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Youth and pop culture provocateurs since 1991. Fearless fashion, music, art, film, politics and ideas from today's bleeding edge. Declare Independence.

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From Moschino’s Barbie dream world to Marni’s Japanese flower garden – we remix Milan’s best collections into GIFs

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Kendall Jenner Owns The Cult Dress Of Summer 2020

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House of Sunny’s swirling green “Hockney” dress is a strong contender for this year’s viral dress

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Kendall Jenner Owns The Cult Dress Of Summer 2020

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House of Sunny’s swirling green “Hockney” dress is a strong contender for this year’s viral dress

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Microtrends are fashion fads that experience a surge in popularity before often falling off just as quickly.

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Do micro trends impact personal style? (Responses)

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Micro trends are the fuel to ultra fast fashion's engine. While they often spur organically on platforms like TikTok, brands with alarming labour and environmental track records capitalise off these micro trends to push consumption and waste to new levels.
On social media, trends come and go faster than ever

Each week it seems that social media spouts a new fad that's the "must-have" item of the moment. Much to the disdain of many, a lot of these trends are borrowed from past eras, plucked out of boxes marked "never again! (and put down those eyebrow tweezers!)".

Revisiting past trends is nothing new in fashion, but the practice has been ramped up since the arrival of micro trends. Think: one particular sunny green dress that had TikTok in a chokehold, the "cottagecore" revival (a cousin of the "twee" trend that also saw a comeback), ugly dad sandals, checkerboard prints, and chunky plastic rings.

Not every micro trend is evil. In fact, many of these looks might inspire us to dig deeper into our closets and rediscover items we haven't worn in years. Or maybe it drives us to rescue some garments from a local charity shop.

The problem is that fast fashion brands fuel the feedback loop of these trends-quickly turning out cheap polyester versions to meet the newfound demand. That's where micro trends raise ethical questions-and even some questions about our consumer psychology.

Here's what you need to know about our culture's obsession with trends-and how they keep getting quicker.

What are micro trends? The fast fashion connection

Micro trends take what you know about trends and accelerate the process: these trends rise to popularity quicker and then leave the trend cycle faster. While traditional fashion trends typically last a few years, micro trends' life spans are shorter, with some lasting less than one season.

Many tout social media and its hypervisibility as the main culprit. It goes hand-in-hand with ultra fast fashion; faster production, exploitative manufacturing processes, and plastic clothing are needed to keep up with the demand that micro trends create.

Faster production, exploitative manufacturing processes, and plastic clothing are needed to keep up with the demand that micro trends create.

In other words, to understand micro trends is to understand the driving force of ultra fast fashion's marketing machine. Earlier in 2022, I investigated the model driving SHEIN's remarkable rise to be the most profitable business in its category-a brand that puts thousands of styles on its website every week. In my research, I spoke with Rita Liao, TechCrunch reporter and editor of Attention Factory, to get a deeper understanding of how SHEIN profits off of an ever-quickening trend churn.

"SHEIN puts [new products] online instantly, and then blasts it over social media. And because it's just online, they're also able to collect feedback very quickly," Liao told me.

Because SHEIN is so digitally versed in data, it can pre-empt what will sell before a product is even made.

Matthew Brennan, author of Attention Factory, coined a new term to describe how fast trends turn with businesses like SHEIN: "real-time fashion," a retail model that acts as a mirror to breaking social media trends.

An unending, exhausting push towards what's new

Digging deeper into what drives micro trends ultimately brings us to questions of psychology. For an expert perspective, I tapped behavioural psychologist Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion, who launched the University of Arts London's Psychology Department at London College of Fashion.

Mair points to fashion brands' eagerness to supply products for sale as fueling a deeper phenomenon. "The desire to buy trend after trend isn't about attention span-it's about habituation. When we experience something for the first time, it excites us and gives us pleasure, but with repetition over time, the pleasure dissipates because we habituate to the experience," she tells Good On You.

The desire to buy trend after trend isn't about attention span-it's about habituation.
Carolyn Mair - author of The Psychology of Fashion

Growing accustomed to the feeling motivates people to make new purchases in hopes of reigniting that pleasure and excitement.

And so, this routine of chucking out barely-worn clothes has become a spectacle of sorts. On TikTok, there's a trend of videos where users show-off clothes they regret buying. "POV: you were influenced to buy all the micro trends last summer and now you're disgusted," reads one video.

Pop culture, TikTok, and surging searches

Social media, entertainment, and celebrity moments now have the ability to be moulded into micro trends at lightning speeds. Take Euphoria; after season two aired, fashion e-commerce searches surged. When character Maddy Perez (played by actor Alexa Demie) wore a black cut-out dress, there was an 890% increase in demand for the trend search.

