What if everyone left the house naked?

If everyone else is doing it, you also have to… right? Experts claim that naked-core is the new trend. I mean it’s a solution to overconsumption and it’s an eco-friendly revolution. You do care about the environment, don’t you?

If you aren’t ready to embrace the new trend, here’s an essential, life-changing, $300 white tank top instead. Truly a groundbreaking release. Probably infused with the tears of fashion interns. The fact that Carrie couldn’t afford to pay rent, but owned a graveyard of designer shoes should have warned us enough about mindless spending.

What happened to individuality? Personal taste is on a decline, and it feels like we’re slowly morphing into carbon copies of each other. Okay maybe that’s dramatic, but so is fashion, and it doesn’t mean that trends aren’t as influential as ever.

Whether it’s emptying wallets on trendy clothes that are forgotten within months, or curating a personality for strangers online, people will do anything for validation. We seem to be terrified of labels, yet desperate to fit into them. 

“I don’t want to be categorized,” influencers cry, while simultaneously asking viewers, “Which aesthetic am I?” 

Mermaid-core, Barbie-core, ballet-core, tomato-girl summer, Europe-core, clean girl, office siren, etc. If you don’t have a core, are you even a person? 

Then comes the great irony: closets overflowing with clothes, yet somehow there’s “nothing to wear.” Why? Because your clothes are expired and the trends are simply over. Not only are our attention spans getting shorter, so are the eras of fashion trends.

Don’t get me wrong, I fell victim to trends more times than I’d like to admit. What was the result? An empty wallet and regretful purchases. Not to mention, the trends got increasingly expensive over time. People went from raiding thrift shops in 2020 to finding niche businesses charging the price of a utility bill for a cotton t-shirt.

Why do people feel the need to spend thousands on luxury items, rather than buying an identical piece that’s the same material and ten times cheaper? Is it authenticity? The brand name? Maybe people just feel good about themselves, spending their money on unnecessary items just to show… that they can. I mean, the expensive ones do come with the thrill of announcing, “I am financially irresponsible on purpose.”

And God forbid the Balenciaga city bag on your shoulder is a dupe. Cool girls only buy authentic pieces. The truth is, owning authentic designer items doesn’t automatically make your own style authentic. If you buy something just because others like it, it’s not self-expression; it’s performance. Even authenticity is losing its meaning. 

To be clear, liking something popular isn’t a crime; they’re popular for a reason. The issue isn’t popularity — it’s buying blindly.

Trigger warning: Sensitive language!

Let’s talk the horror of being b***c (basic). People love an aesthetic when it stands out and feels “different”. But once the trend spreads, so does the hatred for it. People who fit into that certain aesthetic are no longer special or unique. They’re basic, which is the worst insult known to mankind. Calling someone basic now is like cursing their entire bloodline.

Fashion can’t objectively be good or bad – it’s literal pieces of cloth sewn together. Yet we act like wearing the wrong shirt will summon the fashion police (aka the deluded individuals that are self-proclaimed as “experts”). Who cares if a Tiktok influencer calls the city bag “uncool”? Most of the so-called online “experts” just love to criticize popular items, while calling a $90 candle “chic.” 

So just make up your own definition of cool. Or steal someone else’s; apparently that works too.

Here’s the truth we hate to admit: we’re all performing. Some of us just admit it more openly. The costumes change, but the performance stays the same.

Spoiler: If we’re all doomed to perform in this life-long movie, we might as well make sure it’s entertaining (for ourselves, not just the audience).