It seems like every month there is another must have item.
I think we all remember the Labubu craze from a couple months ago, where people would rush to their local Popmart to grab themselves a little monster doll, paying anywhere from $20 to a whopping $100. While scrolling on TikTok, you easily come across someone unboxing one, or even camping outside of a store so they could be the first in line.
It was utter and complete madness.
However, you can currently find the once coveted Labubus in Goodwill, the back of your closet or, even in a rare case, the Chattahoochee River, as seen on my walk yesterday.
But why would they end up there when people practically went to war for them?
To put it simple: overconsumption; we want it when we want it and we don’t when the hype is over.
Overconsumption and the pollution surrounding it produce approximately two billion tons of waste according to Bank & Vogue and Earth Day.
This cycle of buying items and clothing pieces you know you will be done with in weeks to months, causes landfill buildups and even more environmental damage, which we definitely do not need in an already suffering climate.
Alongside the mass pollution the earth is undergoing due to our rapid buying habits, we have disregarded our personal taste in styles.
There has been a drastic change in personal aesthetic preferences over the recent years; in fact someone you know has likely been a VSCO girl, an eclectic maximalist, a clean girl, a 365 Charli XCX party girl and currently the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy girl (made popular by the new show documenting her life with John F. Kennedy Jr.), all in the span of a couple years.
I personally believe that we do this because we want to feel seen and connected, and everyone collectively owning that one ‘must have item’ provides the illusion of community.
It was never about the creepy little Labubu doll or the new must have water bottle it was about fitting in.
In this rapidly moving trend environment it becomes increasingly harder to develop your own style, that is if your only goal is to fit in, which ultimately is what we all want, at least to some extent.
The introduction of new styles, items and hobbies is not the problem, it is the rate of change of what is popular and trending – things that we will see in our local Goodwills in a few months’ time.
