‘LOVE ISLAND’ IS A TIME CAPSULE OF FASHION TRENDS
BY AVERY ST. GEORGE GRAPHIC BY CARLY HART
It would be difficult to miss the discourse surrounding the reality TV show “Love Island,” as it took over social media feeds and entertainment news. Season 7 of “Love Island USA” lacked strong romantic connections, but this did not deter viewers. This season soared to 1 billion streaming minutes in just 9 episodes, according to Deadline, which is a record for the show’s viewership.
The internet’s obsession with watching these contestants compete on television also became a fascination with other aspects surrounding the show, including the islanders’ personal lives, fashion, and daily routines.
Outfits or swimsuits that the contestants wear often go viral or sell out after fans see them in an episode. Many social media accounts are dedicated to tracking their looks. One such account, @loveislandusastyle, has over 40,000 Instagram followers and is solely dedicated to researching the islanders’ fashion. The account will pair a picture of a contestant wearing an outfit with a picture from the brand’s website, along with a link and how much it costs.
Tracking the outfits of the contestants can give us very interesting insight into our own fashion decisions. “Love Island,” like many reality TV shows, is a study on trends in media. The way the contestants talk, dress, and act is a time capsule of what was trending during that summer. The islanders are influenced heavily by social media and shifts in popular culture, which leads them to bring these styles onto the show and introduce them to the audience.
Like the fashion world, the “Love Island” villa saw a rise in fast fashion. Fast fashion consists of clothing brands that typically produce low-quality, cheap items at a rapid pace and contribute heavily to the fashion industry’s already massive overconsumption and pollution issues. Brands like this will take advantage of the fluctuations in the fashion cycle, overproducing pieces that are trending and sending millions of clothes to the landfill each year.
In Season 7, all of the islanders wore clothes from fast fashion brands, Fashion Nova being one of the most popular. The girl contestants wore swimsuits, tops, and matching sets from here. Even Olandria Carthen’s finale dress was a $70 Fashion Nova piece. Many of the islanders’ swimsuits, which are a staple of the show, were purchased from Amazon and Shein.
These brands acquired so much popularity due to a desire to keep up with the latest trends. The term micro trend became very relevant to the fashion industry as social media dictated the ins and outs of clothing.
A micro trend is a clothing item with a short-lived span of popularity that is usually influenced by the internet. These can come and go in an instant, one minute it seems like everyone wants this thing, then suddenly people are tired of it and focused on something new.
Bows, bubble skirts, and ballet slippers are all examples of recent micro trends. Some people genuinely enjoy those things, but many buy them simply because they’re trending. The issue with “Love Island” fashion is that many of the contestants purchase clothes that are popular rather than defining their own individual style. While some of their looks are appealing to us now, we might not feel the same two years or even two months down the road.
