Is Indie Sleaze Already Back?
The style era defined by flash photography, skinny jeans, and irony is making its return.
As the trend cycle blazes forward and Gen Z burns through Y2K aesthetics, so follows its successor—cue Indie Sleaze. For many, the late 2000s don’t feel long ago enough to become the latest nostalgia-core, but TikTokers and Instagrammers alike insist that the era defined by American Apparel and The Cobrasnake is slated for a premature revival. But how will this aesthetic be transformed by designers and tastemakers to meet the social and political expectations of the 2020s?
Even if you haven’t heard the term Indie Sleaze, you’ll certainly recognize aspects of this Tumblr-centric era of fashion. Sometimes described as “Hipster,” the aesthetic was considered a reaction to the recession of the late 2000s, and combined thrown-together thrift store finds, smudged eyeliner, and impossibly tight skinny jeans. But in addition to Disco Pants and flash photography, the style was also a reflection of a zeitgeist riddled with cultural appropriation, sexual harassment, and an unhealthy glamorization of excessive thinness.
Enter 2023, and the cultural climate is actively attempting to—and in some ways succeeding at—culling these problematic values from the fashion dialogue. If designers and consumers can make a clear distinction between the origin of many of these trends and the ideas behind them, then this decade’s version of Indie Sleaze may carry more thoughtful significance than its predecessor. This time around, recent collections featuring fedoras, neon, metallics, skinny scarves, and boho bags (as seen at Celine, Gucci, and JW Anderson) might actually pack a more powerful punch.