There's another very human and very simple reason behind the rise of micro trends: "We follow trends because we want to belong," Mair tells me. "When we follow a trend, we show our belonging to others who follow that trend and dissociate ourselves from those who do not." That alignment gives wearers a sense of belonging and cohesion-traits that all of us understand to be aspirational.

When Euphoria character Maddy Perez wore a black cut-out dress, there was an 890% increase in demand for the trend search.

Almost ironically as micro trends fixate on newness, many of these impermanent trends leech off existing throwback styles. What we're seeing is a sort of trend "archaeology," an urgency to catalogue moments in time, both past and present.

Take "indie sleaze" for example, a name that was coined retrospectively to classify the hipster years in the early 2000s and 2010s.

Nostalgia has always been pervasive in fashion, and it's something that Mair is pragmatic about. "Fashion has always been cyclical because there are limited possibilities with clothing styles, silhouettes, and so on," she says.

Why are we seeing more of this now? Yes, increased social media usage is one element, but Mair asks us to consider the upheaval of the past few years, too. "Nostalgia is appealing particularly in times of turmoil and uncertainty when we tend to look back with 'rose-coloured glasses' imagining that the past was much better than the present."

An antidote to the trend churn: personal style

It's one thing to understand this, but another thing to try to wade through the sea of ultra fast fashion and micro trends. A way to help maintain a discerning eye when faced with endless streams of trends is to look inward and try to define your own personal style. It's easier said than done; humans are constantly evolving, our tastes change, and our identities are in flux. Instead of focusing on aesthetics, you can home in on your belief system and overall function of your wardrobe.

"If you have a clear organising logic in your wardrobe, it's easy to sit out irrelevant trends and focus instead on investing in staple pieces and caring for what you already have," says journalist and theatre nerd JD Shadel, who has reported on TikTok #hauls' connection to ultra fast fashion trends.

In the theatre world, a production concept is the key messaging and vision that ties a show together-it's an idea that Shadel suggests people can implement into their own wardrobes. "The production concept isn't merely an aesthetic concern-it defines how all the elements come together in harmony," they tell me. "Every creative decision is guided by that overarching concept."

When we define a production concept for ourselves, it helps us look past micro trends and only purchase garments we truly love. "I buy things because I fall in love with them," fashion icon Iris Apfel once said. And that might be the best tip of all.

Ask yourself: Do you 'love' this or do you want to buy it because you think it's trendy?

Ask yourself like Apfel might: Do you "love" this or do you want to buy it because you think it's trendy? Trends themselves aren't inherently evil. But when an exploitative business model drives us to over consume in the name of self-expression, that's when we know we have a problem.

Ideally, each person's "production concept" becomes their personal style-it's specifically tailored to their own needs. If we make our choices selectively and slowly, guiding them by what we know works for us rather than what we think is trending, we might be less prone to fall prey to the dizzying churn of styles we see on our social media feeds.

Certainly, our morals shouldn't follow the fast-dying pace of a micro trend. If we have a clear and strong purpose that underpins our fashion decisions-such as a dedication to workers' rights, a commitment to caring for the Earth, and a desire to support local, small businesses-it can help us stand up to the forces of fast fashion.

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What Are Micro Trends? How Styles Change Faster Than Ever Before - Good On You

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Micro trends raise ethical questions-and even some questions about our consumer psychology. Here's what you need to know about our culture's obsession with trends.

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Like them or not, nano skirts are everywhere right now.

No, it's not summer 2003 - it's 2022, and clothing brand Miu Miu just brought micro mini skirts back into the mainstream.

After every influencer and their dogs were seen donning the tiny, low waisted skirt at the Miu Miu AW22 fashion show last month, copycat barely-there skirts have quickly trickled down into the fast fashion realm.

This isn't new - in fact, it's how the fashion industry works.

It's something we saw happen last summer with the 'avant basic' trend, which quickly filtered down from the likes of House of Sunny and Paloma Wool to more affordable brands such as Motel Rocks and PrettyLittleThing.

These items, which featured bright colours, psychedelic patterns and lots of checkerboard prints, were, as journalist Serena Smith put it at the time, 'dressed up as cult, must-have products on [our] Instagram feeds'.

While there are still remnants of avant basic in this summer's fashion staples, the trend was quickly discarded for the now-in-favour French girl style or Bridgerton-inspired regencycore.

Again: nothing new.

As trend strategist and author of Break the Internet: In Pursuit of Influence, Olivia Yallop explains, trends go through four phases.

'[There is] introduction (where a trend is coined by innovators), growth (where a trend is popularised by early adopters), maturity (where a trend is seen amongst the early & late majority), and decline (where laggards interact with it until it dies out from mainstream culture),' she tells Metro.co.uk.

When trends are seen to cycle through these phases quickly, they become what is known as microtrend (or a fad).

A microtrend, then, 'is a small, 'flash in the pan' fad that is defined by its limited timeframe, limited audience, or limited scope,' says Olivia.

