#2010s era

[popculturebaby]

Lady Gaga and Lindsay Lohan in 2012

[kitnightowl]

Do you guys ever wonder how the tumblr users who used to have superwholock names or any early 2010s fandom names and have since deleted their blogs are doing nowadays? Like how are you doin nowadays Benedictlock221b, samWinchesterleftnut666, oncelerqueen, or even just the-tardis-at-221b.

[kissxlove1]

Why is Benedict Cumberbatch trending at number 4??? I feel like I've been throwing back to 2012

[ruruas]

A Love Letter to The Early 2010s

Celebrating its comeback into the fashion trend cycle.

This is the first post under my publication The Encomiast.

Over the past few months, I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of nostalgia posts for the early 2010s pop up on my social media feeds. Specifically, the type of early 2010s ‘aesthetic’ characterised by neon colours, carefree divas and prime-time radio pop. That's the era I remember most clearly, back in elementary school (I was born in 2006). I had always looked at this era and its visuals fondly, even before social media got a hold of it. I’d like to take a look at this time again, mainly through its fashion, accessories, and the general visual that we’ve just begun to adore again.

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A post shared by i love tom petty & george harrison 🫣 (@left4rat)

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A post shared by jal (@mellowed)

The Clothes

I’ve prepared this collage to show what I vividly remember from this era. These aren’t my images (I collected them from Pinterest, and you can find the board here with many more images) but these hot-coloured floral print catchy-slogan chevron-galaxy-print clothes were exactly what I wore, or aspired to wear.

Admittedly, I never had many opportunities to wear these types of clothes outdoors since my school had a uniform. What (from this collage, atleast) I recall wearing the most was the Hollister/Abercombie jacket. As shown, I’m pretty sure it was this hot pink colour with a white fur on the inside. Some students would wear white or navy blue, to match our uniform. The cool kids who wore a Hollister jacket rather than the school jacket. It was those same cool kids who would continue to do so even after my school implemented a useless ban on it. However, no one really stepped into the heavy musky scented dark space of an Abrecombie store to buy these. No, they always just popped up in the closet, ready to be worn for cold school mornings. 

Image via Cali Looks on eBay.

Usually when most people think of the ‘preppy’ era of the early 2010s, they think of galaxy-printed anything. Shirts, leggings, bags, even pencil cases. I don’t recall seeing much of that, to be honest. Maybe on accessories, but not really clothing. Most clothing I recall were either solid colours (always either hot pink, bright teal, or pastel coral) or with floral print. The flowers shown were always daisies, or other ‘dainty’ and ‘feminine’ flowers.

One of the outfits I distinctly remember wearing around this time had a small daisy printed on a white shirt with these oddly shaped flowy sleeves that only went above my elbows (does that make it a short-sleeve or a long-sleeve?). I paired it with these skin-tight bright yellow jeans; my favorite color at the time. Very awkward looking with my jet-black hair, but it made me feel like I was just as ‘fashionable’ as the picture-perfect girls I saw online.

Another outfit I remember donning was to the airport, perhaps around 2016 but still quite in-line with the trends of the earlier years of the past decade. It was a loose black cotton sports jersey with white accents paired with skinny jeans with vertical black and white lines. Very matchy-matchy. When I look back at these outfits, I admittedly heavily cringe. But at these moments, I truly had some sort of pride in my ‘eye’ for fashion. 

Left image via here and right via here. No hate for the beautiful women shown, because I certainly did not look as good as them. 

These outfits, albeit odd, must have come to me from all the Youtubers I watched. One of them, who I deeply aspired to imitate, was Seven Super Girls. They were a group of tween girls making YouTube videos about their lives, fashion trends, room tours, etc. It was these girls that showed younger me how to be ‘fashionable’ around this era. I remember one of the girl’s rooms had striped walls with hot pink accents. To say I was jealous was an understatement. 

Look at that hot-pink chevron! Image via Seven Super Girls.

Another Youtuber I recall influencing my fashion choices was iiSuperWomanii, also known as Lily Singh (what's up with all the Superman references?). She had the ‘cooler’ side of early 2010s fashion, with t-shirts decorated with cool slogans and snapback hats. I had one too, but instead of ‘Dope’ or ‘Swag’ or ‘Yolo’ written on it, it was ‘Kuwait’, my country.

That poster wall behind her totally inspired me to decorate my room with posters when I was a teenager too. Image via Lily Singh.

