The aesthetic of messy buns, pale blogs, tear-stained cheeks, and movie stills captured about love have found their way back into the forefront of pop-cultural consciousness. The emotionally nostalgic Tumblr girl aesthetic is back, and Moonkissed Collective is spearheading its reprise, coming directly from the perspective of other young women.
The brand, started by Yasmin Bahrami is the ultimate girl group, valorizing collaboration with female designers. Each designer is spearheading the modernized take on the Tumblr girl aesthetic through the usage of sweet poems and statements branded and italicized on crop tops and baby tees.
Moonkissed Collective is the epitome of the two sides that catalyzed the Tumblr girl aesthetic. Side A: the emotional essence, which is carved out of poems made about long-lost lovers and heartbreaks. It bears a certain propensity toward romanticism, albeit with the post-modern irony of post-capitalism. An example? The ‘Lousy’ tee created by Hunter Faria, which cheekily quips, “I Fell in Love and All I got was this Lousy T-Shirt.”
Elsewhere, the ‘Love Letter Tank’, designed by Hetty Godmon, similarly riffs on motifs of love, loss and irony, sweetened with lipstick smudges and a dainty bow. Side B is created from the Moonkissed Collective’s Instagram feed that reprises the Tumblr feel in its promotion of a community based on commonalities and aesthetic ideals.
Tumblr had an enormous impact on teenagers in the early 2010s, specifically young girls who found solace in the sadness and valorization of emotionality amongst other like-minded peers. The platform in many ways was a place of reprieve, acceptance, and community building. Ensconced in their infatuations with celebrities, memorizing romantic monologues from their favourite lovesick films, and listening to the likes of Lana Del Rey, Marina and the Diamonds and The 1975, the sub-culture ushered in a new age of “soft-grunge” and irony that percolated heavily into mainstream culture.
Moonkissed Collective isn’t recreating Tumblr. Gone are the days when the platform’s influence reigned supreme. However, its influence still reverberates immensely. Moonkissed is just one example of a brand reinterpreting the aesthetic, this time positioning a distinctly feminist perspective within its ethos. One that does away with the toxic glorifications that the Tumblr community was often notorious for.
The aesthetic and tonal shift is a reclamation of sorts, for a community of young girls who uphold the time-honoured romanticism of youth, love, and fashion. It’s time young women claimed their power, in their ability to shift the cultural and aesthetic consciousness, and the return to the Tumblr aesthetic, quite literally born from the creative and communal bonds of young women is a potent and ever-so-chic place to start.
See the community for yourself: https://www.instagram.com/moonkissedcollective/?hl=en
All of Moonkissed Collective’s Collaborators: https://moonkissedcollective.com/blogs/artist-profiles
JoliAmour DuBose-Morris is a multimedia journalist and screenwriter based in New York and California.
JoliAmour is currently in her final year of her B.A. at The University of San Francisco where she’s focusing on film and journalism.