i often feel hypocritical about the fact that i think to myself “yeah, i dress for myself, i don’t really care about trends” but what i’m really saying is “yeah, i dress for the approval of 200 people rather than 2 million” and trend-follow that smaller, more niche group accordingly
I recognize this! for me, this was part of the general realization that you are never the only one in the world who does/feels/thinks something. there are always others who are similar to you, because it's only human things you experience, not some alien stuff that came falling from the sky.
“Even if you don’t care about fashion you’re still automatically always signaling…there’s nothing you can wear that isn’t saying something” always love how articulate the sociology of fashion, professor rian
Pinterest helps people develop fashion schemas, which is mostly only good for people who have don't have any sense of fashion, but it harms you after a certain point. Like you said, it basically become stale because everyone is looking at the same things.
Yeah, that’s why I mainly use Pinterest to pin my own images that I find from a variety of sources to hone my personal style vs looking at the algorithm or someone else’s curated board to influence me
I love that u highlighted how ppl can transgress against the mainstream for just wanting to appear unique as opposed to it actually relating to some form of true ‘authenticity.’ Someone dressing like a super niche transgressive aesthetic could be just as ‘inauthentic’ as someone dressing in mainstream y2k. I’d say neither is inherently bad as far as authenticity is concerned, obviously there are other reasons to dress a certain way, but I think sometimes we have this idea that the more niche or unique someone’s whatever (music, fashion etc.) appears to be, the more authentic it is when sometimes it’s just a more finely crafted performance of authenticity.
i live in a rural-ish town in the south and i think about how much social consequence there is from what i wear in public, but what i wear in public has also made it easy to find out who else is a vibe and friends have been made from it. thanks for putting what i thought into words!
i’m currently reading “in spirituality and art” by wassily kandinsky and he describes something extremely similar to what you’re saying about the people who appeal to more masses have less real impact (he calls this a spiritual point) vs the people who create riskier art that only a smaller group will understand but the ones who do understand have a bigger connection to it. he also explains that art that is only created for nostalgic purposes is useless and hollow since it strips away the actual context for why it was created at that time in the first place. it relates so much to the current trends and fashion of today. also trend bubbles created by algorithms is something people are completely in denial about for some reason. idk if it’s lack of internet literacy or just their way of coping that their “style” is really just based on what’s been fed to them. some ppl will fight tooth and nail to defend their right to be blindly marketed to.
with the y2k convo: this is why some people simply don’t understand that pinkpantheress and her style is so true to y2k cause she’s dressing like somebody’s teenage older sister from 2005 rather than dress like specific films + celebs, MVs from then
I’ve followed you on Tumblr for years and years and something you said about fashion somewhere in those years and years ago has ALWAYS stuck with me. You said that you love wearing things because they’re funny. Like sometimes something is just silly or weird or kinda ugly even but it’s just.. funny, and that’s the best way to describe it, you said. I immediately realized I do the exact same thing! I loooove wearing some random ass thing, maybe it’s just “dumb,” but I do it because it’s just funny to me.
I think Pinterest is only good to use when you have a curated personal style, not to find one. If you use it to find one you can easily find yourself latching on to a mainstream trend and next thing you know you don’t like your wardrobe a few years later. I have my style figured out (somewhat lol) and only use the app to outfit ideas (and because it’s fun to use).
exactly! i think it is designed to be easy to latch onto, the shop feature is heavily pushed on pinterest and every comment section is filled with “where did you buy ___?” i also think it’s just fun, i love using the algorithm to find content similar to my own pictures for ideas!
21:00 it's amazing that you compared it to christianity. There's a religion sociologist named Christian Smith who wrote at lengths about the creation of subculture and how signifiers such as fashion, dress, language creates in groups and out groups. His theory could be applied to any subgroup, but he wrote mostly about evangelical Christians. Love that you were able to come up with the same points as him and even gave a Christian example.
something else about fashion is that you are not just signally to other people but also to yourself. when you prepare yourself to face the world you construct an outward appearance in the aim of receiving specific reactions & interactions from certain groups of people, but you also are doing so to provide yourself emotion & psychological support in your endeavours into society/interactions. fashion and self expression are comforting and provide individuals not only with a sense of belonging but also a sense of self.
