As someone who came from 12 years of Catholic school uniforms, where the only customization I could do to my outfit was the length of my skirt, college was the first time I could wear what I wanted every day. But with this clothing freedom came the old age question, “What should I wear?”
It would be easy to go into class with sweatpants and sweatshirts every day (which I’m still guilty of doing if I don’t want to dress up), but I wanted to do something fun for each class. As much as I wanted to dress like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City, I couldn’t get away with wearing kitten heels and couture every day (as much as I would love to).
Instead, I went to TikTok, and I found the ever-revolving door of fashion trends. It felt like each month, there were dozens of influencers telling you what was in and what was out, and God forbid you wear what’s out. And half of the time, they promote clothing pieces not because they think it’s in or like it but because they’re getting paid for it. Why should we trust the advice of people only in it for profit? And why should we take what these people say as law?
Personally, I love going into a store, whether at the thrift store or a store at the mall, and buying something because it’s cute, not because it’s on-trend. But I feel like TikTok and other media platforms have created this idea of microtrends, which are fashion trends that live for only a few weeks/months. Not only does this flood landfills after the trend is over, but it also creates a sense of social rejection if you’re found to be wearing the clothes once the trend is finished making its media rounds.
But why do we look to these trends, whether micro or macro, to dictate what we wear? Are we letting these trends and those who promote them be our generation’s Fashion Police?
There may be clothes we don’t like and never wear, but we shouldn’t tell people they can’t wear them. Clothing should be an external way of expressing our feelings, not what someone else tells us to wear. This isn’t to say that we can’t look at what others are wearing and get inspired, but it should be something fun, not something we must do. For example, I love wearing cheetah (or leopard print? I admittedly still can’t tell the difference) even though TikTok has decided it’s out of the fashion cycle. This is all to say that you should wear what makes you confident, not what others tell you. Until next time!