What's Wrong With Being Basic?

Musings from a former micro trend fanatic

For the past years, I’ve gotten wrapped up in aesthetics. I check Pinterest every morning to find “outfit inspo” while taking in factors such as the weather, etc. and that’s fine, but it’s one of the many small ways I’ve lost myself.

I’ve always had an individualist mindset and even if I can’t directly remember, I’ve most likely used the term “basic” as an insult. Especially in regard to fashion. I think I tried to be so unique yet aptly trendy in my early college years because dressing like every other girl throughout grade school only served to make me even less; I went from nobody to completely invisible. I wanted to stand out in my college era— I wanted people to notice me.

Blame it on burn out, blame it on growing up, but these days I think i’ve found what works for me; and it’s pretty basic. while my version of basic can sometimes seem more elevated than the people around me, its much more toned down than the ballet core, y2k, Demonia wearing looks I put together mainly in my freshman year of college. For the longest time, I’ve tried to fit into an aesthetic all while making myself unique but all the stress isn’t worth it.

This isn’t to say that I don’t like things that are trendy or aesthetic anymore; but I’m done letting them rule my life. It has gotten to the point where— combined with my general indecisiveness— it can take upwards of thirty minutes (usually more) just to get dressed in the morning. I wake up, get dressed, look in the mirror, and judge whether my look is Pinterest-y Cool Girl-New York Writer-Quiet Luxury enough and quite literally drive myself mad.

I now know what works the best for me in terms of comfort, style, and ease; but I somehow find myself worried my outfits aren’t cool enough, not unique enough. Even though my outfits are cute, comfy, and well thought out; they’re basic and something about that still makes me stressed. They aren’t making me stand out enough and even though I dislike being the center of attention most times I still want people to notice me. It’d be delusional to say they don’t as I actually get quite a few complements pretty often, but the elation from those is fleeting. I’ve found myself stuck in a cycle that I honestly think is not of my own creation.

It’s easy to blame my problems on “Big Fashion” and consumerism but I do think that the way society and algorithms have evolved has made it easy for them to play on my insecurities just right and alter the way I perceive myself— crazy right? It’s actually pretty hard to sell/influence me on particular items but it the dream of becoming something more than myself that really gets me. I find that I have to tell myself “its okay to be basic” pretty often these days.