RIP microtrends (here's the next big thing)

Have you, or someone you know, fallen victim to microtrends? You may be eligible for financial compensation.

Ok, not really. But you do have my sympathy – it happens to the best of us, especially if you spend as much time on Pinterest as I do. I have good news, though. Your aggressor is done for. Microtrends, you had a good, albeit exhausting run. But your time is finally up.

For years, we’ve been stuck in a never-ending loop of disposable aesthetics. Many of us were wearing clothes and curating spaces that exist solely for social media validation. However, the pendulum is swinging, and people are rebelling against the churn.

Welcome to the death of the microtrend.

At their core, trends exist because humans love to mimic. It’s a survival mechanism—an innate desire to fit in and be part of something bigger. But the internet took this impulse and put it on steroids. Algorithms prioritised sameness. Fast fashion made it easy to participate. Influencers played into it because trends drive engagement. Suddenly, we weren’t just following trends. We were devouring them, churning through aesthetics at an unsustainable rate.

One week it was about clean and minimal ballet-core. The next, everyone was rushing MAC Cosmetics for the darkest eyeliner they could find in order to fulfil their “mob wife dreams.” I’m going to be honest, it was kind of fkd up to witness. But alas, microtrends thrived because they offered instant belonging.

Buy the latest “clean girl” essentials, and you, too, could belong to the exclusive club of effortlessly chic women (who all coincidentally look the same). Adopt the “mob wife” aesthetic, and for a brief moment, you get to play a character in the collective imagination of TikTok. But playing dress-up gets old fast, and the internet has finally hit its breaking point.

We’re entering what some are calling a post-brain-rot era.

It's a rejection of hyper-online behaviour in favour of something more grounded. Dressing in microtrends is starting to be seen as a “low status” behaviour because it screams chronically online. It’s not fashion—it’s practically cosplay. And that’s why we’re seeing the rise of slow fashion, capsule wardrobes, and elevated basics. People don’t want to look like they just stepped out of a trend cycle. They want to look intentional, considered, and most importantly, real.

This shift isn’t just happening in fashion. In architecture and interior design, we’re seeing a rebellion against the cold, museum-like minimalism that dominated Instagram grids for years. Some firms are now photographing spaces with actual mess on the countertops—lived-in homes that reject the sterile, overly staged look. Because a home should be lived in, not just looked at.

Brands need to understand this shift.

Consumers no longer want to buy from brands that make them look chronically online. There’s a massive difference between brands that understand internet culture and engage with it tastefully, and those that hover around waiting to feast on the carcass of a dying trend.

The brands that will thrive in this new era are the ones that respect consumers’ intelligence and offer something with staying power. That means fewer forced aesthetics, more thoughtful storytelling, and a genuine understanding of how people actually want to exist in the world—both online and off.

Microtrends were never built to last. And now, neither are the brands that relied on them. Adapt or become another relic of the algorithm era.

-Sophie, Writer