Over Before it Started: The “Return” of Indie Sleaze

The trend cycle seems to be spinning at an increasingly rapid rate, and every time it stops to give us something new, we come up with increasingly stupid names. Even this movement’s muse - The Dare - seems slightly nauseated by the idea of being its poster boy. Popular fashion is in desperate need of something new and for a while trend forecasters have been suggesting Indie Sleaze is the answer. But, is it really possible for that to come to pass?

Indie Sleaze is something that I feel personally is quite difficult to define. Reading articles on the subject they all seem to be referring to completely different aesthetics. Some citing Alexa Chung, Pete Doherty and The Strokes as inspirations and others suggesting that Indie Sleaze is the kind of stuff you would see Vanessa Hudgens wearing to Coachella in 2016.

This variety in aesthetics could be explained by an article written for Dazed in early 2023, describing Indie Sleaze as a “spontaneous, hedonistic and horny” subculture characterised by a “distinctly unrefined” aesthetic. It was the last trend before the true rise of social media and this likely plays a role in its lack of uniformity, something many more recent trends tend to struggle to avoid.

I feel we have reached a point where the current popular silhouettes are becoming over saturated in the same way skinny jeans were 5-10 years ago. Everyone now seems to think any outfit is god’s gift to the world of fashion if you whack on a pair of baggy cargos.

The state of popular fashion has become so stagnant and I really feel we are about to see a big shift. But then people have been saying that for years and is rehashing Indie Sleaze really anything more than a continuation of the nostalgia driven fashion scene of the last decade?

When researching this article, I found pieces from as early as 2020 speaking about the return of Indie Sleaze, but - in the mainstream at least - this is yet to materialise. Part of me feels that the movement may have run out of steam before it has even got going. I see the term so often at the moment that just writing it down or saying it makes me feel like a bit of a loser. Which is not ideal for something professing to be pushing culture forwards.

The media around it is fairly nauseating, mainly conjuring memories of my 12-year-old self in spray on jeans and the largest t-shirt you have ever seen. But actually, it’s something I am quite excited for. I feel we are ready to move on.

WSJ’s Jacob Gallagher stated that the fashion world has not had “a strong new proposition in a while” and that our fashion choices seem to be being driven by nostalgia, familiarity and safety. While obviously Indie Sleaze, in many ways is a continuation of this, I feel the looks associated with it would provide far more of a shift than we have seen for some time.

The Face Magazine predict we will see a move away from “the never-ending revival spiral”, and I really agree with this. I think it is extremely unlikely Indie Sleaze will make a full return, but elements of it will be co-opted and incorporated into popular fashion to create something exciting and new.

A quick scroll through any social media would suggest that “hedonistic and horny” isn’t the best way to describe the youth of today. All you seem to see is people focusing on their health, going on runs and giving up drinking. But, maybe the prevalence of this is precisely what is fuelling the fires of Indie Sleaze.

Music is very much the driving force of the movement, whether that be The Dare, The Hellp or countless others. Much of the music being produced by these artists is a clear rejection of what is being pushed by health focused influencers. Inspired by a post pandemic desire to be wild and free these artists appear to be a revival of the epicurean attitudes of the early 2000s, but a deeper look shows it to be no more carefree than any other modern trend. The all-encompassing power of constant documentation leaves these artists as image conscious as anyone else. Talking in interviews about doing TikToks for their label and their friends at Celine. For many of them, decadence and debauchery is merely the image they want to present to the world.

Indie Sleaze is unlikely to make a full return. In the current cultural climate, with the domination of social media and the burning desire to document every aspect of our lives I find it hard to believe that a movement centred around hedonism can truly thrive as anything more than a superficial caricature of its former self. But, one thing is for certain, the skinnier silhouettes associated with it are certainly coming back and personally I’m rather excited.