micro-trends are out. individuality is in.

Fancì club dresses, the cropped Miu Miu skirt, Mr Winston hoodies, Lululemon headbands, flared low-rise jeans, mesh long sleeve tops, crocs, ballet flats, Prada shoulder bags, Yeezy slides, Glassons corsets, adidas sambas, rose pins attached to everything.

These fashion trends are micro and before you know it, have been banished to the fashion graveyard.

Not only do influencers make you want them, but social media tells you that you need them.

Today, these micro-trends are taking over the fashion industry, leading to saturation and over-consumption.

Why are micro-trends so prolific? What are the consequences of micro-trends for our environment? When it appears as if everything is trending, how can individual style be cultivated, independent of trends?

Micro-trends, a product of social media, are a danger to the environment and individual creative expression.

A phenomenon caused by social media, micro-trends are created by influencers who propound consumerist lifestyles.

As I scroll through my TikTok “For You Page” (FYP), I am bombarded with influencers cycling through new outfits at an exponential rate. Motivated by brand deals, these influencers advertise clothing items making us, as social media users and retail consumers, believe that in order to be as fashionable as the people we see on our social media feed, we too must purchase this article of clothing. However, whether it’s the Miami Vice Lioness cargo pants or the With Jean corset mini dress, these trends are out just as quickly as they come in.

Social Media’s advanced algorithm feeds its users new trends at warp speed to promote their own in-app online shopping systems; increasing revenue at the expense of susceptible buyers. Influencers, often young girls themselves, act as the agents through which social media content is generated to advertise pieces of clothing, propounding a belief that to be like these influencers said clothing is necessary.

The implications of these micro-trends are ghastly. In order to keep up with the monstrous demands for singular products, fast fashion brands such as Shein, H&M and Zara are abusing their workers and the environment alike.

As we fall victim to these major fast fashion companies, their cheap, on-trend clothes, our environment suffers alongside us. The clothes purchased during the height of these micro trends find their way into landfill within weeks, if not days of purchase. Once in landfill, these once ‘trendy’ pieces are often discarded in the ocean, poisoning marine ecosystems with the synthetic, micro-plastic material they are made from. The fast fashion industry makes up 8-10% of global carbon emissions, totalling more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. This amount of emissions is unsustainable and its cause falls at the hands of micro-trends.

Just like our environment, people, specifically the factory workers of fast fashion companies, are suffering the consequences of micro-trends. These workers, many of whom are children, are modern day slaves. Earning as little as 30 cents an hour, working up to 100 hours a week in sub-par conditions. With poor air quality, lack of sanitation and exposure to toxic chemicals, these workers are not only economically exploited but many are rendered unhealthy and sick because of their work.

The conditions of these factories were exposed in 2013 when the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,100 people, and injuring a further 2,500. The building was inspected, and large structural faults and cracks were discovered, further emphasising the lack of safeguarding in fast fashion workspaces and the lack of care the industry has for the people in which produce their clothes.

What scares me as a young woman who asserts her identity through fashion, is the influence that micro-trends have on creative expression. Social media creates an illusion that in order to be fashionable, participation in micro-trends is requisite. With young social media users constantly trying to emulate influencers, it is difficult to determine who has their own individual style and who is a carbon copy of others.

I urge you to be cautious of microtrends and instead explore vintage shopping which is more unique and sustainable. Check out your local op-shop, Sunday markets and vintage boutiques. These are where the hidden gems are. Even better, raid your mum’s closet, find those special pieces that she has curated and collated over many years.

And for those that like to online shop, follow my rule; wait two weeks before purchasing clothing from online social media platforms. Nine times out of ten, the trend is already over, and you will have saved yourself $200.

To guarantee a more sustainable fashion industry that embraces individual self-expression, we must put a stop to the rapidly growing micro trend cycle, to save our environment and the people enslaved by the monstrosity that is fast fashion.