From mob wife to MAGA woman: TikTok trends are losing steam

The Age

02-06-2025

As the latest deadline for TikTok to be sold or banned in the US approaches, we'll find out next month whether the app will continue to be a fixture on American phones or not.
A decline in fashion fads conceived by TikTok creators (think 'cowboy core', 'office siren' and ' coastal grandma ') means consumers and retailers won't be as affected as they would have been a year or so ago, when such viral 'aesthetics' peaked on the video-sharing platform. But brands have their work cut out in responding to what's taken over since: lifestyle trends amplifying political, social and economic influences. After all, it's much harder to monetise 'recession core', the 'MAGA woman' look and 'underconsumption'.
Super-speedy TikTok trends are best exemplified by the viral 'mob wife' look from early last year, characterised by big fur coats and equally voluminous hair. Retailers responded by stocking more animal print and bold lipstick. This was one of many fleeting fashions that emerged in the wake of the pandemic when TikTok really took off, and dressing for short videos replaced IRL outfits.
It's not easy keeping up with so many flash-in-the-pan fads, from 'tomato girl' to 'pilates princess', particularly as the economy darkens. Fatigue has set in and consumers are now prioritising their personal style over every new 'core' and trend. That's trickier for brands to be part of but they are tapping in – for example, through bag charms, which fashion and luxury has embraced, and Labubu dolls, playing into the need to express one's identity through customisation.
TikTok and Pinterest, the photo-pinning app, are also making valiant attempts to continue to shape fashion. 'Castlecore' and 'medievalcore' are among the few aesthetics to break through recently, though they reflect the broader 'pop girl' phenomenon in culture as they're inspired by singer Chappell Roan's adoption of chain-mail and headwear. (They also demonstrate, as Kayla Marci, who writes the Haute Garbage Substack, told me, that Gen Z's nostalgia has cycled through recent decades and is reaching ever further back.)
We haven't really had a fashion narrative that's broken into the mainstream since mob wife.
Yet of the more than 100 micro-trends tracked by market-intelligence company Trendalytics across social media, online search and e-commerce, 60 per cent are declining while only 20 per cent are gaining traction. Even though US users still spend more time per day on TikTok than Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, according to Sensor Tower, the moment when the platform became the epicentre of trend forecasting, with users naming new aesthetics at a frenetic pace, has passed. We haven't really had a fashion narrative that's broken into the mainstream since mob wife.