The Death of Personal Style

 

I think we've completely forgotten what personal style is. Somewhere along the way, "having good style" stopped meaning wearing things you actually liked and started meaning dressing exactly like the girl whose Pinterest board is batch content. Every time I open TikTok I feel like I'm playing one of those spot-the-difference games. It's the same pair of jeans, the same sneakers, the same white tank top, the same slick bun, and the same captions about "finding your personal style." Whose personal style? I've seen that outfit six times today. I'm not saying people shouldn't take inspiration from each other because that's literally how fashion works, but we've crossed the line between inspiration and copy-and-paste. The funniest part is that everyone is terrified of looking dated, but nobody seems afraid of looking exactly like everyone else. We spend so much time chasing aesthetics that we've forgotten that style is supposed to say something about the person wearing it. I miss when people had one weird thing they refused to give up, whether it was bright tights, an old leather jacket, or an obsession with leopard print. Half of it looked ridiculous, but at least it belonged to them. Now it feels like everyone's biggest fear is wearing something that won't get approved by strangers on the internet or a bratty middle schooler with the glitteriest dumpling. Trends are moving so fast that I don't even know if people genuinely like the things they're buying anymore, or if they're just afraid of being left behind. If you have to replace your entire wardrobe every six months to keep up, I don't think that's personal style. I think that's just following directions.