Is the "Clean Girl" Still Relevant? How TikTok's Longest-Running Aesthetic Has Evolved
Crystal clear skin, matcha in hand and a basic white T-shirt cropped to one’s figure—these are the hallmarks of the clean girl aesthetic.
Coined in 2021, the niche micro trend was one of the world’s first social media-led movements to successfully transcend the algorithm with an ideology of slick-backed buns, pared-back makeup and regimented skincare regimens.
This isn’t the first time you’re hearing about it, and it won’t be the last. So, in this excessively accelerated trend cycle, why has the clean girl aesthetic been the one to endure?
What Is the Clean Girl Aesthetic?
As the name hints at, the key to achieving the clean girl aesthetic is to curate an appearance that suggests a hyper-manicured persona. Outfits, which typically involve the appearance of a pair of Levi's 501s or an athleisure set from Alo or Adanola, should be so stain-free that they look like they’ve just been ripped from the plastic of a dry cleaner's garment bag.
Hair must be absent from flyaways, thanks to the help of a smoothing balm and Olaplex’s cult-favourite No. 7 Bonding Oil. Makeup will be minimal, if wearing any at all, and must always feature some sort of glossy lip, hydrated by none other than Rhode Beauty’s Peptide Lip Treatment.
In the period that immediately followed the pandemic, our fixation with hygiene made it easy to understand why this trope flourished at the time. The pendulum swung from the Y2K stylings of the likes of Blumarine, Diesel and Euphoria excelled at and landed on a more sanitised silhouette where a veil of effortless perfection must be projected. Though she’s never personally acknowledged this title—nor rejected it for that matter—Hailey Bieber’s own approach to beauty and fashion became the template to follow.
But time has a fickle way of making us forget. As our collective tastes shifted from glazed doughnut complexions to a more achievable appearance that reflects a life well lived—see: star pimple patches that conceal a breakout, soft blur makeup speckled with abandon over our cheekbones, the remnants of last night’s eyeliner—how has the clean girl aesthetic held its own?
