Did TikTok kill personal style? For half a decade, fashion editors have been plagued by this existential question. Its presence has loomed large over the industry ever since “VSCO girl” first went viral in 2019. But where feeds were once flush with micro trends and copycat aesthetics, algorithms have begun shifting toward the witchy and celestial. And we’re not talking about black hats and velvet shawls. Seemingly in response to mass-prescribed aesthetics (e-girl, soft girl, balletcore, coquette, mob wife, wrong shoe theory, quiet luxury, et cetera), users are reaching for mystical divining tools as means of fashion guidance—if you’re on the right corner of TikTok, that is.
The virality of Kibbe body types (a mode of classifying body shape and overall image from the 1980s) was an early indicator of this shift, all the way back in 2022. From there, society moved on to color analysis, turning the foundational art theory into a modern-day social media sensation. Wildly popular in Asia, it caught fire on American algorithms last year, feeding those who crave more customized style inspiration. “When you have such a big life change, you want to have some sort of guidance,” says Lizzie Heo, co-founder and Director of Color Consultants at Sek Lab, a firm that has worked with MAC, L’Oreal, Google, YouTube, and Netflix; her individual clients, however, are often those looking for sartorial stability during challenging life events. Heo sees “lots of women after they give birth, people who are going through a divorce, or people who are changing their career.”
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