You get it!!! I’ve just entered retail and I have to dress a certain way at work and I’m realizing I HATE IT bc I have to CONFORM and it’s so LIMITING. I live for dressing IRONICALLY
im an older lady(born in 1979)was a teenager during the ninetees and love the nostalgia feelings that come with the Era fashion also ,seeing them re interpretated ,mixed and added on ... this is such an interesting video,thank you Rian!
8:03 I would argue that nowadays it’s the reverse. When a trend is born on tik tok its mostly young middle class people participating in it. Once it starts to get popular young influencers and later celebrities start to pick up on it which leads the original participants to abandon the trend so as to not be associated with its over saturation and newly found “basic” status.
This video was so excellently researched and explained. Totally get it. It’s why I’ve moved away from using P*interest to build style boards - that algorithm is heinous! It’s showing the same regurgitated aesthetic over and over and there’s no longer a pool diverse influences and interests to curate.
amazing video!!! i feel like social media overloads us with so much fashion based inspiration making it much harder to dig into and care about a specific subculture. we see so many different people adopting so many different aesthetics on a daily basis, now honing in on one type of wardrobe doesn’t hold as much social capital as trend hoping.
This is so interesting! I guess I’ve somewhat been partaking in this without really knowing? Like I often search for brands my mum would have worn in the 2000s. They are often much more affordable as they aren’t really ‘high fashion’ per say but more so off the market now - so perhaps rarer? It’s odd to think that I am somewhat morphing into her in a way but I suppose it’s just me growing into her tastes and admiring them as she did and still does…
I can't believe I'm just now finding your channel, I really loved hearing you talk intelligently on fashion trends. I'm about to check out your other videos, but I loved your comparison to religious groups and how the fashion world similarly gets super niche and cult-y (When I say cult, Its the sense of being a group of people with common beliefs, not necessarily in the religious context) when you get further down the rabbit hole. Loved the video
I used to love literal communication with fashion like that one shirt that reads “roses are red doritos are savory. The US prison system is legal slavery” that type of thing was my jam lmao
I think from all fashion videos ive seen ive learnt most from u rian, im really glad creators like u exist. I also love the way u dont look down upon the ( out group ) because they are not inherently bad people for not understanding a reference, how silly even is that concept
You articulated how I interpret fashion but could never ever express because I don’t have the critical thinking skills lol. I loved this video even though I’m not fashionable at all I like to pretend I would be if I wasn’t lazy lol. Love your videos! 😊
If that’s how you interpreted fashion then you do have the critical thinking skills! You can have excellent critical thinking skills but might find it difficult to articulate your thoughts and so many ppl can relate! Don’t sell yourself short :)
I am so happy to finally see you back on youtube as I have a problem using tiktok as I fall into the tt rabbit hole and become glued to my phone so I deinstalled the app.
dude i’ve been following you on twitter for a while and i’ve always loved your insight, but damn this is amazing! Your analysis is so in depth but easy to follow, and your knowledge pool is insanely deep! Thanks for the vid!
I saw an interview recently with julia roberts discussing her unshaved armpit hair. She said it was absolutely her way of signaling. People who were grossed out by it or didn't understand it simply weren't here people and it was an easy and effective way to weed them out.
Holy crap what a well researched and well explained video!! Love your explanations so much, especially the part about the signaling and the social hierarchies we make in our heads when we think of fashion and style. For the longest time I was too scared to wear anything outside my comfort zone, which was just the basics so basic tops and jeans. Nothing wrong with good basics either btw, but I only wore those cuz I was too anxious to wear anything else and explore/create my personal sense of style. As u said, there’s a vulnerability with fashion since whatever ur wearing is signaling something. So if you put intention behind what you wear, or make it seem like you put intention, you signals that you care to everyone around you. And thats scarier than wearing something with the intention to signal that you don’t care. Now, I’m trying to make an active effort to dress how I want, and a lot of it is a mix of Pinterest, depop, and instagram, so lots of social media just being shoved down my throat lol. While I’m happy I no longer feel super anxious about wearing these different styles, I also worry that I’m not putting as much of my own personality into it. But I genuinely love seeing everyone’s outfits on my campus and around town since it shows parts of their personality and what type of media they consume/are inspired by. Anywho, I loved this video and think fashion/style is so fun and is a beautiful form of self expression. Also I will definitely be on the lookout for more videos from u😆
wait this is so true. I love to dress 90s, early 00s but i dont mean the mainstream fashion at that time but more 'alternative'. I try to find authentic 90s clothes but its pretty hard to do so bc most thats sold in secondhand shops is the mainstream fashion or the modern take on it. Love the vid!
