The Summer of The Girls
from rat girl summer to tomato girl to the Taylor Swift Eras tour and more
“This summer is for the girls”—a phrase you may or may not have heard depending on just how much time you spend online and the kind of content you consume—is more relevant now more than ever.
With talk of the Barbie movie along with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s tours potentially “saving the American economy” to the micro-trends and aesthetics flooding social media, it feels like women have officially staked their claim over the summer season.
In summer’s past, trends like “hot girl summer” have popped up on social media as the go-to “way of life” of the summer season with people going out of their way to have experiences and post content that align with that specific trend. The most popular, and the one that may have started it all, is “hot girl summer”, in which women were seen going on walks in monochromatic, athleisure type outfits, working out, and spending a lot of time at the beach. While this trend remains popular, it’s somewhat gone out of style over the years with people growing tired of the constant emphasis on their looks/body that the wording “hot girl summer” tends to ignite.
This, eventually, led to a shift into “feral girl summer”—which was actually more popular last year—and now “rat girl summer”. In response to the wave of disapproval of the constant emphasis on looking good, these two trends each attempted to take the summer by storm to champion a new way of living; one devoid of aesthetics and beauty standards, but didn’t quite seem to take hold. They were quickly overshadowed by the more aesthetically pleasing, consumer-friendly “strawberry girl” and now “tomato girl”.
Each of these aesthetics seem to embody the mood of a certain experience. For example, “tomato girl” encapsulates the vibes of a walk down a street in Italy with a bag full of tomatoes from a nearby farmer’s market with the sun lightly peaking through the cracks between buildings. While “strawberry girl” is more reminiscent of picnics at the park in a white, flowy summer dress, and braiding flowers into a friend’s hair.
Girls all over TikTok and Instagram have been trying to recreate the aesthetics of these trends through makeup and outfits that align with each one. But we’re also seeing an increase in people dressing up for events like the Taylor Swift Eras tour, the Beyoncé Renaissance tour, and Barbie. Of course, people have also dressed up for Oppenheimer but it didn’t seem to be quite to the same extent as Barbie.
This summer has been packed with events dominated by women and each one has felt as though it were filled to the brim with positivity, support, and community as people from all over have gotten together to have fun and bask in the joy of these shared experiences. But they also come with their own dress codes. From hand-bedazzled outfits to sparkly cowboy hats, fans have bought and made outfits specifically for each event. It’s also practically a requirement to show up to a Taylor Swift concert with beaded friendship bracelets covering your arms.
With all the trends and events, we’ve cycled in and out of more styles than there are months in the summer, and a lot of them are simply recreations and additions to styles that already exist. In Hannah Ewens’ Vice article “Trends Used to Come Back Round Every 20 Years. Not Anymore”, music critic Simon Reynolds describes the trends of pop culture of the 2000’s when he says that it was, and still is,
“‘…dominated by the re- prefix: revivals, reissues, remakes and re-enactments”, rather than the millennium “being the threshold to the future”. There has, he argues, “never been a society in human history so obsessed with the cultural artefacts of its own immediate past.’”
To that, I would argue most things in life, especially art, tend to plagiarize one another. Whether we do it knowingly or not, we are often drawing inspiration from the things around us and the things that came before. Life is always building on itself. Nothing ever just happens out of no where, so, obviously, it would make sense that styles would build on and influence each other as well.
However, we do seem to have developed an unusual interest in our past. Practically everything from the early 2000’s to the 80’s is seen as retro (even some of the early 2010’s stuff is starting to be roped in as retro as well, which is totally weird for me), and everything after is generally considered vintage. But if you can get your hands on a retro this or a vintage that, then you will have reached peak coolness, especially if you can find a way to integrate it into your wardrobe in a cool, modern way.
Ewens attributes this obsession to the fact that our past is always at our fingertips, but I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Of course, while I agree that this instant access to all kinds of information makes it easy to look to the past for inspiration, I hate the idea of always blaming social media/the internet. It sort of reminds me of the arguments against Barbie dolls. As much as I understand and sympathize with them, I can’t help but remind myself that Barbie, the internet, social media are all imperfect things created by imperfect people projecting their own fears and failings onto them. We would rather pin it all on things than accept the blame and search for real solutions. And it’s the exact same with these new trends and aesthetics.
Who wouldn’t prefer nostalgic trips down memory lane over the hellscapes painting the media every week? One look at our phones and we’re automatically reminded of all the things going wrong.
I can easily claim to be a “tomato girl” by buying the right clothes and applying my makeup in just the right way without ever having gone to a farmer’s market, visited Italy, or even stepped outside for that matter. I can simply sit down on my couch, scrolling through social media for the rest of the day while I look like one of those girls from the “summer-getaway” type movies without actually going on a summer getaway. I can project that image so that everyone else can think these things about me while simultaneously never obtaining any experiences that might make their assumptions true.
