For college students here at the University of North Florida, fashion seems to be driven by the rise of social media and they are not alone in this observation.
Studies continue to show that fashion trends are being predicted by social media and that influencers have a big effect on the rise of new and reused fashion trends. A study trying to build a program to predict fashion trends also saw a correlation between seeing different trends on Instagram and seeing them on the Vogue Runway. Fashion on social media is predicting fashion in the professional world.
Students here at UNF are also finding that they see new trends starting on Instagram and moving into this college campus. From scrolling on social media to walking to class, students are continuing to see the same trends. When asked about the biggest trends, Emily Edwards, a freshman here at UNF, had a quick answer.
“Crop tops and mom jeans for sure,” Edwards said.
In the eyes of our own students, social media has always had a big influence on fashion trends as long as it has been around. Another student, Jessica Rawson, described what she thought about the influencers on Instagram and why they have such an impact on what we choose to wear every day.
“People just want to be like them in some sense,” Rawson said, “just admire them and want to be like them in a small capacity.”
Studies also show that companies are hopping on the social media bandwagon. Kyung Hoon Kim and Eun Young Kim from the Republic of Korea examined the marketing trends through social media and found that there are correlations between social media and sustainability for fashion marketing.
“Social media is evolving,” Kim said, “to foster fashion marketing including customer service, vicarious experience, creative advertising option and new business opportunities.”
Companies and students are experiencing the effects of social media on fashion, but it seems to stem from influencers. Influencers have become very relevant in the past 10 years as social media has become more of a job to some people. They exert quite an influence over people with the number of followers they have and the content they provide.
UNF has several influencers on our campus, one of them responding to the question of social media’s influence on the fashion world. Taylor Machat, a freshman here at UNF and an Instagram sensation with over 119,000 followers, commented on what she thinks about social media trends.
“Social media influenced these trends because it's sort of a follow the leader situation,” Machat said, “If one girl that people look up to wears something and she wears it with confidence and it looks good, then people will follow.”
It seems like the fashion world is increasingly influenced by what people are posting on social media, but where are the influencers getting their ideas for new trends? It turns out that many of these trends are just recycled from previous decades. One of the top trends of today, the mom jean look, was popular with the Baby Boomer generation and are now back again. Denise Crosby with the Chicago Tribune had a very strong opinion about this new trend gaining traction on social media.
“For two years, the fashion experts and internet influencers and whoever else we’re supposed to be listening to have been telling us this style is making a comeback,” Crosby said.
Moms seem to be the only ones not hopping on this comeback trend, becoming increasingly popular in younger crowds. This is evident on every college campus, including UNF. Looking around as you walk to class, almost every girl has dawned on the crop top and mom jeans look. Social media influencers seem to just steal and reuse old trends, giving a fresh take on the look and making it appear new and trendy yet again.
Photo by Graecyn Barron |
Walking around campus, take a look at the trends of the day and scroll Instagram
or TikTok. It is very clear that there is a direct correlation between the influencers' looks on social media and what we are continuing to see in our classrooms.