Shakira has a new album out, a fresh new attitude, and old dress to wear. Fortunately, it’s not a boring one.

It’s a 2009 Balmain and it’s pretty cute. It doesn’t strike us as the freshest style, but it doesn’t come off too dated either. It feels like a bunch of stylists recently rediscovered vintage or archival fashion for their clients. The last 25 years or so of fashion hasn’t seen the kinds of wild swings in style that characterized pretty much every decade of the 20th Century. There’s a lot a stylist can choose from over the last quarter century that would still work today. In 2000, you wouldn’t have gotten away with wearing a piece from 1985 without everyone noticing it. The same goes for 1990/1975, 1980/1965, 1970/1955, and so on. Fashion’s always been cyclical, but we don’t really live in a time where style is so rigidly constrained to whatever is most recent. That’s why you’ll see skinny jeans and ’90s-style baggy jeans in the same week. There’s a big suit trend at the moment, but no one would bat an eye at a guy wearing a slim cut suit. Is that a good thing? We suppose it is for the consumer, but it does tend to render the fashion world as a place that’s run out of ideas.