My observation is that this is just how fashion works, especially for women. Trends come on extremely strong for basically anything related to appearance all the way down to nail color. And it's designed that way to make it obvious when someone has last year's styles and hasn't spent the money and energy on keeping up.

My experience as a man on the other hand... I bought a tuxedo recently, and the tailor said Ok here's this one, it has these weird lapels that are in right now, and it'll be great if you're going on the red carpet tomorrow but will be out of fashion pretty soon, otherwise here is the standard tux that will always look good, and come back and buy a vest or cummerbund if they ever come back in style and you'll still look great.