Gen Z shocked to see what 45-year-olds looked like in the 1990s

A popular movie from the 1990s has sparked a debate about how Hollywood portrayed people in the late 1940s versus today.

Director Jessica Ellis started the conversation when she tweeted a poster for “Father of the Bride 2,” featuring stars Steve Martin and Diane Keaton in their classic mom-and-dad reunion.

In the 1991 sequel Father of the Bride, the A-listers reprized their roles as mid-40s George and Nina Banks, whose married daughter Annie (played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley) is expecting of her first child.

Keaton’s character is wearing a string of pearls, a modest white blouse and a skirt. Martin is wearing the casual uniform of a 1990s businessman: a blazer, blue shirt and loud tie.

“One incredible thing that’s changed in 30 years is that in 1995, that’s what 45-year-olds were supposed to look like,” Ellis wrote, clarifying that she was referring to the characters in the film, not the actors themselves.

Diane Keaton and Steve Martin in “Father of the Bride 2.” Touchstone/Kobal/Shutterstock

Twitter users, many of whom were then Gen Xers and Millennials old enough to remember the couple’s on-screen appearance as the status quo, responded with a flurry of thoughts about how people in their mid-40s now dress much more youthfully than Baby Boomers – bravely and differently – did at that age.

“What if I told you that skinny jeans, Converse, and cool t-shirt collections are going to be the new senior wardrobe?” a mocking tweet.

“My parents gave me a string of pearls in high school because I thought they thought I would dress like that one day,” said another.

One person joked that a 40-year-old would style a Peloton nowadays.

Others pointed out that Kim Kardashian – always dressed in skimpy Lycra – is 42, just three years younger than Mr and Mrs Banks.

Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender are both 45 years old. Getty Images For Twentieth Centu

By comparison, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” co-stars Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender are both 45 years old.

Many acknowledged that times and styles have moved on and that attitudes toward aging have changed significantly since the 1990s, when the local Hallmark store, or Spencer’s at the mall, had entire “Over the Hill” sections for 40th birthday cards. of and the gifts of the mouth.

One young man – apparently in a neon T-shirt and shorts – tweeted: “If I wear this much beige at 45, it just puts me in my grave.”