In the age of social media, influencers, and fast fashion, personal style has drastically changed, but not for the better. While trends, societal expectations, and influences have always existed, the contemporary social landscape has created a sense of learned helplessness when it comes to one’s own dress sense. The interconnected nature of globalised social media has fostered a sense of paranoia and self-consciousness worse than before its advent: anyone can see you, what you wear, how you style your hair, if you’ve got a new wardrobe for the season, and so on. Do we even style ourselves anymore? Or, do influencers, brand marketing campaigns, and advertisements do it for us?
On TikTok it seems I can’t scroll for five minutes before I’m being sold something or introduced to a new micro-trend. Something is always “viral” or labelled with some absurd buzzword or baseless superlative. The biggest pushers of this type of content are influencers. They advocate for products or collections as a brand deal, ultimately securing themselves money and exposure as means of survival, really. So, as the market becomes oversaturated, brands need higher turnovers, thus micro-trends are born. They capitalise on the idea of being “niche” and unique, but as soon as fast fashion brands catch on, it becomes more accessible, and thus, boring. They fade as quickly as they appear.
To me, this is most apparent and jarring when observed in person, as reality clashes with the less tangible existence of a trend as it exists online. This links back to the notion of fashion as a performance — sometimes out of insecurity and learned helplessness — especially in an increasingly capitalist world. A prime example of this is the recent slew of videos on “how to dress like a cool girl.” Who even is this “cool girl,” and why does everyone want to be her? She’s a figment created by a trend, existing in the liminal non-space of the internet. We are real, and have the capacity to find or make our own personal style, even if it doesn’t go viral.
Frankly, these ever-changing aesthetics and uniforms feel hollow — insincere. As Capitalism has developed, fashion has been commodified and become a worry or a burden, when it’s a creative outlet that everyone can partake in. The pressure to conform has been repackaged as a new cut of jeans, makeup, or the latest Coach bag, and we can’t help but resist. The pressure is ubiquitous: making the frozen aisle in Tesco, and the lecture hall stairs, feel like a casual catwalk. We all need to start dressing for ourselves, because brands don’t care if we like it, only that we buy it.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
