I was for sure an emo/scene kid, and I can totally identify with putting in a lot of work to not look like you cared. I remember just wearing matte foundation, no blush or bronzer, and raccoon eyeliner eyes with no mascara, and my gauges of course
Oh gosh I did the full NYC thing from 2002 - 2005. I couldn’t pull off the American Apparel look so I went extreme glam. Like I was wearing sequined slip dresses under faux fur coats to alphabet city and maybe make out with a Stroke. Then the ~substances got bad and Ryan Adams got annoying so I decided to bail and go to college (you never want to be the last one at the party!).
Also when I started at nyu it was 2007 and my only rich LA friends started doing blow and I missed a couple hang out nights and to this day I’m like omg if I had gone that direction…. Thinking of my college life lol it would have just been 3 years of trying to dress expensive and do blow with these rich Brentwood LA girls 😂 I mean they were nice but damn we were only freshman. I kind of wonder who they knew later
I got fired from my bar job because I was an hour late after getting my hair done and having to go home and restyle it because the hair stylist couldn’t do my swoop and I looked like a townie. People used to ask me how I got it to sit like that and I’d shrug and say ‘I don’t know, I just blow dry it and it kind of does it’ like an ASSHOLE
Oh man as someone who grew up more in the Tumblr girl phase of the early-mid 2010s it's so interesting to see the foundations of that aesthetic in indie sleaze
Okay I'm so glad someone said this because she's describing all this as happening in the early 2000s and I'm sitting here going.... this was literally my cultural experience in high school which for me was 2010-2014. So I'm wondering if maybe it's because the city i lived in was just a decade behind and it took that long to get to us? 😂 but everything she's describing, the makeup, the American apparel obsession, the whole grungy vibe, was so what me and my friends were coming up in at that time.
Kackie I LOVED this video! “If your hair is flat, you do dat!” Is going to be in my vocabulary permanently. I’d love to see you do this with different eras/aesthetics, like grunge/Courtney Love-esque, 80’s, 70’s vibe etc! I love the combo of the makeup, hair and fashion. Such fun!
"My shorts are so in my crotch right now. How did I live!?" The tights! When i wore tights (shredded black pantyhose or fishnets usually) under my cutoffs, the stretch of the tights would pull the crotch down and create some space. The shorts also held up the crotch of my tights so i wouldnt have to tug them back up a hundred times a night. I don't know if sagging tights crotch is a universal problem or just because I'm tall. But you're also tall so maybe you can relate?
To fully explain the importance of the black eyeliner during this time period, you’d always buy two at time. Bc you’d certainly be going through it that quickly.
As someone that was just slightly too young to truly experience this aesthetic (I graduated from high school in 2012) this is so fascinating to me. I was definitely a chameleon and fell somewhere between the cringe anime nerd aesthetic, the pop punk aesthetic and the emo aesthetic but I remember seeing indie sleaze all over my first university amongst the higher level classes and being like "that looks cool" but being too intimidated to attempt to associate with them as an awkward freshman lmao.
This is exactly the same for me! Like, slightly too young for the classic Millennial experience, but definitely still soaking in the culture of indie sleeze in an aspirational way, but also (at least for me) WAY too cringe-animey to ever be the cool indie kid
KACKIE SOS. The intensity of the sense memories that this video brought back for me I can’t 😂😂😂😂 my side part coming from my actual left ear, the shoes with ZERO arch support that I would just destroy (AND NEVER WEAR SOCKS WITH WHYYYY), taking the headband off and then having the braid or that headband imbedded in my forehead 😂🤦🏼♀️ loved this so so much.
Had no idea until your recent videos but I was avidly listening to indie sleaze music in high school with zero context or knowledge of the scene. I was just a sheltered Southern suburban girl finding music on the internet and convinced I'd found this undiscovered treasure trove of music. Edit: My eyeliner was also independent from but completely in line with indie sleaze lmao
I am so loving this video and I'm laughing so hard. I'm generation x we didn't go anywhere and dance our faces off. We looked like crap, we were generally angry, and we were definitely on drugs 90% of the time. I'm literally lucky I made it out alive, not everybody was that lucky. This time period sounds like a lot more fun.
That’s funny, I’m Gen x too, and I distinctly remember several different periods of getting ready, trying to attain a certain aesthetic, and dancing my ass off at clubs/bars or shows. The difference was the music: in the 80s we were new-wave kids (The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, etc.), the 90s were PearlJam and Seattle grunge mixed with Phish, moe., and the burgeoning jam band scene. The undercurrent of it all was the Grateful Dead which is still a big part of my life even though they technically no longer exist. I guess it depends where you grew up, because in NY we were all about the music. Oh, and there were a lot of drugs, too. 😉😆
The days of Peaches (RIP) & Pixie Geldof, Daisy Lowe, Cobra Snake, endless Tumblr scrolling, Zoe Kravitz in her Elavator Fight era. Atlanta de Cadenet, Alice Delal, Jesse Jo Stark. American Apparel i could barely fit. God...what a time. I could never pull it off but I loved it. I still have a headband somewhere
Amazing throwbacks. I’m a few years older than you but I was in college in San Diego and can remember all these indie scene kids obsessed with vintage records, those 80s slouchy boots, mini skirts, skinny jeans, American apparel leotards and yeah yeah yeahs. I always felt desperately uncool and spent most of my time in the library. This was so fun to live vicariously through the you briefly 😂 I def would have wanted to be your friend
I’ve been so stoked for this video!! I came up on the tail end of indie sleaze (when it started to overlap with hipster stomp clap stuff), so you’re giving me so much great context for all the vibes I was desperately tried to emulate in my 20s 😂 I have vivid memories of MySpace stalking the photographers and musicians from my local arts college and just being enthralled by them. Decadence is a great word for it.
