mzminola:

Looking at the timeline, I think Grindelwald was a major influence on young Tom Riddle.

Grindelwald

wasn’t defeated until 1945. Presumably, he’d been a well-known and feared figure for years at that point. Tom Riddle attended Hogwarts from fall 1938 to spring 1946.

There may have been student refugees from the Continent attending Hogwarts at the time. There were definitely wizarding newspaper articles talking about the war.

Tom petrified several classmates and murdered Myrtle during his fifth year at Hogwarts (1942/1943), while

Grindelwald

was still alive, still terrorizing Europe. While we know Tom had a personal hatred of Muggles and Muggle-borns, he may also have believed he was on the winning side. That he might some day openly brag about murdering classmates with no consequences.

And then his transfiguration professor, the one teacher at Hogwarts who he knows he never charmed, goes off during Tom’s 6th or 7th year, or perhaps the summer between them, and defeated

Grindelwald

. Ended the war. Locked up the most feared wizard of that era, the figure who dominated the news and terrified Tom’s peers during his entire time at Hogwarts.

No wonder Dumbledore was the only person Tom feared.

I am here for this headcanon.

Clothing – Pottermore

thepiperofhameln:

When mingling with Muggles, wizards and witches will adopt an entirely
Muggle standard of dress, which will conform as closely as possible to
the fashion of the day.

[ … ]

Younger generations have always tended to be better informed about
Muggle culture in general … later, when they enter magical careers, it becomes
more difficult to keep in touch with normal Muggle dress.

I wonder if this explains Albus and his new threads.

Older witches
and wizards are often hopelessly out of touch with how quickly fashions
in the Muggle world change; having purchased a pair of psychedelic loon
pants in their youth, they are indignant to be hauled up in front of the
Wizengamot fifty years later for arousing widespread offence at a
Muggle funeral.

This DEFINITELY explains Albus.

Anti-Muggles will often attempt to demonstrate their superiority by
adopting a deliberately flamboyant, out-of-date or dandyish style in
public.

…and then there’s Gellert.