The Rise Of The Alt Baddie
Alt fashion is one subculture that refuses to disappear, this time around its been given a baddie twist
Alt fashion is in its baddie era. With a new wave of creators, pop culture icons, and subculture movements giving this aesthetic the attention it deserves, baddies are putting their stamp on fashion’s finest countercultural trend.
Trends don't appear out of nowhere; they can generally be traced back to a pivotal moment in time. Whether it's the debut of a newbie designer's runway collection, the start of a political shitstorm, a tongue-wagging pop culture event or a viral social media moment, there's no trend smoke without fire.
And one place where everyone is getting their trend inspo these days is TikTok, not that that's new news to anyone who spends time lurking in digital echo chambers.
If you were to take a leisurely scroll through everyone's current favourite social media platform, you'd find that searches for ‘alt girl fashion’ or ‘villain era’ are dominating. And it's no surprise that a rebellious style movement has emerged given the current zeitgeist.
The alt girl aesthetic — which digitally literate Gen Z has defined as an interest in alternative fashion, non-mainstream music, and an IDGAF attitude — is taking over.Â
On TikTok, there are over 48 million posts relating to Alt Fashion with this style even making its way over to Shein hauls *cringe*.
But this next iteration of alt girl fashion is all about the baddie. You've got 7.6 million posts under ‘Alt Baddie Outfits’, outfit inspo for all the corporate alt baddies, alt baddie work wear harness styling videos that have over 93,200 views and counting, and creators inspiring other alt baddies to make the looks their own.
With the alt girl baddie infiltrating everything from red carpets to runways, social media feeds and street style, the question arises: What happens when anti-aesthetics enter the mainstream? Will they collapse or will they evolve? And who are the new alt baddies?
The rise of the alt girl
Characterised by bold makeup, bright and colourful hair, piercings, OTT accessorising and chunky platform boots, this new era of alt girls is best described as a modern take on the Millennial emo, indie, and scene archetypes combined, revamped and restyled for the digital age.
However, not all alt girls dress alike or share the same interests, and within this distinctive group, multiple spinoffs have emerged — hence the rise of the alt baddie.
One of TikTok’s hottest alternative fashion stars is Aliyah’s Interlude. The digital creator gives her fandom a taste of something different through her viral, visual style which blends alternative cyberpunk grunge with elements like rhinestone belts, platform boots, fuzzy leg warmers, and mini skirts. It's party cutesy, part alternative, and it's giving 100% alt baddie.
It wasn't until late 2022 that her aesthetic, #Aliyahcore, was coined by none other than the creator herself. But with hundreds of creators tagging and dueting her videos, an alt baddie princess was born with many others eager to follow in her footsteps.
Alternative styles have always been a thing. They've defined various eras and have arisen from the ashes of multiple subcultures, including goth, punk, emo, and grunge, to name a few.
Much of this credit can be given to gothic-esque and avant-garde designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Vivienne Westwood, Jun Takahashi and Ann Demeulemeester, who have taken countercultural aesthetics and put them in front of more eyeballs.
But if you had the foresight to predict a global pandemic, climate change, and the political instability and outrage wreaking havoc worldwide, you might have seen the rise of the alt girl aesthetic coming.
It's a tough world out there, and the rise of alt fashion reflects the times we're living in and credit can’t be given to any one designer or person — it more so reflects the current collective sentiment about the state of society at large.
From underground aesthetics to mass culture
Though alt girl fashion began in small subcultures, spurred along by big-name designers and labels, its influence is now widespread.
The arrival of alt girl baddies can be attributed to a variety of factors, one of those being cultural figures such as Doja Cat, Megan Fox, Kourtney Kardashian, Olivia Rodrigo, Rina Sawayama, and bands like XG giving new life to one of fashion's favourite anti-trends.
Consider the rise of musicians like Olivia Rodrigo and Rina Sawayama, who have cultivated a new pop-punk sound which has influenced their fandoms into wanting to mirror the alt girl dress sense of their favourite stars.
Or look at cringey ‘power’ couples like Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly or Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, whose punk-inspired matchy matchy couple attire has K Klones following in their footsteps.
The birth of modern fashion subcultures can be found in all sorts of places. From pop culture figures to spaces such as TikTok, the visibility gleaned from these arenas becomes a fertile ground for subcultures due to their online and easily accessible nature.
But this contradicts the hush hush, underground and secretive element that most subcultural aesthetics thrive on. After all, can it still be called a subculture if everyone is doing it?
Fashion subcultures typically operate outside mainstream trends. The #AltGirl phenomenon and the rise of alt baddies is just another example of social media's undeniable influence on aesthetics, and, for better or worse, the role of hashtags and viral content in popularising trends on a global scale.
Consider this your public service announcement that not all alt fashion aesthetics are tied to something deeper.
Sometimes, they gain recognition due to their clickbaity capabilities and the fact that subcultures are becoming a part of mass culture, whether we like it or not. Overlap is inevitable.
Subculture categories, although non-conforming and separate from core trends that are drip-fed to us through affiliate articles and the like, evolve and influence the mainstream in their own ways.
Alt fashions future-facing outlook
Something that has to be said about alternative fashion is the way it allows for greater inclusivity, diversity, and nuanced self-expression through personal style.
Black alternative fashion enthusiasts have been around forever and always but with alt fashion baddies akin to Aliyah’s Interlude bringing significant attention to the subcultures Black participants, it makes space for those who do not fit within the conventional boundaries of Black creative expression.
Style has always been a tool for marginalised communities to subvert oppression, and few fashion movements have raged against the machine as loud and proud as alt fashion has.
Though critics and naysayers would dispute that such trends have deeper meaning and significance, alt fashion in particular has a rich, nuanced history that cannot be overwritten. Alt fashion has always been about colouring outside of the lines.
With the cyclical nature of trends and the Zer thirst for all things nostalgic, it was only a matter of time before low-rise jeans, laced-up corsets, leather harnesses and butterfly accessories were given a dark twist — thanks to alt fashion baddies.
A look through recent runway collections such as Dilara Findikoglu and Di Petsa shows that the proof is in the pudding, alt aesthetics are not just for the catwalks, they are slowly making their way to the streets as club rats and Rick Owens acolytes take over Paris.
It's a fashionable turn of events led by provocateurs and people who refuse to accept the world as it is.
The legions of Zillennials like myself, who grew up posting on Myspace and Tumblr and persuaded their parents to buy them Vans and fingerless gloves, are losing their shit over the alt baddie revival.
And while it’s neither new nor original, its enduring appeal prevails as a form of countercultural resistance and self-expression.
Will things get a little muddled as alt baddies go mainstream? Well, that's bound to happen.
But this is one subculture style that ebbs and flows with the tide in line with cultural shifts, making it something that'll never truly disappear. Alt baddies are just the latest iteration.
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