Buying into microtrends is extremely common, particularly among young people.

New research by online personal stylist service Stitch Fix found that 31% of 18-24 year olds admit buying on a whim based on the latest trend, with 35% of the clothes they own remaining unworn.

This is likely due to social media: 'The thinking is that thanks to social media and algorithmic culture, the already short life cycle of a microtrend appears to be getting even shorter,' Olivia explains.

'On TikTok in particular, microtrends are taking place at greater speed and frequency than ever before - and social-first brands such as Shein are stepping in to both meet and encourage demand.'

Yallop notes a symbiotic relationship between 'throwaway fashion and throwaway social media content' - these platforms not only enable microtrends, but champion them.

'Trends on TikTok equal trends in fast fashion and vice versa,' she says.

'It suits platforms to keep the microtrend machine churning, as it aligns with and supports their business model.'

But now, algorithm fashion is wreaking havoc, not just on our wardrobe space, but on the environment, too.

This is because, as Yallop puts it, 'microtrend products are, by definition, manufactured with planned obsolescence.'

Aja Barber is the author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism and a stylist and consultant working at the intersection of sustainability and fashion.

She tells Metro.co.uk that microtrends are 'one of the root causes of overconsumption.'

'Once the trend is over, many people no longer want the clothes, which creates a lot of waste,' Aja says.

That people buy into microtrends without actually thinking about whether they'll still wear the item when it's vanished from their For You Page, only to discard them in a dusty pile at the bottom of their wardrobe, means that they cannot be divorced from the climate crisis.

And that's before mentioning the social and financial pressure such trends place on consumers who are simply trying to keep up.

How to build a wardrobe that will last

Understanding the polluting nature of fast fashion, overconsumption and micro-trends isn't enough.

It's important to fight overconsumption in your own life by attempting to build a wardrobe that will last.

This means ditching microtrends (unless you know you'll wear the item again and again) and buying clothes for you and you only.

Buy clothes based on your personal style, not trends

'Figuring out your personal style and working with what feels good to you is one way to steer clear of microtrends,' says Barber.

'Not every trend is for every one person, but sometimes we get confused because trends are shoved down our throats.'

Next time you're thinking of buying the latest fashion must-haves, Barber says, take a moment and ask yourself 'is this me or is this a trend?'.

Buy clothes that fit the rest of your wardrobe

'Asking yourself if the garment already works well inside your existing wardrobe,' says Barber.

'If you have five pieces the trend already goes with, then that's a winner.

'But if it sticks out like a sore thumb among your existing clothes, it might not be the piece for you.'

How to try out a microtrend without contributing to over consumption

Barber suggests:

Focus on colours over trends

Finally, instead of opting to follow straight-up trends, Barber suggests focusing on which colours are currently in season.

Colours are much less likely to go out of fashion: the greens and browns that accompanied the avant basic trend, for instance, are still very much thriving.

'Every season has a new colour palette and sometimes those colours are already in your existing wardrobe,' she says.

'Instead of buying something new, look for key colour trends that you already own.

'Sometimes you don't need a new item, you just need to mix and match things in a different way.'
Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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How to spot a microtrend - and tips for building a wardrobe that lasts

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This article explores what a micro-trend is in fashion, where they come from and how to spot them.

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Chunky jewelry. Hawaiian print dresses. Patchwork jeans. Cow print. These trends once reigned over fashion social media. Now, they gather in the aisles of Goodwill, collect dust in the depths of closets and accumulate in landfills. These are only a few of the adverse effects of micro-trends, or clothing and accessories that are forgotten just as quickly as they sell out.

One scroll through TikTok or Instagram reveals how micro-trends plague the fashion industry. Clothing unboxings, "Do it Yourself" (DIY) fashion and outfit posts flaunt the season's new "must-have" items, sending thousands of social media users flocking to click "add to cart" before the item sells out. In turn, retailers like Shein, H&M and Zara rush to meet these demands by quickly and inexpensively mass-producing these trendy items in a process known as fast fashion.

As platforms like TikTok and Instagram increasingly dictate Generation Z and millennials' lifestyles, people start seeking inspiration from social media influencers, who collaborate with companies to market new clothing items. One viral fashion video can cause a clothing item to spike in popularity and instantly sell out - as seen in recent weeks with ultra mini UGGs and the famous Skims dress on TikTok. While straying away from specific trends, Joelle Weng (11) recognizes the impact of this rising influencer culture.

"Influencers are traditionally used to promote products," Joelle said. "Their advertising is way more subtle than targeted ads, so a lot of people buy things that influencers promote, and it's just a way to be influenced without realizing it."

Unlike traditional fashion trends that last five to 10 years, most micro-trends last for just one season, accelerating the trend cycle and quickly deeming particular styles as "outdated." Sophomore Shiv Deokar, who follows fashion trends through apps like TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube, notices social media platforms' roles in shortening trends.

