Aesthetics
The first week back at college calls for a lot of observing. New hairstyles, new wardrobes, and essentially new aesthetics. That is ultimately where I put my focus on the first week back, aesthetics.
An aesthetic, defined as a theory of beauty or a set of principles concerned with the nature of beauty. This whole idea has truly skyrocketed over the past year and has become a trend when scrolling through Pinterest, posting on TikTok, and setting up Instagram content. People are defined by their aesthetics, and they are put into groups based on what aesthetic they identify with. This may seem extreme but from my observations, aesthetics can become lifestyles. I essentially recognized two main aesthetics- the Djerf Avenue aesthetic and the platinum girl aesthetic. These obviously then transcend into many sub-aesthetics like clean girl, granola girl, vanilla girl into party girl, European girl, glam girl, and the list goes on.
However, as I was attentive to people’s outfits, I was also attentive to their attitudes, behaviors, and social presence. I feel that there were 2 main “it” girls on social media this summer that many people relied on for content and that was Matilda Djerf and Alix Earle. These two social media moguls evidently have very different aesthetics and to me it almost seems like half the population adopted Matila’s soft pastels and clean lifestyle while the other half began to mimic Alix Earle’s glitzy glamorous lifestyle of going out and about day and night.
I recognized that the people who were exhibiting the Djerf Avenue aesthetic were mostly seen sporting linens, soft pinks and neutrals, Birkenstocks, blue pinstripes, and an overall very clean façade. I also saw them typically wearing their air pods and sitting intently on their computers at coffee shops.
The girls that fit into the platinum girl aesthetic were definitely seen out downtown over the weekend dressed in bright colors, sequins, lace, and obvi the newest Adidas tennis shoes.
I think trying out different aesthetics is fun and cool and with the fashion market being very saturated right now and every clothing brand trying to sell what is currently trending, aesthetics will come and go that some people will adopt while others will dismiss.