By Sophia-Ines Klein and Jennifer Lau
Our closets are revolving doors of social media-induced fashion fads. Like it or not, we’re stuck in an endless race to appease social media’s stylistic standards. As our retail choices are guided by raging digital trends, the lines between the digital space and real life have become blurred. Are we blindly mistaking the algorithm for taste?
Now, we’re all victims of this. See above: Soph and Jen’s microtrends collection. It’s no secret that social media is the biggest trend catalyst, shifting our fixations from Y2K to minimalist chic within a month. Lucky for us, fast fashion brands adapt just as quickly. While other brands release two to four collections totaling 12 styles a year, super-fast fashion brand Shein releases 10,000 new products daily. At this rate, we’re starting to wonder if even the trends need a breather… By mass-producing affordable pieces to the beat of fleeting fads, brands like Zara and Shein profit from our insatiable desire to stay à la mode.
“Today, buying a dress is like buying a Big Mac: cheap, fast and, judging by the poorer quality seen in fast fashion clothes, not very healthy,” describes Christina Dean, founder and chief executive officer of Redress.
Not only can trends make us disillusioned from taste, by aligning our choices with the algorithm, we become vulnerable to trend fatigue. With the oversaturation of transient products, fashion begins to feel like a shallow pursuit of what the herd deems as stylish rather than a development of individual style and affirmation of identity.
This begs the question, why are trends so convincing? Maybe it is the collective validation of style, or the avoidance of FOMO? In short, following trends is a fast pass to the in-crowd.
Honestly, we think that it’s an easy way for someone to get away with having style. But that’s not to say that wearing a trendy item completely negates fashion sense. Trends become popular for a reason (even if we can’t tell why) but that’s where personal style comes in. While often used interchangeably, we must be careful to distinguish taste and style. Taste is a preference that frames pieces of clothing or accessories as desirable, while style is how one expresses themselves through fashion. Give two people one trendy item, and you may find two completely different looks.
But as trends begin to crowd the vision of our Instagram “It girls”, threats to individualism creep in. With trends framing the universal calibre for fashion, the perception of style narrows. In short, trends homogenise style. When the desire to stay trendy and the access to low-commitment fast-fashion purchases overshadow personal style, scrolling through Instagram begins to feel like a headache of micro-shorts, leopard print, and cowboy boots.
However, trends don’t need to be the enemies of style that we’ve made them out to be. As fast fashion brands quickly pick up on new trends, they allow people to affordably access new designs to expand their own style. Arguably, the combination of trends and style are what drive fashionable success.
Take a look at the recent London Fashion Week spring/summer ‘25 shows and we’ll see how tapping into past and current trends can launch designers’ work to the top of consumers’ wish lists. The 1960s trend of all things sheer and made a strong return this September, showcasing the use of colour with an interplay of translucent and opaque. A peruse of the LFW lineup will show that Nensi Dojoka delivered just that with models robed in sheer skilful constructions in her collection with Calvin Klein. Look further to the likes of Zara and ASOS and you’ll find that mesh is just as prominent.
As trends return every few years, and designers leverage them in their collections, it shows exactly how we can capitalise on trends to define or enrich our own style. So sure, wear your leopard print and cowboy boots – just be careful to not be a clone of the person next to you!