Social media has mangled the trend cycle where nothing's in for a really long time. I see a new thing on TikTok every other day. All the content on there is so immediate, and nothing really stays in your head for very long."

- Shiv Deokar (10), who follows fashion trends on social media

"Social media has mangled the trend cycle where nothing's in for a really long time," Shiv said. "I see a new thing on TikTok every other day. All the content on there is so immediate, and nothing really stays in your head for very long."

Micro-trends also deprive many people's fashion senses of originality. Despite using social media for inspiration, fashion enthusiast Shreya Balakrishnan (12) stays true to their own preferences when making fashion choices and emphasizes the importance of developing personal style.

"[Micro-trends] kill the ideas of individuality and fashion because people are just following these trends," Shreya said. "They don't build up on their own style or what they are comfortable and confident with."

In addition to hindering self-expression in style, micro-trends leave detrimental effects on the environment. Polyester, a synthetic fabric made of plastic and oil, makes up more than half of clothing in the fast fashion industry due to its low production cost and versatility. While only 15% of clothing in the U.S. is recycled, the other 85% ends up in landfills, where they break down into tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics. In fact, synthetic textiles accounted for up to 90% of marine microplastics in 2021, causing harm to ecosystems and wildlife. Shreya draws a connection between plastic pollution and the shortened trend cycles.

"If you're changing your entire closet or your entire lifestyle based on trends, you start a process where you're just wasting clothes from previous trends," Shreya said. "It builds up because eventually you'll see those in thrift stores, and those eventually end up in landfills."

The harmful effects of fast fashion have long been recognized. Yet the industry comes with its own nuances: people have limited access to sustainable fashion, which often comes at the expense of affordable prices.

"Obviously it's just easier to buy something on certain sites than spend $100 on something from an expensive site," Shreya said. "It makes sense that a lot of people do consume fast fashion, because a lot of the time, people don't have the privilege of buy[ing] certain things for themselves."

[Micro-trends] kill the ideas of individuality and fashion because people are just following these trends. They don't build up on their own style or what they are comfortable and confident with."

- Fashion enthusiast Shreya Balakrishnan (12)

Reducing consumption can be difficult for people who appreciate fashion and love exploring new styles. Fashion itself, even with its negative environmental effects, is a vital aspect of many people's lives. As a way of navigating this dichotomy, many have started to shop secondhand, practicing ethical and sustainable fashion. For instance, Shiv frequently shops on Grailed, a secondhand high-end clothing website, and visits secondhand stores such as Goodwill or Crossroads.

But sometimes, countering micro-trends is as simple as paying attention to our existing wardrobes. Rather than accumulating vast amounts of clothes that are considered trendy right now, people have started to lean toward pieces that mix and match with their current styles, in order to maximize outfit combinations and help curb the overconsumption of clothing.

"When I'm buying clothes, I always try to keep in mind the rest of my clothes in my closet," Shiv said. "I try to buy things that I'll use a lot instead of throwing away, things that can be really easy to style day to day."

As long as social media dictates our consumption patterns, fast fashion and its harmful effects will continue to accelerate along with it. But finding a middle ground between fast fashion and sustainable options can ultimately help users resist the pull of short-term trends.

"The main thing is that you need to figure out what you personally gravitate to[wards]," Joelle said. "If you find pieces that match with your personal aesthetic or style, they won't be cycled in and out because it's core to you. It isn't something that changes with trends."
This story was originally published on Harker Aquila on November 14, 2022.

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Rise of micro-trends: Social media's harmful grasp on fast fashion

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Chunky jewelry. Hawaiian print dresses. Patchwork jeans. Cow print. These trends once reigned over fashion social media. Now, they gather in the aisles of Goodwill, collect dust in the depths of closets and accumulate in landfills. These are only a few of the adverse effects of micro-trends, or clothing and accessories that are forgotten just...

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Microtrends and TikTok’s Effect on Fashion

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This summer, crochet clothing was everywhere. From dresses to tote bags, something crochet could be found in almost every clothing store. Crochet was trending on TikTok, and not just specific pieces, it was everything crochet. But now, all of that has seemed to disappear, maybe because summer has en…

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LONDON, United Kingdom - In 1937, the English author, critic, curator and fashion historian James Laver drew up a rudimentary timeline of how trends evolve. According to Laver's Law, when a trend is in fashion, it is 'smart.' One year before this it is 'daring.' And 20 years later, it becomes 'ridiculous.' 50 years, Laver said, was how long it took for a trend to begin to creep back into style.

For years, Laver's Law made sense. And though the pace of the fashion industry picked up rapidly throughout the twentieth century with the growing mass production of clothing, trends maintained their relatively long and predictable life cycles. Each season, fashion forecasting houses released hefty books containing their predictions on which styles and fabrics would come 'in' in future seasons. Designers and brands worked with these bibles and brought their contents to life for consumers when the clothes hit stores a few years - literally, years - later. In this business of books, assessing trends so far in advance and publishing them in hard copy kept the turnover of new styles to a steady, seasonal pace.

