to be honest, I don't think the aesthetic of their personal style *becoming a trend* is what puts people off so much as encountering specific later adopters they find off-putting, you know? at least that's how I experienced it. There are definitely celebs whose adoption of styles I love would cause me to put it on ice until there's no more risk of a possible association, and I'm not apologising for that. Oddly this does not happen with off-putting later adopters I encounter in real life, in that case I just carry on.
Substack 'pray for your fashion sins' rhetoric would have us believe that thinking 'X ruined [style] for me' is just snobbery, we should unpack biases etc and sure, but the fashion version of 'the ick' is no less real for not being textbook rational (and often for us little people, it comes from people who are far richer/more famous than we'll ever be). And of course some aspects of our style are foundational and remain constant no matter who else picks them up, like Mija with her love of animal print, but even changing in response to something else, is a push towards evolution in a way.
Back to the shitting upstream and Blake Lively's florals!
Growing up I was def guilty of the teen angst thing of not wanting a certain item because everyone else had it - the country road bag Jacob Elordi has been seen in springs to mind - that was considered the It bag at Australian highschools that all the cool kids had.
Now, when something becomes popular that I love, I get it. Why shouldn't it be popular? However even if there is the positive association as you mentioned on my note with the onitsuka tigers and uma (agree, love them in kill bill) i wonder if the saturation has tainted them for me as if influencers are the new high school mean girls that you can respect are hot but still done want to be?
lol she's not the only one for me, I have similar reactions to any Kardashian or, ten years ago, Swift (the original animal who poisoned my stream back in 2012, but now she's not trying to be stylish anymore so it's irrelevant) picking up on something I've been into.
Like you, I do want the things I love to be more appreciated and popular, but..... not by/with the wrong people (everyone's got a 'wrong person' aka the animal shitting upstream, just who it is might vary). Especially not if those people are trying to position themselves as stylish or authoritative in fashion terms. to be fair, some things are so universal that they can't be ruined by association. But for those that can, it's interesting to feel the workings of the trend cycle applying to us on a personal level as earlier adopters even when we tell ourselves we 're above it (I'm not).
to be honest, I don't think the aesthetic of their personal style *becoming a trend* is what puts people off so much as encountering specific later adopters they find off-putting, you know? at least that's how I experienced it. There are definitely celebs whose adoption of styles I love would cause me to put it on ice until there's no more risk of a possible association, and I'm not apologising for that. Oddly this does not happen with off-putting later adopters I encounter in real life, in that case I just carry on.
Substack 'pray for your fashion sins' rhetoric would have us believe that thinking 'X ruined [style] for me' is just snobbery, we should unpack biases etc and sure, but the fashion version of 'the ick' is no less real for not being textbook rational (and often for us little people, it comes from people who are far richer/more famous than we'll ever be). And of course some aspects of our style are foundational and remain constant no matter who else picks them up, like Mija with her love of animal print, but even changing in response to something else, is a push towards evolution in a way.
Back to the shitting upstream and Blake Lively's florals!
Growing up I was def guilty of the teen angst thing of not wanting a certain item because everyone else had it - the country road bag Jacob Elordi has been seen in springs to mind - that was considered the It bag at Australian highschools that all the cool kids had.
Now, when something becomes popular that I love, I get it. Why shouldn't it be popular? However even if there is the positive association as you mentioned on my note with the onitsuka tigers and uma (agree, love them in kill bill) i wonder if the saturation has tainted them for me as if influencers are the new high school mean girls that you can respect are hot but still done want to be?
lol she's not the only one for me, I have similar reactions to any Kardashian or, ten years ago, Swift (the original animal who poisoned my stream back in 2012, but now she's not trying to be stylish anymore so it's irrelevant) picking up on something I've been into.
Like you, I do want the things I love to be more appreciated and popular, but..... not by/with the wrong people (everyone's got a 'wrong person' aka the animal shitting upstream, just who it is might vary). Especially not if those people are trying to position themselves as stylish or authoritative in fashion terms. to be fair, some things are so universal that they can't be ruined by association. But for those that can, it's interesting to feel the workings of the trend cycle applying to us on a personal level as earlier adopters even when we tell ourselves we 're above it (I'm not).
It's so interesting and something I'd love to explore more of so thanks for the food for thought! x