I am not going to not lie. Tiktok opened up my world view. I downloaded it the summer I was eighteen and it is what cemented my love for fashion. I had been frequenting the runway section of Vogue and had spent too much money on their issues, but Tiktok let me dive way deeper. I fell into exhibits, designers, niche brands, Pinterest, and what it means to sculpt a fashion theory. It gave me a foundation. A jumping off point. But everyone only shared what they wanted to. Nobody wanted to air out all of their fashion secrets—some stuff was too valuable to spread. It was not suffocating nor competitive yet. Maybe a part of this was that having just downloaded TikTok, I was easily impressionable, but I do also strongly feel that there was a time when the runway and Tiktok were strictly separate.
If there’s one word that goes hand and hand with fashion it is inaccessibility. The industry is notorious for being for an exclusive and difficult group of people to get through to. The fashion industry quickly separates those who can afford to buy what is in vogue and those who cannot. If you want to be a part of the club and show it, you better be able to spend $990 on a pair of Maison Margiela Tabi Mary Janes. And they better not be fakes! Not to mention the horror stories of unrealistic body standards, long hours, massive egos, and empty promises. Please do not get me wrong, these are all very real issues, I would just argue they are more symptoms of capitalism than fashion. I do not want to waste time going down that road, so I won’t.
On the other hand, there are things that make fashion inaccessible that aren’t so bad. For example, knowledge. Just like any other field, you better know what you’re talking about if you want to be taken seriously. The history, the origin, the inspiration, the character, and the development of designers and the culture in general should be integral if you want to call yourself a fashionista.This all takes great attention and intention. As Miranda Priestly so perfectly says, “there is more than meets the eye for any piece of clothing. A sweater is never just blue, it’s actually cerulean […] in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it? Who showed cerulean military jackets. [..] Then it filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled down into some tragic casual corner [..] However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs.” Looking past the snideness of her remarks, Miranda does have a point. It is dangerous to overlook fashion, and it’s a disservice to all of the hard work that can go into crafting just one cerulean knit sweater.
But what better way to speed past all of this hard work and intention than to have everything you could ever need fed to you in a cute, easy, one minute video? Tiktok was good for a first real exposure, but soon, people began to use its power to copy and paste links to dupes, links to what you need to buy to dress like a blokette, links to their amazon storefronts, and links to exactly what Alexa Chung or Devon Lee Carlson wore to a 1975 concert, to Carbone, to a Chanel dinner, or what have you. Never before have we had so much accessibility to what people are wearing and where they are getting it from. This has led to a shortening of the trend cycle. Now, in the span of thirty minutes, you can learn about a trend, see who and how many people wear it, find the link for it or a close replica, and have it express shipped to your house. But promptly, you realize it is just a trend for a reason, ditch it, and move onto the next. Just think about pearl necklaces, parachute pants, butterfly tops, Danielle Guizo sequin skirts, and scarves worn as shirts. They came and they went all before I could say Miuccia Prada. I am not gonna sit here and pretend that I have not done this too. I have! Everyone has! Even so, it’s important to recognize this escalating volume of microtrends and shortening of life spans in fashion. People seem to have waived their own sense of style because they have chosen a Tiktoker who will guide them to the next it girl trend. This destroys the whole point of fashion! We can love Kate Moss’ style and emulate it without copying each and every one of her outfits. Every single person has their own style within themselves, you just need to do the work and dig deep to find it, rather than relying on someone’s OOTD.
Who cares that trends disseminate so quickly, why does it matter? Three words: loss of individuality. When I walk down Canal Street towards the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City, all I see are jorts, frilly see-through tops, biker boots, and slicked back hair into braids. It is hard to tell who is who anymore! Is that the bartender who served me last night or a Bella Hadid bot? It is why the collections for Spring Summer 2024 were all monotonous and, to be frank, a bit tragic. As we digest and internalize the same viral media, it becomes harder and harder to be a true individual. Everything has flattened out. The department stores are now influencing the runway (just take a look at Gucci’s last season) and Miranda’s trickle down theory is no longer applicable. People are bypassing the time and effort of curating their own style because the trend cycle is moving at demon speed, not letting them take their time to put their own spin on it.
Now, my solution to this issue of the flooding of trends in fashion may make me look like an asshole, but I think it can serve as a temporary fix. In efforts to pull the plug on this problem, I am calling on influencers to gatekeep. A part of the joy of finding your own style is doing the research and finding it on your own. When I found the perfect pair of red mary janes with the tiniest heel, a la Lily Rose Depp, after weeks of tracking eBay, Etsy, and Ssence, I did not tell a soul where I got them from. It is my work, afterall! So bring on the gatekeeping! I know I know, hot girls don’t gatekeep. But the oversharing of sources and links erases the sense of individuality and inspiration from fashion when everything you could ever want to buy is suddenly at your fingertips. So I don’t want the world to know where I got my perfect pair of jeans or my very best party dress, sue me! I did research, went through multiple versions, and consulted a lot of different people to get my most favorite items. And I think it’s okay if I don’t want to share that with people so they can get what took me days of research and deliberation, in about thirty seconds. I am not trying to be exclusive or patronizing, or ride my high horse. The more people who care about fashion the better! I just want expression of the self to stay alive. That is why we love it after all!
So please, do not feel ashamed if someone asks you where you bought your new slingbacks from and you respond with “I thrifted them,” even though you know the exact URL address of the website you purchased them from. Some balance needs to be restored and I think it would benefit everyone if we all just put a little bit more time and effort into how we engage with the fashion world. Go forth and find your own pair of red mary janes, you deserve it!
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