Addison, pop girls & beauty’s conservative vibe shift
“We’re officially in the season of pop”
Hiya.
My sincerest apologies for the delay in getting this letter to you – I really appreciate the extra few days to get it publish-perfect. Allow me to explain.
Here in London, summer has officially hit. And instead of the chill Solar Power vibes of springtime, life has seemingly turned up to full speed. Whether it’s down to the heatwave or the fact that my best friend from Melbourne has been staying with us, I’ve been out and about far more than usual.
Last weekend, I (along with every other girl and gay man in London) went to Charli XCX’s festival in Victoria Park. It was indulgently fun. Addison Rae made an appearance. So too did Paul Mescal and Harris Dickinson, both of whom my group wandered past en route to the bar.
A mere three days later, I had a gorgeous dinner at Noble Rot in Mayfair (which I highly recommend). This was followed by a hilariously chaotic evening in Dalston, where my best friend, boyfriend, and I attended the AWD podcast live show.
We’d taken the afternoon off work to laze around in Hampstead Heath, which I feel somehow kicked off a very silly summer mood. (Well, it was either that, or the bottle of pét-nat we downed before the event. But who’s keeping track.)
My boyfriend was in hilariously fine form: confessing to Grace and Issy (the pod’s gorgeous hosts) that he was their #1 straight male fan and bouncing down Kingsland Road in his girlies cap (iykyk).
After a quick power nap the next day, I found myself at another round of drinks in a private garden at my friend’s place in Pimlico. An evening that was, again, meant to be a relaxed catch-up, but somehow spiralled into more silliness, as it always seems to do in the heat. I barely made it to my gorgeous friend’s afternoon drinks in Fulham the following day. But alas, I pulled through.
As I said, the summertime silly season is well and truly upon us.
Okay, onto the good stuff.
Agenda for today’s letter:
Beauty’s conservative backslide
The pop girls are everywhere
Beauty’s conservative backslide
Beauty’s ‘vibe shift’ has (unfortunately) occurred
We need to talk about beauty’s vibe shift. It’s been a long time in the works, but it feels particularly pertinent right now.
The beauty ideal is in a bad state. Y2K nostalgia brought thinness back into the zeitgeist, and Ozempic and GLP-1s made it mainstream. The days of body positivity feel like a fleeting memory. 2025 feels more like 2004 than 2024. And if we’re not careful, this ideal will continue to solidify.
The pendulum is swinging away from visibility and difference, and toward conservatism. We’re seeing it in the trad wife aesthetic and the return of hyper-controlled (at times, masochistic) aesthetics. Waifish is in. So too is restriction – of the body, the appetite, the voice.
I think it’s important we talk about what’s happening. Because this evolution of the beauty ideal isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s no coincidence that the erasure of volume, complexity, and bodily autonomy coincides with the erosion of women’s rights.
I loved the recent piece by Ellen Atlanta for Dazed Beauty that explores this beauty vibe shift. Jessica DeFino (The Review of Beauty) and Emily Kirkpatrick (I Heart Mess) have also been speaking on this for some time.
If you’re feeling some kind of way about all this, please do take care. Remove the triggers from your social feeds. Surround yourself with people who make you feel good from the inside out.
This beauty ideal can feel toxic and insidious. But remember, there are so many of us who don’t buy into it. Hayley Nahman (Maybe Baby) had a really beautiful podcast episode about this recently. She reminds us that our appearance has nowhere near as much impact on our quality of life as the beauty industry would have us believe.
The pop girls are everywhere
It’s officially the summer of pop
Last year’s BRAT summer rebranded the season as one of pop. For months, I’ve been following the debate around which pop girl would reign supreme. Lorde? Sabrina? Addison? It’s still early, but it appears to be a blend of all three.
Addison Rae’s Addison dropped first. Lorde’s Virgin has just dropped today. And Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend lands at the end of August. At the time of writing this, I don’t feel Lorde’s album has sparked too much cultural conversation, so for now I’ll focus my commentary on the other two.
Two artists. Two albums. Two very different approaches. In my opinion, one has been full of taste and precision; the other, something more akin to a cheap publicity grab.
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