Is social media ruining fashion trends?

On the topic of trends

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The thing about fashion trends is that they’ve always existed from as early as mankind wore clothes. Whether it was in the time of Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Grace Kelly, or Kim Kardashian, fashion trends have long served as an unspoken code for those who are in the sartorial know. Sure, back then, clothing came with a lesson in patience because everything had to be painstakingly assembled in some pristine white design studio, but when the concept of ready-to-wear first rose in popularity – largely owed to the promotion of one Yves Saint Laurent — trends began to move even faster.

First, they were cycling for a life term of six months. As the poet Oscar Wright once put it, “a fashion is merely a form of ugliness so absolutely unbearable that we have to alter it every six months”. Then, as industry leaders began placing emphasis on the transitional Cruise and Pre-Fall collections, that cycle shortened by half, with new trends creeping into your closet in a mere three months or so.

With social media, the timeframe for which trends peak and fall only gets miserably smaller.

“The rate at which ideas are being exchanged is faster than ever before,” says Allyson Rees of trend forecasting agency WGSN. “What could take a month or two to trend on Instagram can take just days or even hours to go viral on TikTok.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Foot Locker’s CEO Richard Johnson, who remarked that “the fact is that we’re seeing mobile technology drive shifts in consumer behaviour and spending patterns at a faster pace than our industry has been able to keep up with”.

To be fair, there are plenty of boons that social media can offer in driving fashion trends.

Maybe the biggest of all is that social media offers a democratic voice to the masses. No longer is it a conversation that flows from runways to the end-user, but you see the exchange of ideas come from the ground up. The flared knit trousers and handkerchief tops we once saw on the train were suddenly popping up next season in Milan’s shows, as designers scramble to keep up with what today’s customer wants to buy.

Influencers – no matter how big or small – continue to drive this demand. A simple post by Emma Chamberlain now has the power to send merch flying off websites and store racks – a feat that even fashion tastemakers of the past could only dream to command.

What is the real cost?

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But therein lies a catch. Because these trends are moving at breakneck speed, coming into maturity and dying off in the span of weeks, the rate at which we are consuming clothing has also increased. And that’s not good at all.

Because there is an appetite for these ephemeral clothing, fast fashion brands have cashed in on their ability to churn out these pieces to satiate an increasingly voracious fashion shopper, regardless of the cost that comes at the expense of the environment and low-wage labourers.

A 2018 report from Quantis International found that the three biggest polluting drivers of the industry were dyeing and finishing, yarn preparation and fibre production. Of the three, fibre production also had the largest impact on freshwater consumption. By 2030, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change projects textile manufacturing to skyrocket by 60%.

It's also not just worrying on the manufacturers' front. Grimly, it affects the buyers as well. A 2016 report by McKinsey found that consumers were treating “lowest-price garments as nearly disposable, discarding them after just seven or eight wears”. The same report found that in nearly all apparel categories, consumers were tossing out clothing twice as fast as compared to 15 years ago.

As social media continues to push trends forward at an ever-increasing speed, to think that these numbers would somehow subside over time would be naïve at best, and damaging to our environment in the long run. Once an item is no longer deemed “trendy” it is dropped off in the bin to make way for the next transient clothing item.

Furthermore, think of the last ‘haul’ video you watched on social media, and just imagine the amount of plastic waste generated from that huge purchase, or the miles that the returned clothing will have to take when the content creator is done with the video and decides they want a full refund on everything.

All for the sake of getting viewers to hit that ‘like’ button.

Then, on the viewer's end, those who are young and impressionable are swayed into partaking in this harmful practice of ‘hauling’, as they remain unaware of the real damage they inflict on the environment in the process.

We have nothing against wearing new clothes or wanting to show off a little on a new item that you’ve just bought. However, the practice of showcasing one’s ‘haul’ on social media encourages a diminished appreciation of clothing, and it changes the way that we inherently attach value to clothing.

Rotten greens

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At this point, one can also argue how social media has brought to the mental forefront the topic of sustainable fashion, and in giving flowers where they are due, this is something that is worth applauding. After all, knowledge is best utilised when it is shared for a greater good.

People are aware at how quickly they are going through trendy clothes, and this can have an impact on how they consume clothing. Consumers now hold retailers to standards that question a brand’s eco-friendliness and ability to neutralise their carbon footprint. Still, we find that fast fashion has found a way to reach out to social media-savvy shoppers without actually making an effort to change. Ladies and gents, meet ‘greenwashing’.

For those unfamiliar to the term, it refers to the practice of positioning one’s stance as pro-environment, without actually doing anything. Fast fashion giant Shein has been called out several times for their greenwashing campaigns, with the latest being a $15 million donation to an NGO in Ghana for textile waste workers. Not mentioning their own labour exploitation and shady wage practices, the blatant irony is that most of Shein’s returned wares would likely end up in landfills because it costs more to put that item back into circulation than it is to discard it.

One for all, and all for one same look

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Beyond the environmental impact that social media has had a hand in playing, there’s also the case of the step-and-repeat fashion look.

Take, for example, the Y2K trend that has the entire industry firmly within its perfectly manicured chokehold. What started out as a way for social media users to adopt a trend that set them apart quickly gained pace. Suddenly, the bum-slung flared jeans and reissued cropped band tees weren’t the exception to what we wore, they became the norm.

But that’s also a problem, wouldn’t you think? When everyone is hopping on a trend because it’s ‘different’ and a breath of fresh air, then how different can it be after being worn by the millionth influencer?

What we once used as a way to set ourselves apart has now become a homogenised look that can be seen on practically everyone as you scroll along your Instagram or TikTok feed.

So, is it good or bad?

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Truth be told, one could argue either side of the conversation until we eventually leave our mortal realm and reside permanently in the Metaverse and still not come to a conclusive answer.

The way this writer sees it, the answer starts with a ‘yes’.

Social media has opened the forum of fashion to everyone, and anyone can set tomorrow’s trends for the world to follow. But increasingly, as consumption patterns and the effects it has beyond our closets continue to compound, social media-driven trends have to potential to turn into a monstrous problem that outsizes its benefits.

For the sake of the planet, let’s hope we can collectively turn it around. Otherwise, no amount of followers or ‘likes’ can salvage the situation.