"Trendy"

This is not a Provo-related post, per se, but nonetheless something that has recently interested me. I've been thinking about the word "trendy." For me, this word has a wholly negative connotation. When I think of things that are trendy, I think of things that are passe, out of style, and boring. When I think of people being trendy, I think of shallowness, caprice, and a lack of creativity. Basically, trendy signifies (to me) being on the tail end of a trend at best, and getting caught up in a vapid, flavor of the week at worst.

But I get the sense that not everyone shares my impression of this word, which genuinely surprised me when I realized it. I began to realize this when I was covering a brutal rape case for the newspaper. After raping a woman, a guy held up a children's clothing store called "Trendy Tots" (or something like that). Though it was beyond the scope of what I wrote about the case, I was always perplexed by that store name; why did they basically call their store "Out of Date Clothes"?

But Laura was just telling me that for her mom, trendy doesn't have a negative connotation (or, at least, didn't). So what is going on? Is this just a generational thing? A regional thing? Are you reading this, thinking I've completely gotten it wrong?

(After reading through what I just wrote, I realize that my underlying assumption is that once something is "trendy" I wouldn't want to wear/use/subscribe/etc. to it. Or, trendy means something is over. Is that a common impression?)