How things have changed.

Social media dictates trends today. The trend emerges overnight and disappears almost as quickly.

"Today, the idea of a bunch people sitting in a room and deciding what the colours are going to be in two years' time or what materials are going to be used in three years' time is a complete nonsense," said Marc Worth. In 1997, Worth and his brother Julian founded Worth Global Style Network (WGSN), the trend-forecasting service whose clients today include Coach, Kate Spade, H&M and Victoria's Secret.

While some of the traditional fashion forecasting houses, such as Paris-based Peclers, still issue their seasonal tomes, Worth believes today's fashion cycle requires a different approach to understanding trends. "As things have evolved, we've moved into the four-season approach, then into drops and the whole nature of forecasting, I think, has gone out of the window."

In 2005, Worth sold WGSN to British media company eMap for £140 million and, last year, launched the fashion division of Stylus, a service which offers creative research and advice to businesses, but does not, he insists, forecast trends. "We don't forecast, we don't predict. We provide inspirations for creatives to create trends; we track trends as they evolve, but we're not forecasters in the traditional sense," he said. "Social media dictates trends today. The trend emerges overnight and disappears almost as quickly."

Indeed, James Laver could not have predicted that the fashion industry would break loose from its traditional, stately bi-annual cycle, moving towards something that, at some retailers, has begun to more closely resemble a feed of constant product drops. Driven by the Internet, media, too, has dramatically sped up, serving up a stream of new fashion trends all day, every day.

Today, trends are born and die within an infinitely faster and more turbulent environment, in which brands, celebrities, magazines, bloggers and end consumers on social media all jostle for influence over what's 'in' and 'out' of fashion.

"Social media has absolutely, totally changed the trends landscape," said Ruth Chapple, head of content at Stylus Fashion. "It's making some trends stick, while long ago we would have been over them more quickly. The Valentino rock stud, which everyone expected to be a one-season wonder, has been going strong for eight seasons," she said. "The death of the stud was forecast long ago, but that was very much a social media trend, where the bloggers made that trend stick." On the other hand, digital media can quickly overexpose a trend, and kill its 'edge'. "The Kenzo tiger sweatshirt," Chapple recalled. "Over and done with in a month."

"The word 'trend' is a little bit like the word 'luxury' - nobody really knows what it is anymore, where it starts, where it ends," said Pierre-François Le Louët, president of Paris-based trend forecasting agency NellyRodi.

Like Marc Worth, Le Louët claims his trend forecasting firm is not in the business of predicting trends, which, he says, are plain to see on social media and often prove to be very short-lived. Rather, NellyRodi uses its network of representatives in 18 countries to track the trends happening on the ground in different markets, and then help clients pluck out of the vast array of things 'trending' at any one time the specific trends that will work for their brand, in their chosen markets.

"You don't sell the product of the season that well anymore," he said. "The most important thing is to work on your brand identity, who you are, how you differentiate from your competitors. Trends are tools that might help you convince your clients how you and your brand understand how the world changes."

Anne Lise Kjaer, founder of trend management consultancy Kjaer Global, which counts Gap, Swarovski and La Perla amongst its clients, also takes a holistic approach to trends. "A trend is a tipping point, from when a few people are doing it to when many people are doing it. 'Trendy' trends, as such, are unsustainable and short-lived. We don't even look at those," she said. "More than going to a shop and having a look, you find someone you follow on Instagram or a blog. It becomes a lifestyle rather than a trend. We're moving from being trend-focused to lifestyle-focused... Some trends turn out to be short-lived, whereas others continue to evolve as they are more about lifestyle choices and style, rather than conspicuous consumption."

In a sense, the role of today's trend analysts is comparable to panning for gold. The abundance of 'trending' content and the loss of a single, authoritative source that predicts and starts trends have created a serious need for a filter. Brands turn to trend analysts to trawl through this overload of information and find the real treasure; that is, the trends that will work for their brand, the trends that have staying power, and the trends that can be leveraged in specific markets and with specific consumer demographics.

"Brands and retailers have just had to get savvier in how they process information about trends in order to understand which are the macro-trends and identify micro-trends in time to react," said Katie Smith, a senior retail analyst at Editd, a data-driven fashion analytics platform. "Our customers use trend analysis at every stage of a product life cycle. From designers who are analysing which colours have performed best in retail, or which sleeve shapes continually see discounting, through to buying and merchandising, where trend analysis forms a critical part of every decision around pricing, depth of buy, timing within a season and replenishment."

"It's about helping people decide what they should be purchasing and buying at the same time. You need a lot of information at your fingertips," reasoned Catriona Macnab, chief creative officer at WGSN, which, like NellyRodi and Stylus, uses intelligence from local teams around the world to give clients advice on what's trending - and what is likely to trend - in specific markets.

