Balancing the trends when it comes to your personal style | Questions I ask before following a trend

Balancing the trends when it comes to your personal style | Questions I ask before following a trend 

I want to follow trends! All of them! Believe me! And the Instagram algorithm doesn't help with the FOMO. Every time I open the app, there's a new "it" bag, a new silhouette, a new color everyone's suddenly wearing, and some tiny panicked part of my brain goes wait, do I need that too?

But it isn't practical, and I have learned after years of chasing trends and trying to work my outfits around them that it gets exhausting. Exhausting, and expensive{whew , the prices sometimes are really mad!}, and honestly a little embarrassing when I look back at my camera roll from two trend cycles ago. As I grow older, I have started to weigh in on what trend to subscribe to more and more and ask myself a few questions before I actually give in to the social media-induced trends fever.

• Do I personally, actually like this trend?

• Can I style this trending piece or look with pieces I already own?

• Does it fit my lifestyle?

• Does it flatter my body type?

• Will I wear it next year, when it's not trending?

• Will this look dated next year?

• Does this trend still feel like me? 

• Will this still look good with my style ? 

• Does this align with my overall personal style ?

If a trend can't survive that little interrogation, I let it go. No guilt, no scrolling back to just double check. or keeping in the cart for when I feel I align with it maybe.

Here is what I do instead:

I do subscribe to trends that have positive answers to most of these, and above all else, feel fun. The outfit I am wearing here is a very safe and classic - a solid color shirt, a well fitting trouser and matching shoes and bag. 

But if you look closely - this is how many a times I follow wearing trends and indulge in the bit of fun while dressing up ! 

The Collar - The closed Mandarin/Peter pan - ish collar was a bit korean inspired trend with the crafty trend that was goin on - included with the hand painted lotus earrings. 

So, How Do You Actually Do This?

Okay, so you're scrolling, you see The Trend, and your finger is already hovering over "Add to Cart." Before you do, pump the brakes for five minutes and walk through this with me.

1. Sit on it for 48 hours.

Trends feel urgent because algorithms are designed to make them feel urgent. They're not. If you still want it in two days, it's probably not just FOMO talking.

2. Build your own checklist, and actually use it.

Mine has nine questions on it, but yours doesn't have to look like mine. Maybe yours is about your budget, or your job, or how much time you actually spend getting dressed in the morning. The point isn't to copy my exact list. It is to have A realistic list.
Something concrete you go back to every single time, instead of deciding in the heat of the scroll.

3. Go through it, actually, honestly.

Answer your questions for real, not the answers you wish were true. If you're stretching to justify a "yes," that's usually a soft "no.". I 'm sorry , but that would definitely be a pass ! 

4. Find people who actually look like you wearing it.

Not the 5'9" , XS model with the exact proportions the trend was designed for  someone closer to your actual body type. Search the hashtag, scroll a little deeper than the top posts.
If you can't find anyone who looks like you making it work, that's useful information, not a coincidence. and if you do find someone pulling it off , who is your body type , then that's a great place to start the styling ideas. 

5. Look for styling options before you buy.

See how different people are wearing it, with what shoes, what layers, what it's paired down with versus dressed up. If every styling example feels like a stretch for your actual life, that's a sign too.

6. Open your closet before you open your cart.

Can you recreate 70% of the look with what you already own? If the trend only works with three new purchases, it's not a trend you're adapting, it's a whole new wardrobe, and that's a different decision entirely. Is that what you're commiting to the season maybe? Then it just might work, but if not, then skip. 

7. Ask what it's replacing.

Nothing exists in a vacuum. If you buy this, what won't you wear anymore? Is that a fair trade? I have not been very 

8. Picture it a year from now, out of context.

Not on the influencer who made it famous, not with the caption, not with the lighting, just you, at your actual life, wearing it on a random Tuesday. Still good? Great. Still cringing a little? There's your answer.

9. Ask the real question: does this feel like you, or does it feel like everyone else right now?

This is the one people skip because it's the hardest to answer honestly. A trend can check every practical box and still feel like a costume. If you try to picture yourself wearing it and it feels like you're performing someone else's style, that's the answer. Does not matter how good it looks on the feed.

10. Let "fun" be the tiebreaker, not the whole argument.

Trends should add joy, not just check a box. If something passes every practical test but doesn't spark anything, skip it. And if it fails a couple of the "practical" questions but makes you genuinely happy every time you wear it , sometimes that's worth the exception too!

The goal isn't to swear off trends forever. It's to stop letting them drive. Make your list, keep it somewhere you'll actually see it, and let it do the deciding for you.

And on top of all of this, each season has mutiple trends ,  and giving in to each is honestly not possible if you are not working in fashion, choose the maximum 3 trends that you can subcribe to without loosing your head over styling it!