Gen Z, Fashion, and “Trying Too Hard”
Sambas. No-makeup makeup. Bedhead. $70 Sweatshirts and thrifted jeans.
These are all hallmarks of Gen Z fashion – something that often feels undefinable, like a million things at once. Between the eclectic mix of eras and aesthetics, one common denominator is the illusion of effortlessness. Hair is tousled, makeup is minimal and outfits are thrown together. The trend cycle may be moving fast, but this one seems to have staying power.
I often find myself spending extra time in the morning coordinating outfits that are meant to look like the first things I grabbed out of my closet – or off my floor. The cutest sweatpants, the coolest top, jacket and bag. In the last 10 years, we traded heels for sneakers, skinny jeans for baggy ones and the business casual peplum tops of 2013 for pared-down, lingerie inspired going out looks.
Our beauty routines fall into this trap too. Glossier made themselves a household name by marketing their products as makeup that isn’t really makeup. It’s so indetectable it’s almost skincare. It fixes your perceived flaws, but it leaves you looking like you just rolled out of bed. It’s all about natural beauty and low maintenance, but as other brands have followed suit, I wonder if makeup that looks natural is ultimately any different than makeup that looks like makeup. Both do the same thing, but at least “makeup-y” makeup is honest about it.
As the most image-conscious generation yet, we are just as concerned with the process of how we look as we are with the end result. The rise of social media turned lifestyles into products like clothes or makeup. Influencers feature silly clay mask selfies alongside their curated feeds, and the coolest accounts look just a little bit undone. The myth of effortless perfection, a term first coined in 2003 in a study at Duke, has raised a generation of women who feel the need to not only do it all, but to do it all without seeming to try.
When I first read this study, I couldn’t help but be reminded of TikTok’s “that girl” – the one who has it all together. She’s beautiful, smart, funny, athletic, fashionable and successful without having to work for any of it. She’s Gen Z’s It Girl, a road map to our priorities and a behind-the-scenes look at our fashions. The It Girl of today doesn’t care if people think she’s cool – she just is.
A perfect example of this is the Gen Z characters on HBOs The White Lotus. In season one, Olivia and Paula nail this look. Their oversized graphic tees and sweatshirts, crochet sets, sunglasses and jorts are cool without trying too hard, striking the perfect balance between careless and chic.
Season 2, however, is another story. Portia aims for the same thing but somehow falls short again and again. Her mixed patterns are overwhelming, her chunky shoes look awkward with her sundress, and unlike her season one counterparts, her oversized t-shirts somehow seem calculated instead of cool.
These characters are all spending time on their clothes, and they’re all trying to look as if they didn’t. What makes Paula and Olivia successful isn’t the amount of effort they put in, it’s a sense of knowing who they are and how they want to be perceived. Portia isn’t trying any harder than Paula and Olivia – she just doesn’t know what she’s trying for. In a world where every look is documented and every outfit represents who you are, that elusive thing that Gen Z is chasing isn’t actually effortlessness – it’s confidence.
https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus
Cover - @laurenladnier