As a senior approaching my final semester of college, I recently took the time to clean out my wardrobe. In doing so, I’ve taken a trip down memory lane, encountering an amalgamation of clothes of different trends, styles and aesthetics. As I looked around at all these pieces of clothing that I would not be caught dead in now, I asked myself: what happened?
Pieces that I was once so excited to wear now seemed hideous to me. I have always strived to maintain my individuality, especially in fashion, but what I found shocked me: my closet had become a museum of forgotten microtrends, fast fashion dupes and dated statement pieces. I wondered what exactly that said about me. Where is my personal style?
Perhaps the better question to ask is, where is everyone’s personal style? I can’t be the only one struggling with this issue. I set out to get to the bottom of this, and turned to the internet for help.
With the beginning of a new year, there has become a resurgence of discourse about this issue online. I came across a recent video by YouTuber and content creator, Mina Le, called “the death of personal style.” In Le’s video, she describes her inner conflicts about taking a more basic approach to personal fashion, after spending years building her personal brand around her eccentric dress sense inspired by her expertise of fashion history. This departure from her own personal style prompted her to investigate the death of personal style on a societal level.
Le reflects on the long and sometimes tedious process of building an outfit in the morning. She challenges herself to dress using a capsule wardrobe for 10 days, wearing the same two outfits over and over again. She explains that it was one of the most freeing and productive processes she’s been through. This led her to prompt the question, why is “basic” bad?
I personally believe that “basic” is not bad, as long as it still reflects your own personal style. Things start to get messy when we mix in elements of trending aesthetics and microtrends, which TrendBible describes as “a niche or industry specific consumer behavioral trend which is mass market ready and actionable,” that clutter our wardrobes until they become a cemetery of forgotten trends.
In the wake of the death of personal style, many have named social media as the culprit. In a GQ article entitled “How Instagram Ruined Personal Style,” Chris Black writes that in the current era of fashion, “the barrage of inspirational images, ease of consumption, and overabundance of trends and styles (often quickly duplicated by fast-fashion giants) have changed the landscape.”
The ease and accessibility to social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest shape the way that Gen Z consumes style. With the never-ending slew of microtrends, including “dollcore,” “office siren,” “mafia wife” and “clean girl,” our own personal styles can get lost in a need to emulate whatever is currently popular – even if it is only popular for a few weeks.
If social media is the mastermind behind all this, fast fashion is its right-hand man. As Hannah Schmidt-Rees writes in an article for PERSPEX, “Taking advantage of their cheap production costs, [fast fashion] can pump out cheap clothing that’s based on the latest trends, essentially filling an entire store with just the top 10 trends.”
Black writes that “We are now focused on “pieces”—buying the one, often high-dollar item—that will make us feel good and give us the instant gratification we need.” These “pieces” are often poorly made fast fashion imitations of luxury or trending items. They will feel tacky and dated in a matter of months.
Schmidt-Rees also expands on the role that the economy has played in the rise of fast fashion. She writes, “As the cost of living rises, many people have less disposable income to purchase new fashion, or to be financially comfortable with buying things to experiment with, especially quality items.”
Florenne Earle Ledger writes in her article “Will Core Trends be the Death of Personal Style” that subscribing to fast fashion trends often reflects a desire to be seen as desirable by others.” In short, some of us are buying clothes for pictures, not for life,” Ledger writes.
As most of our “For You” pages are oversaturated with influencer content and “fit check” videos, we have become conditioned to the overexposure of ever-changing trends, as we observe the lives of wealthy influencers who manage to create and keep up with new trends at the drop of a hat. In her blog post “Is personal style really dead?” Mia Sato explains, “You don’t even have to leave your house to see something you covet — you just need to flip through Instagram and scroll for a few minutes on TikTok.”
With the ever-growing business side of platforms like Tiktok and Instagram, our accessibility to these trends is easier than ever. “You can tell someone’s screen time from their outfit,” says Alexandra Hildreth, fashion commentator and writer. Sato writes that “platforms like Pinterest and TikTok dream of a world where every photo and video you see are ‘shoppable.’” One article by NBC News even claims that “the new mall is TikTok Shop.”
So what can we do to combat all of this? I, for one, think it’s time to start reflecting more on ourselves, drawing inspiration from what comes within without subscribing to external factors. This is easier said than done, however, in our social media dominated climate. In his article, Black concludes that in order to maintain your personal style, it is important to “resist trends.” This mindset is helpful, but not perfect if you find some current trends as a reflection of your personal style.
Another solution is avoiding buying pieces that are staples of short-lived trends. It is more sustainable to invest in higher-priced, higher-quality products that can stay in your wardrobe for years to come. Thrifting and second-hand shopping is another great alternative for those who do not have the means of income or are more indecisive in their fashion sense.
I want to end this article with a quote from designer Iris Apfel: “Great personal style is an extreme curiosity about yourself.” I think that in this social media-dominated age, we must turn away from external factors and look within ourselves to find our own personal styles.
Victoria Thompson can be reached at [email protected]
