The return of indie sleaze From Skins' house parties to Julia Fox photos

To describe what indie sleaze is (a term coined by Mandy Lee a few months ago) it would be enough to think back to the original airing of the TV series Skins which, especially in the first two seasons, but until its seventh broadcast in August 2013, staged the life of a new generation. The teenagers portrayed in the series were light years away from those shown in American series such as Dawson's Creek, which ended the same year as Skins' debut; but also 7th Heaven, Everwood, Felicity, Gossip Girl or Gilmore Girls: if in America first kisses and school dances were the most important things on heart, in Skins' Bristol there was drunkness, drugs and sex, the abandonment of parents, eating disorders, suicide, mental illness. A liberating type of portrait of the young people of the time that, for narrative style and themes, coincided perfectly with the spread of a certain type of aesthetic inspired both by the 80s and by the brazen, scruffy and shimmering era of indie rock. It was an era where Terry Richardson's photographic style, analog and with dazzling flashes, reigned supreme; in which the t-shirts were printed with ironic phrases, skinny jeans and ballerinas were worn, the make-up was heavier, the Carrera sunglasses and the shutter shades of Kanye West and Will.i.am were incredibly cool. Social networks began to be born with the blogs of MSN, Myspace or Netlog. And in recent times, we have observed an interesting resurgence of the indie sleaze aesthetic in the public's tastes. According to recent data provided to us by Stylight, the demand for band t-shirts grew 49%, while peplum shirts saw a 19% increase. Striped shirts saw a significant increase of 132 percent, while low-waisted pants marked a significant increase of 152 percent. The typical shoes of the era, Converse and Dr. Martens, also saw an increase in searches of 24% and 223%, respectively. Google search trends also confirm this growth: there was a 15% increase in searches for shorts with tights and thin scarves gained popularity with a 471% increase in searches. Chunky jewelry also saw a 47 percent increase in Google searches, while sunglasses with colored lenses are emerging with an 11 percent increase.

The most interesting part, however, lies in the way the trend is re-emerging. Just above it was said that Effy Stonem's was more a mood than a look – namely that the impression of debauchery, the recklessness of the style and the raw air of those photos, music, situations and cultural artifacts (including fashion) were the consequence of a lifestyle and not its cause nor possessed a specific wardrobe,  just an overall style that was very boisterous and flamboyant. In short, it is difficult for the outfits of that era to return (who would wear kefieh, golden leggings, t-shirts with the print of a butterfly, fedora and fake giant glasses today?) but aesthetics could resurrect in visual and cultural trends – in the form of wired headphones, "candid" photographic images taken with the flash, Instagram captions similar to those of Tumblr, the return of cigarettes and representations of hedonism such as, for example, in the past few years, that of the Skims ads with Megan Fox, the Loewe x Studio Ghibli campaign shot by Juergen Teller but also the recent success of Saltburn set in those very years, the forthcoming return of Cheap Monday and the passion for furs that has captured the collective imagination.