Social media has changed how users dress, and some of these trends appear on the Carlmont campus.
Tik Tok, in particular, by allowing user-generated clips to display anything from shower thoughts to crazy jobs, garnered over 600 million users worldwide.
Reflective of the social changes during the pandemic, teens find such fast-paced freedom of variety intriguing and take inspiration for their outfits from it.
“It has a lot of influence, and I’ve seen a lot of things that I would have never seen before, because of Tik Tok or Instagram, or any social media. Tik Tok is kind of a hub for having different ideas, and I’ve seen more diversity of clothing on Tik Tok than anything else,” Erin Psaila, a junior, said.
With such diversity and so much time alone with the online world, teens have begun to find what they feel good wearing using the app.
“At first, I didn’t really like the styles [on Tik Tok], but once I started seeing people wear certain things, I started to understand that they could look good. Then I tried those out and ended up liking a lot of them. My style used to be much different before I started going on Tik Tok,” Anabel Yarovoy, a sophomore, said.
Not only do students get inspired by Tik Tok, but many have also created accounts to project their creativity.
“Social media platforms are a really good way to express my creative outlets. I used to post a lot of art, and now I do a lot of fashion, posting what clothes I have gotten and such,” Elisa Luo-Wimmer, a sophomore, said.
One concern students mentioned of the exposure of an open platform is unnecessary consumption or fast fashion.
“When things go in and out of trends so fast, people shop so much faster. We kind of are being pickpocketed by these trend cycles. A lot of the time, it’s not healthy for the environment because it’s moving so fast it’s like a whole other clothing revolution,” Psaila said.
Overall, the online platform holds a warehouse of fashion ideas, and users are trying on new worlds of clothing. So far, some of the trends people have rediscovered include wide-leg jeans, oversize outfits, grunge 70’s vibes, the color brown, Doc Martens, pleated skirts, cropped cardigans, and more.
“It’s really incredible because it takes a good amount of confidence to wear stuff like that. Once you do, you find a big part of yourself because it’s a really expressive style of clothes. I love seeing that,” Luo-Wimmer said.
