当准备参加最近法学院的一场活动时，20岁的菲扎·法赫姆（Fiza Faheem）审视着自己的衣柜。她近来的许多购买已经过时了，在TikTok快速变化的标准下更是如此。她是否应该穿着“办公室女神”标志性的眼镜？还是模仿“暗学院风格”，以哥特式风衣和黑色透明长筒袜作为装扮呢？首饰叠搭或是袖口系上蝴蝶结？又或者选择一种更“干净女孩”的风格，即梳理整齐的发型与中性色衣物搭配？
这样的困惑并非菲扎一人所有。在TikTok和快速时尚界日新月异的影响下，消费者的购物体验似乎失去了乐趣与自由。“我可能曾对某些事物感到兴趣，几个月后却再不想将其纳入衣橱。”来自英国约克大学的法赫姆学生感叹道，“然后新的趋势又出现了。”
专家指出，营销策略在应用TikTok和Instagram等平台时改变了时尚界的格局。这些应用程序使得服装变得易于获取且趋势巨变而迅速消逝。消费者因此感到迷失：“遵循潮流购物的人往往更频繁地购入服饰，但仍旧难以找到合身的衣物。”一位位于华盛顿特区的私人造型师德朱内尔·哈里斯（Dejeuné Harris）如此说道。
对于普通民众而言，在日常忙碌的工作之外，仅在手机上轻松的一键操作就能获得大量时尚建议。这些信息不断提醒你：“你的衣着不够潮流，你需要像‘酷女孩’那样打扮。”这种心理压力持续影响着消费者的情感状态。
在社交媒体的引导下，“即时满足”逐渐成为主导消费行为的趋势。然而，苹果支付时代下的消费习惯并没有让人们对此产生警觉。“这迎合了我们寻求短暂刺激的心理。”作家达娜·托马斯（Dana Thomas）在其著作《时尚之都：快时尚的价格与未来的服装》中如此论述。
购物不再单纯地意味着到实体店寻觅独一无二的服饰，或是花费时间在线上寻找心仪的款式。当流行趋势出现时，你可以在第一时间购买，每种颜色至少一件，并且通过TikTok Shop平台，每个用户都能成为卖家。不出几个月，你的购买行为就可能会变得过时甚至尴尬，受到同样推销这些产品的网红们的嘲笑。
因此，“再潮”意味着反复更替潮流，并持续购买新品。“Zara和TikTok Shop等视频中推荐的服装会以周为单位快速更新。”热门时尚评论家路克·梅格（Luke Meagher）在其YouTube频道“HauteLeMode”上表示。在快时尚主导的时代，人们每年产出几乎1000亿件新衣物，远超20年前的数量。“而当我年轻时，在商场购物能带来的满足感要少得多。”托马斯补充道。
疫情后的世界带来了职场美学的变化，以及不同年龄段消费者对于潮流服装的困惑。中老年群体难以找到适合自己的时尚风格，“办公室女神”等TikTok流行的角色形象与他们的审美并不契合。“我在试图了解这些新趋势时感到困扰，我不确定是否应该像这样打扮。”39岁的塔米卡·史密斯（Tamika Smith）分享道。
尽管快时尚是造成个人风格式微的始作俑者，但托马斯认为，在这一领域中出现一种新的“潮流集合点”——TikTok Shop。在观看自己喜欢的网红试穿新装后，你立刻就能购买到已与视频内容关联的商品。“如今，作为十几岁的青少年，你在H&M和Zara可以以同样的预算购买一大袋衣物。”托马斯表示。
微流行趋势往往是品牌试图复制某一特定款式而非整体风格，如低腰牛仔裤的潮流。而Skims连衣裙的同款复刻则属于小范围热潮。托马斯认为，在社交媒体快速更迭的影响下，当今时尚界已经不再存在持久的流行元素。“这正是促使‘帮派妻子’风格等短命趋势风靡一时的原因。”她指出。
在TikTok上，消费者决定什么是流行的款式，而品牌则被迫紧跟潮流。这种动态使得个人风格定义变得困难起来。如果每个品牌都在设计当前在线趋势下的服饰，那么如何保持个性呢？
即使是反对当前趋势、转投复古和二手购物的人群，最终也逃不过被模仿的命运。快时尚品牌也开始推出“穿旧了”的款式，以迎合这一潮流。“你很容易复制自己喜欢的网红的着装风格。”马丁森指出，“任何风格现在都触手可及，并且价格非常亲民。”
在托马斯看来，时尚界的内耗正在加速，似乎只有往回追溯数十年前的风格才能找到出路。从“90年代风”到“60年代复古”，但如今充斥市场的廉价复制品最终只会导致大量的衣物被丢弃而未穿。今天一件平均服装只穿过7次就被扔掉。
托马斯对那些投身于二手市场、精心挑选每件衣物，并将其视为长期衣橱组成部分的人们抱有希望。“我们无法再继续无休止地抛弃衣物。”她强调，“延长衣服的使用寿命总是更好的选择。”
在寻找摆脱TikTok购物循环或找到个人风格的路上，哈里斯建议消费者在做出购买决定之前先做一番思考。如果打算购入一件服饰，请设想三种搭配方式。在挑选时，应优先考虑高质量的基本款：T恤、牛仔裤、靴子、大衣等，并选择天然材质的单品，如100%纯棉或全牛仔布。
慢慢地融入流行趋势并保持个人风格。“将焦点放在基础单品上。”哈里斯强调，“然后根据自己的审美喜好和风格进行选择。”
梅格也认同，潮流和病毒性商品确实可以激发人们探索不同时尚领域。互联网的海量信息和档案功能为了解不同文化与亚文化的着装方式提供了便利。通过这些途径，人们能够突破主流趋势，发掘独特的个人风格。
“正发生着变化。”托马斯说道。“现在人们对于快时尚可能带来的环境问题有着更深刻的认识。21世纪初的传统二手购物习惯、修复旧衣物以及将物品保留下来的做法正在回归。”
看到人们对衣物拥有更多情感与关怀的未来感到欣慰，这表明了一种新的趋势正在形成：不仅仅是追求即时满足，而是思考如何延长衣物使用寿命，并将其融入到我们整体生活哲学之中。
新闻来源：www.nbcnews.com
原文地址：Shopping has become agonizing because of microtrends
新闻日期：2024-10-06
原文摘要：
When deciding what to wear to a recent event at her law school, Fiza Faheem, 20, pored over the options in her wardrobe. Many of her recent purchases had already gone out of style, at least by TikTok’s volatile standards. Should she don the thin-framed glasses characteristic of the “office siren”? Or perhaps she could channel “dark academia” with a gothic blazer and black sheer tights? Should she stack her jewelry and put bows on her sleeves? Or should she opt for more of a “clean girl” look, which would involve slicking back her hair and wearing neutral colors? She felt like her closet was mocking her. “I might have liked something before, and then all of a sudden, even three or four months down the line, I don’t really reach for it in my wardrobe anymore,” said Faheem, a student at the University of York in the U.K. “Then there’ll be something new that’s trending.” With the TikTok and fast-fashion mill churning out new trends and microtrends every day, consumers in the real world seem to be crying out: Shopping isn’t fun anymore and personal style feels impossible. In the past year, microtrends and coveted aesthetics have become more niche and short-lived, from the resurgence of so-called indie sleaze with Charli XCX’s “brat” summer to the coquettish hyperfeminine to boxer shorts and jerseys. Shoppers say they feel disoriented, they can’t find age-appropriate clothing, and nothing stays in style. They’ve never owned more clothes, they say, but the fear of being “cheugy” in last month’s viral item often gives them pause before they even start dressing. Marketing on apps like TikTok and Instagram has changed the landscape of fashion, experts say, making clothing more instantaneously accessible and trends gigantic but fleeting. “It has people lost,” said