Have you ever been a victim of following trends? Have you ever been influenced on whether or not to participate in a trend?

Trends, the weeds and flowers of fashion. Many trends are unattractive, invasive, annoying, and out there. On the other hand, some trends can be beautiful, and worth participating in. The weeds of the fashion world would be the VSCO, tights under jean shorts, 2000s, and the pink trends.

Now the optimistic side of trends are in the eye of the beholder or in a more simpler term, opinionated. Though trends are opinion-based, meaning some people may favor other trends or find one more attractive than the other, it’s majority rules.

What is a Trend?

The tights under jeans shorts and the 2000s trends came from a lack of fashion sense and too much creativity back in 2010. The 2000s was the start of the trend-setters. Young girls were influenced by the red carpet looks worn by their favorite Disney and Nickelodeon characters. Eventually these trends died through what could be deemed as natural causes.

A trend usually dies through time. Its a quick fad that allows people to experiment with their style and very rarely sticks. Certain aspects of the trend may become apart of someones personal style, but not the trend as a whole. Since social media came about, more specifically TikTok, trends are no longer dying of a natural cause. They are expiring more rapidly due to the new cancel culture and the influence others have through this app.

TikTok’s Influence on Trends

The VSCO trend was favored by high schoolers back in 2020 and spread through TikTok like wildfire. This wildfire was lead by influencers bashing the trend, leaving the fire to kill what the majority deemed as weeds. It was untrendy and embarrassing to be seen participating in the VSCO trend, and eventually it become a meme and later it was a popular Halloween costume. The VSCO trend was expected to have a longer lifespan, but was exterminated by influencers who didn’t find it attractive enough to stick around.

Film’s Influence on Trends

Another key factor in influencing trends are films. New TV shows such as the Outer Banks and Euphoria took the world of Fashion by storm. TikTok was behind the blow up and soon everyone was posting outfit videos behind the soundtracks of the shows. TikTok influencers found these trends to be more flowers than weeds so they stuck around longer than past trends. It was popular to dress as if you were John B from Outer Banks and Maddy from Euphoria. Aspects of these two trends stuck around and are still worn today. Many people still wear bandanas and sparkly colorful makeup because it was never deemed untrendy by influencers.

Individual people used to plant the garden of trends, people who deemed trends as weeds didn’t take part and those who saw it as a flower did. Social media has now taken that garden and made it a universal flower bed. Trends that are deemed as weeds are pulled out by cancel culture and influencers.