An Introduction to Fashion Subgenres
posted December 1, 2024
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I used to love magazines. I never had subscriptions, I’d just check them out from my library every month. Seventeen was my favorite. They’d have fashion editorials split them up by
subtypes and put together cute little collages for whatever mood you
felt most drawn to (because of your raging hormones and such).
I miss these little infographics dearly. They were to me then what TikToks on “fashion microgenres” that end in “core” are to girls now. The difference is that Seventeen (and YM, and CosmoGirl!, and I’m really dating myself now) came out every month, not every three days. I haven’t cracked one of them open in years, admittedly afraid that their copy is now riddled with inscrutable slang and emojis.
The impulse remains, though, for young girls desperate to find a sense of self in an ever-shifting world of body standards and fashion trends. It was never about ascribing the subtype to yourself and then trying to cultivate a whole persona around it—some days, you were feeling classic, like Emma from Degrassi, and other days you were feeling more wild, like Manny from Degrassi.
I can guarantee when I flipped to the first scan as a pubescent teen, I immediately identified with “pretty vintage.” I mean, of course. I wasn’t about to lead a life showing everyone how “pretty vintage” I was. It was more like going through your closet, or replenishing your wardrobe at Kohl’s or Loehmann’s, and thinking to yourself, “I can wear this when I want to feel like the ‘pretty vintage’ girl.” For a multitude of reasons, one of which was that I felt tugged between being a “cool alternative girl” and a “Jewish American Princess,” I never fully immersed myself in a single style archetype. When your mood and body hair and life is changing from hour to hour, it’s hard to commit to anything that deeply.
That’s all to say, I sought to recreate that whole feeling—or experience—by compiling these different “Fashion Subgenres.” I can’t think of a cuter way to refer to them, but I do find it unwieldy. I digress. I made little collages and went a little further into depth than teen magazines might, but in the way that women who love to play with fashion and perhaps have a flair for the dramatic might appreciate.
I have a running list of them and I have tried to post a couple of them on Twitter but either nobody cares or it just isn’t a good format for that kind of content, I can’t decide which. So they’ll go here. There are about eight in total but I’m always getting inspired by new things every day, and because I have the free time and the Adderall prescription, I’ll be able to have a lot of fun with it.
See you soon!