Every decade has hallmark clothing pieces that define it: the 70s were characterized by bell bottoms and big accessories, the 80s by bright neon and high rise pants, and the 90s had denim and combat boots.
Now, fast forward to the present day, and try to think of the most prevalent clothing trends of the 2020s so far. It quickly becomes difficult to pick through the endless amount of trends and aesthetics to find the things that everyone is wearing.
The constant stream of niche aesthetics, micro trends and hyper specific styles has increased tenfold over the last few years. The trend cycle has become so quick that it truly would be hard to walk down the street and figure out what decade we are living in. Unique and individualistic clothing and fashion are making a comeback, no matter what part of history it’s from.
This “trend” of microtrends could be seen as something positive: a way to more freely express creativity and wear what feels most right to you than ever before, but it could also be seen as something negative: a way for fast-fashion clothing companies to entice customers to buy clothing in excessive amounts to stay “with-it.”
And while both of these are simultaneously true, it is possible for us to minimize the adverse effects of the micro trend while amplifying the beneficial ones.
The upside of the microtrend is the innovation and creativity it allows for. Yes, not everyone was wearing the exact same thing in all those past decades, but now more than ever, young people can express themselves through their clothing and fashion choices. Thirty years ago, telling your friends that you were following an “old-money” aesthetic might have sounded like a foreign language, but now they would hardly bat an eye.
Microtrends often emerge from diverse communities that have nicher and more specific interests than those around them. They can serve as a way to bring a lesser-known aesthetic to a larger group of people, or they can bring back forgotten trends, like the recent resurgence of the Y2K style.
Microtrends also challenge narratives and show alternative perspectives, providing a much-needed platform for marginalized groups and underrepresented voices. They contribute to more imaginative, individualistic, and enterprising culture, as people use little parts of trends that best suit them to create something wholly individual.
Think of building an outfit. At first glance, peppering in a “cottage core” style top, a “mermaid core” skirt, and a “normcore” hat might just seem like someone spends too much time on TikTok, but with a closer look, we can start to notice and appreciate all the beautifully unique and carefully nuanced lifestyles that went into creating the outfit.
There are also many recent microtrends that are beneficial, such as the recent rising popularity of thrift shopping, whether in store or on apps like Depop or Poshmark. This “trend” is good for the environment and generally eco-conscious, as it allows clothing to live a much longer life than it would if it ended up in a landfill. Shopping secondhand is also more affordable, and is one of the best ways to find unique clothing pieces.
Nevertheless, though microtrends do have rewarding qualities, they also have admonishing ones that need to be rectified in order to truly reap the benefits. Microtrends are one of the main reasons that fast fashion moves so rapidly through clothing styles, leaving immense amounts of textile waste in its wake.
Microtrends are considered “micro” not only because they are hyper specific, but because they literally do not last long. As shoppers cycle through clothing styles at a quicker rate than ever before, companies make clothing as cheap as possible and therefore terrible quality. Shoppers then buy the clothing, which deteriorates and ends up in landfills, or companies over-produce and then the clothing ends up in landfills anyway. In fact, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, around 85% of all textiles are either dumped into a landfill or burned.
Because we want more clothing that matches the trends and styles around us, we often also end up buying clothes just to have them, and then we get rid of them when we are, to put it lightly, “over it.”
Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution to how we can appreciate microtrends without abusing them, but there undoubtedly are ways that we can try to. One way is to truly buy things that you love, not just what’s trendy. Do not buy into every microtrend; instead appreciate them and choose the ones that help you express yourself.
In the end, yes, microtrends are flawed. They exacerbate existing issues in the fashion industry and contribute to environmental problems. However, if we can mitigate these obvious downfalls and instead focus on the creativity and innovation that microtrends foster, we can all find our own originality within the microtrend.
