How the 2010s Reshaped Style: From Influencer Culture to New, Fluid Ways of Expressing Identity

The explosion of reality shows, like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and our fascination with them has influenced the body and beauty ideals of the 2010s. From Kim Kardashian's infamous bum that's insured for a cool £16 million to the contoured face made popular by RuPaul's Drag Race and Cara Delevingne's iconic full and fluffy brows, celebrities and socialites brought more dramatic aesthetics to the looks of the decade.

• Shifting Body Ideals: It's funny how fashion, like everything else, happens in cycles. The body ideals introduced by Kim Kardashian in the '10s versus Paris Hilton in the '00s remind us of a similar extreme in the late '50s and early '60s, between Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Body types should absolutely not be a trend as every body is beautifully different, but a conversation on the changing fashion and beauty ideals of a decade would be incomplete without it. In the 2010s, the superskinny ideal made popular by Hollywood stylist Rachel Zoe in the '00s was replaced by the fuller figure of the Kardashian-Jenner empire.

• Drag Culture & the Contoured Face: The Kardashians are pretty slick with appropriation, but they're not going to own the most defining beauty trend of the decade — the contoured face — which is an old-school makeup technique used regularly by drag artists that ultimately became more mainstream this decade with the popularity success of RuPaul's Drag Race. The contoured face, the hyperfeminine body proportions, and the snatched wigs (move over, Kylie), are all thanks to the original kitty girl, RuPaul, and all the drag queens who came before her.

• Big Bushy Brows: On the opposite side of the beauty spectrum, the 2010s also saw the return of the face-framing eyebrow. Cara Delevingne's thick bushy arches launched a million Google searches. And the return was quite literal, as many people who grew up in the '90s and early 2000s desperately tried to grow their brows back after years of plucking them into pencil-thin oblivion.

While reality culture gave us restrictive new ideals, the flipside embraced a newfound fluidity. Celebrating all body types was central to conversations of identity. We broke many glass ceilings this decade and explored the full spectrum of diverse and inclusive representation; from nonbinary and genderless fashion to expanded shade ranges in beauty, and welcomed models and role models of all ages, sizes, abilities, sexual orientation, gender identities, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

• Nonbinary Fashion: This decade was transformational for the fashion industry. From performers like Billy Porter, who was the first man to wear a gown on the red carpet, to musicians like Billie Eilish, who has pioneered a new, nonbinary aesthetic for what we expect of a pop star, fluidity fashioned new ways of expressing one's identity in the '10s and the catwalks definitely took note. Many designers, like Gucci and Burberry, began showing their womenswear and menswear collections together; and fashion houses, like Chanel, began casting more openly gender-fluid and transgender models in their campaigns.

• 40+ New Shades of Beauty: It may have happened toward the end of the decade, but Fenty Beauty shook up the beauty industry in a major way when it launched in 2017. Rihanna's first beauty launch included an impressive 40+ shade range of foundations, over a dozen (and in some cases, two dozen) more than most heritage beauty brands. The launch spoke to so many black and brown girls who previously struggled to find coverage that matched their skin tone — and simultaneously forced a majority of beauty brands to follow suit.

While we love to thank Rihanna for this move toward greater inclusivity in the beauty industry, she's not the only person who should get credit. Social media may have a lot of downsides, but it also helped start intimate conversations between brands and consumers. "Call out culture" on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, allowed us to directly demand brands to do better. Most notably, Diet Prada's launch in 2014, and Estée Laundry in 2018, have both helped to call out big brands in the fashion and beauty industries — for better or worse.

It wasn't just an expansion of shades that was revolutionary this decade: we saw curvy models, mature models, hijabi models, models with disabilities, and men in gorgeous makeup and glamorous gowns walk the catwalks — and be featured in major editorial campaigns — in a capacity that transcended tokenism.

This decade, a pair of crisp white trainers has graduated from an anomaly of the fashion elite to an essential of the carefully curated wardrobe. Streetwear and urban fashion has totally redefined what we understand to be luxury in the '10s, with Balenciaga's Triple S trainers, Off White's utilitarian snap buckle belt, and designer bum bags leading the charge.

• The Hypebeast Reigns Supreme: Where once upon a time, high fashion influenced streetwear, in the '10s, streetwear influenced high fashion and ushered in the era of the high-low collab. Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton joined forces with streetwear brands like Supreme, H&M teamed up with JW Anderson, Adidas launched a collaboration with Dior, and Rihanna's FENTY signed to LVMH, and Harlem fashion icon Dapper Dan launched a capsule collection with Gucci. The '10s saw urban and street culture redefine what we understand as luxury: less so as being defined by craftsmanship and more so as being defined by cultural clout.

• Trainers Become High Fashion: Ten years ago, most would cringe at the thought of wearing a pair of trainers to a formal event, but oh, have the times changed. This decade, was certainly the era of the "it shoe." Gucci's fur loafers and Bottega Veneta's Stretch sandal are iconic accessories of the decade, but it was in 2017 when the Adidas Yeezy Boost and Balenciaga's Triple S trainer launched that sneaker culture was brought to the forefront of fashion. Hopefully, the chunky dad trainer is a trend that won't haunt us into 2020.

Despite many big fashion companies banning fur this decade and pledging not to burn their deadstock, sustainable, circular, and transparent manufacturing processes very slowly caught on. Thanks to Greta Thunberg protesting against climate change inaction in 2018, the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in 2013, and even Queen Elizabeth renouncing fur in her own wardrobe in 2019, we hope that sustainability will be the most defining trend across all industries in the 2020s.

• Fashion Goes Fur-Free: Fashion was forced to grow a conscience this decade: from the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory that took 1,134 lives in 2013, to the eye-opening reality of fashion being the second most polluting industry in the world, to the viral stat that it takes 2,000 gallons of water to make your favourite pair of jeans, regardless of cut or designer. Millions of consumers started demanding greater transparency from every stage of the industry's supply chain, from worker's rights to water waste, CO2 emissions, microplastic pollution, and most notably, going fur free.

The rise of veganism in the '10s was a huge catalyst for fashion to stop using fur and animal-derived materials. Many luxury fashion houses, like Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, and Versace, decided to ban fur. This major decision by the fashion elite to choose our planet over profits inspired big-name manufacturers like ASOS, Topshop, H&M, and Zara to follow suit. While it's still up for debate as to whether real or fake fur is less sustainable, the '10s was all about opening up conversations on being on the right side of history.