Building an Aesthetic

Once you have chosen your aesthetic, I supose it is time to buy/make/aquire all the bits that consitiute the "vibe". There is a lot of overlap. Your e-girl choker will probs be fine for a goth look. But if you have many different aesthetic tastes, this could really start to get expensive. Also the type of aesthetic will affect the price. Beautiful lolita dresses with all the trimmings are going to be far more expensive then grungy flannels and mom jeans that have been thrifted.

Again, all subcultures have a "uniform". Most alt subcultures focus on DIY and curration. Aesthetics seem to strip a subculture of all its context to just its clothing, but tries to maintain the aura of the culture through visual refrences that feel hollow. Like dead links on an old website. This is not new, and formed most of the critism of Hot Topic in the early 2000s. Internet culture has sped this up and now you can search Shein by aesthetic. But don't worry if Shein isn't your cup of tea, there is probably 100 tat resale shops advertising themselves as "cottagecore" or "goth". This new wave of fast fashion is terrifing. So what if you can wear a "bimbocore" dress once, the human and envronmental cost is not very "cool". Its greedy.

What about the hobbies they list for aesthetics. Does every "Dark Academic" have to enjoy Latin...I don't have time to learn a dead language, I just enjoy Donna Tart! Can you enjoy the "outdoor" aesthetic while never having camped in your life? Athleisure for errands? These clothes all have functions, but to remove the function, and enjoy the false image...go for it I guess, but your non-technical sportswear is see-through and does not wash well.

Can you be aesthetic without spending a shit ton of money? Probably, over a long period of time. And I think that is just developing you style and interests. Investing in good quality stuff you will enjoy. There is privledge in being able to afford hard wearing clothes/shoes, and people who need fast fashion prices to get by, I am obvously not critising. I have been there, charity shop shoes and all. But you know what I am talking about, have some nuance in your critism of excess.