by: Arshi Singh
In 2023, we stepped into our clean girl era. It-girl influencers like Hailey Bieber were the face of this trend, promoting slicked back buns, neutrals, and minimalism. The newest microtrend of the new year consuming fyps is the mob wife aesthetic. The mob wife aesthetic, being the complete opposite of the clean girl, is heavily centered around large fur coats, chunky jewelry, dark makeup, and maximalism to the greatest extent.
With the tiktok fashion community being thrown into a frenzy over this drastic overnight shift in aesthetics, how can we keep up with trends and stay true to our personal style? Instead of splurging on an entirely new wardrobe of fur coats and gold jewelry, and plunging yourself into an identity crisis, think about the aesthetic as its individual elements. The mob wife aesthetic makes use of several microtrends like leopard and cheetah print, bold accessories, and fur. Now, you have the power to choose the elements you love and style them with your own personal aesthetic to create an outfit that’s so much more you! This strategy keeps us from crossing the line from mob wife into mob mentality, by inspiring our personal styles instead of completely changing them.
As our feeds are constantly changing from rockstar’s girlfriend, to coastal grandma, to eclectic grandpa, etc, our planet (much like our wallets) is feeling the negative impacts of these microtrends. The constant pressure to give in to transient microtrends in our everyday lives is greatly increasing fast fashion and overconsumption. This is causing more and more clothes to be sent to landfills and giving fast fashion companies a motive to use unsafe labor practices. Before going out and buying a completely new set of clothes, try looking into the back of your closet and see how many of the pillars to these trends already exist there. Play with textures and layering, look at the baseline colors and silhouettes, and try things out. When you do make purchases consider the likeliness you are to use it with other outfits. The beauty of these trends is to invite people to try out new styles and become comfortable in experimenting, to come into their own. Mindfulness when approaching these trends can help you enhance your own style sustainably!