The world is moving faster than ever before. The economy, major
world events, and the Internet have accelerated my sense of time. Five years shouldn’t feel like it was so long ago but somehow the world felt and looked so different.
Recently, I have noticed the trend of “eyebrow blindness” on Tik Tok which has led to other types of “blindness” people have experienced. The “blindness” is people not being aware of how “bad” their eyebrows, makeup, or whatever it is that made them feel embarrassed looked. But many of the people post about themselves from five, six, or seven years ago. Now, are these videos funny and entertaining? Absolutely. But it makes me think, “why are people embarrassed about what they wore less than ten years ago?” The reason why is because the trend cycle is not twenty years long anymore. It really is five to ten years, or even less if a trend or piece becomes extremely popular. Example: the Stanley cup is already on its way out, which is crazy because people were getting into fist fights over them.
I’m definitely not the first person to criticize micro-trends, there’s many things wrong with them. They’re bad for the environment, they perpetuate over-consumption, and they make people chase after an unattainable lifestyle. Influencers are trying to get us to spend more money than we have in order to participate in the rat race.
Micro-trends or really popular trends become ugly to us after over-exposure over a short period of time. It’s like me when I have one song on repeat for two weeks and then all of a sudden, I don’t want to listen to it anymore. Unless the trend is something that is functional or simple enough to have lasting power in your closet, it will become embarrassing to us, even after minimal amounts of wear.
For example, in the midst of minimalist makeup trends of 2021 to 2023, “2016 makeup” was seen as “cringe”. Suddenly, large strip lashes, heavy foundation, contouring, and cut creases in eyeshadow were no longer cool… it was seen as ugly. Combating micro-trends by avoiding over-consumption of clothing and wearing things you really love is great. But, you should also not be ashamed of the things you wore less than ten years ago. Especially if you are in your 20s, this is such a tumultuous time in our lives. We really are just starting to find ourselves and a large part of who you are is how you present yourself to the world. It’s okay to experiment with your style to find out what you like and even then, you as a person are always evolving so it can be fun to try new things and change it up every once in a while.
So, embrace your 2016 face. Use pieces from times past if you still like it. For me, I will never let go of big winged eyeliner and a red lip color, no matter if they are in or out of style. I will also always love high waist bottoms, you will probably never catch me wearing low waist anything.
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