#trend cycle

The discourse around the “Sade Girl” social media aesthetic trend has been making the rounds by disgruntled (and rightfully so) Sade fans.

I, like so many other fans, literally grew up with sounds of Sade as the soundtrack of our childhoods, so everything about her is very special to us. So to see her look and music be commodified into a cheap, fleeting tiktok trend, comes off as weird, to say the least.

Personally, I’ll never give anyone flack for becoming a fan of Sade later in life. She truly is iconic, and that means there is one more person I can share my admiration of her work with. And I could never hate one someone who is inspired by her and incorporates elements of her look into their own, as I have done that myself.

I think my biggest problem with the Sade Girl trend is, it has absolutely nothing to do with Sade 😂 I’ve seen a few of the posts and the makeup looks. Where is Sade in the inspo boards? I’m seeing people pull all kinds of random photos from Pinterest, when Sade has her own distinct and pre established look. The Sade Girl trend is a repackaged version of the Brown Sugar Latte girl (not 100% sure if that’s the name of it ) or the Cinnamon girl or any other similar variation of it.

You can get away with making any obscure combination of words a look or an aesthetic, but taking a look that is well cemented into the culture, and completely trying to erase it and replace it with another trend…it just won’t fly, babe.

Oh, and another thing: you can’t have the Sade aesthetic, without black women on the mood board😘✨

romantisize your work day with 90s nostalgia and the promise of a forbidden office affair like youre the uncomfortably forward side character in a quirky law firm comedy series. maybe then corporations can finally be let off the hook for shitty in-office working condidtions and the additional stress that commuting puts on workers. maybe the poor poor landlords of office buildings can finally go on vacation if you only preoccupy yourself enough with the office fantasy instead of campaining for better condidtions.

and even if you disagree and say "it's just an aesthetic, it's not that deep" let me ask you this - the mythical being of the siren is overtly seduction-coded. the outfits/photos shown as part of the office siren aesthetic are fall into one of 3 categories:

1) unbuttoned blouses, a hint of bra showing, a pen or nail loosely clamped between glossy lips while eyes with smokey make up level a seductive stare at you over the rim of thick-rim prop glasses - basically what porn thinks a secretary or professor looks like. the cartoonishness of it all is almost an aesthetic in itself.

2) outfits that are simply not office attire but rather what a fashion week runway fouls sell as business casual (crop tops + low rise skirs, a button down with no pants, tennis skirts + knee-highs, etc.)

3) regular office attire, perhaps leaning more classic 90s in cut and colour. nothing seductive or siren-esque about it. just women looking good in their business clothes. which is concerning to me bc a woman existing and looking good should not equal seduction or sex appeal.

Anyway.

-Chloé RTW, creative dir. Gabriela Hearst-

-Christian Cowan RTW, creative dir.”-

-Christian Dior RTW, creative dir. Maria Grazia Chiuri-

-Christian Dior Pre-fall-

-Christian Siriano RTW, creative dir.”-

-Christopher Kane RTW, creative dir.”-

-Coach RTW, creative dir. Stuart Vevers-

-Commission, creative dir(s). Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong-

-Coperni RTW, creative dir. Sébastien Meyer-

-Coperni Pre-fall-

-Courrèges RTW, creative dir. Nicolas Di Felice-

-Courrèges Pre-fall-

-Danielle Frankel RTW, creative dir.”-

-David Koma RTW, creative dir.”-

-David Koma Pre-fall-

-Del Core RTW, creative dir. Daniel Del Core-

-Dion Lee RTW, creative dir.”-

-Dominnico RTW, creative dir. Domingo Rodríguez Lázaro-

-Dsquared² RTW, creative dir(s). Dean & Dan Caten-

-Elie Saab RTW, creative dir.”-

-Emilia Wickstead RTW, creative dir.”-

-Emporio Armani RTW, creative dir.”-

-Erdem RTW, creative dir. Erdem Moralıoğlu-

-Ester Manas RTW, creative dir(s). Ester Manas & Balthazar Delepierre-

-Etro RTW, creative dir. Veronica Etro-

-Fendi RTW, creative dir. Kim Jones*-

-Frederick Anderson RTW, creative dir.”-

-Gabriela Hearst RTW, creative dir.”-

-Gauchere RTW, creative dir. Marie-Christine Statz-