Downtown Girl Isn’t a Full-time Gig
Finding inspiration and authenticity in your fashion is a recipe for the most confident look.
Every fall, my TikTok For You Page inevitably gets taken over by the cinematic views of city sidewalks and vintage scarves fluttering in the wind. Girls adorn the screen wearing wired headphones and oversized leather jackets, preaching about the perfect autaunimal color palette. Coffee cups, corner bookstores with vintage paperbacks, and the faint hum of Girl in Red or Fiona Apple in the background are the precipice of this aesthetic.
Yes, the downtown girl is back. There is something romantic about the idea of walking through life like a Gilmore Girls montage, messy hair, thrifted skirt, tote bag full of annotated novels.
What once felt like a celebration of individuality and a style that honored my personal interests has turned into a curated checklist. The “downtown girl” is no longer just a vibe – it is a brand.
Online, it feels like there is pressure to buy, buy, buy the look rather than embody it. Instead of finding beauty in what people already own, viewers are being encouraged to purchase specific “must-have” items to qualify as a downtown girl: the perfect pair of worn-in Doc Martins, the just-right-sized tote bag, a Moleskine notebook, and a record player. Suddenly, a look that was supposed to ditch the influences of modern technology and embrace authenticity is becoming another consumerist trap, packaged neatly by fashion and lifestyle TikTok gurus and algorithms.
It doesn’t stop at clothing. People are watching Gilmore Girls, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, and the like not because they are drawn to them, but because they’re part of the vibe. Hobbies like sketching, scrapbooking, and poetry writing have become accessories rather than genuine outlets of creativity. We’re performing authenticity instead of living it.
In trying so hard to be the “downtown girl,” people are losing what made the aesthetic appealing in the first place: its individuality. When users scroll the same feeds, buy the same outfits, and mimic the same routines, they start to look like a collective Pinterest board instead of individuals with distinct taste.
Drawing inspiration from online influencers is a big part of what fashion is nowadays; borrowing ideas and reimagining them in your own way. But inspiration shouldn’t replace originality. The downtown girl is a great look, but social media gurus don’t dress like that every day, or even most days. Everyone has their own unique style that works for them in their everyday life. Most days, people’s outfits are simple but effective, and on other days, they might feel like experimenting with other vibes, maybe dressing like a “granola girl” or a “pilates princess.”
Liking an aesthetic doesn’t mean you have to be that aesthetic. You can appreciate the downtown girl’s charm without defining yourself by it. You can, and should, mix styles, evolve, contradict yourself, try new things, and still have great fashion taste.
The truth is, your individuality is the best look you will ever have.
