Emo

Context 

The word emo itself actually describes a type of rock music, consisting of self-expressing and emotional (as the name suggests) lyrics. It was originally known as emotional hardcore when it originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement. Original 80s emo music from bands such as Rites of Spring sounded very different to that of today, and has since evolved influenced by elements from pop punk and indie. Emo music itself became big in the early 2000s and stayed popular until the end of the decade, and from this emerged the subgenre “screamo” which is nowadays typically more commonly associated with the term emo, using typical rock instruments combined with chaos and screaming vocals. Another more commonly known subgenre is emo pop which combines elements of pop punk with emo. The word emo is often associated with emotional, shy people and more stereotypically with depression, self-harm, and suicide. Emo fashion was also originally quite different to that of today – during the 90s and 2000s, emo fashion was known more for its lose jeans, shaggy hair, and vintage thrift store feel in contrast the stereotypical tight jeans band T shirt and converse with dyed black or brightly colored choppy straightened hair with side swept bangs.

Clothing

The outfit I chose for my model was very stereotypical emo clothing. My model wore a band T-shirt with the logo of My Chemical Romance, a widely renowned emo band one of the absolute trademarks of emo fashion. She also wore tight jeans with a studded leather belt, tight jeans featuring in almost every single emo outfit I’ve researched, studded belts also being quite popular. In terms of footwear, I decided on pink Converse All-Stars, since again Converse feature in almost every single emo outfit I’ve researched, but I switched the laces for ones with a checked pattern and stripes are often worn and compliment the whole aesthetic quite nicely.

Hair and Makeup

In terms of hair I clipped two bleach blond extensions into her side swept bangs. She already had the choppy layers associated with emo hair so I just backcombed her hair to give it more volume. Emo makeup centers around the illusion of big eyes which I achieved by placing white eyeshadow on her lid and contouring heavily with dark purples browns and then black in the eyelid crease and below the lash line, adding winged eyeliner over the top with a lot of black mascara. I filled in her eyebrows really dark with a black eyeshadow without making them overly drawn on. To even out her skin tone and add definition I used a skin colored foundation with a light concealer to highlight and a dark concealer to contour. 

Clothing choices:

My Chemical Romance t-shirt: here

Skinny jeans: unbranded, similar here

Converse: here

Hair extensions: here

Belt: sold out, similar here

Checked laces: here