What’s Secretly Shaping our Style? Pt. I
Over just the last few years there have been so many factors coming in to play to influence our styles and even perceptions of fashion and the industry as a whole. Anything from political movements to what Netflix shows we’re watching, the environment we create and that we surround ourselves in has major power over our fashion (and life) choices.
I know this first-hand - growing up through my single digits, I watched Legally Blonde every day for approximately 5 years, and wanted to become a Lawyer. This career calling ended up not being for me, but I started loving fashion which is still a key theme within the film. So now I wonder is Elle Woods the real reason for my wanting a career in the fashion industry?
In the next article we will be diving into some of the major events that have occurred over the last 5 years within society that have had influence over our style and opinions of what lies behind the fashion industry itself. But, before we get into that let’s talk trends. What even is a trend?
A trend is somewhat of a craze that takes over an aspect of an industry, but if we think about this in terms of fashion, a trend can be anything from a colour palette to a styled silhouette and traditionally, were seasonal.
“Sharing to and engaging with content on platforms like Instagram, Depop and Pinterest can have a massive effect on the consumer market. Trends have the ability to explode overnight.”
Trends can emerge from many different places, but unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’d suspect social media is primarily where you will be exposed to ideas of what to wear. Sharing to and engaging with content on platforms like Instagram, Depop and Pinterest can have a massive effect on the consumer market. Trends have the ability to explode overnight.
With 86% of women researching on social media before making a purchase (Source: Launchmetrics) and with Instagram’s over one billion active users, social media can hold so much power and control over the consumer every single day.
Personally, even with access to trend forecasting services I continue to be heavily influenced by what I see online, Instagram especially. As for me, yes I’m seeing the outfit and the clothing, but I am also seeing a life that comes with this. These two things paired together express this kind of aspirational lifestyle that so many of us are subconsciously striving for. That ‘Instagram aesthetic’ life. It’s extremely accessible, and as you’re doing your daily (or hourly) scroll it doesn’t really feel like you are being exposed to trend based content. To us, we’re browsing, but our mind is working, creating and thinking about how to implement what we are seeing into our lives.
“With the convenience of social media it’s hard to remember how things worked before it.”
Through the seemingly endless scrolling, you might see others adopting the trend, and after a while this familiarity could lead to the purchasing of a product. You’ve just closed loop of a trend born through social media.
With the convenience of social media it’s hard to remember how things worked before it. Especially for a 20-year-old someone like me as I was neither aware nor had an understanding of trends before I was exposed to social media, therefore my understanding of trends through these platforms before beginning my degree was all I ever really knew.
“With today’s accessibility, we don’t need to wait for fashion’s elite to dictate our style choices anymore — we’ve got an Access-All-Areas pass to global fashion inspiration.”
Before the introduction of social media there were a couple of ways in which a trend might be established. They would a) ‘trickle-down’ from runways into the mass market via magazines, celebrities and television appearances, or b) ’bubble-up’ from a subculture, gaining popularity all the way from the streets to the mainstream fashion labels (take the Punk movement, for example).
Due to a new level of visibility and our newfound 24/7 access to tastemakers on platforms like Depop, TikTok and Instagram, the trend cycle as we knew it has been reversed. With today’s accessibility, we don’t need to wait for fashion’s elite to dictate our style choices anymore — we’ve got an Access-All-Areas pass to global fashion inspiration.
“In a progressive world, with ever-changing digital capabilities, it’s only natural that the way we gather and perceive information will change. Who knows where we’ll be in another decade?”
We can see the ’bubble-up’ effect in motion today, where designers take inspiration from the street, using concepts from subcultures within our society in their collections. High end brands often collaborate with streetwear or skate brands for example, to gain a new audience and reconnect with consumers whose heads have been turned away from the catwalk.
In a progressive world, with ever-changing digital capabilities, it’s only natural that the way we gather and perceive information will change. Who knows where we’ll be in another decade?
With the continuing growth of efforts and importance for sustainability, the effect trends have on the everyday consumer will differ depending on their morals. These days, 60% of millennials say they want to shop more sustainably (source: Ecothes, 2021) and those who place an importance on living a more sustainable lifestyle will either less likely to buy into trends, or may update their wardrobe by shopping secondhand or from certified sustainable brands. Whichever way you look at it, trends are still a huge part of the industry and the way we understand them is constantly changing.
In the next article, I’ll be discussing the movements in society and the content on our screens that have ultimately been influential enough to set the trends that have gone on to influence our buying habits. Stay notified for part two!
