The feeling of belonging to the “it crowd” makes the unsustainable lifestyle of overconsumption and “trend hopping” the new norm. Here are some tips and reflections about fashion and trends so you can develop and enhance your personal style.
Trend cycles and overconsumption
Fashion trends are not something bad. Being able to find new styles and inspirations is something magical that fashion has always provided, and experiencing trends can be a gateway to amplifying your own personal style.
However, the social status and imposed superiority that accompanies being “on trend”, nowadays has made trendsetting a tool for people to give the impression of an elevated cultural sophistication.
The notion that what matters is following trends and not necessarily wearing what you enjoy, pushes towards the consumption of new clothing and accessories at every new trend cycle, leading to their eventual rejection after the newest aesthetic comes along the for you page telling everyone how one era is over and the next one is just beginning. If the reason to shop is to keep up with the hype, then when the hype is over, there’s not really a reason why you would want to keep clothes you don’t identify with.
All of these creative names for aesthetics can actually help when it comes to garnering inspiration for personal style choices. It makes fashion fun when you can imagine the scenario for each aesthetic, mixing styles to bring a specific idea to life: office siren, mob wife, whimsical goth, coastal grandma, vanilla girl, pomegranate girl… It really can be a fun way to expand and even find new things you never thought about trying out for your own closet.
The problem is the pressure of adhering to only one specific style that was curated by social media influencers, and feeling like as soon as it fades out of popularity, there is no value to it. There is no right way to participate in these aesthetics, because taste and more importantly fashion are subjective; there are always going to be styles that you’ll find incredible, some you find cute on other people, some you find outright weird – and that’s okay, that’s how it’s supposed to be.
But everybody jumping on a trend, because that’s a natural course of a trend, to then getting sick of it because everyone is participating, just fuels a vicious cycle of overconsumption where there is always something new to buy for the new fashion era.
There is this pressure when talking about fashion that to be stylish you have to be able to pull off any outfit, that there is nothing you shouldn’t be able to make work; and for something to “work” there has to be some sort of external approval, but it’s simply not true. Humans are variable and always changing, and humans make fashion, so it would be absurd to uphold a standard to style that is unachievable for any of us.
People are what create and observe fashion, and at the end of the day the most important part of fashion is authenticity, and the feeling of being comfortable and confident in what you are wearing.
Here are some shopping and life tips to help you find your way to an authentic and personal wardrobe so you can look good and feel good.
How to find your own personal style
The first thing to think about when analyzing your clothes is the physical component of the piece. If it has a texture you don’t like to touch; if it has a neckline you don’t find flattering; if it’s made of a fabric that makes you sweat too much. There are many valid reasons to avoid certain pieces because they just don’t make sense for your body or lifestyle.
The next step would be to find inspiration. Movies, TV shows, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, people you see on the street, and anything that sparks joy can be a source of inspiration. Here is also when the trends can come in, maybe you found a new way of styling some pieces you never thought before, perhaps you are entering a new stage in your life and are feeling drawn to a certain vibe of clothing.
Keep in mind that when you see an influencer, for example, wearing a cute outfit you feel you want to replicate, sometimes there can be a certain fixation of how the outfit looks on that specific body type, and that’s the part you feel more drawn to; so always make sure to gather many inspirations to be able to clearly disassociate the actual look from the body image aspect.
You can pick and choose what you want from your inspirations to make a selection that you feel makes you happy without the social validation of being “on trend”.
When you find a type of silhouette or cut you like, start making up outfits based on inspirations and make a note of what generally it is you like to wear. Having an outline of what you feel good wearing can help when wanting to expand your style so that you don’t get the feeling you are forcing yourself to like an outfit just because you think you’re supposed to.
It may seem simple, but knowing combinations and styles you enjoy wearing makes weeding out those pieces of clothing you buy but never wear much easier, and then you end up buying only what makes sense for you.
When buying new clothes or when the desire to shop comes around, it’s important to hold on for a moment and reflect: Do i really like this item or is it just trendy right now?
Make sure you actually like the style of the piece, because sometimes what draws you to buy something is what it means socially to have it; so if it weren’t exactly that trendy item, if it were a different brand, or the same style but a bit different, would you still be pining after it? Because so many times the “it item” in its original form is what’s sought after, which makes it less about liking a style and more about wanting that exact piece to be able to make it known you own it.
To be able to incorporate new items in your personal style, try to make a place for it with the clothes you already own. It shouldn’t be necessary to buy an entire new wardrobe to make the purchase make sense, and it would limit your use of the item because it wouldn’t harmonize with the clothes you already own.
In general, thinking about purchases over for a day or two before actually buying something, helps with impulse shopping, which minimizes the chances of jumping into a trend just because of that feeling of needing to fit the new fashion era.
It is hard to not get swept up by the sensation of being stylish when the internet is validating your trendy purchases, but the real meaning behind being fashionable is much more personal. It should always be a matter of wearing what you believe makes the outfit scream YOU, and not worry about being able to represent a passing aesthetic with a short life span.
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The article above was edited by Maria Clara Polcan.
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