Hot Mess: Heroin Chic is Back

Y2K's comeback is real and here. With this not only comes the butterfly clips, cutie baby tees, and low-rise pants but also "dirty" or slept-in make-up, really ripped jeans, Doc Marten's, and the season's hottest accessory: cigarettes. Don't believe me? The New York Times has recently reported that cig sales have risen for the first time in 2 decades. With its brief resurgence in 2013-2014 and its start in the '90s, the grunge look is back and better than ever. 

This revival of the grunge look is an ongoing theme throughout fashion, and beauty is shown through magazine covers. While this comeback focuses on beauty and fashion, it's also making itself more evident within pop culture and current events. A great example of this is the hit show Euphoria. This show about teens exhibiting heavy drug usage almost exemplifies the recent glorification of drug usage, which goes hand in hand with heroin chic. In actual news, officials have unanimously voted to decriminalize psychedelics in San Francisco, bringing more people to use or continue using them. Thus, drug usage will only continue to rise with more states considering decriminalizing other drugs, such as marijuana.

With the 2014 aesthetic going mainstream the same way emo is coming back, bands from the era are making their comeback. We've got a single out and an album on the way from Arctic Monkeys. 1975 also came back from their hiatus with a single and a new album. With fall coming so soon, how could we forget that 'Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood will quickly be on repeat on all of our playlists?

The revival of the 90s grunge or the "2014 Tumblr girl" aesthetic is bringing some negative reactions from people on social. A TikTok from user @wannabehayleywilliams, wrote: "No. We are not starting this again. 2014 Tumblr CAN NOT come back. Twee coming back will be the beginning of the end. It wasn't all Zooey Deschanel & mustaches… It was racism, fatphobia, SH posts & ED forums. I could go on forever." From the '90s to the early 2000s, thin bodies were considered "trendy," with most celebrities and models, such as Angelina Jolie and Kate Moss, were the poster girls. As fashion shows lacked body diversity, a big part of society felt they could only be seen as beautiful if they were thin. This has brought many eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and depression if they could not achieve this look. However, in today's body-positive era, it's now understood that all bodies are beautiful, and we can wear whatever we want! With this in mind, we see more body types in the grungy, messy aesthetic. 

This fall, don't forget to bust out your ripped tights and jeans, buy double that thick black eyeliner, whip out your favorite leather jacket, date a guy with a motorcycle, don your fave Docs, and (optional) smoke your cigs! Grunge is back, baby.

Strike out,

Boca Raton

Editor-in-Chief: Melania Zilo

Creative Director: Francesca Cella

Digital Director: Anika Chhabra 

Editorial Director: Jolie Tanner

Web Director: Angie Biafore

Assisted by: Lorenzo Biondo, Joe Grassi, and Ali Tarnowsky

Assistant Editor-in-Chief: Sage Holaway

Concept + Writer: Emily Fiorini-Casamayouret

Photographer: Sterling Smith

Styling: Alexa Michel and Sydni Torrero