From being a just dance app, TikTok is now a leading platform for everyone in the fashion industry. Trends get created faster than Netflix making new sequels to ‘The Kissing Booth’
By Kamila Sukhanova
‘Star girl’, ‘clean girl’, ‘ballerina girl’ or even ‘pink pilates princess’. You could imply that those are the names of some famous cartoon characters that little girls loved to watch on TV alongside ‘Totally Spice’ and get inspired to be like them.
Well, if you thought so, then you have got it close. But, instead of TV, there is Tik Tok, and instead of cartoon characters, those are the names of popular aesthetics that young women on Tik Tok try to follow.
It is not so surprising, as we have already seen the same situation with aesthetics from Tumblr a decade ago.
2014 Tumblr-era still counts as the first ‘OG’ aesthetic that made the Internet go crazy. At that time, it was unexplainable how everyone from that generation decided to wear big combat boots from Dr Martins, dye the ends of their hair pink and try smokey eyes as Effy did in ‘Skins’.
All of that is simply because Tumblr users have decided Lana Del Ray or The Lorde’s songs gave off that kind of dark romanticised vibe, and they wanted to fit that aesthetic.
Time goes on, but what didn’t change is the influence that all these past and present social media platforms have got on the fashion industry. From thirty minutes YouTube videos to 15 seconds Tik Toks, alongside being users, young women are firstly seen as potential customers.
However, Tik Tok is different from what we had before. It is a fast-scrolling app, so trends tend to get created easily. All need is for the algorithm to show one fashion piece more than five times in ‘for your page’, and the rest is done by users themselves, who buy those products, post them and make them even more viral.
Aesthetics on Tik Tok include particular fashion or beauty items that allow one to achieve a specific vibe or image by buying them. For instance, searches for linen pants increased 66 per cent in May on Poshmark, thanks to “coastal grandma”, another aesthetic that was trendy this summer, mentioned The BOF in ‘How to Keep Up With TikTok’s Lightning-Fast Trend Cycle’.
Young girls now tend to buy something that was already featured on Tik Tok. For example, Zhaniya is a fashion blogger from Boston in her early 20s. She actively films her ‘get ready with me’ Tik Toks, which get more than 4 thousand views each time.
“I’m really influenced by Tik Tok for any kind of fashion trends. When I see a pretty girl wearing something, I would be like, ‘I really need this as well’. Most of the time, I would end up buying that”, says Zhaniya
Though, previously it was inclusivity to hear first about the new trends. People not in the industry would find out about them only days after fashion weeks passed or some expert’s opinion was published in fashion magazines like Vogue.
Whereas now, not only people got the accessibility to find out in seconds about the latest fashion news through Tik Tok, but also to be the ones deciding what style should be trending and what items should be called ‘IT’ for the new season. TikTok changed the game in the fashion industry, whether you are part of it or not.