basic girls

Someone asked me for a comment on the revival of basic girl fashion because it’s something I’ve been shitposting about on my Instagram but I don’t really know how to give a comment because it all feels so loaded so I’m just gonna leave this quick thought here…

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I'm interested in what it means to blend in or dress "normal" because the reality is that there is no such thing. If I wear Cou Cou Intimates to the office (the older sister of Brandy Mellville), I think I'm "dressing basic" but in reality I'm signaling my very online status to those in the know (my coworkers) and dressing pretty inappropriately for a professional setting (this is OK at my workplace, I think). My point is that anything can be subversive if you want it to be, so dressing basic for me is more of an exercise in surface-level irony. I've also been wearing clothes that I bought from the Target in Laguna Beach earlier this summer. None of it is flattering or interesting. It's like a white halter tent dress with pockets, and little boxer shorts with a scalloped hem that give me a muffin top when I wear them. What does it mean to be rocking cheap, unflattering renditions on wasp-y tropes? People are talking a lot about white supremacy in fashion, particularly the outrage bait that was Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle campaign. I'd like to see how the angry white supremacists look in American Eagle denim. Not great, I imagine.