Are trends dead?

Are trends dead? Are we living in a golden period of personal style?

The truth is we don’t have a single culture anymore as we used to have back in 2010, when we could follow trends a lot easier than today. The expansion of our media landscape has created thousands upon thousands of subcultures. That means something can trend hard in one little corner of the world while the rest of us remain completely oblivious.

There are so many choices today, but seemingly less authority as to what constitutes a trend’s lasting legitimacy. We started with “fast fashion” and moved on to “Tiktok couture” that emerged overnight and continues to evolve. But who’s benefiting off that? Trends or the illusion of trends are feeding fast-fashion companies and direct-to-consumer brands making products that aesthetically align so desirable and wanted. This doesn’t just concern the fashion world, the effects of trend-induced brain has emerged onto so many aspects and it has shifted the mindset to: relevant vs. irrelevant, good vs. bad, buyable vs. unbuyable. This mentality extends to how people perceive and react on the internet, and how they want to showcase themselves as living in now.

"Virality" and visibility doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing, but it chips away this once-valued notion of authenticity, of discovering a fashion scene or art first.

But in the years of the pandemic and after, a new vibe shift has emerged, or rather a change of values and priorities, which set the tone for living with less and becoming more mindful of the environment. The movement for sustainable lifestyle and fashion has been growing fast. There’s been return to traditions as something timeless that can survive any changes, as my friend Nadia says: “is it a “statement piece” or just trends?”

With that mindset shift, the concept of trends that once meant changing your looks regularly has changed as well. You probably noticed that this year the focus is not so much on one or two trends, but rather reinventing past trends and styles, a turn to vintage and recycled fabrics, up-cycling and story telling.

Designers from Mugler to Prada and Donatella Versace, have been going through their archives and reinventing iconic pieces that take us through different eras and stories. I think that it really is young consumers, especially Gen Z who is driving designers to look back and reinvent older archives, for the love of fashion and nostalgia of couture.