Bimbocore

It goes without saying that this is all thanks to social media – invariably the most fertile environment for cretinous ideas and noxious role models – and a landscape in which “bimbocore” now looms large.

But then, when I go to a gay bar in London, I’m like, “Oh, let me do bimbocore for the night,” and I’ll dress up in an ultra-femme way, knowing that I’m not being hypersexualised in that space.

Then there’s “bimbocore”, a hyper-feminine aesthetic that takes apart patriarchal definitions of femininity and focuses on dressing for yourself, a “modern act of feminism”.

Since the pandemic, microtrends have organically popped up on TikTok, with users describing grouped looks or aesthetics – bimbocore, Catholic chic – that might most accurately be described as “vibes” or “a mood”.

That’s the very caricature that ‘bimbocore’ – a recent social media trend — is using to reclaim ‘hyper-femininity’ through Barbie doll-esque fashion and beauty.

Captured on a camcorder, we see Dakota and Jackie head from Gucci’s Rodeo Drive boutique with a plethora hands in tow—evoking a sense of nostalgia for the ‘bimbocore’ days of Paris Hilton schlepping her designer bags down Beverly Hills—to saunter down Sunset Boulevard strapped with a Starbucks.