aesthetics

Minimal makeup, slicked hair, an expensive kind of nothing. Criticised for borrowing from women who had done it first, and still going, in a smaller way, on the strength of being easy.

A look, a mood, a colour scheme and a set of references, treated as a countable noun and something a person can have — an aesthetic — as the 2014 Tumblr usage ('that's my aesthetic') that made the word a category label, gave the Aesthetics Wiki a reason to exist from 2018, and now heads every entry in this section. The record's entry for the noun that replaced 'style'.

Ribbons, lace, and a bow on anything that would hold still. Peaked when the bows reached the sandwiches.

Flash photography, American Apparel and a cigarette, named a decade late. Diagnosed as coming back by every fashion desk in 2022, and it did not.

Tennis whites, linen, a rowing club that does not exist, a house in the Hamptons that is a rental. The costume of inherited wealth, worn by people who had inherited a Pinterest board. Quiet luxury's louder, younger sibling.

A woman who wakes at five, journals, and drinks green juice in beige. A wellness aesthetic that was diagnosed as a disorder by the trend pieces within eighteen months.

Red lips, linen, a Mediterranean holiday you may or may not be on, and a tomato — the summer of 2023's girl. Followed the coastal grandmother and preceded the strawberry girl, and died, as summer girls do, at the equinox.

Scrunchies, a Hydro Flask and sksksk. Named in July, parodied in August, explained in the Times in September; and I oop.