On the high street, some of the biggest and most successful brands have built their business models around the ever-increasing speed and volatility of trends coupled to consumer demand for constant newness: it's less about forecasting and more about responsiveness.

Zara's highly responsive, vertically-integrated, data-driven business model has made it one of the most agile fashion brands in the world, taking just two weeks to take a product from design studio to its stores, which feature over 10,000 new designs per year. Topshop drops new items every day.

"They have to be able to react faster, they have to be able to keep up with trends and there aren't many that are able to do so," said Marc Worth. "People like Topshop can, people like Inditex (which owns Zara) are able to, but the behemoths like Marks & Spencer still struggle to because of the manufacturing and supply chain process."

Ruth Chapple concurs: "It boils down to speed to market."

"I think the biggest change has come in high end fashion," said Alice Fisher, a commissioning editor and style correspondent for The Guardian newspaper's Observer Magazine. "It's something I always ask designers about when I meet them because I'm fascinated by how their workload must have changed with the promotion of pre-collection, resort, capsule collections, special collaborations, etcetera."

Luxury brands, largely still bound to the anachronistic cycle of seasonal runway shows, are forced into a balancing act when it comes to trends, releasing major new styles at the pace of the traditional fashion calendar, while keeping their brand looking fresh between seasons with additional lines, products and digital content.

"Some - like Raf Simons - love it because they always have new ideas and relish the pace," said Fisher. "Others say it's really relentless."

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LONDON, United Kingdom - In 1937, the English author, critic, curator and fashion historian James Laver drew up a rudimentary timeline of how trends evolve. According to Laver's Law, when a trend is in fashion, it is 'smart.' One year before this it is 'daring.' And 20 years later, it becomes 'ridiculous.'

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Why Microtrends Are Ruining Your Sense of Style!

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Why Microtrends Are Ruining Your Sense of Style!

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Nothing ruins your personal style quite like being controlled by microtrends. A microtrend is a trend that quickly rises and falls in popularity and is only popular for a few weeks up to a few months. The negative effects of microtrends don't begin and end with diminishing your sense of style; the consequences of microtrends are much greater. The negative environmental effects of microtrends include excessive water usage and alarming amounts of carbon emissions when producing the garments. Another concern is the safety and rights of the workers producing the clothing.

The pressing question in this article, however, is "How do microtrends ruin your sense of style?" For starters, the short shelf life of microtrends causes most of us consumers to get caught in this endless cycle of buying new clothing in order to stay "on trend." Instead of buying items that align with our personal styles, we instead rush to buy whatever microtrend is popular at that moment. This results in a loss of identity when it comes to personal style, as our wardrobes are dictated by trends rather than our own opinions on fashion. Microtrends also ruin your sense of style by shifting your idea of what "style" means. With influencers, celebrities, and social media outlets pushing fast fashion content, we are seasoned to associate style with following the latest microtrends. Instead of viewing personal style as a unique way of dressing that makes one feel confident and creative, style is boiled down to being trendy.

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Why Microtrends Are Ruining Your Sense of Style - Clique

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Nothing ruins your personal style quite like being controlled by microtrends. A microtrend is a trend that quickly rises and falls in popularity and is only popular for a few weeks up to a few months.

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The internet lexicon is littered with phrases like cottagecore, fairycore, and even bitchcore. Can we navigate these micro-trends, or is it the end of personal style as we know it?

It's a familiar phenomenon. You wake up and start the day doom-scrolling through social media. So, of course, a new trend has achieved viral status. Overnight, the world is claiming goblincore is in. Or is it the weird girl aesthetic? Maybe it's clowncore? Does it even matter anymore? What's important is that the internet has written off whatever was cool last week. The increasingly quick nature of trends has given rise to niche aesthetics that, while entertaining, often fall prey to the micro-trend treatment, fading from relevance before you can add to cart.

Cottagecore embraces a simpler, sustainable existence cosplay.

Subcultures in fashion are not a new phenomenon. Fashion history has many that have influenced trend cycles - punks, hippies, and even new romantics. The only striking difference now is the frequency with how fast these trends sweep across our timelines. "I think the impact of subcultures has always affected the style of the current generation or decades now," fashion commentator Praachi Raniwala says. "But Gen Zers are digital natives. So how they think about, consume, and approach fashion is very different from how millennials do."

While these fleeting trends may tie into our increasingly shorter attention spans, it is worth wondering why these micro-trends that spawn full-blown subcultures of their own - think cottagecore or Y2K - capture global attention. Originating from TikTok, these trends have spilled onto other platforms making their way to India, where TikTok doesn't even exist. So how do these niche trends manage to capture global imagination?
ARE WE ALL JUST COSPLAYING?
Fashion, at its core, is intrinsically tied to costume. Think about the scores of people wearing leather biker jackets who have never touched a bike, women in pleated skirts and reading glasses channelling dark academia, men in cargo pants, and worker jackets who have never performed manual labour. Fashion is essentially cosplay. But when it is categorised into specifics, what does that spell for personal style?

