Personally, I don't care about fashion. I'm not in any way interested in passing judgement on fashion norms of this era or that era. My real message here is, p

Personally, I don't care about fashion. I'm not in any way interested in passing judgement on fashion norms of this era or that era. My real message here is, perhaps, old fashioned. I believe art's meaning is in the intention of the artist or author, in this case the show producers and costumers who did their work in the 90s. You can understand it by considering the context of their intended 90s audience. If there are records of their production decision process, that would be even better. It is through this lens that my original post found mild amusement in this young person's misunderstanding of the show's costumes. In the originating context, nobody should consider the federal drone as fashionable. Rather, it signals the least effort the character could get away with. It expressed a "phoning it in" vibe. This person has other priorities and just wants to bypass the cultural gatekeeping of the time. By comparison, I'd say Scully's clothing started off expressing the straight-laced, eager college graduate of the time who is trying to manage her appearance, on a budget. Something like "adulting" for later generations? I'm not passing judgment on that either. It's just the contrast that was there to establish characters.