Seasonal fashion is no longer a way to express individual identity for women. Instead, it has largely become a competition to see who can emulate the chic, unique, “it girl” aesthetic the best. Often, this requires rapid accumulation of new clothing. Some pieces and materials are classic: suede, the ‘little black dress’ and ballet flats. Others aren’t: studded denim, Adidas Sambas and leopard print. While the definition of “classic” is fleeting, consumers often use it to label fashion that transcends time and is simple enough to be worn in a myriad of situations. A microtrend is the opposite: clothing that surges in popularity, is rapidly consumed and falls out of the trend cycle mere months later. Large corporations take advantage of microtrends to increase their sales by flooding the fashion market with replications of a few trending clothing items. The latter are the trends that large corporations have commercialized. I would say the popularization of these once-unique clothing pieces is charming, if not for the fact that they threaten to destroy our individuality.
Sociologist Diana Crane remarked that a shift in the economy of American society changed the symbology behind pieces of clothing. Crane argued that the transition to a postindustrial society propelled individuals to find identity outside of work, and in order to communicate that identity, they turned to clothing. Clothing gathers meaning from many sources, including popular culture and media, through a process Crane calls “semiotic layering.” These connotations became fundamental to the communication of identity, especially for adolescents and young adults.
Today, however, media and popular culture often play a different role in youth fashion: They popularize “unique” clothing items, preying on consumers’ desires to feel ‘special.’ Consumers subconsciously become victims of microtrend after microtrend, adopted by thousands of other consumers.
This cycle demonstrates the superficiality of American identity. America is built upon an individualistic mindset, in contrast to the collectivist cultures of many other countries. Individualism and collectivism are two ends of a spectrum representing how concerned or not concerned members of a society are concerned with their own personal interests. Individualist societies highly value self-expression and, in turn, uniqueness. Individuality can be communicated through nonverbal cues, like clothing, influencing how others perceive us.
The collective emphasis on the importance of self-expression breeds a desire to prove oneself as special. As a result, seemingly “unique” fashion items fly off the shelves at an alarming rate that has more than doubled over the past two decades.
A quick scroll online will reveal which items are purchased in frantic shopping sprees and the purported individuality they bestow upon the purchaser. Users on TikTok sheepishly shake their heads and stomp their feet indignantly when accused of subscribing to microtrends. One claims they’re “not wearing Sambas in a microtrend way, but in a Tri-Poloski way,” while another claims “when I tell people I wear ’90s Adidas they think I mean it in a microtrend way, but I mean it in the Slavic/Balkan Tri-Poloski dad kind of way.” Ironically, though, they’re not as unique as they think they are or as they’re trying to be. In their attempts to deny association with mainstream culture, users unknowingly succumb to it. This phenomenon is only a microcosm for a broader trend: the growing desperation to be unique and the simultaneous inability to do so, as a result of mass production of seemingly unique clothing items.
Achieving the modern “it girl” designation is nearly impossible. In theory, she’s a breath of fresh air — an escape from the monotony of modern “copy-paste” fashion. In practice, her aesthetic is so desired that it has become the muse of companies like Zara, H&M and Adidas.
Upon first glance, it seems cruel to judge one’s fashion choices. However, a deeper look into why individuals love microtrends so much reveals an underlying issue: We’ve regressed to a society where individuality is valued but seldom seen. Fast fashion has sneakily become the right-hand man of large clothing corporations. Sure, buy the Adidas Sambas, the studded denim and the leopard print. As a proud owner of at least two out of the three aforementioned microtrends, I’m not here to judge. However, it’s important to recognize the effects of large corporations and media commercialization on your fashion wish lists and purchasing habits.