Dejeuné Harris, a personal stylist based in Washington, D.C. “If you’re following trends, you’re going to be shopping way more often than not, and you’re still not going to actually have anything to wear.” Normal people don’t have time to keep up like fashion influencers do, but social media is constantly trying to make them. “When you’re a regular person and you’re going on to your email job during the day and then every time you take a dopamine break on your phone, you’re getting hit by ‘You’re not fashionable enough. You don’t have the cool-girl clothes. These are what the cool girls are wearing,’ it’s going to take a toll on you,” said Alana Martinson, 24, a sustainability and thrifting-focused content creator. Everyone is overconsuming to keep up When shopping for clothes, Martinson is almost exclusively a thrifter. If there’s a new item she really wants, she gives herself a year to look for it at her local secondhand haunts before deciding whether to buy it new. She feels that intentionality with shopping has nearly gone extinct with her generation. As a result, people don’t really like their clothes anymore, she said. “The items in your closet that you did take a lot of time to purchase — you were just looking for that pair of jeans that fit you that way and for the longest time, then you finally found them — those are the clothes that you’re going to wear over and over and over again,” she said. “When you just go the route of instant gratification, it’s so easy to fall out of love with an item.” But Apple Pay-ready consumers can’t easily shake the temptation and the ease of paying. “It preys on our cravings for dopamine surges,” said Dana Thomas, the author of “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes.” “It used to be that you had to go stand in line at the cash register, and sometimes you get there and you’re like, ‘Do I really want that?’ Now you just click on it, it comes, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, did I really want that?’” Developing a fashion sense doesn’t mean finding a unique piece in a store or even taking the time to sniff it out online anymore. If something’s trendy right now, you can buy it immediately, one in each color, and with TikTok Shop, everyone is a seller. Odds are, in a month or two, the purchase will be obsolete or even cringe, mocked by the same influencers who sold it. Being trendy again means rinsing, repeating and buying something new. “People do weekly updates of what they’re finding at Zara and TikTok Shop. Instagram ads have also incentivized this constant shopping,” said viral fashion commentator Luke Meagher, who has 926,000 followers on the YouTube channel HauteLeMode. “We also just don’t have an understanding of clothes outside of fast fashion for the most part.” Post-pandemic shifts and age gaps People who aren’t in their teens and 20s are contending with similar confusion, but they feel on a deeper level that many of the trending styles simply don’t work for them. After pandemic isolation, everyone found themselves suddenly older in a reopened world. Many in their 30s and 40s don’t want to be office sirens or mob wives or cool girls, TikTok’s trending style personas. “You have individuals who are my age that are still trying to find themselves,” said Tamika Smith, 39. “I started to look through TikTok, like, ‘Let me see some of the looks that they’re wearing.’ It was difficult for me, because I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I should look like this.’” It’s a common question she hears from her clients, Harris said. “I don’t need to dress like a 16-year-old, because I’m not 16,” she said. “I’m not young, but I’m not old, but … these things don’t resonate with me.” Everyone’s sense of fashion was shaken after Covid, Harris said. Office aesthetics had shifted to being more casual. TikTok was now the judge, jury and executioner of what’s cute to wear. Half their closets were suddenly irrelevant. “It goes back to that people don’t know what to do,” Harris said. “They’re grasping at straws, just throwing something at the wall to see what sticks.” The new mall is TikTok Shop Fast fashion was the first