Choosing What Fits You, Not the Trend
By Julian Trutner

Trends are odd. One month, everyone will say that one type of jacket is the coolest thing around, and the next month people act like it never existed. The world really does seem like it moves in fast forward, especially with clothing. I never really noticed until I started helping my cousin at the clothing boutique. It's a small shop, nothing fancy, but people are always coming in. I learned more about clothing trends in person than in any post I scrolled past on the internet. What surprised me the most was how fast trends changed. One week everyone wanted cargo pants. The next week people only wanted sweatpants with zippers on the sides. Before I learned where most of the boxes were stored, customers had already moved on to something new. I laughed, but it also made me think. Why do people like something so quickly, only to drop it just as fast? When customers would ask me if we had something in their size, sometimes I would ask why they liked the item. I wouldn't ask to be annoying. I just wanted to know. Word-for-word without letting the original wording bleed through is very difficult when you need it to be very close the original. Whenever almost everyone says the same thing it is very scarce when that person takes the time to evaluate or critique the necessary actions and buys of the thing. Then I realized that people quite often uniformly replicate the same things without independent thoughts. Some people have the sophistication to show through some of the clothing. They did not bother to see if there were any trends. The joy in their face is memorable. They were simply happy because the clothing aligned to their true image. More than I wanted to admit. After working there for some time I lost interest in the trends and I once again simply started enjoying fashion to see clothing for what it is and not what society or peers interpret it to be. Trends die in an instant and chasing it is pointless. My experience working at the store taught me that people look their best when they wear what makes them feel comfortable rather than what is trendy. It also made me realize how uncommon and unique it is to like something on your own. If people chose what they liked rather than what they were expected to like, I believe they would feel much better about themselves.