User:Georgiabdj/draft

Micro-trends are defined as a tendency in the "direction of some phenomenon that is fairly pervasive within a given sphere of influence and lasts for a few years." Like fads, micro-trends pick up when a group of people enthusiastically engage with a specific interest in an object or a way of thinking. Unlike regular trends or fads, the lifecycle for micro-trends are short lived and sporadic, oftentimes gaining popularity and demand in a pace that precedes the norm and declines just as quickly.

In the fashion world, micro-trends have continued to rise as the growth of fast-fashion brands have emerged. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok have skyrocketed the perpetuation of micro-trends on a macro scale worldwide. Micro-trends have “emerged from the rapid-fire fashion cycle […] usually cheap to purchase, meant to be thrown out when their stylishness has expired”, resulting in a disposable society, warping consumer behavior, and promoting compulsive shopping.

Trends have no longer become seasonal, and social media has allowed for micro-trends in fashion to come and go at a pace that has had detrimental impacts on the environment, workers, and the fashion industry itself. "Fast fashion promotes the throwaway culture, excessive consumerism, and makes clothes disposable commodities. Many consumers make purchasing decisions based on their emotions. According to founder, owner, and Chief Executive Officer of Panaprium, Alex Assoune, retailers use that behavior and tap into the "subconscious of consumers". Renewing clothing only to repurchase and replace items that have only been worn a handful of times has become normalized due to the pace in which products are being promoted as trending, and thus produced and purchased.

Impacts

As it stands, micro-trends in fashion have contributed to the overproduction of fast fashion garments from brands. Subsequently, this overproduction and demand from consumers has perpetuated a number of environmental impacts such as excessive waste in landfills, greenhouse gas emissions, and water and air degradation .

As a society, it can become difficult to quantify the amount of change seen in the world through the scope of micro-trends as much of it occurs behaviorally on a scale that our society has only recently been seeing in the past 15 years. With the rise of social media celebrities and influencers such as YouTube bloggers, Instagram influencers, or TikTok creators have become largely accessible, the rise of micro-trend culture has increased subsequently. Influencers, creators, and celebrities often use their platforms to promote micro-trends that are currently popular at a moment in time. Posting photos, sharing videos, or even discussing them at length is often the form of media in which micro-trends are born and popularized. As a result of the rapidly growing mass-production of clothing and subsequent trends, the consumer behaviors are expected to have changed too. Overconsumption of garments and high demand for cheaply-made, quickly produced garments have heightened, and designs from small business clothing brands have often been replicated for big fast fashion corporation brands such as Shein, Boohoo, and even Zara.

Solutions

Enacting sustainable methods to production of clothing could slow down and discourage the speed in which micro-trends are produced, however, a community and consumer behavioral standard must be reached in order to move away from the mentality attached to a disposable wardrobe. Placing an importance on brand transparency, ethical/sustainable practices, quality products over quantity, and ethical sourcing/production techniques paired with a use of organic and long lasting materials will lessen the impact of fast fashion brands on the impact of the environment. However, in order to discourage the surge of micro-trends in fashion, a shift in mindset on social media platforms is necessary. To move away from disposable wardrobes, influencers must advocate for a more circular fashion cycle and purchasing non-seasonal, long-lasting clothing.