AT ITS CORE

The internet lexicon is littered with phrases like cottagecore, fairycore, and even bitchcore. Can we navigate these micro-trends, or is it the end of personal style as we know it?

- HITANSHI KAMDAR

It’s a familiar phenomenon. You wake up and start the day doom-scrolling through social media. So, of course, a new trend has achieved viral status. Overnight, the world is claiming goblincore is in. Or is it the weird girl aesthetic? Maybe it’s clowncore? Does it even matter anymore? What’s important is that the internet has written off whatever was cool last week. The increasingly quick nature of trends has given rise to niche aesthetics that, while entertaining, often fall prey to the micro-trend treatment, fading from relevance before you can add to cart.

Subcultures in fashion are not a new phenomenon. Fashion history has many that have influenced trend cycles – punks, hippies, and even new romantics. The only striking difference now is the frequency with how fast these trends sweep across our timelines. “I think the impact of subcultures has always affected the style of the current generation or decades now,” fashion commentator Praachi Raniwala says. “But Gen Zers are digital natives. So how they think about, consume, and approach fashion is very different from how millennials do.”

While these fleeting trends may tie into our increasingly shorter attention spans, it is worth wondering why these micro-trends that spawn full-blown subcultures of their own – think cottagecore or Y2K – capture global attention. Originating from TikTok, these trends have spilled onto other platforms making their way to India, where TikTok doesn’t even exist. So how do these niche trends manage to capture global imagination?

ARE WE ALL JUST COSPLAYING?