Emily Ratajkowski is a proponent of dark academia

"As an observer, I do feel that more people are looking similar," Raniwala says. "In a way, people have almost become clones of each other. Even though there's a lot more confidence and body positivity among Gen Zers, there's a lot of uniformity in how they look." This is evident in numerous Gen Z style icons. Take the Y2K and clean girl aesthetics championed by Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Hailey Bieber. Closer home, a scroll through the feeds of Gen Z actors Shanaya Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor would show you practically indistinguishable styles featuring a heavy smattering of more Y2K and touches of cottagecore.

The rising problem with trend-cores isn't the lack of personal style but the algorithm's skewed priorities that dictate social media. It filters personal styles and often groups similar content, so coincidences and small similarities blur together in waves of an aesthetic where everything neutral, deconstructed, or Rick Owens may be avant-apocalypse and all bold prints, dramatic volumes, and whimsical silhouettes, á la Christopher John Rogers, are labelled clowncore. Sonika Phakey, fashion and beauty partnerships manager at TikTok, says a personal style movement revamps niche aesthetics on the platform, "Creators who have a bold personal aesthetic are mixing and matching styles rather than following trends or being attached to a specific aesthetic. You could go as far as to say having no aesthetic is becoming an aesthetic in itself!"

Shanaya Kapoor, Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor living in their Y2K era
IT ALL GOES BACK TO THE RUNWAY
While these micro-trends can be overwhelming, they help fashion writers and creators make new collections palatable to a broader audience. "Collections have always been categorised into trends because that's how the public consumes it," says Raniwala. "Today, it makes its way easily onto the internet because that is where many shoppers get their information. The era of closed-door runway shows or fashion limited to an insider circle is over."

Additionally, the rise of platforms like TikTok has given way to a wider range of voices and fashion commentators. "The power of the 'For You' page means that any creator can build an audience that could easily match the scale of brands, fashion titles, and even style icons using TikTok. Additionally, because of the video-first nature of the platform, there is a depth of personality, discussion, and nuance within trend commentary and analysis," Phakey says.

If these trends go back to designers' collections, does fashion's cyclical and symbiotic nature mean that these rapidly changing trends influence the design processes? According to Pranav Misra at Huemn, that is decidedly not the case, "The nature of fashion is that it keeps changing, evolving and recycling. We're not following trends because they come and go; we like to represent and reinterpret whatever is in front of us in our times." Huemn, whose aesthetic has been labelled androgynous, athleisure, and even streetwear, has connected to the Gen Z zeitgeist despite not consciously playing into specific trends. "That could be because the brand has always been willing to understand the nerve of the community," Misra elaborates. "If your senses are open, you'll always be relevant because you're going to be reflecting the society around you."
SENSE OF SELF
Arguments can be made against the vicious cycle of new trends leading to the erasure of personal style and adding to the burgeoning over-consumption problem. But these trends have truly given rise to the validation that you can dress up in any costume representing your self-identity, and you'll probably find a community for it. The possibilities are endless, and acceptance comes in every style.

Bella Hadid in vintage Vivienne Westwood

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Do Micro Trends Signal The End Of Personal Style?

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The internet lexicon is littered with phrases like cottagecore, fairycore, and even bitchcore. Can we navigate these micro-trends, or is it the end of personal style as we know it? It's a familiar phenomenon. You wake up and start the day doom-scrolling through social media. So, of course, a new trend has achieved viral status.

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Bethan Beddow
"Where did you get that from?" is a common question asked between people when admiring each other's clothing. It's a gateway question to starting a conversation, and often to forming a friendship with someone new. It allows you to discuss something that you're truly passionate about. Personal style is an art, a form of expression but also an embodiment of something more. Your style can affect your confidence, the way you approach life, and it even impacts others' impressions of you. Bethan Beddow highlights the importance of finding and honing your own style.

Putting together an outfit in the morning can be difficult. Should you choose the flared jeans or the khaki cargos? It may seem like a simple thing to worry about, but for me and many others what we pick can change our whole day. If you regret wearing that top or that jacket then your mood can plummet to nothingness. It can cause an internal battle between yourself and your clothing and leave you wondering, 'why did I wear this?'

Just as every human is unique, so is their style

Personal style is a part of you - it is not a separate entity. Your style grows with you; it reflects your emotions, your thoughts, and your relationship with work and people. Just as every human is unique, so is their style. And that is why personal style is so important to us all.

Clothes can also project a certain image. Take, for example, professional environments. Workers wear blazers, black pumps, muted colours, and usually minimal makeup. There is a need to fit in and this style is one which denotes a successful career.

