Stumbled upon this pic of Vanessa Hudgens in her crochet top and now totally have a miranda priestly "cerulean cardigan" moment thinking abt how SHE IS THE SUBLIMINAL ORIGINATOR OF COTTAGE CORE CROCHET CULTURE

I literally don't know the time stamp of this picture, must be around 6-8 years ago when Coachella was totally a floral crown moment. now this aesthetic is totally having a resurgence in milkmaid gen z kids BUT handmade

I need to stop using totally I'm just... w0w. after the minimalist normcore moment where we moved from H&M to Uniqlo, gen Z came and split our aesthetics back into the highly specific fray of Tumblr-esque categories, with an additional focus on "handmade"

Okay, its definitely been brewing for about 6-8 years, since John Green, perks as lineage of greta gerwig films, "thrifting", the coalescing aesthetics of historied outfits as authentic, eco-consciousness, "taking back means of production" sensibility

you can get really cheap crochet tops on taobao for basically nothing but the handmade crochet etsy/depops are thriving!!!!!!! proof of this combination of various factors as SOURCE of desire

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.35.3d932e15t8XgBZ&id=638040708826&ns=1&abbucket=9#detail

ok I know it's like really sorta obvious but I reacted really strongly because I follow this milkmaid crochet girl (ok, she wears only crocheted clothes handmade by her and these HUGE step-on-me boots), and she has the exact design in her shop.

I mean, crochet design patterns are sort of limited to skill level, and also the medium (lol), but just a really, really, short moment ago it was really gauche! everyone wanted to be minimalist, on a spectrum of Uniqlo-GU-Muji brandless- to Theory-Margiela brandless luxury

this also coincided with u know, at the time, the rise of instagram monoculture, the big Tumblr ban (fall of crochet clothing), and then rise of crochet clothing again (tiktok gaining traction & bubbles allowing for solidification of aesthetics)

just 5-6 years ago, instagram was basically dominant social media methinks, and that was like, before the time of mainstream influencer cynicism. so everyone was just dressing and being like their favourite influencers -> establishment monoculture

I think adding to this thread, monoculture is a really strong at inculcating certain values in users. I think eco-consciousness*thrift-DIY*marxist infographic activism only really became mainstream bc of Instagram monoculture

and that’s why **when it split** it retained all these threads, explaining the cottage core etsy girl