5 Trends To Avoid This Black Friday

Besma Whayeb

‘Tis the season of regretted impulse purchases! Black Friday is round the corner, and with it comes an immense pressure to shop. Now, I’m not going to deny that shopping feels good. I love curating wishlists, and getting excited when I finally decide to click ‘buy’. However, many retailers resort to dirty tactics over the Black Friday weekend, to get you to buy things you don’t want, need, or should even own. 

I’ve written quite extensively on the topic of shopping sustainably on Black Friday, but this year wanted to bring things up to date with a guide to trends to avoid. It’s time to start calling out fast fashion brands and their dubious ways (or should I say dupe-ious?!) And calling out fast-moving, quick-to-be-forgotten-about trends is a great place to start.

However you decide to approach Black Friday, here’s a list of items to avoid because trust me, they won’t be trending this time next year…

1. The Skims Nipple Bra

Free the nipple. My best friend taught me years ago to be unafraid of having my nips show through my tops (I mean, why should we be afraid of our own anatomy?!) But I have to say, the backlash within the sustainable fashion community against the Skims Ad for their new Nipple Bra is enough to put me off ever buying one. Why use climate change as a bit? Way to alienate every person that ever cared about the environment. And on top of that, way to draw attention to the 100% synthetic fibre make-up of the bra itself. This bra will find itself at the bottom of your underwear drawer by this time next year, mark my words.

Instagram @PIERRESNAPS

2. The Scarf Jacket

Ok, let me admit: the viral Toteme Scarf Jacket definitely had a hold on me last winter. It was all over my Pinterest boards, and when I did occasionally see being worn in London, my heart skipped a beat. However, not everyone has £800+ to drop on a cropped winter coat, myself included. We’re now 12 months on, and in that time, fast fashion brands have had time to catch up. Cue: lots of coats with scarves sewn into them, retailing from £75 – £200. First, I think these fashion brands completely missed the point. It wasn’t the feature of having a scarf sewn into a coat that made the Toteme jacket so viral. It was the fit, the cut, and the crochet detailing. Second, I have sworn never to wear two items of clothing that are sewn together just on principle. Remember those shirts-sewn-into-jumpers that were all the rage in the 2010s? Yeah, they all got a bit floppy and sad after being washed a few times and got dumped in charity shops or worse, landfill.

The Toteme Scarf Jacket

3. Anything From Topshop

Speaking of the 2010s… I miss the old Topshop. In my late teens, I would scroll the Topshop website and sit misty-eyed admiring the Kate Moss collabs and overly expensive trench coats. I was a wannabe Zooey Deschanel, with a minimum wage Saturday job that couldn’t stretch to Topshop prices. Since then, Topshop has taken a turn for the worse, falling from the grubby hands of Phillip Green into the similarly grubby hands of ASOS. In that time, its stores closed, but the brand remains online, available to shop from the ASOS site. Now though, it just looks like an extension of ASOS – cheap fabrics, shoddy silhouettes, and a questionable amount of bulldog clips holding pieces onto models. Where did the fashion-forward design go? The Glasto grunge? The East London edge? If you’re looking for real Topshop clothing, head to the second-hand sites.

4. ‘Worn-Effect’ Leather Jackets

I’m currently in the market for a leather jacket, and Autumn-Winter is always going to be the best time to find jacket inspiration. However, I’ve seen a number of high street brands try to push ‘worn-effect’ leather jackets and it’s just a total no-go. Why would I pay £300+ for a leather jacket that Mango has purposefully worn out, when I could instead buy a true vintage leather jacket for a third of the price, with real wearing, and made from much better materials? One thing I’ve learned in my years of thrifting is that vintage clothing is just made better: better materials, slower processes, careful design. Save some pennies and get the real deal.

Avoid High Street Worn In Leather Jackets

5. Uniqlo x Anya Hindmarch

I love a good quality Uniqlo basic, and I also appreciate Anya Hindmarch as a brand (I was especially taken by their innovative biodegradable handbags last year). However, the Uniqlo x Anya Hindmarch collab is just not the one. Not only will these pieces make you look like every other 4×4-driving Karen that shops at Waitrose, it’s also just a very lazy collab. Since when was sticking a pair of googly eyes on anything cool? To anyone who isn’t tapped into the Anya Hindmarch universe, these garments literally look like kids clothes, and not the cool ones at that.

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