Will we look back at parachute trousers in a few months and cringe?

Micro-trends can seriously hinder personal style. People want to fit in and can be easily influenced by what they see others wearing around them. However, micro-trends become old news as quickly as they became fashionable. Trends like cow print and low-rise jeans took young people by storm, only to become unpopular in a few weeks. Will we look back at parachute trousers in a few months and cringe?

The environmental costs of micro trends are enormous, yet the fast fashion industry is making billions. These clothes are usually bought cheaply from fast fashion, then discarded once the trend dies. An estimated £140 million worth of clothing is sent to a UK landfill each year.

Consider waiting a few weeks to see if it's something you really do like

Overconsumption is ruining not just our need to find our own personal style, but also the world around us. Yet there are plenty of more sustainable alternatives. Rather than buying into microtrends, perhaps consider waiting a few weeks to see if it's something you really do like, fits your personal style, and something you'll still want to wear in a year's time. And then, try buying from sustainable businesses or second-hand from charity shops or online resale apps.

Whether you view clothes as simply something to keep you warm, or you're a fashionista, everyone has a personal style. It can be a way of expressing your inner self, giving you confidence and a crucial part of living your life.
Featured image courtesy of Sarah Brown via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image. For more content including uni news, reviews, entertainment, lifestyle, features and so much more, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to get involved. If you just can't get enough of Lifestyle, like our Facebook as a or contributor.

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The Importance of Personal Style - Impact Magazine

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Bethan Beddow "Where did you get that from?" is a common question asked between people when admiring each other's clothing. It's a gateway question to starting a conversation, and often to forming a friendship with someone new. It allows you to discuss something that you're truly passionate about.

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Corsets, sweater vests, hibiscus print, Y2K and most recently "Twee" fashion - all clothing items and styles that became simultaneously popular and unpopular on Tik Tok within months. If you frequent thrift stores, you've probably seen quite a lot of these items on clothing racks. They have fallen into the trap of the infamous microtrend.

Microtrends have become a hot topic in fashion discourse across all platforms. Essentially, a microtrend is a clothing item or aesthetic that becomes popular for a short period of time, unlike macrotrends which usually last anywhere from 5 to 10 years. With the popularity of Tik Tok in particular, the time span of a microtrend has shrunk from a decent 2 to 3 years to a fragile 2 to 3 months.

Why don't these trends last very long? The new democratized fashion industry where everyday people and influencers create trends has a hand at this. While a select group of fashion designers and celebrities used to drive trends through magazines and movies decades ago, social media with quick and formulated algorithms is able to quickly push certain videos to a wide group of people.

Any influencer with a brand deal can post a large PR haul and gain millions of views and any given clothing item or style can fully saturate fashion communities with millions of videos. This oversaturation, however, makes trends grow stale fast, meaning that trends don't last long and clothes either get donated or thrown out.

Here lies a problem: microtrends are a large benefactor of textile waste that harms the environment.

The clothing industry, according to Business Insider, contributes to 10% of carbon emissions. 85% of textiles every year are thrown into landfills, with certain synthetic fabrics pushing plastic into the ocean. The earth is suffocating from the waste fashion industries produce.

When microtrends become popular, fast fashion companies notice. These corporations, like their name states, make units quickly, usually with poor construction made through unethical labor. With this business model, the fast fashion industry is able to capitalize on microtrends, but when the trends are over and the poor quality causes items to fall apart, the textiles are thrown out adding to the mountain of waste.

An example of this is the strawberry dress designed by independent artist Lirika Matoshi. The design had blown up to astronomical degrees on Tik Tok, with the dress originally priced at $490, something that normal teenagers and young adults could not afford. Fast fashion companies like AliExpress stole Matoshi's design and made thousands of cheap recreations and consumers flocked to them, paying for poor quality over the original design.

The strawberry dress, though originally chic, has lost popularity and those who initially loved the dress threw it out. This is a fickle cycle that microtrends and fast fashion recreations cause, with clothes becoming popular and then becoming trash. Fast fashion is unavoidable for many people, as it is the most affordable option for many consumers. However, participating in microtrends is a conscious decision that can be avoided.

When you no longer want certain clothing items, donate rather than throw them out. You can opt for sustainable brands, which usually ethically make long-lasting clothing items, but if the costly prices are too much, look into shopping at local thrift stores. Building a unique personal style and overall consuming less fashion won't solve the problem alone, but will lessen the impact microtrends have on our environment.

So next time you see a cute clothing item on Tik Tok, ask yourself, "Will I wear this in a year from now?"

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Corsets, sweater vests, hibiscus print, Y2K and most recently "Twee" fashion - all clothing items and styles that became simultaneously popular and unpopular on Tik Tok within months. If you frequent thrift stores, you've probably seen quite a lot of these items on clothing racks. They have fallen into the trap of the infamous microtrend....