like it forgot where your hips are supposed to be.
I speak from experience, I live and breathe these secondhand resell cycles at this point because fuck up I hate working adult jobs. When I see Y2K cut up crop tops that sold for three dollars and shipping four years ago shoot up to double the original asking price in a matter of months I remember what I’m doing this for. Seeing those markets flip is literally the rises moving back across. Low rise started getting marked up on denim again right around 2020, and let me tell you crop tops matched it. Suddenly vintage crop tops that I could’ve picking out of goodwill for the price of a bag of chips are getting slacked on by high schoolers who wouldn’t’ve recognized how big of a deal they were when they were originally popular. Hell the cycle isn’t even that graceful, it doesn’t fade back in gently. Suddenly one day your favorite pair of jeans rise, and just like that every crop top everywhere is relevant again and if you weren’t paying attention you missed like a three month window of purchasing the real stuff at incredible prices nobody wants anymore. Stock up for the next cycle, because oh god when it swings back people are going to be buying.
When people say “crop tops will always be in!” or “crop tops will never be popular again!” they’re trying to predict an entire trend cycle centered around something that isn’t the crop top. Wake up mom. The brutal truth of it is that once gone, crop tops likely won’t ever be exactly the same in popular culture again. You cannot future proof yourself against the rising trends of pants, because it isn’t about the crop tops, it’s about whether or not your shirt is high enough to hit your pants’ waistband where they’ve decided it needs to be. But you can watch for the bottom half trends pop back into place, and use that as your indicator that maybe it’s time to dust off your old crop tops and pull them back out. It’s not perfect, but until someone develops a time machine I don’t know a single solution thats gonna be.
What Style Of Crop Top Will Survive?
Got all that? Good. Now let’s talk about the actual crop tops in your drawers. While the trend cycle is a universal constant that affects every crop top ever made, not every crop top gets dragged down by the shifting trends equally, and that’s less down to luck than what you chose to buy in the first place. Something plain and ribbed in a solid color is almost guaranteed to be worn regardless of what’s happening on trend right now because basics do always stay basic. That plain white ribbed crop top I bought for eleven dollars at goodwill in 2019 that I told you about? I’ve worn it under blazers, on beaches, over jorts, you name it and I’ve made that shirt work because it never made a real “statement” when it was trendy. The plain old white one vs something more busy like this butterfly disaster I also own. I bought that sucker because at the time it was trendy af and honestly I thought it was cute. I have worn it exactly two times. Twice where I second guessed putting it on before walking out the door.
Statement tops are more mood, timeless pieces are lifestyle.
That’s not to say get nothing cute, I love shopping for crazy tops just as much as the next crazy person. I’m writing this from my couch wearing a pair ofFull precious hand lettered shorts I bought solely because they were cute, but your fun trendy crop top is something you should probably acknowledge what you’re buying into when you buy. Something that’s cut for a specific silhouette will age exponentially better if you know you’ll wear it with that years trend attire. Buy the cute top, have fun wearing that sucker while it’s relevant, but don’t try and justify throwing it on over your sweater when the time comes because crop tops are supportive
undergarments, they will die on you if you trust them to hold your actual pants up.
TLDR version? Crop tops go in and out of style so whether yours does too depends on what you wear with it.
TLDR TLDR version? Crop tops themselves aren’t going out of style they’re just going to take a chill pill until your pants jeans become friends with them again. Buy versatile if you want it to last, buy trendy if you’re actually trendy. Stop asking whether crop tops will go out of style and start asking yourself what your cropping under.
