Hypothetically, if everyone on earth deleted social media, what would we wear? Without the constant influence from Instagram and Pinterest would we all still find the same things cool?

Trends are patterns. Huge fashion companies such as Vogue study these patterns and current trends in order to predict the next season. Once they create a compiled list of trends they release it into the world and fashion houses create new clothing based on them, filling their stores with them. Constantly having new things trending is what keeps these stores in business, consumers want to wear what’s relevant. If no one told us what we were wearing was irrelevant we would probably still be wearing it.

Naturally, even without social media we would still all have different phases where we like different things at different times but would everyones be at the same time, the way they are with social media trends? Without being told what is cool at different times I doubt we would all naturally fall into sync.

But then again even without social media we can still get influenced by people in real life; liking something someones wearing and then getting something similar. That’s being influenced. But that’s a natural kind of influence. Gravitating towards certain styles and wanting to copy them, that’s an instinctual pull towards your personal style. The human urge to imitate those you want to emulate. It’s natural. There is nothing natural about Instagram.

Finding your personal style is tricky, full of trial and error. But that’s the fun of it, and discovering yourself along the way. You will never discover yourself by copying a pinterest board. Lifes not that aesthetic; at all. No one in reality is wearing sheer dresses to the grocery store or wearing belts as skirts walking downtown. If you truly want to find your style you need to put down your phone and start looking around, starting with what’s in your closet. Discover what you would wear if everyone on earth deleted social media.