Soft grunge is a fashion trend that originated on

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

around the late 2000s and early 2010s, influenced by

grunge fashion Grunge fashion is the clothing, accessories and hairstyles of the grunge music genre and subculture which emerged in mid-1980s Seattle, and had reached wide popularity by the mid 90s. Grunge fashion is characterized by durable and timeless thri ...

and other

1990s fashion Fashion in the 1990s was defined by a return to minimalist fashion, in contrast to the more elaborate and flashy trends of the 1980s. One notable shift was the mainstream adoption of tattoos, body piercings aside from ear piercing and, to a muc ...

styles.

History

The fashion style originated on the social media platform

. ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' writer Marian Phillips cited

Sky Ferreira Sky Tonia Ferreira (born July 8, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, model, and actress. As a teenager, Ferreira began uploading videos on Myspace of herself singing songs she had written, which led to her discovery by producers Bloodsh ...

as having "largely popularized" the style beginning in 2009. i-D magazine cited the style as influential on both the

e-girl E-girls and e-boys, sometimes collectively known as e-kids, are a youth subculture of Generation Z, Gen Z that emerged in the late 2010s, notably popularized by the video-sharing app TikTok. It is an evolution of emo, scene (subculture), scene ...

and

VSCO girl VSCO girls or VSCO kids () emerged among teenagers around mid- to late-2019. Named after the VSCO photography app, VSCO girls "dress and act in a way that is nearly indistinguishable from one another", using oversized T-shirts, sweatshirts or swe ...

fashion styles, which originated in the late-2010s.

Fashion

Soft grunge is influenced by

, particularly

. It often makes use of

pastel colours Pastels or pastel colors belong to a pale family of colors, which, when described in the HSV color space, have high value and low saturation. They are named after an artistic medium made from pigment and solid binding agents, similar to cr ...

, particularly pinks and blues. Soft grunge outfits often include: the usage of studs and spikes,

Vans Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the comp ...

skate shoes, platform shoes, floral patterns, flannel shirts, ripped jeans, flower crowns and tennis skirts. Hair is also often dyed.

Music

Soft grunge music merges elements of

pop punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

emo Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

and sometimes

shoegazing Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

. Notable soft grunge bands include

Citizen Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, Title Fight, Turnover,

Basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

Balance and Composure Balance and Composure was an American alternative rock band from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. They formed in the winter of 2007, after the breakup of two local Doylestown bands. The band's music was often suggested having similarities to Title Fig ...

and

Tigers Jaw Tigers Jaw is an American rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, formed in 2005. Their first album, ''Belongs to the Dead'', was released in 2006. They released a 7-inch single, "Spirit Desire", in 2009, on Tiny Engines. They released two more a ...

References

{{reflist Fashion aesthetics Internet memes Grunge