Collage of viral TikTok micro trends The Xavierite
Fast fashion, an industry that is rapidly becoming a critical concern for modern environmentalists, is growing more destructive in direct response to TikTok micro trends.
Fast fashion refers to the mass production of items typically made of cheap materials that are harmful to the environment.
In the fashion world, trends typically have 20-year lifespans. On a smaller scale, some believe a more accurate trend cycle to occur over five to seven years. In the age of instant online gratification, however, micro trends can pop up overnight and disappear within the month.
The cycle is said to follow five distinct stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline, and obsolescence. This structure holds true even for TikTok, but the new era of trends has a much quicker completion rate.
Fashion products, trends, and more abstract “aesthetics” are introduced on TikTok in a variety of ways ranging from paid advertisements in major influencers’ videos to grassroots campaigns from amateur content creators claiming to have discovered the Next Big Thing.
For example, the concept of a “Mob Wife Era” (MWE) entered the TikTok mainstream over the past two weeks. A handful of women posted videos that gained notoriety after claiming they were entering their MWE, with the only real identifiable trait being a fur coat.
That handful of women spiraled into a few dozen creators attempting to create a Mob Wife look. The trend has entered the second stage, AKA the rise. The concept hasn’t been widely advertised enough to argue that it’s reached its peak quite yet, but it’s entirely possible that step three is close on the horizon.
Once enough people adopt this phrase and begin to propagate the trend, however, it will soon reach step four: the decline.
For TikTok micro trends, the fall can transpire before most people have even seen the rise. But once enough people begin to follow the trend, it falls out of vogue. After all, if everyone’s in on the secret, it doesn’t seem that lucrative anymore.
We live in total contradiction: everyone wants to be the trendsetter, but the moment the trend becomes too popular, it’s time to jump ship.
When trends fall from grace, they enter the final stage: obsolescence. What was “in” mere days prior is now decidedly “out.”
Think of the micro trends that have become totally obsolete after their decline.
The strawberry dress that everybody needed to wear in 2020 now rots in the back of a thousand closets. The niche fashion style of Dark Academia has become just as basic as its fallen counterparts like the Cottagecore, E-Girl, or Old Money aesthetic. Even the more recent trend of “Blueberry milk nails” is already past its prime.
My gripe isn’t only with the growing prevalence of micro trends. What’s far more dangerous than simply following the herd is the disastrous effect this cycle is having on the environment.
If what sociologists say nowadays is true and influencers financially impact the lifestyles of their followers, every trend that a popular creator adopts becomes a new opportunity for the viewer to buy, buy, buy.
In the past year alone, I’ve watched hordes of people buy oval glasses to emulate the Office Siren look, dye their hair brown to match Hailey Bieber’s “cinnamon cookie butter” hair, and search high and low for cheap imitations of the viral floral-printed dress of the summer.
Once the trend dies down and a new product takes its place, the money moves elsewhere. In many cases, people will buy “dupes” of a viral product from a sketchy website, and it’s already out of style by the time the package arrives.
So what happens to the Halara pants once they lose their popularity? What happens to the asymmetrical pattern sweaters? The cherry-dusted fake nail sets?
For most of these viral sensations, they end up forgotten at the back of a dresser or in a garbage bin after spring cleaning. At least people know that, once their recent purchase is “out,” it’ll still be “in” at a landfill.
The rapid turnaround of these trends promotes a cycle of overconsumption that the common viewer falls into time after time. In turn, it becomes fodder for fast fashion.
Items like Champion sweatshirts, once a staple of Walmarts everywhere, are now resold on Depop for five times the amount the seller bought it at.
When pricier products go viral such as Lirika Matoshi’s $800 Hot Pink Cutout Dress, the masses turn to sites like SHEIN for a cheaper alternative.
Despite it being more affordable, shopping somewhere like SHEIN enables excessive production of low-quality items that oversaturate the market. Furthermore, most fast fashion brands profit due to overworked and underpaid employees who are forced to endure unsafe working conditions.
Simply put, in order to keep up with micro trends, the fast fashion industry sacrifices all ethical workplace procedures.
Many psychologists believe the bandwagon effect is built into the human brain. We see people doing something and begin to imitate them because, on a subconscious level, we assume it’s the right thing to do.
Even still, remember that the digital bandwagon that seems permanently linked to TikTok trends impacts more than your wallet.
For the sake of your environmental footprint, consider investing in a Capsule wardrobe of classic essentials rather than bending to the whim of every micro trend. Buy clothes you’ll actually wear.
At the end of the day, sustainability is always the most stylish option.