On November 14 2021, a Facebook user shared images of “squirrel teeth,” a purported “fashion trend” to the Facebook group “بن بريم للطبخ والحلويات وكل مايخص المطبخ والتدابير المنزلية للنساء فقط ????”:
Facebook automatically translated the submitted explanation for the “squirrel teeth,” in a post shared nearly 30,000 times in under a week. It read:
Fact Check
Claim: Facebook post depicts a new "squirrel teeth" fashion trend.
Description: A Facebook post depicts a new "squirrel teeth" fashion trend. They’re considered the new fashion trend for 2022.
Squirrel teeth for a more feminine look, now the latest fashion for the new year 2022 may God protect us
Commenters replied to the post, expressing their distaste for the purported trend:
“I’m deeply bothered by this. We are de-evolving, this I’m sure of. It’s a race to see who can be the most irritating and annoying looking person alive, I swear.”
“are you f’in kidding me? These people belong in a mental institution!”
“lmfao this what I was looking at earlier saying it looks ugly asf ????????”
“This is even worse than comically big surgically enhanced lips. Are women deliberately trying to make themselves homely?”
On Google Trends, searches for “squirrel teeth trend” demonstrated significant search interest for the seven-day period ending November 22 2021. Four additional related trends with “Breakout” search popularity appeared in the “Related queries” field:
- “Squirrel teeth fashion trend”;
- “Squirrel teeth fashion”;
- “Squirrel teeth human,” and;
- “Bunny teeth trend.”
Claims that something unusual or bizarre was a “new trend” amounted to guaranteed engagement, such as “ankle scarves,” falsely described as new trend in 2018. Similar examples on this site are filed under “not actually a trend” and “fake trends“:
As is often the case, a reverse image search quickly provided an explanation. A November 2020 post on the blog Dazed Digital, “Lisa Michalik Creates 90s Dior-Clad Bunnies For Her Latest Project” explained:
Having worked with rising French fashion designer Marine Serre for her latest SS21 collection earlier this year, make-up and SFX artist, grills designer, and Dazed Beauty Community member Lisa Michalik has leant her artistic hand to the world of fashion again, this time creating unworldly beauty looks for a campaign for the Parisian vintage shop, Snowbunny.
With models dressed in rare 80s and 90s pieces from the store, Michalik sought to embrace the title of the shop in her artistic direction for the shoot, turning the models into bunnies, through creating large and bejewelled fake rabbit teeth.
A viral Facebook post claimed that “squirrel teeth” represented “the latest fashion for the new year 2022.” However, a reverse image search indicated the project by makeup artist Lisa Michalik was part of a campaign for a vintage shop (Snowbunny) in 2020. Moreover, “squirrel teeth” or “bunny teeth” were not widely adopted in the year between their introduction in November 2020 and the Facebook post in November 2021. Although the images were real, they were out of context and did not represent a trend.
- Squirrel teeth trend | Google Trends
- "Squirrel teeth for a more feminine look, now the latest fashion for the new year 2022 may God protect us" | Facebook
- Are ‘Ankle Scarves’ the New Hot Fashion Trend?
- Not Actually a Trend | Tags
- Fake Trends | Tag
- Lisa Michalik Creates 90s Dior-Clad Bunnies For Her Latest Project