Fast Fashion, Faster Tempo

Examining the Hypersonic Trend Cycle / Designed by Amira Dossani

Last month, TikTok users declared that capri pants are officially back. Two weeks later, it was bootcut jeans. And then just days after that, the entirety of the Internet collectively decided that micro-shorts would be the pants of the summer. 

While different styles and garments have always drifted in and out of popularity, the current hyper-fast trend cycle, accelerated by social media and influencer marketing, is something entirely different and dangerous. However, proponents of the “Slow Fashion” movement are actively taking steps to decelerate the rate at which we rotate through trends. 

According to glass artist and author Chelsea Rousso, the traditional fashion trend cycle has five stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline and obsolescence. Traditionally, this cycle took an average of 20 years to complete, which gave designers ample time to innovate and push boundaries. Nowadays, the trend cycle runs from start to finish in mere weeks and trends expire in the blink of an eye or the swipe of a finger. 

What’s behind this hypersonic trend cycle? The digital age, specifically the expansion of influencers into the fashion sphere. Social media’s algorithmic model thrives on capturing the user's attention as much as possible. This means that influencers must constantly compete with one another for user engagement and viewership. For fashion influencers, this translates to constantly searching for something new and original to push to their audience. As soon as the trend has been released to the internet, they discard these garments, and the search resumes yet again, as was the case with the trucker hat craze in 2021. It is a steady rhythm of discovery, promotion, discardment, repeat.  

The environmental implications of this are painfully clear. According to a study done by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company, the average number of times a single garment is worn has dropped by 36 percent in the last 15 years. For every five garments produced, the report added, three end up in a landfill or are incinerated. 

Back in 2020,  Molly Miao, Chief Operating Officer of fast-fashion brand SHEIN, said in an interview with Forbes that the website releases 700 to 1000 new items of clothing every day. Quality is sacrificed for the sake of quantity and trend adherence. This overproduction of cheap goods leads to massive amounts of waste: More than 92 million tons of textile waste are produced annually.

There are also moral implications that come with the supersonic trend cycle. As trends come in and out of popularity, originality is sacrificed. Brands prioritize monetization over creativity, and lean on easily marketable designs, which are usually more conventionally flattering and predictable, instead of focusing on what’s daring or different. The short shelf life of trends also discourages timeless brand identities and motifs, pressuring designers to chase short-term sales rather than long-lasting creations. 

But it is not just designers that suffer from the trend cycle; it is also regular consumers. In our quest for novelty and originality, we have trapped ourselves in an endless consumption pattern in which the line between visibility and obscurity is nonexistent. Authenticity cannot exist in such an environment, and consumers are left unsatisfied in their never-ending search for the next best thing. As bleak as this sounds, change is possible.

In response to these changes in the fashion industry, many movements and actions are encouraging the deceleration of the trend cycle. The “Slow Fashion” movement, coined by Kate Fletcher in 2007 and popularized by sustainable fashion brands, promotes eco-friendly and ethical production practices in the fashion industry. It prioritizes quality over quantity, with an emphasis on buying second-hand, thrifting, and making a conscious effort to support ethical brands.  

There are also steps consumers can take to destabilize the rapid trend cycle, such as shifting our mindset about purchasing clothing; rather than viewing our clothes as a means to staying on trend, we can start thinking of fashion pieces as investments to our personal wardrobe. Finding styleable wardrobe staples easily will not only encourage consumers to keep these garments for longer, but it can also encourage authenticity in our personal style. 

Fashion influencer marketing has had a clear impact on the fashion industry: a loss of originality and authenticity from both the designer and the consumer. In an environment where styles oscillate between hyper-visibility and hyper-obscurity, it is up to each of us to decide what we will do: get stuck in the endless rhythm of consumption and discardment, or find a way to break out of this cycle and create a fashion identity that is unique and authentic to us. The choice is yours.