Fashion Police Spin Cheap & Chic Yarns

From the rise of aesthetics like “clean-girl,” “mob-wife,” “coquette,” and “downtown cool,” to the backlash against so-called “unfashionable” elements—stretchable jeans, maximalist accessories, or acrylic nails—style is no longer just personal. It’s performative. And the fashion police? They're everywhere, armed with comment sections and curated feeds.

A Culture of Curation

Fashion, by its nature, has always flirted with exclusivity. But the rise of TikTok and Instagram style influencers has intensified that tendency, creating a sea of micro-trends that ebb and flow so quickly they’ve begun to feel like a cultural pressure cooker.

“Fashion has entered a phase of hyper-curation,” says Meera Banerjee, a cultural sociologist who studies fashion and identity. “Instead of celebrating individuality, people are now policing it. There’s this obsession with fitting into one of these niche aesthetic boxes, which ironically defeats the purpose of style as self-expression.”

This curation extends into how influencers and even everyday users talk about others’ clothing choices. The style hierarchy—what is deemed elegant, tasteful, or timeless—has become increasingly narrow, often excluding working-class, immigrant, or culturally diverse expressions of fashion.

Class Divide In Fashion

From dismissing press-on nails and synthetic wigs to mocking slogan T-shirts and budget handbags, online discourse is revealing the classist underbelly of fashion’s so-called evolution.

“Fashion has always been a class signifier,” notes Priya Sethi, a stylist “But now we’re seeing people openly call certain styles or fabrics ‘cheap’ or ‘basic,’ without acknowledging how much privilege it takes to be effortlessly minimalist or sustainably chic.”

Indeed, aesthetics like the “clean-girl” look—glossy buns, dewy skin, neutral-toned clothing—are often praised for their subtle elegance. But behind that simplicity lies a litany of invisible costs: High-end skincare, salon visits, designer basics, and time. It’s an image of effortlessness that requires anything but.

Homage vs Homogenization

The fashion industry frequently idolizes figures like André Leon Talley, Jane Birkin, and Iris Apfel for their bold individuality. But in practice, modern fashion discourse has distilled their eclectic spirit into a series of narrow templates, enforcing conformity in the name of homage.

“People talk about Jane Birkin’s basket bag or Talley’s capes as if these were just accessories,” says Sethi. “But those pieces were part of deeply personal, sometimes political, identities. Today, people buy the look but ignore the attitude—the audacity, the context.”

This irony is not lost on younger fashion consumers, many of whom are beginning to question the arbitrary gatekeeping. On platforms like Threads and YouTube, creators are pushing back, celebrating the DIY ethic, secondhand fashion, and cultural mixing that shaped their communities.

Critiques Become Cops

The line between commentary and control is growing thinner. Personal style, once considered a form of rebellion or creativity, is now subject to a running stream of unsolicited opinions.

“Calling someone ‘unfashionable’ for wearing what’s practical, comfortable, or culturally significant isn’t a critique—it’s fashion policing,” says Meera Banerjee. “It reflects a narrow worldview that ignores how personal style intersects with economy, body type, religion, and geography.”

The rise of trends like “de-influencing” and “anti-hauls” suggests a growing fatigue with this relentless trend cycle and its underlying elitism. For every video promoting the newest capsule wardrobe, there’s another urging people to embrace their so-called “tacky” favorites.

Individualism vs Algorithm

As fashion grapples with its identity crisis, the question remains: can it reclaim its role as a true expression of the self, or will it remain an echo chamber of algorithms, repackaged trends, and silent dress codes? The choice may lie with the wearers themselves. “If style is a language, then we need to stop editing other people’s sentences,” says Sethi. “Fashion should be about telling your story, not mimicking someone else’s.” Until then, perhaps the chicest thing anyone can do is to dress for themselves—and no one else.