I will say personally I’ve found a lot of value in Pinterest but primarily as a way to aggregate and collect media from other online spaces I might visit. Like I think it’s so powerful that interesting images I see on tumblr can live alongside runway looks I saved from like vogue or smth. As for discovery however while I agree the algorithm is like a vehicle for an uncanny sameness I rly think there’s hope for it if somehow users became more active and started bringing content into Pinterest themselves instead of using it as a primary source. Bc then not only would u be expanding what other users can also see by diversifying the site content - but the algorithm can also get a better idea of personal tastes by analyzing third party content u save that doesn’t already exist on the site This was a rly great video!!!!
love this video so much! Must be one of the most relevant videos I watched on fashion. It will definitely make me consider more fashion choices and others with a different understanding. It's funny how a lot of this stuff is also reflected in other cultural parts of our society and as you also already mentioned linguistics.
Don’t overthink it. There is still a utilitarian purpose of clothing and clothing only reflects a portion of what you identify as. If you lean into the things you enjoy and value, you’ll naturally start to choose clothing that facilitate that activity and/or create styles that signify it. That’s the main difference between personal style and wearing a costume. If you’re mostly concerned with how people will decode you, you’re likely looking for a costume.
im so happy u appeared on my suggested. i had no idea u had a yt channel, i follow u on tiktok n im obsessed w the kind of content u make n the kinds of topics within fashion u talk ab pls never stop i love it allll ♡
Ooh- I find myself wanting to argue with what you're saying about the use of algorithms but I think I agree with you more than a disagree. And its funny because these are my exact thoughts day to day, but hearing it deconstructed outloud I find myself wanting to play devils advocate lol. I want to say pi*terest (i see we're censoring it so I will respect it lol) is the lesser of many popular evils and it satisfies than inherent need to look at "easily pretty/cool" things while still finding things that take a little longer to appreciate/ understand. I don't know if I personally will ever do away with "easy media" so long as I'm not using it as a crutch and it interferes with my artistic development. But who's to say we wouldn't all be better off not looking at any of it, and going back to slower forms of media consumption like magazines, movies, streetfashion. I think it all goes back to awareness. And I think its so awesome you're making a point to bring it to people's attention who may not consider the impact of what they consume day to day at all. It has nothing to do with policing fashion, and all to do with personal development. I hope this discussion reaches far!
I just wrote a three paragraph comment in my notes long story short great video such an interesting topic that I think about all the time - how we relate to the past and how that gets commodified but that's just one angle really
The 2016 take on y2k was way different from how it is interpreted now. I remember only seeing Matrix-like techno outfits being tagged as y2k on depop, social media. Maybe because only a few years ago, we still used "y2k" in its original meaning
Rian: people who choose to be in these fashion and styling spaces Me: *hits bowl* isn't that everyone and everywhere since we all wear clothes all the time
Alssoooo I could just send u this on IG but this really made me think about a paper I’m reading titled posthumanist performativity: toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Prob not the most connected to this video but think it would be cool to circle back to what you’re saying once I finish it. So far it’s speaking about the limitations of language we attach to objects. Ok bye
beautiful video. just so so brilliant your knowledge and passion for fashion but humanity in general is so inspiring and worthy of praise and thankfulness like ur so itttttt like yesss!! love it
Yes my love, but is your red hair a reference to Elfen Lied or a reference to Christaine F. [ Raf Simons ] ? my parenthetical existence cannot exist in ignorance for much longer.
