I liked twee because it felt like a "girl's girl" fashion. It wasn't about looking sexy for men or trying to prove you could fit into a 'mans world', it was about wearing cat themed shoes and cute dresses because you liked cat themed shoes and cute dresses.
Except for the fact that diminuative womens fashion was originally designed by men to appeal to their commonly held taste for little girls..Its a clear power dynamic..I personally like the aesthetic..but I'm not going to kid myself as to where it came from..
i think i never moved on from twee, i still love my ballet flats and stockings with my aline/skater skirts. never without my cardigan and satchel bag. but now they call me academia.
You nailed it on the academia label lol. Every look is recycled, then called something slightly different by the next gen. While it's not entirely my thing, I'm sure you look lovely in it. I mess with fox print clothes and I love rockabilly cardigans. Sometimes I wear Peter Pan collars when I need to look more formal.
Twee is one of the fashon styles I feel still holds up to this day unlike other 2010s styles. It’s just more timeless with all the vintage fashon inspiration. It’s amazing.
I am forever grateful to twee, because I credit that thrift kitsch renaissance moment as the reason granny/grandpa style has become perma-cool in some way or another ever since. Cottagecore. Dad sneakers. Birk clogs. Coastal eclectic twice removed aunt or whatever we’re on now. We are freed from the y2k shackles of *needing* to dress modern, sexy + new or else be scoffed at by someone named Brittany, Ashley, or Tiffany.
Ok it seems like you’re here to defend the fictional Britney, Ashley or Tiffany I made up for my comment 😂 please rest assured no real Britneys were harmed in the making of that comment. Just harkening back to mean girl culture in a non serious way to highlight my actual point- that before vintage and thrifting made a huge splash in the late 00s-early 2010s, emphasis on Mcbling, preppy or luxury “it” brands and whatnot were widely viewed as *must have* in an unsustainable way. One positive thing the internet brought is that all eras and styles are simultaneously cool now and finding your personal style is what matters to most people now. People aren’t pressured into following trends and buying new + luxury the way we used to be before the recession. Old money aesthetic is a thing but nobody is out here shaming others for buying secondhand, dressing “like a mom/granny” or re-wearing outfits these days. We have grown past that and I am thankful. When I was very young I participated in the problem of reinforcing it brands and not wanting to be caught in off trend or outdated pieces, so I’ve grown as well myself. That was my point. NLOG and putting others down has absolutely nothing to do with this conversation.
Here to teach the children. The twee subculture began in the late 90/early 00s indie pop revival. It spread through the early internet with mailing lists and then music forums. It became mainstream in the late 00s through sites like Tumblr but was definitely a thing before then, I should know cos I was a part of it. One of the things I resent most is that the icons of the look, most of whom were not there at the beginning are all stick thin waifs. The pre Tumblr originators of the look were for the most part curvy girls desperate to escape the tyranny of the low rise jean.
Low rise jeans were diabolical I feel even for the super skinny. I was skinny with 0 butt, it was so embarrassing at one of my first little summer jobs, my boss, thank god female, used to have to tell me to pull my pants up. I would be like they are up 😔 and even with a belt the belt would just sit way below the hips.
@@kakonthebed Well my source is my own lived experience of the subculture when I was a teenager in the late 90s and the early 00s. I think I probably must have found out about the sinister mailing list through a card in a Belle and Sebastian C.D or maybe it was written about in a music magazine. Before forums we had emailing lists so you would send an email and request to join the list then if accepted you could then send emails to everyone on the list and you would receive them from everyone else. Then Jeepster an independent record label who had signed a few Glasgow indie pop revival bands started a forum which I joined. Once the guy who was running the forum left Jeepster he changed the name to Bowlie. I would meet up with people from this forum for gigs and club nights and it became apparent that we all shared the same look. What's not regularly discussed is there was also a twee look for guys, mod hair, Breton striped top, flared or straight cut jeans and a record/messenger bag covered in button badges. One of the club night we regularly went to was How Does it Feel to be Loved in London, run by NME journalist Ian Watson. He was very good at photo documenting the night and you can still see the pictures here www.howdoesitfeel.co.uk/club.html if you want to see people wearing the twee look back in the day. I'm even in some of them.
