Fashion trends are having a moment where they are both at their best and worst, with sauce stains, bleached eyebrows, combat shorts, and stomper boots making a statement.
Isaiah Lat, a 20-year-old student, DJ, and stylist from Chicago, confesses, "I’m a messy eater. I used to wipe away stains, but now I don’t mind a little oil or spaghetti on my shorts. I think it’s chic."
Lat feels his style defies easy categorization. "It’s probably this dystopian, Mad Max, pirate, Steam Punk, mythological vibe," he says, emphasizing his preference for thrift and DIY fashion. He favors skinny jeans, Capri pants, and visor-like sunglasses, and while he doesn’t intentionally add pasta sauce before leaving the house, he does appreciate his clothes having a "somewhat stained" look.
A new fashion mood is emerging: diverse yet unified in its eclectic mix of elements. Camouflage, combat shorts, and grungy plaid; goth-inspired makeup and stomper boots; silhouettes and garments drawing from 2010s indie sleaze; T-shirts with slogans reflecting nihilistic internet humor—all these components converge to project a rebellious spirit. Daniel Rodgers, digital fashion writer at British Vogue, attributes much of this to the defiant energy of those "born in 2000 reclaiming things millennials wrote off as loserish." The aesthetic is often intentionally gritty, greasy, crumpled, and raw.
Leave a comment