harbinger of the death of personal style, Thomas said. Instead of designing and releasing collections, companies began to design and make clothes quickly based on what was already trending. When the trend passed, that batch got scrapped. It took fashion out of communities, Thomas said, and it took the personalization out of shopping. In a fast-fashion world, nearly 100 billion new garments are produced every year — double the amount produced in 2000. “When I was a teenager, I would go shopping in the mall,” Thomas said. “We’d come home with maybe one shirt and a skirt. Now as a teenager in H&M and Zara … you come out with a big sack of clothes and you’re spending the same amount of money that I was in 1980.” But why would anyone buy just one of something or wait to make a purchase when they could have what’s trending now and for cheap? The new mall is TikTok Shop, where after watching your favorite influencer try something on, you can immediately buy the outfit that’s already been linked in the video. Like other notorious fast-fashion houses like Shein and Temu, TikTok Shop often boasts dollar-store prices. Though TikTok Shop only launched in September 2023, it’s now the fourth most popular social commerce platform in the U.S. Microtrends usually come from these brands trying to re-create one specific item rather than a genre of items. Low-rise jeans, for example, are a trend, while dupes for the viral Skims dress are a microtrend. According to Thomas, social media moves too fast for there to be real, lasting trends anymore. It’s why short-lived aesthetics like mob wife and microtrends have dominated. They’re meant to expire quickly, she said. On TikTok, consumers decide what’s cool, and brands scramble to keep up. It makes personal style hard to define. If every brand is just designing the current online trends, how could it ever be personal? Even railing against current trends, like turning to vintage and thrifting, eventually gets co-opted, with fast-fashion houses releasing “worn in” styles. “It’s so easy to shop a look that’s identical to your favorite influencer,” Martinson said. “Any aesthetic is out there and any aesthetic is within reach at a very accessible price.” Fashion is cannibalizing itself, said Thomas, with nowhere to go but backward to decades of yore. The ’90s are back! The ’60s are back! But the only direction these cheap dupes are going is to massive dumps in the Global South. “The average garment today is worn seven times before it’s thrown away,” she said. “There’s a lot of clothes that just get thrown away without ever being worn.” Hope for the out-of-style masses who care about sustainability A beacon of hope for Thomas lies in lifestyles like Martinson’s: those spent in thrift stores, taking in each garment and considering it as part of a larger wardrobe instead of a fleeting signifier of style. “We’re running out of places to throw away all these clothes,” she said. “Any time we give clothes a longer life, it’s better.” For those who are trying to escape a loop of TikTok purchases or discover their personal style, Harris says shopping should always start with a pause. If you’re going to buy a clothing item, think of three outfits you can wear it with. When shopping, buy good-quality closet staples that will outlast any fleeting era or aesthetic. “Focus on basic pieces: T-shirts, jeans, boots, coats, good-quality items; and natural materials: 100% cotton, 100% denim,” she said. “Then slowly incorporating some trends that make sense.” Meagher agreed that there is a place for trends and viral items, if anything, to expose people to new styles they’ve never considered. “I do think the vastness of the internet and its archive qualities allows the ability to learn about different senses of style and subcultures,” he said. “And through that, one can break out of the more mainstream trends.” It’s happening, Thomas said. People recognize the harms of fast fashion more than before. Pre-Industrial Revolution habits of secondhand shopping, mending old clothes and keeping things around are coming back. “What I see that’s just so heartwarming is that people are caring again,” she said.
