What is a trend?

Blueberry-milk nails. Hot rodent boyfriend. Tomato-girl summer. What do these things have in common? Absolutely nothing. They are all utterly meaningless. That and, within the last year, each one has become a micro-trend, a niche and short-lived yet pervasive fad that sweeps the Internet.

(In The Death of Trends, Vox's Terry) Nguyen is examining a more abstract consequence of this rapid acceleration, which is that it saps trends of their subcultural context, reducing them to status symbols that represent status itself, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading to more breadcrumbs. Her piece is focused on fashion trends, or aesthetic ... See more

70% of people would rather brands ‘serve their needs by understanding what they care about’ vs. 30% of people who’d rather brands ‘appear relevant by leaning into the latest trends’.

Many of these declarations are not meant to be taken seriously, and plenty will not succeed (see: Hot Vax Summer and, less consequentially, The New York Times’s endorsement of the Dirty Shirley). But all arise from a desire to identify some distinct flavor of each summer that can be captured and stored like strawberry preserves.

as some people say, ‘Trends aren’t that deep.’ Semantic inflation doesn’t just alter definitions — it also changes how we engage with these words in a cultural context. What was once deep, strategic, and long-term has been reduced to shallow, fleeting moments.

In the span of maybe four months, we saw “mob wife,” “ballet core,” “rockstar girlfriend,” and “tradwife.” There was also the “office siren” aesthetic, which attempted to synthesize the sterility of the office with the mythological seductiveness of the siren.

The meme even expanded its seasonal footprint into Christian Girl Autumn and Short King Spring.

More significant than what trends represent on their own and in the moment is what they collectively symbolize. Ours is a period of increasing noise. Everything is bleeding into everything around it. All trends, large and small, now suggest a new cultural mood—but only until the next Vaseline-smeared obsession comes along.