Today, I wanna talk about being a PERSON on the INTERNET. God, it’s so embarrassing, isn’t it? To have to interact with the whole world in a way that looks authentic but not too real and also be served up a platter of advertisements that serve as subconscious mind-foods until you give into the hunger and BUY the thing. If you did not follow that metaphor, fear not. What I’m trying to say is, the internet has given us access to *everything*. So how do we decide what we want? And more importantly, how can we avoid getting our data analysed until some company decides for us?
There are two prongs to this conversation. First, how do we navigate personal style in the age of the algorithm? AKA: how the heck do I know what I want to wear and am I consciously choosing to want to wear it? And second, how do we avoid overconsumption at the hands of the internet and the ads it feeds us? Ultimately, both of these things tie into being a sustainable consumer: if you know your own style, you can figure out what trends are for you and your closet and which are just clickbait, avoiding buying things just to sell them soon after. Shall we?
Instagram and TikTok are visual medias, which means that the more visually appealing a photo or video is, the more attention it will get. Of course, there are many nuances to the algorithms that drive Instagram and TikTok, certainly more than the visual appeal of the content. But, the dependence on eye-catching posts for engagement has resulted in a new micro-trend that people have been calling avant-basic. Avant-basic comprises bright clothes, in funky patterns, sometimes fashioned in non-traditional materials (like crochet). Because these pieces are so loud, they command attention on apps! Think: the OG warp-check pant from Paloma Wool, everything that House of Sunny makes, Farm Rio’s bright prints, Lisa Says Gah’s collection with artist KJ Plumb.
Now of course, there’s validity to these trends! While they’re attention-grabbing, they’re also just fun, the perfect pick-me-up from a year and a half of comfort-core. However — I have personally fallen victim to a pair of pants that are so eye-catching, but simply don’t fit into my wardrobe the way I’d like. Parsing the clothes that feel like me when I put them on from the clothes that make me look a certain way is critical to finding my personal style!
Like most things, making the best decision when considering purchasing a new item relies on stopping, and thinking. Asking ourselves questions like, “how might this blouse fit in my closet?” or “am I buying this just to wear once to that party?” can help us reduce our impulse spending *and* our fashion footprint. Alternatively, consider buying that same piece on Poshmark, or Depop, or The RealReal — you get the pretty dress, for cheaper (!), and you’ve taken part in the secondhand economy. Now, this kind of thoughtfulness is also required of us when we consider how we’re buying our clothes.
The internet is not like a book — we don’t consciously choose to intake that information, but instead it is fed to us, in a never-ending stream. Because of this automacy, we sometimes have the decision of how we’re buying our clothes made for us. It’s so often that I’m perusing a fashion media website and am suddenly accosted, with something like “25 Great Fall Transitional Pieces You Can Find On Amazon”. It’s innocent enough — Amazon is very convenient, after all. But, how many people click right through to purchase whatever clothes they want on Amazon, rather than from the webstore of the people who made it? And listen. I will not lie to you: I am Very Anti Jeff Bezos. There’s no reason for one man to sell a bunch of things made by other people. It encourages non-local shopping (ie., ordering things from halfway around the world and expecting that to be a normal thing) and is just frustrating. I digress.
The same is true with ads. This is less for ethical reasons than it is for ~personal style~ reasons. If all the ad-men have tracked my data and decided, definitively, that I should purchase a pair of Prada loafers from The RealReal, I dunno if I want them! Wouldn’t that just be the result of my taste, reflected in my Instagram intake, reflected back at me by people who want to make money off me? I want to want things because I want to wear them. It’s about the intentionality, isn’t it? I intentionally choose to buy a piece that I’ve been eyeing for months. I intentionally order it from the people who made it, to facilitate a direct interaction with the people that produced my stuff. It feels better, like I’ve managed to use the internet for its good and out-maneuver the bad parts.
This is all to say, friends, I’ve been trying to focus on how I use the internet for my purchasing habits, and how I can avoid buying everything just because it’s there! It feels beneficial to me, because I’m actually establishing a barrier between my mind and my phone, but also beneficial for the planet, because this kind of slow thinking is the only thing that will help us near “sustainable consumption”. As much as I’d love to get on the crochet top or bucket hat trend, I know it won’t really feel like me so I’ll wear it once and be done. So why get it at all?
Well, this has been a long rant and really just a deep dive into my brain. Welcome! Do you feel insane? Me too! I hope you all find these little rabbit holes to be interesting, ’cause I’m gonna be whipping them up whether you like it or not. But it would be super cool if you liked it 🙂
