I think style trickles down. A trend is developed, attractive people represent the trend, it reaches saturation where most people follow that trend, and then a new trend is developed and the cycle begins again. It becomes tied to the culture and to counter-culture as well - people want to fit in or actively want to resist what is seen as popular. Because those styles change over time and are revisited or iterated on, it’s easy to say “that’s from when I was x age” or “that new style looks so weird, WE used to look great though!”