My feelings were legit hurt so badly the first time I heard a Fashion Person describe twee as a thing of the past. I had waited my entire life for the kind of vintage details that were finally widely available (especially in my size) and I assumed the popularity of the style, at least as a subculture, meant that designers had finally realized an audience like me existed. I was not prepared to learn that my taste was “over” lol, and just when I had finally collected the wardrobe of my imagination. I still wear my clothes obviously - and I never really had any female friends who were into the same look in the first place so other women moving past me didn’t actually change my day to day. (I had known a fair few mustache-bowtie guys over the period but I don’t really know what they’re wearing these days). I won’t miss the micro-hemlines at least. I like the certainty that butt will not touch chair when I sit down. But I like pintucks and collars and tiny buttons you guys. I can’t be stopped.
@@inspiredby624 I think it depends on what aspects of each style matter most to a given person, but I see twee and dark academia almost as two opposite ends of a preppy spectrum. I personally think of twee as a prim but maximalist type of prep, with contrasting colors (though the colors themselves may be either bright or muted) and nerdy, feminine, and novelty details. Twee outfits could be costumes from a heightened-reality movie - Wes Anderson or Pushing Daisies. I think of dark academia as a more earthy and grounded prep - more dignified, more androgynous. Dark academia outfits could be costumes from a restrained, melancholic and even dangerous flavor of vintage movie. When people say that femme twee has a "little girl" aspect, I tend to balk a little, because I'm a forty+ year old woman and I'm definitely not trying to seem like a little girl or a doll. But it's also not *wrong.* For me, twee has a youthful, tongue-in-cheek, playful mood. Dark academia is an old-soul-in-a-young-body aesthetic. Twee could be milkshakes in the retro diner with two straws. Dark academia could be champagne coupes in one hand and old poetry in the other with your secret club behind the bookcase. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the two style variants have many fans in common, and I'm sure there are folks who prefer a middle ground. I love looking at dark academia imagery, but I always go back to color, quirk and novelty, in the end.
If I had the money to build the wardrobe I wanted and looked and felt good in it I would have absolutely zero fucks to give about what someone else thought about its relevance or trendiness! And either should you! D you look good? Feel good? Then you have STYLE. Let the followers follow.
Today I wore a pinafore dress & coloured tights, i have berets in 5 colours, a fringe (bangs) & more breton tops than i should, I'm 44. I've never heard of twee but I've usually called it dressing like a primary school teacher or kids tv presenter. I much prefer this to the beige movement. Color makes me happy. wear what u love & ignore fashion.
@thelittlerawker Sure! I'm in the UK, so for tights I use Snag, lots of colours & sizes. Joanie is good for clothing with a vintage vibe, Seasalt for breton tops & of course what we call charity shops (u may call them thrift shops). Also Palava is a make I adore but can't afford.
I agree completely! People always say I remind them of Mz Frizzle. I'm 36. Fun and whimsy for all ages, all genders, all sizes! Not just for little white girls.
There's my picture at 9:27, I'm the one in blue! It didn't make me tumblr famous at the time, but I found it was doing the rounds on Pinterest a couple of years ago. Still gobsmacked and humbled to see it pop up in this video. I still have the top and the skirt, maybe I should hang onto them in case the V&A ever wants to put a twee exhibition on....
I used to be in this Flickr group called wardrobe remix, we would post our daily outfits, mostly vintage. This was around 2007. A lot of them were twee style, never heard of the term until now.
I still kind of dress this way, partly because I like how it looks, and partly because it's physically comfortable. Most of the clothes I buy nowadays are vintage or second hand because they're more affordable and better quality than what is being made today. Do I want to spend $80 on a skirt made out of plastic or $16 on one made of 100% wool or linen? Not a hard decision. These styles are still around. They just got newer labels. Am I dark academia, whimsy goth, twee, or cottage core? Doesn't matter lol.
I've been trying to find this aesthetic everywhere. I remember it from when I was 8-14, roughly 2008-2014. As one can imagine I didn't remember it all too well except for when I found pictures that jogged my memory. I am so happy there's a name for it and even more happy that it is coming back. I still have this little brass owl pocket watch necklace, if that doesn't say 2010 indie hipster idk what does.