 These YouTubers were one of my first openings into the world of fashion and styling. I, and most likely anyone who was online around this time, tried to copy and imitate them. Perhaps whatever ‘coolness’ they sold through the lens would trickle down onto us.

The Accessories

I think the reason why accessories from this point in time were so ‘iconic’ was that it all really revolved around mascots, symbols, logos, icons, and texts. It's quite different from today’s popular ‘sleek minimalist’ accessories that are simply plain gold or silver jewellery. There was always a certain reference or bold design that was involved in bracelets and necklaces of the early 2010s. It made it so your personality and interests were on full display, because ‘geeky’ interests popping up on merchandise started becoming a trend, thanks to websites like Tumblr.

Things I distinctly remember from my early childhood were chunky character watches. If you rummage through the back of my closet, you’ll find a plastic IKEA drawer filled with broken watches adorned with the faces of Hannah Montana, Spongebob, Dora, and even Marionette from Miraculous Ladybug. Truly, the absolute pinnacle of fashion for a six-year-old girl. 

Something like this but even tackier. Image via here

Speaking of first grade, the owl trend back then even managed to hit the walls of my first-grade classroom. My teacher, Ms. Nicole, said that she loved owls. So naturally, there were owl puns on every whiteboard in the class, owl line art was present in the parent’s newsletter every week, and she wore a long owl necklace everyday to school.

Image via here

I can name a billion more animals or vague symbols of 2010s culture that were made into jewellery. The Union Jack was a popular one, quite in-line with the rise of One Direction. Hello Kitty (and cats in general) as well, but they’ve been around way before (and after) the 2010s. Danbo was another one I remember clearly. It was a small cardboard robot that became a popular figurine for photography. I always thought it was a mascot for Amazon, but it’s actually from a Japanese manga series. 

Image via here

Emojis became popular clothing and accessory items as well. I think I remember having emoji pins on my middle-school backpack, for some reason. The old designs have a skeuomorphic shading to them that made them quite the product of their time. No wonder images of the old Emojis spark so many memories for me, the era was so visually vivid even the way the digital faces were shaded remains in my mind! 

The ‘people’ icons were definitely creepier. Image via here

There is much more to the culture of the early 2010s, both in general and in my memories. But I’ve decided to just highlight one aspect of it. I’d like to encourage you to reflect on your own memories of a popular era or aesthetic, and not just rely on our lens of it from today. There’s something quite special in the unique recollection of faint visuals cues from different eyes. That uniqueness is what makes each person’s nostalgia their own, belonging to them and them alone. 

With that being said, what do you remember from the early 2010s? 

[chloesimaginationthings]

WAIT- UR TELLING ME.

VANESSA.

IS A SCENE KID?!?

HOLHWInehaiwkN18/!&:BFISNAW’77/2&!ajejdnwk

YOU GUYS GOTTA HEAR ME OUT, Doesn’t it makes so much sense Vanny would have been a scene kid??

[ririthedoll]

She’s a Tumblr Girl..🫧🪽

✧──────✧₊∘ ∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

[morphinebite]

you can be alice, i’ll be the mad hatter

[houseofw0lvess]

[earlycuntsets]

10/23/2010 london uk – alessia cifali, justine trickett, lucy roth, justin ng, sarah tye, solange moreira-yeoell, emma webb, immy <- more show pics linked

[carm3n-carm3n]

just started watching pll..

[stupidfckingcvnt]

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷👾 ꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆

[kitnightowl]

It’s suck when a store you known for a long time at the mall closes down like…

Damn bitch

I knew you when you were in you’re Nutella and hipster mustache era, it’s gonna be sad to see you go

[wannabeskyferreira]

[notmyuhwrld]

mentally here rn

[socialistexan]

"Why he was conducting the survey wasn't completely clear"

Well that dog whistle is loud and clear to my trans ass. The reason is eliminationist. Full stop. It's to make us even more second class citizens than we currently are. To push us further into the margins. To make is pariahs to distract from their disasterous policies. To direct the fears and anxieties of the public on to us and have them do the dirty work of eliminating us. The history of politicians targeting an extremely small minority to demonize is... Well, do I even need to say it?

And I'll reiterate: it was never about "protecting kids." Nearly all University students are adults. That excuse is dead, the mask is off.

If you give even the smallest shit about trans people as just human beings that deserve rights and even just to be alive then you have to do something. Anything. We are begging you.

[ririthedoll]

This Era Of Victoria Secret: pink >>

★・・・・・・★ ・・・・・・★