STYLE It’s a whole thing
Have we all hit
Between TikTok aesthetics and Pinterest girlies, it feels like there’s a new viral trend to tap into every week. But is this a fun form of self-expression or just a bit… exhausting?
I’ve felt like an outsider for most of my life; I wasn’t very popular growing up and, just before I turned 30, I was diagnosed as neurodivergent. But back in 2007, I experienced a social saving grace thanks to… Blair Waldorf. When the original Gossip Girl aired, it was all anyone at my school could talk about, and I finally found acceptance with my styleconscious peers by adopting Blair’s trademark preppy look. In today’s TikTok and Pinterest-obsessed world, we’d call this Blaircore. For 15-year-old me, Blaircore became a non-verbal way for me to bond with other girls; a sort of social signalling. And it was how I survived the last few years of school. Fast-forward to 2024 and everything has become a preface to a ‘core’, or an ‘aesthetic’, or a type of ‘girl’ you can be. That is, if you follow the guidelines prescribed by social’s most viral content creators. But is Gen Z’s penchant for boxing modes of dressing into niches, such as balletcore (think off-duty dancers) and quiet luxury (logo-free, highquality clothing) necessarily a good thing?
You’ve likely heard of the clean-girl aesthetic, marked by glowing skin, scraped back hair and minimalist clothing. Or maybe you’ve seen influencers clad in cottagecore, which visually manifests as romantic maxi dresses, basket bags and lace. Every miniscule stylepersona gets meme-ified and ‘starter packed’ into thousands of digital mood boards, reels and TikTok tutorials showing you how to look a certain way. Dark academia. Office siren. Gorpcore. Coquette. The looks are endless – as are their accompanying ‘musthave’ items and brand names.
I’ve found that many of us aren’t that different from our impressionable teenage selves who will blindly copy others, especially when it comes to our closet.
In my book Why Don’t I Have Anything To Wear?, I ask readers: how old do you feel when you’re stressed about shopping? Regardless of our age, none of us are completely immune to ruminating on whether our peers will approve of our outfit. If we really have graduated from our secondary-school selves, then why is it that socialmedia driven ‘aesthetics’ guide our shopping decisions more than ever?
The power of trends
The birthplace of this phenomenon is TikTok, which is driven by young fashion lovers whose main hobby (or full-time job) is to post examples of their unique style online. Through taking inspiration from each other, the creation of ‘cores’ is a fluid and communitybased endeavour. Lolade Omole, a student in London, says, ‘Cores are different to the “normal trends” that tend to start with big names. Wit
