On Trends

Trends are a fickle lover.

It is that what draws us to them is both an acceptance, however meager, of aesthetic worth as well as a sort of coveting of affection; it’s like hanging out with the popular crowd in jr. high. You didn’t really even like them, considering what Claire behind your back after English you couldn’t say they were nice girls, but you were dying to be a part of their circle. They exuded a confidence and domination of their surroundings that, though their methods were lacking in refinement and they really should have stayed away from mommy’s makeup, their presence still commanded more attention than you did with your timid shuffle and your Tweety Bird sweatshirt. Unfortunately this catty behavior will sometimes remain well after she leaves the locker rooms and scrunchies of secondary education.

Now I understand that elitism is intrinsically intertwined with fashion and while the latter can be liberated but there are still echoes of exclusivity that are part of the thrill.
As much as the Elite French in the 17th century seemed to take drastic measures to prove their worth through wealth to the King, so do we put a great deal of weight on the socioeconomic condition we reflect. It is the same goal by different means.

For most, it is an exercise in vanity; an beautiful expression of self in others, those such rare cases of genuine inner confidence and purity of heart which radiate and catch us in awe. That is not to say that we are most of us vain little devils seeking to steal the limelight, in fact I would like to think that we are trying in part to simply bring about more beauty in the world, not just in our aesthetic appeal or superficial personal advancement, but I would say that there are a fair number of this sort.
When this style hysteria meets the business side of the trade, it follows that such a beast as the trend should arise as we know it today.
From what I can make of it thus far, it is a perpetuating factory of the new “in” look (why it’s “on trend”).

Candy for the magazine covers, meat for the journalists, someone to follow, something to crave.

I speak from a lack of compelling evidence to convince me that this trend machine is not simply feeding the masses what they want, vomiting it back up in a new form and feeding it to them again, simply for the sake of always having something to sell and something to buy. And while I can venture from here into a discussion regarding the effects of a capitalistic system I will instead muse upon the notion of wanting.

There is a part of us that will always want candy, even when we know it is just sugar.