letstalkvintage

[letstalkvintage]

Micro Trends and the death of individualism 

Written by Bethany Nowakowski 

May 24th 2024

It’s 2020 and everyone’s spending their lockdown days on tiktok, mindlessly scrolling with no hope for it to end, and then came ‘cottagecore’. Shortly followed by ‘old money’, ‘clean girl’, and ‘downtown girl’. All examples of aesthetics and trends that gave people the opportunity to dress outside of the mainstream fashion. 

At first it was a gateway for people to escape the confinements of what the magazines told them to wear, they no longer had to look like Victoria secret models but instead could find comfort in their grunge and emo-like outfits. Or find comfort in the complete opposite, and no one would judge it. However, slowly it became a pressure for people to find an aesthetic and stick to it. I myself had bought a whole new wardrobe in hopes of fitting in with all the ‘cottagecore’ influencers that had taken over my social media, only for all the clothes to arrive and for me to realise it didn’t suit me at all. So instead, I began a search for my own individualism which was actually just me trying to find a place to belong. My individualism equating to buying what was being thrown in my face - the white linen trousers, the faux leather shackets, the low-waisted baggy jeans, all of which currently collect dust in the junk drawer. 

These micro-trends offered me a branch of freedom from having to fit into one aesthetic, but in doing so I spent hundreds on clothing I’ve never worn. It was okay, though, because I bought them all from vinted so it’s ethical. Buying second hand gave me an excuse for the small fortune I lost on clothes I didn’t even like for as long as tiktok did, and all of the carbon emissions from the delivery. It didn’t matter that the brown disc belt that used to be in the charity shop for £3 now cost £40. It was just fashion. 

The aesthetics and trends that were originally designed as inspiration - something for people to look at and figure out what they like and what they don’t - have become a cage for innovation. The focus is on copying the whole design instead of picking it apart and taking what suited you most.

Slowly, over the past couple of years, the ‘innovative’ creators have become the new Victoria Secret models. Everyone is trying to dress like them and creating more of the same. Where individualism used to thrive, it now suffers in the bottom drawer with all the clothes we bought trying to catch up with the micro trends. The trends that followed from aesthetics forcing the wearer to sacrifice personal style in order to look fashionable enough for a follow.