Finding an unknown truth through fashion
Purpose – “The aim or goal of a person,” according to Merriam Webster.
At some point in your life, you’ve heard the phrase, “History always repeats itself,” and whether you find that true or not, you can see it being displayed throughout media, politics, literature, and life in general. The same things happen over and over again. But is that a bad thing? Since repetition is inevitably bound to happen, people see it as a bad thing since, throughout history, many terrible things have happened, and they could have been easily avoided if we as humans had just learned from our past mistakes.
While going through the process of trying to find out whether fashion is Creative or Repetitive, it felt like everything was just going in circles. No clear answers, everything felt like opinions (because they were), and it felt like the end was nowhere in sight.
Culture – “The beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a particular social group, place, or time,” according to Merriam Webster.
If we want to understand fashion and culture now, then we have to go back and dive into how it started. When America was developing, it didn’t have a particular culture, but that was the whole point of America. It was supposed to be a place of refuge. Where anyone could come from anywhere and become anything. So, when America became this melting pot of culture, it also became the same thing for fashion. From the european colonial times, to luxurious items in the gilded age, and to clothing that stood for something in the Roaring 20s. There are so many diverse eras that are unique to themselves, all because they were influenced by real, physical people. Fashion trends now move much faster, simply because you can see something across the world with the touch of a button, making fashion meaningless.
Let’s go back even further, though. When wanting to find out more about fashion, we can’t just look in one place because with clothing also comes culture. Depending on where you look, the clothing will be different due to the culture and the resources that they have. If you go to Africa, then you will find bast fibers from ancient Egypt that are still used today. When stumbling into Europe, you’ll find leather from Italy or Spain that is made like no other. Traveling all the way to Asia, you’ll find silks and denim from the deep parts of China and Japan that are held in such high regard. Each continent and country has its own history when it comes to clothing, and that is what people are still searching for today.
History- “a chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution), often including an explanation of their causes,” according to Merriam Webster.
Vintage shopping and thrifting are such a big part of today’s culture in finding an outfit, but why is that? What made these times so special, making people want to ditch the clothing of today and go with more of a retro style? When speaking with Adrihanna Collins, a sophomore journalism and history double major at Quinnipiac, she spoke about how her love of history led her to find her sense of fashion.
“I think what’s really fascinating about it is how much the themes of the 60s are projected within the clothing,” she said. “For instance, hemlines rose in that decade just as a reaction to how conservative and how conforming the 1950s were.”
In history, especially in the 1900s, everything that was worn was reflective of the state of the world. As Collins said, clothing became more conservative after the war due to the societal norms that were re-emphasized, bringing back traditional values. Then the 60s came along and were a combatant of that style, going for more expressive looks.
In the past, fashion used to have a reason. People used to come together for a common goal, and the clothing that they wore represented what they stood for. Now, clothing may be the most expressive it has ever been, but it has also been the most meaningless. All because the media has sped the trends up tenfold, and people don’t feel nearly as connected with one another through the clothing that they wear.
Vintage – “Of old, recognized, and enduring interest, importance, or quality,” according to Merriam Webster.
Now, staying on the topic of past clothing, a recurring word that Collins used was vintage. She brought up multiple times about how she is very keen on thrifting to keep sustainable, and also how it is easiest for her to find the clothing she likes. One particular place she brought up was a vintage store nearby called Mason Jar Vintage and Thrift, so we went there.
When walking through the door, I was greeted with the most genuine smile and ‘Hi, how are you’ that I’ve felt in a while. There was this yearning for connection, and it showed exactly why this article is necessary. The feeling you get when you go to a physical store, try something on, and have conversations with the people there, while they let you know their opinions on what looks good, or what doesn’t. When speaking to one of the workers, Kara, about my article, her eyes lit up with excitement, talking about the importance of going into physical stores.
“Back then, there were no online stores, so you made it an occasion to go out with your friends to shop (for clothes),” she said. “This past Saturday, there were so many groups of friends, all different ages, and it was so nice to see. Everyone was talking amongst one another, even if they didn’t know each other, and that’s exactly what I love about this.”
She then mentioned to me a friend of hers who runs another vintage store in New Haven named Fashionista, and the same exact thing happened. Todd Lyon is an author, artist, restaurant reviewer, and stylist who will also talk your ear off in the most pleasant way possible. She told stories about inspiration, helping others find their true self through clothing, and about the history that came with all of the clothing that was in Fashionista.
