Styles come and go, rising to the top of the best-selling page of Shein or H&M. As quickly as these trends rise though, they are demoted to the clearance section of stores and fall out of style. As the fast fashion industry builds, the rate at which trends come and go has been rapidly increasing. Influencers and large companies work in unison to promote a specific style, prompting the audience to purchase cheap, mass-produced clothes that follow the upcoming trend. As the trends build in popularity, the novelty of the pieces wears off. The trend begins to die and once it has, there’s no point in keeping the pieces around anymore. Even if the owner likes the clothes, the fear of being perceived as unfashionable and not up-to-date on the latest trends pushes clothes to the back of the closet, charity shops, or the binned where they’ll be taken to the landfill alongside thousands of the other discarded clothing items.
In the summer of 2021, the trend “Y2K” rose to massive popularity, becoming one of the most dominant trends of the year. Styles that peaked in popularity during the early 2000s came back into the spotlight on TikTok, showing off tracksuits, miniskirts and tiny graphic tees. Despite being able to thrift a lot of these styles, the majority of trend followers ran to Shein and other large fast fashion brands to find Y2K inspired pieces. In more recent months, however, the style has changed, and a lot of pieces, such as tracksuits, have once again declined in popularity. Despite the fashion cycle repeating over the past two decades, the popularity was short-lived in comparison to the original trend by a significant amount of time; as summer moved into autumn and winter, fewer Y2K pieces were advertised.
The quick cycle of fashion revivals extends beyond the early 2000s Y2K trend. Styles from decades ago are revived and clothes based on vintage pieces are seen everywhere across social media. Popular “vintage” fashion aesthetics range from the 60s to the 90s, and within each aesthetic, there are certain pieces that breach from the niche groups into the mainstream, popular trends. One example of this is the popularity of 60’s and 70’s inspired floral and wavy line patterns. For brief periods, these items seem to make a comeback, such as in the late winter and early spring of 2020 and the summer of 2021. Tank tops, skirts, trousers, and dresses were produced with muted flowers and bright waves. The popularity of the patterns would peak, but then quickly were overtaken by new trends. Communities of people adopt this as their personal style, but they don’t typically stay mainstream. The appeal of the throwback to decades past gives way to more modern trends, and the cycle repeats a few months later.
The increasing speed of the fashion trend cycle has made the cycle itself almost obsolete. Clothing goes in and out of style so fast it’s easy to miss a trend or for it to fall out of the mainstream before online orders arrive. The fast fashion industry profits tremendously off these trends by working with influencers and advertising all over social media. By marketing new clothes every other week, companies make a huge profit from selling cheap clothing. Selling shirts, skirts, and accessories for extremely cheap prices spread the trends to wider populations, but in turn creates more waste, faster trend periods, and slowly eliminates the trend cycle from the world of fashion. The best way to keep from falling into the trend cycle trap is to buy clothing second hand or from brands with sustainable practices, create a personal style outside of trends, and avoid buying items just because they are trending. Keeping away from social media micro trends is not only more sustainable but helps slow the growth of the trend cycle.