Trend Cycles and Clothing Waste

I recently deleted all social media and the absence of those platforms has led to me, for the first time, being mostly unaware of current or upcoming clothing trends. In the past, I have viewed fashion-based pages with posts coming from New York, Los Angeles, or Paris in an attempt to get ahead of trend cycles. Tiktok has gone from popularizing Y2K clothing to groovy 70s clothing to hippie-like clothing to “fairy grunge” to “coconut girl” in the matter of a year. These speeding trends cause viewers to want to keep up, and some even attempt to buy enough clothing to create congruent wardrobe once a new trend appears. So, their clothing that is no longer on-trend is discarded while clothing that fits with current trends, often fast fashion because they produce clothing quickly enough to keep up with trends, is purchased in bulk.

For example, the clothing company Shein makes money by producing dupes of trendy clothes. Within their women’s clothing section they have a drop down with styles of clothing described as “Y2K” or “cottagecore” which are current trends of clothing popularized by TikTok. Shien is considered a brand that should be avoided by GoodOnYou. Shein has not produced any evidence of attempting to reduce their carbon or chemical emissions. Also, the company produces clothing in countries with unfair labour laws, and has produced no evidence of any worker empowerment initiatives. In relation to trend cycles, Shein produces large amounts of clothing which is wasted as soon as it goes out of style or falls apart due to low quality. However, with the company's low prices cause many people to purchase from the brand. On TikTok and Youtube many creators will make Shein haul videos. They are videos in which creators will show all of the clothing purchased from Shein, which often contain up to 50 items of clothes. Therefore, those hauls end up costing a ton of money of which the same amount could be spent purchasing less clothing from more ethical brands. And influencers who can afford to purchase from more ethical and high quality brands than Shein are supporting the company just to follow trends. Through this and then wearing and therefore advertising the clothes on their platforms the social media creators encourage their followers to buy large quantities of clothing from Shein or similar fast fashion brands.

I think there are two main ways to address overconsumption caused by trend cycles. First, instead of purchasing on-trend clothing from fast fashion brands, consumers can purchase trendy clothing secondhand. Most trends are based on vintage clothing anyways. Another idea is that the consumer can begin to shift their focus away from following trends and instead focus on purchasing timeless clothing. It helps to purchase clothing that looks good on you but is specifically not on trend. I have a hard time purchasing typical timeless items of clothing because I enjoy dressing in crazier clothing. However, if you buy things that are not on-trend but still fun then you are sure the item is not a fad, and hopefully you will wear the clothes for longer. Just remember how quickly mustaches on tank tops went out of style! You never know when a popular trend of today will get old. The goal should be to build a closet of clothing with items you can and will wear for as long as possible.