“Stuff like that makes you feel like you’re doing good in the world,” she said. “Love yourself, love your staff, love your people, and love your space.”
When thrifting is talked about on social media, it is viewed as negative to some because of the implications that come with it: ‘dirty clothing’, ‘other people’s things’, and ‘hard to find name brands.’ But in a way, thrifting is almost the kryptonite of fast fashion. It is given this negative connotation because it goes against everything that fast fashion stands by: Finding pieces that have history, taking the time to find something special, and getting to have real connections with people in the process.
Social Media – “Forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content,” according to Merriam Webster.
We as humans gravitate towards connection. It’s inevitable. And with the help of social media, connecting with people from across the globe has never been easier. Though just like with every part of life, there is good and bad to it.
The good?
You can create a connection with someone from across the world to learn about their culture, find new inspiration, and experiment with your fashion taste. When talking to computer science undergrad Brooks Jackson about his fashion tastes, he brings up how almost everyone is influenced in some way or another by social media.
“Stuff like Pinterest, that’s where I get a lot of my inspiration from, but things like Instagram, TikTok, all of those, I feel like, inherently, you’ll see people on there and be like, ‘Oh, that’s cool what they’re wearing.’ Then I think you’ll inherently be influenced by that,” he said. “Say you’re living in Kansas, for example, it’s not like you’re going to be exposed in your everyday life to a lot of the cool fashion trends that are out there in other parts of the world. So, being able to see that on social media, I think, is a great thing.”
The bad?
The more influence you have from people through your screen, the less influence you have from people in front of you, making your clothing have less of an impact. There is beauty in individuality amongst a community, and you lose that when you can look exactly the same as a person across the world instantaneously. When talking to Joe Aikins, a Quinnipiac alumnus and New York City resident, he touches on how he views social media’s impact on fashion.
“I think overall, social media specifically has a negative impact on fashion. I do enjoy its ability to have accessibility to worldwide and high-end fashion spaces; however, it pushes the fashion cycle too quickly: nothing seems to flow organically. An item or a new way of styling becomes prevalent in a fashion space, it gains traction, blows up on social media, and after two weeks, it’s deemed old. There’s no space to actually cultivate anything, and in response, so many companies now market and design to sustain themselves in a fast appeal market.”
How can we fix this?
Listen, if it were that easy to fix something as complex as social media, then someone would have done it by now. I think the real question is, ‘How can we use it to the best of its ability?’ And I think we partially already do know this. Just like with every other source of information, it should be used more as a reference and less as a book of wisdom.
A recent study done by Fashion United stated that in 2024, 70% of Fashion brands used Instagram to promote their products, and with the rapid growth of TikTok since then, it has only grown. A psychology study done in 2025, named Cultural Impact Of Fashion Trends Statistics 2025, stated that 78% of consumers are influenced by social media apps when purchasing clothing.
We rely on social media to give us immediate ideas for our outfits (what I also like to call instant gratification, which is essentially all social media is). There is no research of our own anymore. The problem is us, just as much as it is social media.
Psychology – “The mental or behavioral characteristics of an individual or group,” according to Britannica.
Social Media can do a lot to the brain; we all definitely know that. One thing we are sure it’s capable of is influencing people. When talking to Marcus Garcia, an adjunct sociology professor at Quinnipiac University, about how social media and life in general can influence a person’s thought process, they said this.
“When you see somebody whose style you like or who’s doing something that resonates with you somewhere, somehow, if you try to emulate it, that’s normally because you think that it’ll make you feel good and that it will make you feel good, in part, because other people might recognize it and be like, oh yea I’ve seen this somewhere, or they will recognize that it looks good on you or that it suits you as a person. ”
A lot of things that we do as humans are to get approval from others. But that isn’t such a bad thing, is it? Everyone wants to fit in, and you see that time and time again, anywhere that you go. Depending on which area of the world you go to, people will look or dress a certain way because they feel that they need to fit in or they need that sense of community.
But the opposite can happen at the same time. There may be too many similarities between the way people dress, and someone will dress completely opposite to the norm, just because they don’t want to look like anyone else.
Social Order – “The totality of structured human interrelationships in a society or a part of it,” according to Merriam Webster.
“Growing up in Maryland, a lot of kids just wore jeans and boots, and I hated that as a kid. So, in middle school, I would make sure I wore khakis and a button-down almost every day because I wanted to look nice.”