I'm the same age as you and I didn't remember it either until this vid so weird cus it totally influenced my style to this day! Seeing all the stuff in this vid that I wanted but couldn't afford because I was 8-14 😂 so nostalgic
I’d love to see your take on the Dark Academia and Cottagecore aesthetics… I’m impressed by your dedication to studying the connection between history, sociology and even psychology with fashion ❤ brava 👏🏼👏🏼
I miss this style so much. I used to really enjoy getting dressed in twee & hipster styles and I feel like it encouraged creativity when choosing your clothes. These days, I feel like it's too easy to throw on some leggings and an oversized t-shirt and call it a day. I'm really guilty of it and this video has made me realise that I want to start 'dressing up' again :D
@@jlarnold24 You should look into more of the less mainstream gen z styles right now, twee has had a comeback within the past year with modern adjustments. I find there’s a sizable community for almost every style you can think of among young people right now, I don’t think they get enough credit honestly
I think an intriguing representation of twee style is Hannah Horvath in GIRLS. She consistently hit all the marks that you mentioned in this video stylistically but is almost always overlooked in the twee analysis i've seen, which feels especially interesting as she shows the look on a body that is not thin or trying to fit into thinness.
I personally enjoyed this style a LOT as a vintage-loving teen/young adult in the 2010s, even if I didn't quite fit the mold as per media portrayals or tumblr iconography. The funny thing is that I didn't even conceptualize it as being an aesthetic at the time, just an amalgam of the things my friends and I were interested in. I wonder if the lack of non-white representation can be attributed less to the aesthetic itself and more to the fact that (even then, as recent as it was) there was less of a concerned emphasis on social issues and a comparative lack of pressure on social media towards diversity?? Really enjoyed this analysis though, and I really appreciate your historically-accurate and thorough examination of this.
I found it! It has a name! I swear this aesthetic invokes a really special feeling in my heart. The polka dots dresses, cute vintage heels and glasses, indie music and harry potter themed stuff, hipster coffee shops and bowties. Like trying to be fancy but also different and vintage.
Oh God I was a tweet girl from 2009-2014 and I didn't even know it! I wore all of these 😂. I do want to point out that we should also consider the huge impact of the TV show Mad Men at the time, since I really think that was what drove a lot of the 50s & 60s revival of the period. I remember walking through the mall and seeing 'Mad Men' collections in the displays of Banana Republic and similar stores.
being on tumblr in 2011 made me crave skater skirts and thigh high socks more than any other pieces of clothing the crossovers in style with japanese street fashion were especially appealing
I had no idea that so many style elements I am drawn to today were probably inspired by twee (and therefore from 50s/60s fashion). Skinny belts, cat/other animal motifs, skater dresses, cardigans. I even have a blouse with a Peter Pan collar and a pussy bow and TWO animal bags (a frog and an otter) lol. Its good to know the roots of your personal style so you can critically examine it, so thank you for this video.
I’m a young X-er and I can still hang with this style. Still love owl motifs and still have cat-themed shoes. Just need to be conscious of what is age-appropriate. Mute the colors/patterns a bit, and you have a style appropriate for your 40’s.
You forgot to mention the Kawaii movement in JAPAN, and twee babyish stuff was part of the explosion of Rave culture. Throughout the 90s I saw adults of all races and genders wearing candy bracelets, pacifiers, a penchant for tootsie pops(for Molly side effects), teddy bear backpacks. It was global
japanese fashion subcultures usually have a wildly different origin and history than western ones so it would be kind of weird to include it here. i think it should have its own video tho.
I see what you mean, there is definitely a parallel to be made? Because when I think of the early 2010s worldwide, I think among other things, of twee, but I also picture fairy kei from harajuku. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and shop for clothes then!
only after watching this video I realized how much of an Impact twee aesthetic had on my fashion preferences and my styling choices in high school. it still has, and I love to wear some of the beloved staples that I sitll possess. the only thing is, I don't style my clothes as twee anymore, as I feel they are too quirky and infantilizing to wear on the workplace, it's as if I outgrew the aesthetic somehow. still, wearing that as a teenager was absolutely cool, and looking at the pictures of the era brings a lot of fond memories. ps. as an ardent and hardcore admirer of twee I have to admit that I absolutely despise Wes Andersons films lol, I can't stomach them for some reason. so, new wave films of France, Czechoslovakia, Japan are an enormous source of inspiration for me personally
Omg the Miu Miu cat print from SS2010 lived in my head rent free as a teen. You just reminded me of my cheap lil Oxford brogues I had in tan and black. I was definitely a twee fan. I loved Alexa Chung. A lot of these design elements still inform my wardrobe and style.
