Trends play a significant role in social media and now more than ever before in people’s everyday lives, so stores must carry products that social media deems popular and make an effort to stay up to date with the newest trends. 2023 created and ended hundreds of trends, and as the new year begins, social media works through each trend. With different opinions and critiques on each trend, debates arose on which trends appear overrated. Major trends in 2023 include certain fashion trends from the early 2000s coming back into style such as extreme mini skirts and new shoes—especially a certain pair of oversized red boots. Fast fashion started gaining popularity with the younger generations due to its cheap pricing. Younger children made their way into the 2023 makeup trends by taking over their nearest makeup store, along with laminated eyebrows coming into style. 

Micro-skirts

Mini skirts widely modeled current fashion trends, and rather than staying in the 2000s, the younger generations chose to bring them back into style. While remaining a statement piece when styled correctly, the trend to make the skirts as short as possible began. People began following a joke on how short they could hem their skirts, and while the trend remained comical, the skirts looked ridiculous and came with an impractical ditzy-looking outfit. People began calling them micro-skirts and wearing them when they wanted a cute outfit. Prada jumped on the trend by creating miniskirts with a train that certain people find unnecessary and slightly ugly. 

MSCHF boots

The year 2023 featured a special pair of boots: MSCHF’S red boots. MSCF started a viral trend for their original and unique appearance. The boots became a statement piece in outfits all over social media. Crocs came out with a similar style shoe and blew up the internet, although crocs style differed from MSCF boots, the boots remain impractical and look like clown shoes. The overpriced shoe retails at $400 dollars a pair on the official MSCHF website. 

“I first saw the boots on TikTok and I thought they were a joke until other people started buying them and making outfits with them. I’ve never actually seen anyone in public with them, though. I think the boots could be a statement but they are actually really ugly. I wouldn’t buy the boots because they are really expensive and not my style at all,” sophomore Lindsay Angel said.

Supporters of these trends disagree by saying micro-skirts and the MSCF boots remain a staple in the fashion world and social media created an alternative sense of fashion that younger kids crave to interpret. A unique sense of style allows the younger generation to express themselves through fashion and these boots and micro-skirts create an original beauty. Throughout 2023, creative fashion trends struck the internet and began to form a new sense of fashion in the younger generations.

Fast Fashion 

As inflation continues to rise, social media presents new ways to save money. Fast fashion started appearing on people’s feeds and gained popularity for its cheap prices and stylish clothing. These websites and apps selling clothing cheaply promote the business and grow peoples’ closets, even when they typically could not spend the money on name-brand clothing.

Fast fashion corporations have received an overwhelming amount of popularity over the past year. Sites such as Shein and Temu blew up the internet with their jaw-droppingly low prices. Fast fashion websites create stolen clothing designs and add to their unoriginality. Along with poor-quality clothing and cheap materials, Shein specifically gained traction for allegedly disobeying child labor laws. The rumor spread across social media and creators made jokes about how Shein treats their employees.  The rumored child abuse did not seem to alarm anyone as much as it should, and the website remains popular by selling low-priced, dull clothing.

Kids in Sephora 

As younger generations make their way onto social media earlier than the previous generations, they want to jump onto trends that typically do not fit their age group. A recent trend gained popularity, as ten-year-old girls started entering their nearest makeup store with a rude attitude and a complete lack of regard for fellow customers and workers. These children accumulate hundreds of dollars worth of makeup although their young age makes them less likely to receive blemishes or spots they need to cover with such aggressive products. These kids tend to ruin tester products and products for purchase without regard for others.  

Makeup trends and allowing children to wear products they do not yet imply younger kids can continue to buy these products and treat people disrespectfully. Parents should set strong boundaries with younger kids about social media.

Bleaching and laminating eyebrows

While makeup trends started, so did bleaching and laminating eyebrows. At-home kits became popular and allowed people to feel confident about themselves and cut down on time spent on eyebrows during a makeup routine.. Multiple models such as Bella Hadid laminated and bleached their eyebrows to create a statement others would follow.. The lamination caused damage that defeated the purpose of using it to create nice-looking brows. The bleach and lamination combination on the eyebrows looks tacky and damaging. 

“Personality I hate the bleached eyebrows, it looks like they don’t have any. Brushing them up or laminating them is also not my style. I like the normal eyebrow look and I mean the bleached eyebrows aren’t bad, just not my style. I don’t really think they look good on anyone I’ve seen,” NC sophomore Lisa Scraton said. 

As 2024 begins and new trends become popular throughout the year, ugly fashion choices and cheap unoriginal clothing should stay in the previous year. These trends should not fit into staple items in an outfit as they look inconvenient and impractical to wear out. As supporters continued to create such ridiculous outfits and wear them in public, the critics of the outfit gained on social media platforms, proving that certain statement pieces should remain in stores and not in someone’s closet. 

Through 2024, trends will fluctuate, and rising trends such as cute cat videos may fluctuate, but the style revolves immensely around social popularity. Though a specific group of society believes these stylistic choices from the previous year display the creative aspects of social media, these trends deserve to stay in 2023.