Neogrunge

 

Context

The term grunge originally described a subgenre of alternative rock music born of elements from hardcore punk and heavy metal that emerged during the mid 1980s, characterized by sludgy, distorted sound and fuzz and feedback effects. By the 90s grunge had become big, popularized by banks like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and from this movement came an unofficial fashion style, consisting of a deliberate yet messy look – at the time most “grunge kids” shopped at thrift stores because it made more financial sense.  During the mid 90s the aesthetic heroin chic emerged, most notable from Kate Moss’ modelling, where under eye bags, pale skin, and angular facial features were glamorized, connecting and often incorporated with and into grunge fashion, labelled heroin chic because it firstly imitated the visual effects of regular heroin use and because heroin became significantly cheaper but also purer. In 2013, grunge experienced a resurgence of sorts, where a cleaner, more put together look incorporating and modernizing key elements of 90s grunge became widely popular. Many criticize the term grunge being used to describe clothing, especially during modern times when the era is long over. I have decided to label my interpretation as neo grunge as testimony to the fact that the term grunge is now outdated, but that it was inspired by the whole era.

Clothing

The main focus of our outfit was the docs – I included two pairs: the classic 1460s iconic boots and a slightly funkier pair of creeper docs in order to represent diversity between traditional grunge clothing and what the term means now. We incorporated a flannel and denim jacket, since both are widely acknowledged as staple items of grunge fashion, both being faded and a little oversized to represent the idea of their coming from a thrift shop and not being specifically tailored or brand new. The shirt I wore was also very oversized. I also made sure to include torn denim to portray a more lived in feel, tearing and distressing a pair of black jeans at the point where they would normally tear, the knees myself, and cuffing them above my docs as was popular where it came to denim and docs. I wanted to make sure that the music that was fundamental in the emergence of the style was represented, so my model wore a Nirvana tank top, which is probably today the item that holds the grungiest connotations. In order to show off my model’s angular (and thus heroin chic) legs and show some skin while incorporating leather in some way that wasn’t a jacket I opted for a short skirt which was worn relatively high up. In keeping with the whole theme of modernization she wore translucent knee high socks with her docs which is a trend I’ve seen more on social media’s grunge fashion.

Hair and Makeup

As for hair and makeup, it was relatively straight forward. At the time the model's hair was blue and mine was peroxide blonde, both shades are both very common within grunge fashion seen on social media. Inspired by the lived in and messy feel of grunge fashion we both allowed our hair to get greasy used dry shampoo to get more volume and slept on it, using our bedhead hair to be as authentic as possible. Makeup was where the heroin chic aesthetic really came into play as we both wore a shade of foundation too light for our skin tone and contoured very heavily with a gray-brown eyeshadow to give the appearance of sharper bone structure. I went all out on the eyes using brown and red tones to utterly over exaggerate the look of tired droopy eyes. My model also wore a dark cherry colored lip popular of the style.

Clothing choices:

Blue Dr. Martens: rare, similar here

Creeper Dr. Martens: here

Flannel: here

Denim Jacket: vintage Levis, similar here

Nirvana shirt: here

Jeans: vintage, similar here

Skirt: vintage, similar here

Knee high socks: here