Personal Style: Not Dead Yet.

By Alicia McCormack

“Everyone’s a sheep”, my friend’s mother said, “they all look the same”. She nodded at a cluster of girls shivering in the queue outside a teen disco. All five friends were wearing the same white tennis skirt with neon tops. I didn’t mention before I hopped out of the car to join the crowd that I had added the same skirt to my basket on Pretty Little Thing after seeing it posted by every second girl I knew on Instagram. That was 2018 and since then, with the revolutionary influence of TikTok, social media has become even more deeply embedded in people’s fashion choices. But has its impact been to spark inspiration or destroy ‘personal style’?

The rise of social media in the early 2000s triggered the boom of fast fashion. By the 2010s, influencers held a power even celebrities could be jealous of. These three elements proved a force that created today’s fashion industry – which moves at a breathless pace with rapid turnover, saturated by trends, microtrends and ‘cores’. ‘Dark academia’, ‘coastal grandmother’ and ‘barbiecore’ develop cult-like followings with people seemingly switching out their entire wardrobes to follow a trend. A new ‘core’ is born every day. Each week a new item considered ‘out’ is thrown back into the wardrobe to lie redundant, regardless of the litres of water, tonnes of plastic microfibers, puffing of fumes from ships and lorries and hours of labour done by underpaid and exploited workers.

Thalia (19), whose dress sense is ‘90s/Y2K-inspired’ found it difficult to develop her own style.

“I didn’t know what I liked or didn’t like. I’d see something on a hanger in a shop and not even notice it and then I’d see it on a girl I followed and next thing, I wanted it. I felt like I had to wait to see if something was okay to wear and if someone else thought it was fashionable before I bought it”.

She thinks that social media has the potential to make fashion more pressurizing rather than a fun form of self-expression. Being inundated every single day by people doing ‘fit checks’ with the most up to date trends and stylish accessories negatively impacts her self-esteem on days when she feels low. She feels guilty for not having enough fashionable clothes, begins to hate the contents of her wardrobe and wants to start afresh with a haul from Shein, Boohoo, Zara or White Fox, businesses that thrive on consumer overconsumption.

Social media can damage individuality in fashion but it’s not all bad. Callie (21), who describes her style as ‘academia with a pop of colour’ and ‘clean girl vibes’, cites TikTok as a massive inspiration, but sees its influence as purely positive.

“I’ve struggled a lot with body dysmorphia and style, because it was always like, I had to fit into the clothes, but not let the clothes fit me. But now the clothes fit me…social media’s shown to me I am allowed to wear anything I want regardless of what size I am and rock it. It’s given me a sense of confidence; it’s given me a sense of inspiration. I feel a lot more confident wearing something that I’ve gotten inspiration from on social media”.

Social media is the most accessible platform for people of all ages, shapes, sizes and styles. It is also a major source of education about fast fashion. Thalia believes she would not even know the extent of the harm the industry causes if not for seeing the statistics online. She enjoys watching charity shopping hauls which have inspired her to donate her old clothes and buy new items secondhand. This has helped her to carve out her personal style which includes vintage items that aren’t necessarily in trend now.

Trends have always existed, and we could enter a post-trend era. The rise of secondhand shopping is bringing long forgotten items back into popular circulation. Claire (38), who loves anything vintage, thinks that social media means anything can be fashionable now once it is styled nicely and the person wearing it is confident and comfortable. We can feel compelled to conform to what everyone else is wearing but on social media different styles are celebrated. Users try new things and adapt their clothes to suit their changing tastes.

It’s important to be a mindful consumer but no one is a ‘sheep’ for trying out trends or dressing like someone they see online – it’s all part of the journey of gaining inspiration and using it to help your style flourish.