fashion cycle

The fashion cycle is the recurring pattern by which clothing styles emerge, gain popularity, peak, decline, and eventually disappear or return.

A style typically moves from introduction by designers through mass adoption to saturation, then falls out of favor as newer trends replace it.

The cycle has accelerated with fast fashion and social media, compressing what once took years into months or weeks.

Bell-bottoms have completed the fashion cycle twice since the 1970s.