The clothes people wear are something that many overlook. In modern times, online apps and social media have greatly influenced the youth over the past few years. Nowadays, it feels like all everyone wants to have is good style or good fashion. What society calls “fashion” in 2025 is very different from what they call “fashion” in 2020. But what decides what makes clothes stylish and a trend in the years that people wear them? Many factors answer this question. Things like nostalgia, social media, innovation, and cultural shifts all play a big role in clothing trends.
One very obvious reason is nostalgia. With clothing and fashion, it is often said that there is a 20-year repeat in clothing trends (Shirleyjonesluke.medium.com). Nostalgia has a big role in elder people’s fashion because it can remind them of the past and their personal history. One example of this is Timberland boots. Timberland boots have been a repeating fashion trend from the ’90s and are coming back in the 2020s. Timberlands originally were made for work boots, but the way that they remind elders of their youth working is one factor that brings them back in trend. This influence of nostalgia also has an impact on the youth. When older people are wearing these clothes like Timberlands, it leaves the youth curious and fascinated by how something for work can be worn outside of a construction site and still look good. In modern times, kids/teens have more impulsive behavior. This plays in with the curiosity because it means that more teens who see something they like will most likely just go and buy it for themselves. In my personal experience, I can confirm this behavior because my friends and I have fallen into this impulsive buying of clothes because of curiosity about how they are worn outside of their intended purpose. Nostalgia is just one of the many factors that have influenced this seemingly endless cycle of clothing trends.
The fashion industry has been drastically transformed because it is fueled by influence on social media. Social media has many different types of influencers, and one giant category of influencers is in the fashion type of content. Influencers make trends come back easily because with their huge fanbase, viewers, and followers that see their content, it spreads the “it” look or style that people want. (Fashion Novation.nyc) With the easy inspiration from influencers comes the ease of buying clothes. Apps like Depop or Murcarri make it easy for these influencers to make their own reselling business and allow them to sell the clothes that are shown in their videos. Apps also made for interests like Pinterest also have a big role in fashion influence. In the past year, Pinterest has had a 71% increase in users having searches related to fashion influence. (FashionNovation.nyc) Social media has not only taken over our minds with short impulses of dopamine with videos, but it has also used these tactics to help push out fashion trends.
The innovation of past clothing trends has brought back both the purpose of what we wear and also a stylish look along with it. Fashion trends that were created back in the day mostly weren’t for the look but just a purposeful way of using clothes daily. These clothes often stay in later generations because they have become popular for outdated needs. One example of this is Timberland boots. Timberland boots were originally made for work, but in modern times, despite them still being used for work, many people still wear them outside of work because of their usage in the 90s as a durable, warm, and comfortable everyday shoe. Another somewhat outdated but still common clothing trend is affliction and MMA-style shirts. These shirts were very popular in the 90s and early 2000s because of the MMA and fighting scene. These shirts were made thin for people who work out or fight in them so they won’t get hot easily. Now, in modern times, Affliction has become a very popular brand because they are thin enough to wear in the summer but also still warm enough for the winter. They also give off an aesthetic that many people strive for because of apps like Pinterest. The trend and style or look of these clothes are continuing to go on a cycle because of their roots of having a certain purpose for a problem that is no longer a modern factor in the life we live.
Fashion is a very interesting topic that is conversely changing but also repeating. These trends repeat for a purpose because of their roots of importance in different cultures and places from around the world. As things like innovation, social media, and nostalgia all influence the repeat and change of these trends, there is no telling what will come back and what will stay in the future.