But, the thing is, I shouldn’t have to cater to the assumptions of others. One of the most freeing aspects of this trend melting pot is that anyone can wear whatever they want simply because they want to. It’s just as Ewens says
“Wearing alt-adjacent clothing doesn’t automatically mean you are into rock music, play guitar and skateboard. They’re sort of empty signifiers devoid of their fuller past meaning.”
A person should be allowed to wear something just because they like it. There doesn’t always have to be a deeper meaning or connection. Sometimes it might seem a bit ridiculous like “strawberry girl” or “tomato girl” (and “artichoke girl”? Apparently?), but life doesn’t have to be that serious all the time, and I think we’re finally starting to see that. However, it can be a very shallow and lonely existence to only ever step just past the surface of your interests before jumping out and into another. Self-expression should give you the freedom to express who you actually are and not just who you want to be perceived as.
This freedom with our self-expression has, unfortunately, morphed into a consumer-centric identity. It leaves us hollow and always searching for more on purpose. We’re supposed to feel like there’s something missing so we’ll buy more and more in the hopes of finding the identity we were promised in the aesthetically marketed ads.
But these trends only last a few months max. As Ewens explains
“Previously, the 20-year cycle meant that pop culture trends came and went every 20 years… The traditional life cycle of a fashion trend consists of five stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline and obsolescence. Where even a few years ago, a trend would last for a year or two, this whole cycle currently runs through from start to finish in months or even weeks.”
Although we find community in these trends by connecting to those who also identify as a “strawberry girl” or “tomato girl”, we never stick with them long enough to forge real connections. Our shared interests rarely ever go past the surface to give us something to really care about, people to love. There’s a lot less risk involved when you don’t bother to get to know anyone past the fact that they like to look like they just ate fresh strawberries.
But being a Taylor Swift or Beyoncé fan runs deeper. Most fans have loved these artists for years, possibly even grown up with them, making it easier to make connections because of the real depth to their interests. They can sing and cry and dance at their concerts together without even knowing each other and then, at the end of the night, peel off their one-night outfits and throw them on the floor of their closet never to be looked at again. At least not until they throw it out or donate it.
As quickly as a style comes in, we throw it right back out, and, unfortunately, it’s not just fueling our lack of self, it also fuels the fast fashion industry. Since the rise of the “tomato girl” trend, there has been an increase in online searches for clothes that fit the look. It’s so tempting to buy a quick but cheap item if it means we can partake in the fun, but these silly trends, devoid of more serious, deeper meaning are just a distraction. It’s so much easier to buy the comfort of a moment, the happy glow of lightly sun-kissed cheeks infused into a bottle of blush than risk a painful sunburn in the sweltering heat of a changing climate.
When you remember all the things going on in the world, it’s understandable that my generation would be obsessed with capturing the happiness of moments past. But I don’t think it’s simply because we’re too afraid to imagine the future. Sure, it’s unknown what it may look like and the little bit we can see doesn’t look great, but I think it’s more so that we have too much hope. Hope that we might be able to make the world look as it once did. But we can’t, and that’s what scares us. We’re afraid of the disappointment we’ll find when all our hopes comes crashing against the reality that we can’t make things as they once were.
But maybe that’s okay. Maybe things don’t need to completely go back to how they were. Things change all the time, and just because it won’t be as we remember doesn’t mean we should stop trying. We shouldn’t be afraid to imagine something new. Even if it is different.
Comments, Thoughts, Feelings
Have you heard of any of these trends? I’d heard about tomato girl months ago, but didn’t realize how popular it had gotten till the last week or so.
What trends have you gotten caught up in? For me, it’s always been the 90’s and witchy type aesthetics, though I try not to get too wrapped up in those things.
Have you gone to see Taylor Swift or Beyonce in concert? How about Barbie? What did you think?
What’s the silliest trend you’ve seen/heard of?
All other thoughts and comments are welcome as always <3
If you’re interested, check out my other article “Are Aesthetics Harmful?” which is on a very similar topic but focuses on aesthetics specifically by delving into the history of aesthetics and how it connects to today. Also check out Madison Huizinga’s article “Twenty-Something Teens” over at
, which inspired some of this piece. It’s also just one of the articles I highly recommend everyone reads.
You have certainly enlightened me on “tomato girl” and “strawberry girl” 😂. It’s amazing how many trends develop. I appreciate the recap of them this year (especially now that I have a daughter) but must be honest, I haven’t been someone to be super into trends. I tend to buy based on if it’s my “style” and/or the quality of product. There have been a number of trends I simply did not adopt and many pass quicker than most can convert to them!
That being said, the “trend” that is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour I AM TOTALLY INTO and yes, I went to her amazing show in August. It was the best concert I’ve ever seen! The vibe was incredibly positive and everyone seemed to have an amazing time (I wrote a piece on it if you are interested). I am all for positive women role models and a crowd of us supporting them! Thank you for this piece, I found it to be fabulous.
Such a good read - really concisely packaged a lot of the thoughts I’ve been having about media this general and this summer in particular