Long gone are the days of Emo, Skater Punk, and Goth styles… Here the fashion your kids are into now.
The late 90s and early 00s were… a moment in fashion. From this we knew all about glittery eyeliner, braided pigtails, and massive Jnco jeans. But those days are definitely over. Mention as crunchy to your kids and they’ll probably mention that they’re all about that VSCO style. Wait, what?
Making sense of today’s hottest fashion genres can be pretty confusing. Specifically, as most are a mishmash of styles we know and love, with futuristic details and dedicated throwbacks. So, if you don’t want to sound like the dinosaur you are, you’ll need to study up. Dress up games, like those on Prinxy, can help you not only get a sense of what it all means, but also the types of styles your children gravitate towards.
Popular Fashion Aesthetics in Dress Up Games
The thing about fashion, is that it’s never just about the clothes we wear, or the accessories we choose to pair with them. Teen and tween fashion is also hugely about identity. Creating a dynamic style that bleeds into your habits and personality as well. Finding out more about your children’s personal aesthetic can also help you better help support them in their everyday lives.
Contemporary fashion aesthetics aren’t so hard to piece together, mostly because the four major genres are all very heavily influenced by the fashions of our youths. Pulling hard from the mid-90s to early 2000s. Fashion is a great tool for development, not only for helping your child to explore their own individual personality, but fashion can often function as a gateway into other types of interests and hobbies.
VCSO
VSCO (pronounced: Vis-co) style is hallmarked by hydroflasks and scrunchies. Who remembers pukka shell necklaces? Yup, they’re here too. The VCSO aesthetic generally puts a hard focus on environmentally sustainable practices and ethics- often preferring to wear second hand clothing, or handmade, fair-trade, organic materials.
When it comes to their environmental and accessory style, VSCO kids usually tend to gravitate to that boho chic look. Heavy use of natural materials and plain colors and tones. Tribal patterns are also something you’ll see loads of, most likely integrated into a pastel color palette. VSCO kids are still very much a part of the tech world, so while their clothes may be second hand, they’ll still lust after the latest in electronic gadgets.
VSCO is all about #savetheturtles, reusable products, recycling, and reducing wastes and carbon output. This aesthetic wouldn’t be complete without some homemade tiedye, metal straws, and Birkenstock’s. And here you thought the 90s had left forever.
E-Girl/Boy
E-girls/boys are kind of an amalgamation of skater punk and goth styles. Creating super edgy looks with mom jeans and long-sleeve/t-shirt layers. Most e-girls/boys stick to dark colored clothing, wear brightly colored makeup with exaggerated winged eyeliner, and usually have little symbols drawn underneath their eyes or on their cheeks. Those weird nylon chokers that every 90s kid had are a must for this fashion genre, as well as skater punk classic music like My Chemical Romance.
As far as general accessory aesthetics goes, think pretty much anything you could find at HotTopic in 2001. More into meme culture than design, this style will usually gravitate more towards alternative sports and Doc Martens than they will bed linen and throw cushions. If you really want to snag the interest of an e-girl/boy, look no further than the latest tech and greatest online games. These are topics that are sure to interest these surly seeming teens.
Sticking to that skater punk theme, e-girls/boys have that “rebel without a cause” attitude coupled with a darker sense of humor. Dress up games can be a really fun way to play around with this style, without having to resort to using manic panic, or paying for a massive Morphe pallet.
Soft Girl/Boy
Soft girls/boys are essentially what we would equate with a late 90s “preppy” style. As most look like they’ve just fallen out of the Gap. Baggy overalls, sickeningly sweet pink everything, and frills are just the thing to catch a soft girls eye. Definitely the fairest of the three styles, soft girls/boys go for that 70s peasant/boho look. Flowing materials and feminine prints. Soft colors and sweet accessories, it’s not unusual for a soft girl to adorn their hairstyles with oversized clips and whimsical headbands.
This is the aesthetic that looks like it’s fallen straight from the pages of a dELiA*s catalogue. Oversized sweatshirts, baggy jean shorts, suite horizontal striped crop tops. Hair and makeup trends tend to lean towards a paired down look, with straight locks and blushed noses, giving that sweet appearance. Soft girls are known for their timid approach to life, lots of smiles help hide their shyness.
The soft girl room and accessories will probably have plenty of art supplies and stacks of notebooks, generally covered in stickers. These girls/boys are the happy medium between VSCO and E-girl, not completely disconnected, but not an SJW either.
