Vishakha: Coming of Age, Girlhood & the Loss of Innocence 🍒🎀🩰
one thing i kept noticing with vishakha was the aesthetic. vintage dresses, flowy skirts, bows, lace, pigtails, knee high socks, flats, pastel colors, cherries, red/pink/white. cindy kimberly, vishakha sun, embodies this aesthetic and uses cherries as a staple for her "vintage aesthetic". lily rose depp, is very known for this aesthetic and so is lana del rey, vishakha asc. lana is constantly compared to priscilla presley, vishakha moon, because of the big hair, vintage aesthetic, headbands, eye makeup, pastel colors.
after reading more about the coquette aesthetic, i realized it wasn't just about the clothes. the aesthetic has roots in lolita, lana del rey, marina and the diamonds (vishakha asc), tumblr culture, vintage americana, bows, lace, mary janes, old diners, cherries, milkshakes, and soft femininity. it also talks about the darker themes underneath it like coming of age, girlhood, growing up too fast, hyper femininity, and the loss of innocence.
stanley kubrick, who directed lolita, 1962, was a vishakha moon. lolita is about a 13-14 year old girl whose stepfather marries her mother because he's attracted to her and ends up SA her. her child like wonder and innocence essentially taken away from her. whether intentional or not, i noticed how much that story shaped the visual language people now associate with the coquette aesthetic. the vintage dresses, bows, lace, pigtails, knee high socks, and flats all ended up becoming part of that imagery. reliving childlike wonder. i don't think it's a coincidence that one of the most recognizable coming of age aesthetics is also rooted in a story about the loss of innocence. i also think it’s important to mention that the name lolita comes from spanish origins which translates to “sorrows” or “pains”.
cindy kimberly mentions in an interview that when she was younger her innocence was taken away from her by men, and her mother didn’t do enough to protect her. as she started to make money, she had to start providing for her mother and is still funding her lifestyle and is responsible for her. she also mentions during the interview that she is “essentially 5 years old”. still living in that childlike mindset in a way.
petra collins is an artist and photographer. her work constantly revolves around teenage girls and coming of age, and she's one of the photographers most associated with the visual aesthetic people connect to euphoria. then i found her photo book, the teenage gaze. she said her pictures aren't nostalgia for her own teenage years. they're more like looking back on the teenage life she wished she had because, in reality, she had a boring teenage life. i thought that was really interesting because i almost wonder if sam levinson was doing something similar with euphoria. he spent his teenage years struggling with addiction and was in and out of rehab at 17 until he got sober at 19. euphoria is filled with partying, drinking, sex, drugs, and chaos. it almost feels like an exaggerated version of the teenage years so many people imagine but never actually had.
euphoria itself revolves around teenage girls, high school, coming of age, and growing up too fast. even though the show is extreme, so much of it is still centered around girlhood and trying to figure out who you are while you're still young. i also couldn't stop thinking about carrie. it’s essentially the same story. a high school girl who is bullied and outcasted by her classmates. she builds up so much anger that she seeks revenge on her classmates. another example that understands teenage girlhood, isolation, insecurity, and teen rage in a way that feels very specific. petra collins mentions this in an interview when asked what movie should people watch to understand what being a teenager is like.
a lot of teenage girls and women in general connect to lana del rey because her music feels like such an accurate portrayal of girlhood that feels nostalgic, confusing, wanting freedom and especially being a teenager and coming of age. lana herself admits that she has this strong connection to teenage girls and women. she once said, "when i grew up, i just really didn't connect to anything…. felt like everyday, life was sort of mundane." that immediately reminded me of what petra collins said about wishing she had different teenage years. they're talking about completely different experiences, but they both come back to looking at adolescence through a sense of longing.
then there's her song "ride". in the begining, theres a monologue where she says her mom described her as "an usual girl. my mother told me i had a chameleon soul. no moral compass pointing me due north. just an inner indecisiveness". the vishakha theme of indecisiveness and not knowing what you want. visually, ride leans into vintage americana, motorcycles, ribbons, and old hollywood imagery. in a clip of the music video, she's seen dressed almost like a little girl getting her hair brushed by this old man. one of the lines in the song being "you can be my full time daddy". she even has a song called lolita.
another thing i kept noticing was how often freedom shows up in these stories. not freedom in a huge political sense, but freedom from childhood, freedom from other people, freedom to become your own person. lana del rey uses a lot of americana immagery to protray american freedom. beyonce did this as well when releasing her album cowboy carter. kali uchis, vishakha moon, talked about wanting to emancipate herself, get her ged, move out, and have her own apartment because she didn't want anyone telling her what to do anymore. she said, "i wanted to grow up fast. i wanted to be on my own and do my own thing… i just wanted my own apartment, i just wanted my own space where no one would tell me what to do." she also talked about being 15 and hanging around older men because she wanted to grow up so badly.
kali uchis' short film multi is filled with imagery associated with girlhood. she's on a swing, wearing pigtails, and the whole film feels playful while still having this underlying feeling of transition. then i started noticing bikes everywhere. lana del rey rides motorcycles throughout ride while singing about wanting freedom. rue and jules are constantly riding bikes throughout euphoria. kali uchis uses bikes in her old visuals too. frank ocean, vishakha asc, is known for riding bikes and usually spotted on a bike. he also has a song called "biking". beyonce, vishakha moon, enjoys riding bikes as well.
the edge of seventeen. kelly fremon craig, who may be a vishakha moon, directed the film that's entirely about a teenage girl going through an existential crisis while feeling older than everyone around her. she doesn't really relate to people her own age and feels more comfortable around older people.
lorde's royals music video. it's mostly centered around a teenage boy sitting around the house alone, shaving his head, and dealing with how ordinary adolescence can actually feel by getting into a boxing match with himself. then there's sza's normal girl, vishakha sun, where she sings about wishing she was a normal girl. she’s also talked about not liking her teenage years because she was bullied and never really felt like she fit in.
beyoncé's grown woman music video comes back to the same idea. the entire video follows her from childhood to adulthood while repeating, "i'm a grown woman, i can do whatever i want." priscilla presley also talked about the big age gap between her and elvis. “even though i was 14, i was actually a little bit older in life, not in numbers.”
jaden smith, vishakha asc, also came to mind because of that viral clip where he says, "can we talk about the political and economic state of the world right now?" he was a teenager talking about things people didn't expect someone his age to care about.
girlhood. freedom. nostalgia. wanting to grow up too fast while also looking back at adolescence from a distance. whether it's photography, music, film, or fashion, those themes kept appearing together through vishakha nakshatra.
* i believe that every nakshatra embodies an aesthetic and i will cover more nakshatras in the future.
* i didn’t add her in here but i strongly believe hrh collections is vishakha asc and i’ve been trying to get her birth time for the longest but she’s gone through most of the situations and experiences i talked about in this post and she looks similar to lana as well.
