Is Fast Fashion MAGA-coded?

That TikTok-viral Target fur coat truly has me spiraling 😮‍💨

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but we have our latest TikTok-trendy “must-have” swirling around the internet this week, and it’s a faux fur (read: plastic) coat from Target.

And it’s $48?! 👀 Are you kidding me, save your $$ girlies! 🙏

Seriously, though, what happened to the vintage coat from last year’s “mob wife” trend? The one that’ll actually last and keep you warm?

@_gigijulianaTarget fur coat. buy or bye

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This Target Faux Fur Coat (TFFC?) is already stirring up a ton of online discourse: there are hundreds of these viral try-on videos with thousands of views and comments already. The commenters ‘running, not walking’ to Target… 🏃‍♀️

And because I live on the vintage and de-influencing side of the internet, I’m also getting counter-posts from creators like Caroline Tucker, dissuading from buying fast fashion, and encouraging followers to check out vintage instead.

I mean, Caroline is right! Any antique mall, estate sale, flea market, thrift store, Depop shop— pick your poison! — they all have vintage fur coats galore.

In fact, the vintage shop where I worked for years actually had trouble moving vintage furs (interest in vintage fur is really cyclical). And because furs are heavy and hard-to-store inventory, sellers often price them low to get them sold.

Now, I usually don’t jump on internet micro-trend discourse because, really, what more can I say that hasn’t already been said? 🤷‍♀️

But this time, I noticed something strange in several of these videos...

A weird class narrative?

I first noticed it in this video of influencer Lauren Wolfe (1.1 million followers on TikTok). She takes a mirror selfie in the Target coat, but all I can see is her giant Chanel handbag.

@laurenwolfeget them now before they sell out. So cute 😫 #target #targetfinds #targethaul #furcoat

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Not totally unusual, influencers love a “high-low” outfit — that’s how they get you!

You see, however subconsciously, influencers often present a “high-low” lifestyle — pairing something attainable to you, like a Target coat, with something aspirational, like a Chanel handbag. This creates a relatable, yet desirable, image: “I’m just a girl like you,” except better.

But after that, I found videos like this one, reposted on Barstool Sports (founder, Dave Portnoy, endorsed Trump for President 🤢):

@barstoolsportsThe fur coats 🔥@itgirl (Via:@gracekotnik_)

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I screenshotted a few of these, and then I had to grab my pen to start writing them all down ✍️ because I kept seeing quotes like:

“Us leaving Target with increased net worth just by wearing these jackets 💅”

“Come with me to go change my tax bracket”

“Walking out of Target and tripling my net worth because not only did I get one Target fur, I got two.”

“Me leaving the house with increased net worth just by wearing this gem.”

Huh? Obviously it’s satirical, but these same phrases kept coming up over and over again.

Now, I’m a millennial, but if this is verbiage the kids are using these days, I’m really not seeing it anywhere else. I did my TikTok due diligence search, but all I kept finding was these coat videos….

Is it giving MAGA-Coded? 👀

One of MAGA’s many false narratives is elites cosplaying as “just regular people.” It’s the epitome of the influencers’ “high-low:” billionaires who claim to relate.

Now, this isn’t about the politics of the specific TikTokers in these videos — though much has been written about the importance of creators voicing those views —

or even the specific coat, but rather the dog whistling verbiage about status being used.

It’s giving delusions of class ascendence. If the fast fashion shopper makes juuuuust enough cool-girl purchases, maybe one day they’ll be like the girl with a Chanel bag, ya know?

Or, better yet, they’ll be like the Target CEO (net worth $246 million) who earns a garment worker’s entire lifetime pay in just four days.

It doesn’t matter that the posters’ reality is probably more similar to Target’s minimum wage retail employees, than it will ever be to a multi-millionaire.

Fast fashion tells us: just keep buying, and you’ll be on the up! 📈

Now, I can already see the comments of “it’s just fashion” and “fast fashion is all I can afford,'“ but, when you’re splashing out $48 on a random fashion statement on a Wednesday… let’s be honest.

The most truly sustainable people I’ve ever known are those from humble means, and they really don’t waste their money on fluff like this.

Now, that’s not to say that Gen-Z doesn’t experience real economic anxiety. Without access to generational wealth, many Gen-Z people can’t afford college, homes, or savings. And, like we discussed in this letter, fast fashion plays into all of those insecurities and exploits them to keep the shopping cycle going.

The systems we live in drive us into isolation: we work long hours, spending more time on our laptops and phones than we are with *people* in communities.

Then, while we're feeling isolated and low, Big Corporations leverage those very real emotions to keep us spending. They pretend to be the solution for the very sadness they helped create.

Blame wealth inequality, blame our phones, social media, blame basic human psychology. But fast fashion has been really good at selling us a lifestyle to constantly strive for — it doesn’t matter if it’s always out of reach.

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⭐(PS: This is one of my most popular posts — if you enjoy this sort of fashion journalism, please subscribe to support it!)

⬇️Below the fold, you’ll find thoughtful analysis on:

• fashion’s echo chambers

• aesthetics as a gateway to ideologies

• the slow creep of conservatism in these “lifestyle” spaces

• and where we go from here (we all have influence!)

Thank you to my subscribers for making Pre-Loved possible! 💛 - Emily