Fashion used to be dictated by catwalks, high street stores, magazines, and TV. Now, the internet is widely used and, surprise surprise, has a lot of power over what most people wear today. That’s right – fashion trends and the internet tend to have so much more in common than you think.
We still look at catwalks, still check out mannequins in stores for inspiration, and still watch TV, but we can attribute many of the fashion trends around today to the internet. Let’s take a look at how the internet shapes what we wear and influences us daily:
Online Shopping
Source: parade
Online shopping is so much more convenient than shopping in person. Compare similar items, easily check out prices and discounts to ensure you’re getting the best possible deals, and then your order is shipped straight to your door – magic! Not only that, it’s easy to try items on in your own home and then send them back if you don’t like them. Some companies are even showing models of various shapes and sizes on their sites wearing the same item, so that just about anybody can find something that suits them. This is such a refreshing change from having only size 0 models and mannequins on display, giving us a pretty distorted view of what the outfit should look like on an average sized person.
However, with all of the benefits of online shopping today, it does influence us more than we think. Many online brands now have blogs and social media pages which they use to show us how their items can be worn in even more creative ways. They collaborate with influencers and models, oftentimes helping them to bring out their own clothing collections. This further influences what people are wearing. You may not have looked twice at a brand in the past, but suddenly, you see a post about your favorite influencer wearing their clothes and you find yourself with a full basket on their website.
You’re not limited to the stores just on your physical high street with the internet. The internet is like the biggest shopping complex in the world. You can buy from any country (keeping in mind delivery fees and import charges), and you can discover brands you never would have known existed. This means that style is way more unique and varies a lot from person to person, far more than it did years ago when people from a small town would often have to wear the same things.
Many people even find themselves online shopping when they don’t need to buy anything. Physical shopping requires travel, planning, and a lot of effort in general. Shopping online can be done with the click of a button. You think you need a new dress and – BAM! – within 5 minutes you’ve purchased a new one all while wearing your pyjamas. The benefits of online shopping alone could be a good reason to look at high speed broadband choices deals!
Blogs
Source: Mauricio Piña
Fashion bloggers are still out there in huge numbers, and many have a loyal following that has been with them from the beginning. While many of them started out wearing high street clothing, they developed their brand so well and built such a huge following that now they can afford the likes of Channel and Tom Ford. Some people still follow them to see what they get up to, even though they can’t afford the clothes. However, many will use money they haven’t got to emulate their favorite influencers, or buy fakes so that it looks like they have the real thing.
This isn’t always the case – some influencers like to ensure they are responsible and sustainable with the clothes they recommend. Many of them will wear clothing that is handmade from individual boutiques, and a lot of them will also shop vintage! This is why more and more people are getting into vintage shopping and enjoying rare handmade pieces by custom designers. Handmade pieces by a smaller design might cost more than your average high street piece, but it will last a lot longer and is something you can keep forever if you look after it. You can also be fairly confident that many people won’t own the same thing (at least people you know!).
Source: ho3magazine
Pinterest is full of boards of ‘fashion inspo’. These pictures come from all over the web – blogs, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Pinterest allows you to collect different pictures that you like as sort of a mood board, helping you when you need it most. Thanks to Pinterest, many people are finally understanding their personal style and what they like to wear, and not just blindly following the people they know.
Source: strategydrivenmarketing
Likely the most influential platform of all, is Instagram. Instagram is full of pictures of bloggers from all walks of life, even celebrities. Whether these people mean to or not, they share pictures of themselves and people go out and buy what they are wearing. With the inception of Instagram, many people became accidental fashion icons. People then decided to do it on purpose, and that’s how influencers as we know them today came about. It’s easy to save pictures from Instagram and use them to come up with outfit inspiration when you’re feeling less than inspired. You do tend to see many of the same trends on Instagram. For example – full makeup with lots of colored eyeshadow, doc martens with colorful bikinis in a hot country (looks ok but imagine the foot sweat when you’re dancing!), and even lip fillers. Lip fillers aren’t just an item of clothing you can buy online, but they are certainly a fashion trend. Chances are, if we only saw Kylie Jenner on TV and in Magazines, lip fillers would not have become so mainstream – and neither would her lip kits.
The internet can be a wonderful tool for coming up with your own personal style and finding items that really speak to you – just be mindful that you don’t become a carbon copy of somebody else!
