Project by Norman Slate

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE… OLD?

The Return of the Indie Sleaze and Rockstar Girlfriend Aesthetic

The Return of the Indie Sleaze and Rockstar Girlfriend Aesthetic

Margo Morris

Throw away your stick slick for ballerina buns, your darling little lip gloss, your cutesie mini gold hoops, and your makeup remover wipes. Make way for a thick bed head, stained red lips, six layered necklaces, and day-old smudged eyeliner. We are gone with the clean girl aesthetic because the indie sleaze rockstar girlfriend look that once dominated the night scene is back, and it is better than ever.

Think back thirteen years. Circa 2010. Vampire Weekend and Azealia Banks are playing on everyone’s iPod nanos, Tumblr is dominating the internet, and it is hard to go dancing and not bump into a hipster clad in heavy bangs, sunglasses at night, layered bottoms, and a bold red lip. In a post Y2K world, everybody was done with the maximalist nature of fashion and looked for a more stripped down look.

Something effortless. In comes Alexa Chung, Chloe Sevigny, and the queens of the self proclaimed walk of shame chic, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Suddenly, juicy couture and belly button rings were in the rear-view mirror and Alexa Chung’s ripped tights were all anyone could see. Chloe Sevigny wore suspenders with jeans and a t-shirt causing hipsters everywhere to lose their minds.

Mary Kate and Ashley reigned supreme in the after hours of downtown New York with their messy beach waves, sunglasses that nearly covered their whole faces, purses that could fit a small pony, and vintage cowboy boots. The two of them sum up the aesthetic perfectly, reclaiming the look of walking home at seven in the morning, high heels in one hand and cigarette in the other. Fashion responds to the real world. The 90s look was a direct rebellion of the government regime. However, the indie sleaze movement was weirdly aligned with the politics at the time: decadent and wasteful attitudes. But that wasn’t on anyone’s mind as they flailed around to “Right Round” by Flo Rida. According to someone who was alive in this era and lived to tell the tale, “gender was at play. It was the first time we were sexy in a while.”

And now flash forward to summer 2022. Scrolling through Instagram is almost like looking in a time capsule from over a decade ago. However, with some new twists. Influencer and blogger

@megsuperstarprincess seems to be at the forefront of the new grunge indie sleaze. In 2017 she dropped out of Parsons to become an “ugly hot fashion girlie” stylist and photographer.

On her instagram you can see her sporting ratty fur coats, raccoon eyeliner, low rise skinny jeans, and flat rims on an angle. What is so interesting about her look is the incorporation of the indie sleaze with modern fashion trends. She makes sure she still fits in her vintage mid-calf boxing shoes and frilly torn dresses a la Collina Strada. In addition to her seemingly effortless but probably thoughtfully curated wardrobe, she developed a blog called, “Le Hipster Portal” that consists of unfiltered and unfocused photographs and diary entries from her nightlife jaunts and bad behavior.

Below is an excerpt from an entry titled, “Le Prozac Birthday”:

After kicking off le month of May with an exhausting week of moving and socializing like my life depended on it (I hit le Marc Jacobs party, le avenue A dives, a private dinner at Christies, le Chelsea hotel, a rando recording studio, and obv flung moi-self down canal street to dimes square barz).... I HIT A MEGA WALL. A MEG WALL. typical. I convinced moi-self that a new apartment (even in brooklyn), a new psychiatrist, a new prozac prescription (OUI I've joined le prozac nation), and new shoez would make for an entirely new lifestyle.

Throwing in some of the watering holes for lower east side sleazers, the openness with which she talks about her Prozac, psychiatrist, and new apartment in Brooklyn is something that Mary Kate and Ashley would never come close to. Not to mention, these words from Meg: “I’m insufferable, but it’s feminist because it’s being real.” Spoken like a true fourth wave feminist, gen z, lower east side girlie, with a hint of the untidy qualities from our indie sleaze mothers, Mary Kate and Ashley.

The icons of modern day, after hours, rock star girlfriend sleaze go beyond just megsuperstarprincess.

The chaotic and messy behavior described here certainly has original indie sleaze sentiments, but it is also seeped in Gen Z.

Julia Fox is arguably the most modern version. She redefined what it means to wear thick eyeliner, with her debut look at Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Not to mention, her homemade wardrobe of leather handbags, chunky gold earrings, and denim pants tucked into her boots. She has taken the elements of the original sleaze and made it her own, revolutionizing grunge and making it modern. She is known for the wet hair, leather, and strappy look, all key parts of the night life aesthetic in the mid 2000’s. However, she pairs this with structure and high end creativity, giving it her own spin. Some designers have also caught onto the trend. Collina Strada’s fall collection of 2022 was sleaze galore. Filled with low cut pants and loosely fitting belts, uneven hemlines, layered bottoms, enormous bags, and messy hair, the collection caught onto the trend.

However, just like Fox, they also added a 2022 twist, adding vibrant colors, chrome materials, and cinched lines.

As for why we are seeing the resurgence in the afterhours, grunge sleaze, “ugly hot,” chic, the easy answer is the trend cycle. We are coming out of the renaissance of Paris Hilton, Juicy Couture, whale tails, and everything we know and love about Y2K, thanks to Youtuber and influencer, Devon Lee Carlson. Naturally, we are heading on to the next era of indie sleaze. The more complicated answer has to do with, just like everything else, COVID-19. While we were all cooped up in our sweatpants and feeding our sourdough starters, we reminisced on the days when we were shoulder to shoulder with strangers. We yearned to sweat, accidentally spill drinks on people and have them spill drinks on us, and see people besides immediate family members, dogs, and significant others.

When restrictions finally started lifting and selfies with strangers became a possibility again, we did not have time for petty lip gloss, perfect contour, and slicked back buns. There was a mass rejection of perfection, leading people to embrace the excitement of being messy, some for the first time ever and others for the first time in ten years. Not to mention, the affordability appeal. A Maybelline eyeliner is easier to swing than one from Dior.

So how does one incorporate the rock star girlfriend indie sleaze aesthetic into their everyday look, you might ask?

Drugstore eyeliner is always a great place to start. And while you are at your local CVS, might as well pick up a pair of tights to create your own runs in. Mini skirts and some combat boots can never hurt either. Don’t forget a huge bag to fit all of your crumpled up loose pieces of paper, lip stains, flat shoes for the walk home, and your Ottessa Moshfegh book. And lastly, for la piece de resistance, a faux fur coat, the faker the better. Oh! And if you enjoy a puff every now and then, make the switch from Juuls to cigarettes (sorry sorry! Cheesy I know). Now go out and be the ugly hot fashion girlie that you have always wanted to be.