There is plenty of chatter around trends this time of year. What aesthetics will fade away and what will be this year’s version of tomato girl summer. TikTok is already championing “mob wife era”, featuring faux-fur coats, big hair, tennis necklaces and reruns of The Sopranos. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about shopping. Specifically, how we shop and the continuous chrysalis of consumerism.
Not long ago, if you wanted to find a new pair of jeans you’d have gone to a physical shop or picked up a fashion magazine. When blogging took off circa 2007, you could browse 36 vaguely different images of someone posing in their favourite pairs. Next came Instagram, which turned bloggers into influencers as they monetised posts, becoming internet sales assistants of sorts.
