Has Social Media Made Us Less Stylish?

When Did We All Start Dressing the Same? Has social media made us less stylish, or just less confident in our own taste?

From the Writer's Desk

A few years ago, if someone walked into a room wearing the same outfit as you, it was mildly embarrassing.

Now?

Open Instagram and you'll probably see fifty versions of the exact same outfit before breakfast.

The same linen trousers. The same oversized button-down. The same Adidas Sambas. The same slick bun. The same "clean girl" jewellery. The same perfectly folded scarf tied around the waist because someone, somewhere, decided that was the new way to wear it (which we love btw…)

Suddenly, getting dressed stopped being about expression and quietly became about replication.

And I can't help but wonder...

Are we still developing personal style, or are we just getting really good at following instructions?

The Algorithm Has Excellent Taste...

...and that's exactly the problem.

The algorithm doesn't actually care what you like. It cares what keeps you looking. So when one outfit performs well, you see it again. And again. And again.

Before long, it doesn't feel like a trend anymore.

It feels like the only option.

Microtrends have sped this up even more. What used to take years to become fashionable now happens in weeks. "Tomato Girl Makeup." "Mob Wife." "Office Siren." "Coastal Cowgirl."

It seems to me like we've just started putting words together and calling it style! 

An aesthetic can be bought in one shopping cart. Style takes much longer than that.

It takes getting it wrong. Wearing things that don't quite work. Learning what makes you feel like yourself and what only looked good because someone else wore it first. That's why personal style can't be downloaded overnight. It's built every time you choose something because you love it, not because it landed on your Explore page.

So how do you find your personal style?

Start paying attention to yourself instead of everyone else.

Notice the outfit you always reach for when you're happy. The colour that makes you feel confident. The handbag you wear until it's falling apart. The jewellery you never take off. Those things tell you far more about your style than TikTok ever will.

Having great clothes isn't the same as having great style. The real skill is knowing how to make those pieces your own. That's the part no trend forecast can teach you.

What Happened to Having "Your Thing"?

I miss when people had signatures.

The aunt who always wore oversized earrings.

The friend who refused to wear black (...me).

The uncle who somehow owned twenty button down shirts and made every single one look different.

You knew people by how they dressed… Now we know people by which Pinterest board they saved.

There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration. Fashion has always “borrowed” from somewhere. Every designer, stylist and creative has references. That's part of the process.

If anything, social media has made fashion more accessible than ever. More people are interested in style. More people are paying attention to quality, to silhouettes, to designers from around the world. It has encouraged a generation to care about getting dressed again, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

What worries me is how quickly inspiration can turn into imitation. Instead of asking, How would I wear this? We ask, How did she wear it? The bag, the shoes, the jewellery, even the pose in the mirror. When everyone is looking to the same place for ideas, it's only natural that we all start looking the same.

So...Would You Still Wear It?

Here's the question I keep coming back to.

If Instagram disappeared tomorrow...

Would you still buy that dress?

Would you still wear those shoes?

Would you still love that handbag if nobody online ever saw you carrying it? If you couldn’t post that you had it? 

The answer probably isn't buying less or deleting Instagram.

It's slowing down enough to ask better questions.

Do I actually love this? Would I wear it five different ways? Does it fit my life, or just my feed?

Does it look like something I would have chosen on my own?

Personal style isn't discovered in one shopping trip. It's built over time, through trial and error, through confidence, through wearing something simply because it makes you happy. Some of the best-dressed people aren't the ones with the biggest wardrobes. They're the ones who know themselves well enough to make every outfit feel intentional.

The Caribbean Has Always Made Style Intentional

One thing I've always loved about Caribbean fashion is that we've never waited for an occasion to get dressed up. We wear colour because it's Tuesday. We'll wear crochet in the city. Sequins in daylight. Linen to dinner. Gold jewellery to the supermarket. We'll dress up to go to brunch, a football match, or the corner shop if the mood is right.

Maybe it comes from growing up making an event out of everything.

Maybe it comes from generations of women who taught us that presentation matters.

Whatever it is, individuality is a key element that I hope we never lose.

You can still walk through Kingston and see ten women wearing ten completely different interpretations of the same trend.

Now that's style.

Back to the Joy of Getting Dressed

At Locale, we spend so much time celebrating designers because every collection begins with someone making a choice.

To create instead of copy.

To trust their eye.

To make something they haven't already seen.

I think that's what personal style asks of us too.

Not to ignore inspiration.

Not to reject trends.

Just to leave enough room for ourselves in the process.