Personalization Nation

This story originally appeared in our March 2017 Expressions Issue.

If you watched sitcoms in the '90s or early 2000s, you are probably familiar with the trope that there is nothing more embarrassing than showing up to a party wearing the same thing as someone else. For celebrities, it is newsworthy dirt. Fortunately for the rest of us, it is just a bit of an embarrassment. However, the prospect of such humiliation has become unavoidable. Fashion-conscious people tend to shop at the same places, follow the same trends and buy the same pieces. The unfortunate likelihood of you finding a “dress twin” at your next party is higher than ever.

The backlash to this is the rise of personalization. Brands are coming up with new ways to save you from dressing like everyone else. And no, I am not just talking about customizing Stan Smiths, choosing vibrant color combinations on NikeiD and embellishing your Kate Spade purse with gold stickers. The personalization trend is about how we create our own aesthetic in the increasingly homogeneous fashion world. In other words, we all want to look different and are searching for a way to do it.

Take a look at the hundreds of fashion blogs out there. There is no doubt that mixing and matching is a working formula for style success. The real question is: why and how has personal style become our savior from the uniformity of fast fashion?

It all comes down to brand loyalty. A study by Oracle on millennials divided the age group into five different segments, bringing particular attention to a segment they called the “trendsetters.” They characterized “trendsetters” as stereotypical millennials: young, hip, trendy and defined by their lack of brand loyalty. Their diverse buying habits lead directly to the success of this iteration of the personalization trend. Their lack of loyalty to one brand means that it is simpler for them to mix and match their clothing pieces successfully to create unique looks. Low effort, high benefit: it is a winning formula that allows us to take advantage of a market structure that should limit individual style, but allows us to set ourselves apart instead.

The apparel industry is dominated by fast fashion retailers like Zara, H&M and Topshop, who pick up runway trends and capitalize on them until they become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Due to their successful business models, these stores have expanded internationally to great success and seem to have locations anywhere and everywhere. But expansion hurts the keen shopper looking to purchase unique pieces. The increased access to trendy fast fashion items makes it difficult to make stand out purchases when everyone else and their mothers already have the exact same things. For example, a Zara statement coat became so popular in the United Kingdom that it spawned an Instagram account, @thatcoat, dedicated to sightings of it in real life. The account proves that it is impossible these days to be the only person to spot a stylish pick at a fast fashion retailer. Forget about coat-spotting for a second, though. The main takeaway from @thatcoat is that people can wear the same pieces in many different ways. A quick scan of the account indicates that all varieties of women purchased the coat and styled it in completely different ways, pairing it with their own wardrobe staples—whether it be with leggings, jeans, a nice skirt or a dress—to create unique looks. Thus, there is hope for individualists in a fast fashion-dominated world. That hope lies in styling and personalization.

Take one of the oldest forms of personalization in fashion: monogramming. Though once considered basic, monogramming and other similar forms of personalization are becoming part of the fashion status quo. These are not the same monograms you see in Lilly Pulitzer ads or on Total Sorority Move. Celebrities love it. For example, the Burberry poncho from 2014 that had everyone from Cara Delevingne to Sarah Jessica Parker wearing the same piece without shame.  Usually, wearing the same thing as everyone else is a recipe for disaster. But because of the monogramming involved, each one became a unique piece that helped set the wearers apart and solidify their personal brands. Though it may seem tacky, it is time to embrace making everything you own a name tag.

Plenty of stores are championing the personalization trend by providing consumers with ways to add their own personal touches to products. Commercial stores like J. Crew and high fashion retailers like Gucci are offering ways to make your purchases uniquely yours. From the traditional Louis Vuitton “Mon Monogram” to Madewell’s custom embroidered jeans, retailers are capitalizing on our obsession with putting our names on the things we wear. Even without examining the marketing tactics of fashion retailers, this obsession is obvious. Haven’t you been wondering about the revival of the name necklace trend?.

This would be a fine time to question why we are, arguably, so obsessed with ourselves to the point where we feel like we need our names on everything we wear. News outlets will remind you of this self-obsession at every turn. They call millennials the “selfie generation,” and accuse social media of turning us all into narcissistic Internet maniacs that only care about ourselves and our appearances. However, our self-obsession is not exactly a fault of our generation. It is only what we need to survive in an increasingly connected world.

Because of the omnipresent nature of social media, that presence is often how friends, family, strangers and even employers view you. In 2010, Microsoft did a study that revealed that of the hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed in the United States, 79 percent reviewed online information about job applicants. Sure, that information includes your LinkedIn profile. But it probably also includes your Facebook, Instagram and unashamedly candid Twitter. No matter how trivial your social media presence may seem, important people are paying attention.

Social media is not just a fun game you play with friends—your social media presence affects your real life. Because of this, it is in your best interest to maintain and cultivate your online identity. As a result, our obsession with personalization does not mean that we have all become narcissistic. Instead, it is a response to changes in the world around us. It is how we respond to fast fashion retailers’ limitations on our individual style and social media outlets’ championing of it. With the threat of dressing exactly like everyone else increasing day by day, personalization is an escape from the blind brand-following of previous generations. It is a chance to embrace our newfound creative voices and the freedoms provided by social media and establish ourselves as more than just cogs in the machine. Unlike many trends, personalization is not one we embrace to follow the status quo. Instead, it sets us free.