With the release of the Barbie movie and the success of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, 2023 was deemed the year of girlhood. Because of this, many women found themselves embracing a more feminine style, adorning themselves in pink, lace, and bows. That period of summer was the most fun I’d had in expressing myself in a long time. I felt in touch with all the more girly aspects of myself that I’d neglected throughout my teenage years. But by now, if you are chronically online in the fashion world like I am, you’ve likely seen discussions of whether or not the bow trend that cropped up during this time has run its course. Videos about how it’s time to embrace new looks like “mob wife,” or “office siren,” or whatever the latest aesthetic was, went viral throughout January and have sparked a much larger discourse about self-expression.Â
Hopping on trends is fun! Discussing things like the latest cool shoe or accessory has created a sense of camaraderie amongst women online that I feel like I haven’t seen in pretty much the whole of my time on the internet. That being said, I do feel like it has created a culture in which we value consumption over self-expression. It seems many people would rather have the latest “it girl” item than take a second to reflect on what they actually enjoy, or why they feel called to constantly buy the latest and greatest thing. I, myself, continuously fall victim to this; I am at a constant war with myself to not buy whatever the newest trendy lip product is (it’s always lip products and I could not tell you why). But, I can’t help but be saddened at the idea that we feel like we have to do this.Â
At the end of the day, the fact that we have the power to choose how we present ourselves should be deeply thrilling! I think that what made the summer of 2023 so empowering for so many was that it felt like an active choice made by women all over the world to embrace the more traditionally feminine aspects of ourselves. Now, it feels as though we’ve fallen away from that. Instead of embracing ourselves authentically and thinking about where we’re sourcing our clothing, many girls are falling into traps of overconsumption. I see massive SHEIN hauls and closets overflowing with fast fashion that’ll disintegrate after two washes, and I can’t help but feel a little grim about the whole thing.
Fashion trends have existed forever, but in a world where we have access to just about anything you could ever imagine wearing, I think we should put down the TikTok shop and take the time to evaluate what we actually feel drawn to. For better or for worse, we have the whole world at our fingertips. We’re only here once, and I believe that while we’re here, our main job is to pursue joy as much as we can. I could get even more Philosophy 101 about all of this, but the point is that whether you’re following the trends or wearing sweats and slides, I hope we can all start wearing what actually makes us feel truly ourselves.