It’s to no one’s surprise that TikTok has grown to be a major influence in so many different industries. In particular, creative industries like Fashion have taken over the app, and with great success. That said, the influence that it has on the industry and the consumers that have tagged along, might have grown too fast for anyone to keep up.
TikTok has always been known for the quick pace of its trends, thanks to the prioritization of short-form content. So, it was rather unsurprising when fashion trends that typically lasted years devolved into brief blips of virality. According to forecast analyst Mandy Lee, TikTok has accelerated the traditional trend cycle in the fashion industry. Trend cycles that used to last up to 20 years have shortened considerably with the introduction of social media. But with TikTok, even microtrends have been reduced to just a few months or even weeks. And it has only gotten worse.
Fast fashion companies and fashion brands have coopted various viral microtrends like cottagecore and Y2K core, pushing to get ahead of these trends at the expense of sustainability. Additionally, these accelerated trends have also had an unfortunate effect on the quality of clothing. As seen from the recent Stanley Cup trend, these items were made largely for one-time uses and not to last.
While Gen Z and Millennials have become some of the most environmentally conscious generations yet, they are still susceptible to these trends, and it’s not by accident. Social media, thanks to personalized algorithms and targeted ads has evolved into one large shopping center. With the introduction of platforms like TikTok shop, the social platform has been dubbed the new QVC.
This amount of overconsumption wasn’t built to last, and more and more people have begun to grow tired of being targeted to spend more money on low-quality products. It’s unsurprising that in 2023 TikTok saw the rise of the de-influencing trend that rose out of the rampant overconsumption the app had caused. Gaining steam in the summer of 2023, de-influencing focuses on divesting from unnecessary purchases towards items that are meaningful and long-lasting. Since then, the trend gained traction and currently has over 1.4 billion views as of 2024.
In an interview with Vogue, Remember Who Made Them cofounder Venetia La Manna shared her thoughts on de-influencing and why it has gained popularity.
“The reason the de-influencing trend has seen this trajectory is because it’s next to impossible for us to unlearn consumption,” she said. “We’re socially conditioned to believe that the only power we have is our buying power. I’m trying to help people realize that their power is more than what they buy.”