anyone else remember the subculture that was like sparkly/fancy twee? It was twee essentially but all in pastels and black and white, and everything was pearl and/or rhinestone encrusted
I gather that twee is like a reaction to the glossy no-nothing 00s, you know Paris Hilton peak era, they wanted to wear vintage inspired dresses and be sweet lil girls. Thank you for teaching the word twee, as a non-native speaker, I had no idea
Another perspective here: (while also seconding the comments here about the the late 90/early 00s indie pop fashions), there is a whole genre of Japanese fashion called "otome kei" which is exactly this, too-- farther-deeper rooted in the fashions of the 1950's and 60's children and young person clothing. As someone who grew up in poverty and was raised by their grandparents, much of this 'aesthetic' wasn't an aesthetic, it was my every day life. We used vintage things because they lasted and were made to withstand the test of time. I wore thrifted clothes and hand me downs because those were the only things available to me. (A LOT of this 2010's twee was rooted in fast fashions cheaply and badly recreating these clothes of the 50's and 60's.) Poverty greatly slowed down my access to things like mp3s, cd's, digital cameras, and the internet, so, yes, I have a much deeper rooted attachments to things like my old walkman, my records, developing film (my grandpa had a darkroom for developing film in our house), and vhs tapes and cassettes. But because so much of these aesthetics are rooted in a look and consumerism--and not a lifestyle built out of necessity, it was quickly discarded for the next thing.
Great video! Watched it as I was dressing up for the day - pussycat bow blouse, cropped slacks, cashmere sweater and a pilgrim-esque collar/vest with Mary janes! The twee is still strong with this one 😂
I wish someone would make a video on the weird pastel folky emo indie subculture from the early 00's that i was involved in, but idk if theres even a term for it. Its pretty similar to twee, except sad and muted lol. Gregory and the hawk and Elliot smith were pretty exemplary music examples. Meredith godreau from GATH had the quintessential look. I think its sort of a cusp subculture, when all the emo kids were transitioning to hipsters 😂 The main color palette was very muted, our myspace layouts were all very minimalist, tiny ass text, all lowercase, etc. I remember my myspace always had to involve dusty rose/mauve, that was THE color 😂 if anyone remembers this or knows the term please let me know.
I was a teenager in the 90s and I dressed in a aesthetic known at the time as "kinderwh*re" (yes, problematic name). My look then evolved to twee, but I do it goth. I wear dresses in black or grey and have black hair and goth makeup, wear tights with spooky prints or bright colors to contrast. What I like about the twee aesthetic is it is very feminine and honestly easy to afford and comfortable.
im not gonna lie i clicked on this in my recommended videos expecting to be mad and defensive (i was a teenager in the late 00s-early 2010s and very on tumblr, this style was formative for me) but wow i loved this video so much, i learned a ton and the way you present fashion history is so enjoyable and comprehensible and unbiased ❤
My adolescence was so informed by this aesthetic. The internet felt more like a baby, everyone was mutually inspired by each other's creativity, etc. This is like the one style I don't mind being mass produced because it's flattering on a lot of people and nostalgic ♡ lol
I still love twee and have vintage-style dresses that I wore 7-10 years ago and now I can't get rid of them, but I feel ridiculous dressing that way in 2024.
