hipster summer girls

I’m fascinated by this tumblr aesthetic known as the “hipster/summer” aesthetic. Mostly because it is the least hipster thing ever—these are photos of popular teenage girls in bikinis and outfits purchased at forever21 in their local shopping mall—everyone knows the real hipsters thrifted everything they own, right down to their underwear. The photos of “hipsters” reblogged by these Tumblr users are derived from a suburban 12-year-old’s understanding of what a hipster was, which is “someone older and cooler than you who dresses in trendy clothes. (and I know because I was a suburban 12-year-old during this time). 

 By the year 2012, real hipsters were long dead, but their capitalist apparition still haunted the clothing stores of the mall before it too finally became a victim of the ever-changing trend cycles. To me, the hipster/summer girl is to hipsters what mall goths are to OG goths—posers who try, but don’t have the right kind of social capital to fit in with the scene. But in a way, it becomes its own scene, its own vibe, that’s just as aesthetically pleasing and nostalgic.

rad alien core

Tumblr in the 2010's was about reviving all things '90s, from Kurt Cobain's grunge style to the optics of the early internet (see: the entire aesthetic of seapunk).  But beyond fashion styles and aesthetic movements, another fad of the '90s got its second time in the sun on certain niche corners of Tumblr—that fad being aliens. 

For the uninitiated (or those too young to remember), aliens had a pretty big moment in the '90s, especially towards the end of the decade.  TV shows like The X-Files and movies like Men in Black documented the cultural obsession with the extraterrestrial, as did groovy '90s fads like alien-themed lava lamps.  

Which brings us to the sub-aesthetic I have personally coined as RAD ALIEN CORE.  This aesthetic takes quite a few pages from '90s style, and often features tattoo chokers, holographic clothes, and alien motifs sprinkled throughout one's outfit.  If you wanted to be cool on the indie side of Tumblr back in the early 2010's, all you had to do was post a selfie with your hair in space buns while wearing a t-shirt that showed an alien riding a skateboard with a slice of pizza or something.  It was rad, out of this world, intergalactic, and nostalgic all at the same time, which is what makes Tumblr aesthetics so special—nowhere else could you find such thorough and inventive revivals of trends long past.