Hours into your nightly doomscroll. The process becomes tedious, millions of users play a part in the same fashion. The same trends everyday, everywhere you go; heavily personalized content made into solely clicks and views. While platforms like TikTok and Instagram can be educational, they can also be unhealthily influential. Do microtrends help individuals find their style, or do they destroy all sense of originality?
A microtrend is a short-lived trend, normality in fashion starting from influential apps like TikTok. These trends are normally hot for a couple weeks on end, and die off soon later.
In a recent Eye of The Gale questionnaire, some LHS students responded and said that they avoid getting stuck in the microtrend loophole.
LHS freshman Claire Coy shows her appreciation for microtrends by building her closet.
“They can destroy your originality to an extent. They can help me expand my closet and have some more diverse options. I even like some trends like Labubus because they’re funny” said Coy.
LHS senior Lillian Hayman said that she is well aware of how the microtrend loophole can overtake originality.
“I don’t let them completely take over me, like I’ve seen, but I’ll incorporate them. I am not too into microtrends unless I’ve already decided I like them myself” Hayman said.
“Some people do genuinely like to follow micro-fashion and just hop on the bandwagon. I never want to be a bandwagon jumper, I try to make my own opinions. I also don’t have any social media, so if I do follow it’s purely incidental,” Hayman added.
LHS junior Taylor Randolph said that microtrends can limit someone’s perspective.
“I always dress how I like, if I’m participating in one it’s either because I liked it beforehand or it’s something I’m gonna stick with. I hate the rise of unoriginality. It feels like less and less people are comfortable taking creative liberties in how they express themselves” Randolph said.
On the other hand, LHS freshman Zaine Russ adds that he adores microtrends for their entertainment value.
“I love to participate in trends like Labubus, cool shoes, and trendy perfume. I really like Labubus and I think they’re the cutest thing ever” said Russ.
Some students added that it is difficult to keep up with microtrends so they don’t necessarily feel the impact.
According to an NBC news article, Microtrends are killing personal style and making shopping a nightmare, “Marketing on apps like TikTok and Instagram has changed the landscape of fashion, experts say, making clothing more instantaneously accessible and trends gigantic but fleeting. Normal people don’t have time to keep up like fashion influencers do, but social media is constantly trying to make them” (Venkatraman).
“Most of the time I feel like by the time I participate in a trend, it is already dead. Sometimes it’s too hard to know if the trend will stick or just die off” Coy said.
Like Coy, Hayman too said that microtrends come and go very quickly.
“Sometimes I even get into something before it gets popular, then I’m like, I was into this first, but I don’t really have social media, so when I learned about certain trends, I mainly learned from friends and relatives” Hayman added.
Randolph added that she keeps her original style despite what microtrends suggest is in or trendy.
“Microtrends have never affected my personal style, I see certain trends all the time like sweat sets, UGGs, and squishy dumplings, But I have never been a trend follower because I hate the rise in unoriginality,” Randolph said.
Unlike Randolph, Russ said he enjoys jumping on the bandwagon and going with the flow.
“I normally participate in microtrends regardless if they stay popular for a long time. Most of the time the microtrends that pique my interest are ones I like because I think they’re popular for a reason,” Russ said.
In addition to diminishing personal originality, microtrends contribute to an overall high rate of over consumption and there are over 100 billion new garments of fast-fashion produced every year. Microtrends are killing personal style and making shopping a nightmare (Venkatraman).
