How the hyper interconnectivity enabled by the internet and TikTok has killed the pop culture fashion trend and given rise to infinite niche aesthetics.
91% of 18- to 25-year-olds believe mainstream pop culture is a thing of the past (Horizon Media, 2022). The hyper interconnectivity enabled by the internet and platforms like TikTok has had a massive impact on fashion, and in a broader sense, aesthetics as a whole. In the decades leading up to the internet age, mass fashion and popular aesthetic trends were dictated by magazines, celebrities, and media. Trends trickled down from these arbiters of culture and were sold to the lower classes by massive department stores and malls across America.
However, with the rise of the internet came the decline of the dictatorial effects of the elite on fashion trends. Subcultures became more globally ubiquitous and more distinct as the internet provided easy access to niche aesthetics to a broader community of consumers. This was a strong contrast to the aesthetics of the regionally-based subcultures of pre-internet times, such as the Australian “larrikin” style of the early 20th century and the British punk movement of the 1970s, to name a couple. In the early 2000s, the fashion of region-agnostic subcultures began to emerge, spread, and splinter into even more specific communities and aesthetics fully independently of the dictates of pop culture fashion and geography. The rise of steampunk, emo, scene, vaporwave, and the evolution of the 1980s traditional goth style into even more niche aesthetics like pastel goth, death rock, gothic lolita, etc. is evidence of this shift.
Subcultures’ aesthetics have always historically arisen as visible signs of individual or community-held ideologies, beliefs, or shared activities. If we consider punk, for example, we see how the heavily DIY’d punk aesthetic is meant to be a legible expression of rebellion. However, in the modern day we see many of these aesthetic representations of subcultures are often worn by people who simply like the look and may not be bought into the ideologies that that aesthetic historically represented. The ability to purchase “punk clothing,” “goth clothing,” or “skater clothing,” from massive fashion corporations is an indicator of this commodification of subculture aesthetics. In this sense, many of the aesthetic niches we see on TikTok and on the street are styles divorced from not only a subculture’s specific location, but also from its community. These aesthetics have become vibes through which individuals express not only their identity and taste, but also their mood, their environment, and oftentimes something maybe even less tangible.
Now with platforms like TikTok, the spread of aesthetic trends has been heavily accelerated. Niche fashion aesthetics are being adopted everywhere from massive metropolitan areas to small rural towns. With the diffusion of these styles also comes infinite evolutions as TikTok users consume and combine multiple aesthetics into new styles altogether. This increasingly fluid approach to fashion and style is articulated across the internet and social media as nebulous micro-trends like clowncore, cottagecore, coastal grandmother, dark academia, goblincore, etc. Many TikTok creators have gone even further with these aesthetic trends, building out content that reflects highly specified POVs articulated through not only fashion, but also makeup, interiors, nails, and music. Cold girl makeup, coquette aesthetics, dark feminine energy playlists, etc. come to mind.
TikTok’s democratization of subculture aesthetics has inspired a hyper specification that has encouraged people to express themselves as individuals with fluid, yet very niche physical articulations of who they see themselves as or who they aspire to be. A globalized fast fashion economy has made access to the pieces necessary for achieving these looks easy and nearly instantaneous, and the increasing popularity of thrifting has reinvigorated the movement around vintage, upcycling, and DIY. The intersection of these cultural realities has greatly undermined the singular pop culture fashion trend of decades past and elevated individuality, creativity, and fluidity of expression as the key drivers of aesthetic trends.
Comments