This is such a stellar video- very inspiring for my own research. The depth of every element that was spoken for... wow! One item to consider in terms of generational influence (and its often overlooked, so mentioning it to contribute to the topic) is that the 1960s styles, while consumed by boomers, were a product of silent generation icons/trend setters. Modders were in the 20s in the late 50s to early 60s, meaning they were born before wwii. Part of the youth fixation they had was a trigger response to wwii reparations and the pendulum of post war grief to nihilistic optimism. Boomers really started to get into their own in the late 60s into 1970s. Your 1980s yuppies were younger boomers, which means The Smiths (i dont exactly think them as yuppies, but they were of the same time period) were boomers as well, participanting in that wave of twee. So yes, all these generations were twee enthusiasts, but had their own spin at different times. Also- love your coverage on the ED issue with this subculture. This look glorified a body type (500 days does this satirically) and genuinely bothered me as it was extremely normalized at the time (early 2010s). It bordered on infantilizing. Thank you for calling this out. Anyways, love your content! Can't wait to watch more! ❤
I've low key always worn stuff like this so I didn't realize it was a trend 😮. This is pretty interesting to learn about. I still wear this stuff even tho I work from home. It's comfy AND it looks nice. I mix it in with preppy, goth and kinderwhore. I never moved past the 90s mentally 😂
This is so well researched and accurate! I have felt very strange today after watching a few of these videos because I think I was maybe a hipster without realising it. It wasn't intentional, it was just I moved back home in 2010 after an illness and got into crafty hobbies, baking and gardening to recover. At the same time I was friends with a hippy/goth family and started wearing vintage dresses and lace up leather boots. I was clearly inspired by the hipsters and twee girls without realising it at the time. I remember going into town around 2017 and suddenly realising the young women were dressing very differently to me. They were and still are wearing high waisted, short, baggy trousers, big boxy oversized jackets, big white trainers and had harsh looking 'severe' haircuts worn with thick gold hoops even if their skin tone was cool-toned. It's a somewhat harsh, non-feminine, unisex look. I wouldn't dress like that myself because to my eye it looks very unflattering, and they are committing what in the 90s we would have thought of as fashion crimes (let me know if you have a name for this style of dressing). I also don't want to look like I'm trying to dress young when I'm now an older millennial. I am just not entirely sure how to dress anymore, ageing is a strange experience. It's been interesting watching a few videos analysing the trends from when I was younger. I will add that in terms of colour palettes, duck egg blue/teal plus mustard yellow was the dominating colour palette I remember from about 2010 - 2013 ish.
This is late, but I am 19 and honestly looooove seeing mature women wearing playful and feminine clothes. I am kind of petite and rectangular, so I tend to look better in those "child-like" styles, which I love, but it makes me self-conscious about my womanhood. But then I see adult women expressing their womanhood this way and it feels me with so much joy. Don't conform, do what makes you happy. Others can dress however they want, but you are you.
Hi! rewatching some of these again I feel so nostalgic seeing all this footage as a tumblr girly although it wasn't really -my- aesthetic. I only leaned into this a bit back in 2013 but it was unfortunately bc I was trying to impress some guy 😔 I still have a cozy fox dress though from that era I quite like and I still see this type of clothing (and hipster-y things in general) around in stores here in Portland sometimes.
ohhhhhhh so i was that, but in a more post punkish/goth/witchycore (there where a lot of phases who added up in a huge blob of influences, like everyone lol).
I was at high school in the 00s and this style was totally ubiquitous, but we didn’t call it anything, or think of it as a style movement with origins in earlier eras. It was just…what we wore! Super interesting to look back and see it contextualised like this.
thanks for this video explaining this!! everytime i saw “twee” i was SO confused on what it meant, like i couldn’t distinguish any one part that made it ‘twee’ because it all looked so incohesive to me. now i know it’s basically 2010’s nerd and vintage we saw back then
Twee is definitely my favorite 2010s aesthetic. I tried dressing in that style as a teenager, and even now, I still have some clothes that sort of technically could be "twee".
Never knew there was a name for this style, just thought it was hipster early 2010 fashion? Makes me nostalgic though, it was my vibe throughout my 20s.
The 50's style was so big in the 2000's. For some, it was a nostalgic romanticisation of the era, and especially traditional roles for women. On the other hand, many queer femme people and feminists saw their style as a subversion of cishet norms and a way to celebrate their sexuality through glamour.
I loved this aesthetic at the time (had no idea it was Twee, I was uneducated and called it Indie but don't remember why *shrug*). But yeah, as a plus-sized pear-shaped girl, it wasn't an easy aesthetic for me. Most vintage clothes that suited the aesthetic just weren't in my size, and even the new clothes didn't come in my size. My current style is my own, with an combination of things, one of which is still Twee.
I haven't watched it, but if that's true isn't Summer's character even more of a manic pixie dream girl then? Like she's this typical male fantasy of a woman who just exists to help him, and that kind of two-dimensional person isn't real
@@bingbongalong Summer is her own person, it is the lead male character that makes her into a Manic Pixie dream girl. He projects this into her, not listening to who she really is…she tells them her true views many times…it falls on deaf ears. So, yes…his point of her reads like this yet she is not it.
Idk why I watch these videos I've always just worn what's comfortable for me, no fashion sense whatsoever lol Very fun and informative video, takes me back
