I’m sure we’re all familiar with microtrends, specifically the ones circulating around the internet right now. Jorts and bows were the hot topic of the summer. Shirts with bow prints were in almost every store, ribbons were on everything from hair to shoes, people were getting bow tattoos, and basically everyone was leaving the house in short shorts and a little top. This was the “it girl” style over the last couple of months, but with popular creators getting older and developing a more mature fashion taste, are we going to see a more permanent change in trends/style? And how will this impact the internet and young people on social media?
Popular TikTok creator, Erika Titus, is a great example of this. She gained popularity around 2021-2022 for her fun makeup tutorials and fashion taste. Erika has always done a wonderful job at keeping up with the trends and I feel that she has a pretty big influence on her followers and the fashion world in general. She’s gained so much popularity over the past couple years that she’s actually been able to attend some pretty big fashion events herself. This past New York Fashion week, Erika has been posting videos of her outfits linked here; and although some trends from over the summer still exist in her style today, it’s easy to see she’s making a switch to a much more mature style that’s more suitable for her age.
Currently, Erika is very into long skirts, button down shirts, slick-back hair styles, and thin rectangle glasses. And compared to how she used to dress not even short of a year ago, it is very different- as we can see linked here. Of course, as people get older they change and are less interested in things they once were when they were younger- this is just common knowledge. But the interesting part about this is that now that these influencers are getting older and beginning to become more set in their style, with their new found tastes possibly being more permanent, we have to wonder: will this mature fashion sense stick around for the long run?
Another popular creator that has definitely changed their style a bit drastically over time is Charli D’Amelio. Charli was extremely popular in 2019, as she gained a big following very quickly and I feel that she kept the influence she had on the young girls of TikTok for years after. To this day, it seems that she is still considered one of the most popular TikTok stars. TikTok users basically grew up with Charli, as she went from long hair and athleisure linked here, to her style today, examplified here and even here. Now, Charli sports a clean bob haircut and dresses a lot more sophisticatedly. She wears a lot of boots, dark leathers, jeans, and simple tops. I believe that her style is very much “New York Girl Boss,” and her followers are eating it up.
Charli has been a role-model for many young girls and her fans from throughout the years really admire her. Just like with Erika, people want to emulate Charli. I think social media users want to dress like these popular influencers, so my guess is that due to the maturation of these stars and their style, mature fashion trends will stick around. The biggest concern with this phenomenon lies in the effects it has on younger TikTok users.
I don’t know about anyone else, but personally when I was younger(we’re talking around the ages of eight through twelve-ish), I was big into Justice and American Eagle. These stores were big then- let’s say, around 2014- and social media was not much of a thing, at least for kids my age. So, when my parents would take me shopping, I just got what I thought looked nice and what other kids were wearing to school at the time. Of course, we were influenced by older kids back then too, just like these kids now; but our fashion references were mainly high schoolers and the older middle school kids. Children of this generation that are on these social media apps are looking up to people like Erika and Charli- who are in their twenties- and of course, this causes some eyebrow raises.
It seems to me that children ranging from eight to sixteen are dressing way older than their age trying to replicate these twenty-year-olds outfits. This is concerning because it blurs the line between what is socially acceptable for children and what is not. Although it might seem harmless that a thirteen-year-old kid wants to wear a denim skirt with a plain square cut top, it can be dangerous and bring unwanted attention to the child.
If this mature fashion trend does stick around for a while, it may have a very big influence on how children of this generation act online– and even offline. I think they’re going to start dressing less expressively for their age, and take interest in more adult-like activities.