Addison Rae’s “Cool Girl” Era
Image Courtesy: Instagram
Everyone remembers the sweet, southern, blonde bombshell with the playful grin that took over our TikTok for you pages in 2019. Addison Rae rose to fame posting charismatic dances and other videos that showcased her charming personality and girlishly flirtatious nature. She had this persona of conventionality with her all-American image and careful maintenance of a family friendly social media presence that was curated for mass appeal. One might even say she ‘played it safe’ in her rising years as a celebrity, but one look at her recent social media activity shows a new Addison is emerging– a “cool girl” persona is starting to take shape.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
Addison, also known as Addi, has traded in her long blonde locks for a dark brown, and her style has taken a turn for the edgier. Recent posts depict her rocking tighter silhouettes, less coverage, and generally more offbeat, fashion-forward pieces that seem almost antithetical to what the old Addison would have dared to wear. This shift in aesthetic is not just skin-deep, though. There is much more to being a “cool girl” than meets the eye, and Addison is a great model of this phenomenon.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
On her instagram page, Addison has posted collections of pictures that show her experimenting with fashion in European countries, partying in New York with an unknown group of friends, and participating in photo shoots that are more provocative, daring, and avant-garde than anything we have seen from her thus far. Addison is also posting slightly less frequently, and when she does post, her captions are short or nonexistent. It’s almost as if she doesn’t care what we think of the post; like she doesn’t even care if we view it or not. Obviously she does, considering she is said to earn around $219k per insta post (HopperHQ’s Instagram Rich List), but the point is the effect this creates. The effect is effortless, doesn’t-care, cool.
Images Courtesy: Instagram
Don’t mistake newness for originality, though; Addison did not invent the concept of the cool girl by any means. In fact, this aesthetic shift is very in line with the rising fashion movement of indie sleaze. Fashion is a pendulum. Just like low and high rise jeans, we tend to go from one extreme to the other. Covid-induced quarantine fostered a culture of self-care that gave way to the “that girl” trend we are all quite familiar with. The new it-girl, however, is the “cool girl.” Unlike “that girl,” “cool girl” is messy and real. That authenticity is part of the appeal– it gives ethos to the coolness. She is casual yet enigmatic. She doesn’t try too hard, but we are captivated anyway. In a Serena Vanderwoodsen-esque manner, she is “charismatic, free-spirited, and mysterious…she tries half as hard and is twice as appealing” (Charactour). Like Kate Moss in the 90s, the “cool girl” “does what she wants and she looks cool doing it,” (Tim Blanks, CBC’s Fashion File 2010), and this is how Addison seems to be living her life lately.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
But why the shift? Maybe Addison is just growing up– she will be twenty-two in October, after all. Or perhaps she learned a thing or two about public image and self-marketing from the Kardashians. Their strange relationship with Addi likely taught her more about the fashion scene, and no one can deny that Addison’s new vibe seriously channels Kourtney Kardashian’s grunge energy.
It is important to note that Addison’s social media presence is very much curated. She has a whole team of people behind her helping her achieve this new aesthetic as well as the funds to travel to these locations and sport her striking designer pieces. Still, the message is in her presentation of herself. That casual, self-assured, creative essence she has begun to display is what has allowed her to break her own aesthetic barriers and thrive in a more alternative space. She now embodies a mature persona and arguably inches closer to a high-fashion celebrity status.
There are lessons to be learned from all of this– namely that we should find empowerment in rejecting the conventionalities of the social world that are not true to us and embracing what is uniquely, undeniably ours. This fall, embrace your inner “cool girl.” Do what is authentically you and take joy in the creative process of aetheticising whatever that is. You don’t have to be edgy or avant-garde, but don’t shy away from the messy parts of life either. Be unapologetic, effortless, real. That is the essence of the cool girl.
Strike Out,
Writer: Cameron Oglesby
Editors: Katie Sharp, Natalie Daskal
