Fashion, beauty, and style – a girl’s best friend and worst enemy. It seems like everyday a new fad pops up on TikTok and Instagram, advertising the newest and hottest trend for us to follow. Everyone becomes obsessed with it for about a month and then it gets replaced by whatever is upcoming next. One trend that has stuck around for a long time it seems is ‘colour analysis’, this is a method where people get their skin, complexion, hair, and eye colours “analyzed” to figure out what colours complement them best and which they should wear regularly.
This has taken the internet by storm and TikTok especially has been flooded with videos of people getting their colour analyses done; even some going as far as to travel internationally to different countries to get it professionally done.
Now this has been helpful for a variety of people trying to find a style that they like, however, some have taken it far enough to begin policing people into their colour box. As the video link below explains, internet users have begun taking to comment sections to “inform” others when they have dressed outside of the arbitrary box of their colour analysis.
If you spend any time on social media at all, you will see this thinking frequently. People commenting on celebrities and even normal people who post an unrelated video, they will get comments from strangers giving them unsolicited and often rude advice about “dressing for your body” and “that colour washes you out”. It has become so prevalent in our society that I have found myself able to predict comment sections full of these comments before I even open them. The issue runs deeper than innocent suggestions, it is continuing the trend of forcing people into specific boxes based on their body type and skin colour and weight. All of a sudden now, if you don’t conform to what the general internet thinks you should be wearing, it is a problem and you will hear about it. This thinking has been a part of society forever, we all are familiar with the fashion trends of the 20th century and how they ebb and flow within our modern day. Slowly individual style is becoming harder and harder to find. Everyone is encouraged to look and wear the same things.
the prison of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a huge proprietor of this, take Garage for example. Their clothing model now is just the same tops and bottoms released in a different colour. Encouraging you to buy 5 colours of the same tank top. Clothes have become very one note and standard throughout the industry, it is hard to find pieces that have interest, different shapes and silhouettes, patterns, colours, etc.; everything has to fall into the ‘basics’ category or else it won’t sell.
The overarching issue I take with this era of fashion is that everybody has begun to look the same. Individual style is seemingly nonexistent and everybody is afraid to take “risks” in their clothing, because if you do, you’ll get judged. If you dare wear a bright colour when you’ve been boxed into the “warm winter” category, you’ve now defied your colour analysis. Clothing and fashion are no longer for ourselves anymore, the collective identity determines what you can and cannot wear. All the major clothing companies you’ll find in your local mall practically sell the same exact clothes.
In this Guardian article, Rachel Aroesti discusses this very topic of how social media has turned us away from expressing ourselves creatively through fashion. Rachel quotes Kyle Chayka, a journalist and critic, in which he says
“If you dismiss taste as trivial, or see it as purely imitative, you are dismissing what it is to be a person”.
Kyle Chayka
And what the internet has essentially done to us all is believe that our personal tastes are inferior to the collectives. If we all have a collective identity and style, who are we really? If not just copies of each other. What happened to our individual taste? What happened to wearing funky clothes that don’t conform to whatever method society is using these days? What happened to being able to wear what you want without judgement?
So what can we do? How can we combat this general style? There’s no perfect way to do this as it is largely individual (as it should be), but one thing that helps is to shop second hand. Find vintage stores around your area or use online websites and apps where people resell their own clothing. A lot of unique clothing items exist through second hand thrifting. Not only do you see a wider variety of pieces, you also aren’t contributing to the waste that fast fashion curates. Thrifting is definitely more taxing on the individual as it takes more time and effort to sift through all the clothes that don’t interest you but that time and effort is worth it. You can find the greatest dresses, sweaters, jeans, bags, you name it, through vintage stores. Oftentimes the materials are superior to what you will find at your local Garage or Aritizia, less polyester, more cotton and wool and real fibres that are better for your skin and the environment.
But most of all, don’t let the internet and fashion trends bully you into conforming. Wear that colour that washes you out. Wear those high rise jeans in a world of low-mid rise. Wear that strapless dress that shows off your shoulders and arms. Be the change you want to see and be boldly yourself in a society that condemns individuality.