Should I bother with trends?
I’ve been thinking a lot about trends lately and my own relationship with them (and fair warning, this is probably a bit odd for a Joy Drop and more Beks musing on a topic).
I’m very open about the fact that I am not hyper focused on trends.
But it still catches me off guard how easy it is to slip into comparison mode, especially when I scroll past certain influencers who look so trendy.
Patterned trousers.
Oversized jumpers.
Aviator glasses.
Sometimes at first a trend can feel a bit jarring. You think, “That looks odd.” I definitely feel that about the new glasses everyone seems to be wearing. And then you start seeing them everywhere. The odd becomes normal, and you start thinking, “Oh… maybe I should buy those.” But does that mean it is actually your normal or that it would work for you?
The thing with trends is that they are designed to make you buy. Every year. Fashion is a machine constantly churning out new versions of old ideas. Pure commercialism.
And as we get older, there is this quiet message that dressing in a trend led way somehow signals youth. As if keeping up equals keeping relevant.
Now, I do think trends have a place. They can be fun. They can be refreshing. They can spark creativity and bring interest into your wardrobe. But they can also put you into a mindset where you feel you have to keep up and keep buying new things.
Often with a trend you notice it a little one year, and then the next year it is suddenly everywhere on the high street.
So how do I decide if a trend is worth bothering with. These are the questions I always ask myself.
• Is it a variation of an old classic?
• Has it been around for more than one season and is it likely to stick around next year?
• Would it fit easily into my wardrobe without me needing to buy lots of new things?
• Do I genuinely like it, and would I love it even if it was not on trend?
The perfect example is the knitted square scarves we have been seeing in the group. Kate’s instantly comes to mind. People started wearing them last year. They are basically a classic neck scarf with a twist, knitted so not far from a normal winter scarf. They are easy to wear, not too expensive, add a fun pop of colour, and this year they are everywhere in loads of iterations.
Barrel jeans are another great example. They came out last year. Some versions were wildly exaggerated and did not feel wearable. But the more subtle shapes have found a great place in my wardrobe. They solve a practical problem for me. Getting jeans over my legs and having them look intentionally oversized. Something the jean market was not solving before.
So trends can work beautifully when they slot into your existing style.
One word of warning about about trends though is that they can date an outfit very quickly. In the same way that they can instantly make an outfit look more current if you are wearing the trends that are in the shops in the moment, they can also do the exact opposite. I notice this most with second hand shopping. People accidentally buy something that used to be on trend, but now it is not. And that is the issue with trend led pieces. Once they fall out of favour, they do not look classic, they just look off. They can also timestamp an outfit to a very specific era. You know those Insta reels where people look at their old outfits and try to modernise them, those are great examples of what I mean - this account does a lot of these type of reels @two_scoops_of_style
A few types of clothes that come to mind that are doing this at the moment are:
• Ripped jeans. They were everywhere a few years ago and you can still buy them, but the very distressed styles no longer read as current.
• Tight leather jackets. The fitted cropped biker styles we all wore have now been replaced by more relaxed and oversized silhouettes.
• Pieces that were everywhere for years. Things like cold shoulder tops or waterfall cardigans had a very long moment, but now instantly stamp an outfit with the time period they came from.
That does not mean you have to stop wearing things if you still love them. Style is personal, and confidence will always look more current than any trend.
This is really just about awareness. Understanding why something might not be working, so you can make choices that feel more aligned with the style you are building now, and so you can think intentionally before buying something new (because shops still sell non trending items as well) or second hand.
And sometimes it is as simple as pairing an older piece with something fresher to bring the whole outfit back to life.