By Julia Gastone
It’s a Wednesday night and you’ve spent the last three hours scrolling through Tiktok all the while telling yourself that you’re going to go to bed after “just one more”. As someone interested in fashion, you’ve seen about a hundred Zara hauls telling you what the best pieces are from the sale, forty more people doing their daily “GRWMs” (Get Ready With Me’s for the inexperienced Tiktok users), and at least a handful of wannabe influencers showing you where to buy designers dupes on Amazon. A few pieces have caught your eye and you may even have added them to your cart, perhaps express ordered them in the exhausted haze that is your late-night Tiktok fix. However, as trendy and cute as these young Tiktokers look in their green (or newly purple) House of Sunny Hockney Dresses, or their Beginning Boutique crochet halter minis, these are not the people you should be following and here’s why:
Social Media platforms, while a vital part of the current fashion scene, play off of the urgency that we feel due to the rapidly accelerating trend cycle. It is no secret that fashion has historically existed on a twenty-year-cycle whereby there are five stages: the introduction, the rise, the peak, the decline and the outdated. However, platforms like Tiktok are taking this twenty-year-cycle and changing it into something that lasts only a few months, a year max. When we are scrolling as quickly as we are and constantly consuming content, influencers are sending us the messages that this is what is cool NOW. Not “being introduced” or “on the rise” but that these iconic pieces, as the ones aforementioned, are trendy at this very moment and should be purchased as quickly as possible (before they too are outdated). Therefore, the microtrends that we see right now are birthed from the overarching macrotrends that also will go out of style almost as quickly as the pieces that can only exist within their shadow. The recently named “Avant-Basic” is the most relevant example, featuring 60s and 70s patterns on simple silhouettes, and while this is a significantly more progressive macrotrend than the Lululemon athleisure-wear that we saw several years back, the damage that it does is similarly problematic. Platforms like Tiktok will only continue to accelerate trends and kill the entire idea of personal style while contributing to an environmental catastrophe unless the discourse is changed.
Previously, the idea of the all-powerful magazine editor (while a somewhat problematic and even abusive figurehead) was the one who dictated trends, but in the current day it has been tossed back into the hands of the individual. This means that these Tiktok influencers actually have a unique opportunity to change the way in which we consume fashion, and more importantly new trends. Instead of constantly showing what us hauls, try-ons, and specific pieces that everyone should own, fashion needs to go back to its artistic and even academic roots. Fashion is smart, like any art form, it takes analysis and even intellect to truly understand it as well as be able to make contributions to its scene, hence the idea of the powerful and intellectual editor. The editor did not get to her position by simply being ruthless, the archetype (widely influenced by Anna Wintour) comes from a sense of all-knowingness, which is only possible when one is knowledgeable about its history, pursuits, and intentions.
What the new TikTok influencers could be doing to help is using their platforms to start a conversation about what is currently happening in fashion. Instead of showing their favorite Zara pieces, discussing why these same Zara pieces are relevant today. What is it that makes them fashionable? How can we style them? What are their historical influences? If Tiktokers were able to use their voices much like the slowly dying Style writers and journalists to share their opinions and thoughts on how to develop a personal style, what makes their favorite pieces interesting, and what we can expect to see in the future, the trend cycle could not only be slowed down, but it could lead to a stronger fashion identity within younger generations. Fashion could instead be used as a form of artistic self expression as opposed to a pop-culture explosion of what is “trendy” and “popular” at one second in time.
While the vast majority of Tiktok fashion influencers fall into this problematic category, there are some that are making huge strides and talking about these same issues on their profiles. One of my personal favorite examples is @guyfieri.superfan on Tiktok, also known as Alexandra Hildreth, a writer for ‘Beyond The Mag’. Alexandra shares her opinions on recent collections, what makes them strong or where they need to improve, and what statements ae being made in the grand scheme of things. She even defines terms for people who are interested in getting more into fashion on a deeper level such as the difference between ‘Subversive Basics’, ‘Basics’, and the trendy ‘Avant-Basic’. Another favorite Tiktoker of mine, @oldroseinbrooklyn or Mandy, also aims at educating the masses on what is going on in the fashion universe and why it is important in other walks of life. Some of my favorite videos come from her series ‘Identifying Designers’ which teaches people how to spot specific designers using modern terminology. She lists designers and their iconic looks while describing what to look for so her viewers too understand where certain pieces come from and how relevant they have been to the current fashion scene. Mandy puts a large emphasis on the idea of the capsule closet and how to build one that will last you for the rest of your life so one does not have to contribute to the environmentally harmful trends cycles we are seeing. These Tiktokers are the ones paving the way for more influencers to use their platforms to completely change the way we see fashion: not as a way to “fit in” or immerse yourself in pop culture, but how to build a collection that is long-term sustainable, aids in creating a confident personal identity, and even contributing to a socially-relevant and political fashion scene.
JulesWorld 