Brady Mullen, a senior journalism student at Quinnipiac, went against the societal norms in his area. Whether it was subconscious or not, something in his brain made him not want to look like the other kids. The more he went through life, the more he realized he did love those things. He was just too deep in it to see it from an outside perspective.
This can happen to a lot of people. You can hate something so much that you begin to lose sight of the reason you even dislike that clothing or that music, until you realize you loved it all along, you were just smothered by it in the beginning.
It was a similar story for JJ Saunders, Quinnipiac’s Junior Class President. When asked about why he felt the need to distance himself from people who he thought looked ‘the same.’
“I was taught that everybody is unique. Everybody’s supposed to be one-of-a-kind. So, if you look like 10 other people, I don’t think that you’re going to be that memorable, and I kind of strive to be memorable,” he said. “I grew up with so many adults telling me you were born to be a star, everybody’s going to love you, and, overall, that really helped me shape the view of who I believe I am.”
Art – “The conscious use of skill and creative imagination, especially in the production of aesthetic objects,” according to Merriam Webster.
“Art is really just the imitation of others.”
Mullen finds it easiest to express himself through music and fashion, but everything he has is from his family. He grew up learning a lot from his brother, who he said was always ahead of the trends. It was also helpful that his mother and sister designed clothing for name brands. Everything he wore, everything he learned, was all from people important in his life, which made the clothing feel special.
The same goes for Business Graduate Emma Dinnan, with a lot of her clothing inspiration actually coming from her friends.
“I think my biggest inspiration comes from my friends. I more recently became friends with more stylish people, and that made me want to be more stylish.”
Music, Drawing, Painting, Writing, Fashion, Film. All of these constitute as art, and they are all under this same umbrella because they can all be woven into each other. That is why art is such a creative medium, because all that is art is all that comes from the soul and makes people want to live. When I think about art and when I think about being a creative, my mind always drifts to the Disney Pixar movie Soul that came out in 2020. It was a movie about a man named Joe who confronts death and goes through this recalibration of his life, and, spoiler alert, ends up finding his purpose. But in that movie, his passion is music; it’s what he truly loves. He’d rather die than live without what he feels his purpose is in life. And I think if you were to ask other creatives about their art, they’d say the same.
“Music Is All I Think About. From The Moment I Wake Up In The Morning To The Moment I Fall Asleep At Night.”
I bring this up because I think music and fashion have a lot of similarities. As I said, they all fall under the umbrella of being a creative medium, so when thinking about building an outfit or, more in-depth, making an actual piece of clothing, the process is very similar to making music. You start with the base of your piece. For music, it would be either the story of your song or the idea that you’re trying to convey. For Fashion, it would be the fabric itself. You start from the bottom, and keep building and building until you get the final product, what you’ve been longing for since the very start.
Musical artists do the same with their look. Many artists have a certain style that corresponds with the music they make. For instance, 5 Seconds of Summer is a band from Australia that prides itself on a grunge pop look and feel, but from album to album, their style changes when their music calls for it. Their newest album is labeled Everyone’s A Star, and they dive completely into the rockstar look that their album is trying to display.
It isn’t just artists who do this, though. Every day, people tend to base how they dress depending on what music they listen to or what their favorite artist is wearing.
When discussing how music and fashion connect for him. Undergraduate Ben Shannon brought up how a lot of outfit inspiration comes from his favorite bands.
“My main fashion influence is really Matty Healy. The way he navigates all these sub-genres and ties his clothing into each album that the band has put out. This has been over 15 years, so his style goes from 2010s tumble aesthetic to Business Casual Brit 90s thrift,” He said. “When I listen to music from a certain decade it’s going to make me gravitate towards what that music represents.”
The Future – The unknown
In researching, interviewing, and talking to people in front of me, my paper changed. I realized why it made no sense. It made no sense because it is both. Fashion is inherently creative AND repetitive. There is no right or wrong. The dilemma we should be focused on is how we get our fashion. How we should be more creative or repetitive. How we should spend our time and what we should let influence us. This isn’t an article about what is right or wrong. It is an article about human connection and what we are capable of when stepping away from our screens. Social media has done irreparable damage to the creativity of every person who uses platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and more. If anything, this is a sign. A sign to turn off your phone and experience the world. A sign to be creative. Will you look similar to some? Of course! It is a small world. But you will find influences through what’s around you, and you will meet people you never would have met in doing so. That is what is important—true human connection.