Chain necklaces, wallet chains and dangle earrings are also frequently worn. In particular, some e-girls wear mesh shirts, plaid skirts, oversized t-shirts, crop tops, platform shoes, chokers and beanies, while e-boys wear oversized sweaters or monochrome clothes and band merchandise layered over long sleeve striped shirts, and polo necks. Outfits commonly consist of baggy, thrifted clothes. Dazed described the aesthetic as "A little bit bondage, a little bit baby". The subculture's fashion is inspired by a number of prior subcultures, fashion trends and forms of entertainment, including mall goth, skater culture, 1990s– 2000s fashion, anime, K-pop, BDSM, emo, scene, hip hop, and rave. Fashion Įnglish musician Dua Lipa with a common e-girl hairstyle Both InStyle and Paper magazine credited e-boys and e-girls as important to the rise in popularity and resurgence of pop punk in the 2020s. In late 2020 and early 2021, a number of high fashion designers, namely Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Celine, began designing collections inspired by e-boy fashion. Corpse Husband's song " E-Girls Are Ruining My Life!", which was released in September, gained large amounts of attention on TikTok, eventually charting in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. In a July 29 article from GQ, writer Rachel Tashjian referenced this as a sign that "TikTok is now driving fashion". In July, high fashion designer Hedi Slimane released a preview of a collection called "the Dancing Kid" for Celine, influenced by the fashion of e-boys. Additionally, a number of mainstream celebrities began to adopt the bleached stripes hairstyle associated with e-girls, including American socialite Kylie Jenner and Kosovar-English singer Dua Lipa. The subculture continued to grow in prominence through 2020, with Vogue publishing an article featuring Doja Cat discussing e-girl makeup, and "e-girl style" being in the top 10 trending fashion terms on Google in the year. The July 2019 murder of Bianca Devins also brought attention to e-girls due to Devins' participation in the subculture. A trend soon began on TikTok and other social media platforms, where people would upload videos "transforming" into an e-boy or e-girl, according to Vox Media, this is how the culture "entered the mainstream lexicon". MEL Magazine attributed the subculture's popularity to the increased interest of K-Pop groups like BTS, Exo and Got7 in the Western mainstream, due to the two's similar style of dress and hair. The subculture first began to gain mainstream attention in 2019. An article by CNN stated that "If VSCO girls are the sunshine-basking hippies of 2020, e-girls are the opposite". According to an article in i-D, the subculture's emergence on the app challenged the polished and edited photos of influencers and VSCO girls common on Instagram, due to TikTok lacking the features to do so. The subculture began in 2018, following the worldwide release of TikTok. Mainstream popularity (2018–present) Įnglish musician Yungblud is a notable e-boy According to the Brown Daily Herald this is due to a transformation of ideal male attractiveness from being traditionally masculine to embracing introvertedness, shyness, emotional vulnerability and androgyny. E-boys also make use of "soft-boy aesthetics" through presenting themselves as sensitive and vulnerable. The popularity and eventual death of emo rapper Lil Peep also influenced the beginnings of the subculture, with the New York Post describing him as "the patron musical saint of e-land". īy the late-2010s, e-boys had split from this original all female culture, embracing elements of emo, mallgoth, and scene culture. Additionally, fictional characters such as Ramona Flowers, Harley Quinn and Sailor Moon were influential on the development of the subculture. i-D referred to Avril Lavigne as "the original e-girl" due to her polished take on alternative fashion, contrast to mainstream norms of the time and affinity for kawaii culture. Vox writer Rebecca Jennings instead referred to the Tumblr aesthetic as a precursor of the subculture, as it lacked the cutesy aspect that would come to define e-girl hair and makeup. According to an article by Business Insider, the earliest example of e-girls were found on Tumblr, with Vice Media stating the subculture evolved out of the earlier emo and scene cultures. "E-girl" was first used, in the late-2000s, as an objectifying pejorative against women perceived to be seeking out male attention online. The terms "e-girl" and "e-boy" are derived from "electronic boy" and "electronic girl", due to their association with the internet. Rapper Lil Peep is considered influential upon the development of the subculture Origins