Omg, this was both so much fun and so much pain to watch. I'm old. But the look in the end ties it all together perfectly. I mean, tights and shorts, man. Tights and shorts. And ballet flats.
Nylon back when it was cool! Ah I remember the good old days of that magazine. Also back in that time, someone could take my headbands from my cold dead hands. I LIVED for a headband.
your throwback pics absolutely sent me. I was LIVING in my American apparel disco pants and any shiny pants + lolitas-- thought I was hot shit. I was such a poser tho lol-- flip flop from indie sleaze to boho to twee then later (since I'm a 1993 baby) got 'hipster' lol then my Tumblr grunge era. & I literally had a LookBook account ToT*-- scouring for inspo-- omg and wishing I was lookbook famous. Your Health reference *chefs kiss*. Miss this era/ rather miss the era when I didn't have real responsibilities lol
great great great, I've 30 years on you so diff references but Edie Sedgwick, yeah, your boyfriends comment so funny because getting ready WAS the party. "Dancing your face off", partying with the bands and with house squaters in the cities, NY, NJ, Philly. Great times. you did dress for the crowd and the occasion. I had the purple shiny skin tight pants, the torn silk dress with fur, wore one gold pointed mid heal shoe, the other one same shape but black. Brought back good memories although a mix of eras for me. It was fun to make an effort and "see what you could get away with". great vid Kackie!
I went to NYU from 2003-2007 and ended up making a few friends in the Indie Sleaze scene and I can just remember the STRESS of hanging out with them. I would go to American Apparel and buy a new outfit, I once got a whole new haircut before a warehouse party in Brooklyn just to make sure I fit in!! But I did have some amazing experiences ie seeing the Decemberists at a club with like 20 people in Italy in 2004. Then hanging out with them after. It was no big you know 😂😂!!
What a difference a few years make. Haha. Elder Millennial here. Our preferred look was whatever would get us mistaken for a band member. Dark tight jeans, non-descript dark T-shirt, shitty beat up Converse or (hehe) Macbeth's, piercings and tattoos but nothing too flashy. You wanted to buy the merch, but also had to pretend not to care. It was a weird time.
Hi! I watched this video earlier in the week but I saw your IG story today and just wanted to say I’m in the same boat - though I haven’t begun weaning off my antidepressants I’ve done it plenty of times before so I can only imagine that combo with everything else in your life rn. I also remember sometime last summer you wanted to give yourself more of a break around work because your WLB was out of whack. Depression sucks. It sucks it feels like failure to give in to curling up in a ball and resting, rather than doing the thing, especially when you’re so used to doing so many of the things. You upload more often than any other channel I follow which is neither praise nor condemnation: I always look forward to the videos but I do not expect them, and I hope that thought is as meaningful as I intend it. I cannot promise it’ll get better or when, but I’m a fan from afar and hope this passes like the seasons and that somewhere in the fog you’re able to find restoration.
I’m a little older than you (I think) and I did a lot of kitchen shear haircuts for friends, bleaching hair and putting manic panic in hair, and doing “messy up dos” for people with TONS of Bobby pins just randomly pulling hair up all over the place. Grungy black eyeliner was virtually the only makeup I wore through that period 😂
Also, haircuts with box cutters… and scarves as belts and scarves scarves scarves. Glasses stopped being something you wanted to hide that you wore… it was a really great period.
I still have a pair of those thigh-high socks in green, I keep them for Saint Patrick's day. I had the side bangs, but I lived in Northern Canada and listened to a CBC weekly podcast where they would highlight indy Canadian bands. It was a very specific time...
I’m only 6 minutes in and I may need therapy after this. half nostalgia? and half wow I really hated myself during this time in my life and I’m glad it’s over 😅
I love this video. The vibe of community, seeing people you know, seeing people like you, going out to impresss… it all reminds me on part of the London queer scene today. There’s a drag night that happens in London that people always dress to the 9s to go to, there are people there that everyone knows, if you’re someone that people knows it’s kinda cool… although the makeup/style is different the reasons why are all so similar and it’s so nice to see. I love it!
Aahh my 20's. Utterly obsessed with NYLON for an entire decade; I worshipped anything Marvin Scott Jarrett did. I wanted to dress like Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes, I remember buying that book of celebs/reg people @ parties called ABOUT LAST NIGHT.
It's so funny to see the perspective of someone from that scene. Everyone disliked the kids in the actual scene that gate kept and took themselves too seriously, except the kids in that scene. The rest of us dressed the same, but mostly just had fun being so fucking uncool.
@@kackie I'm from Kansas City and it was just different here. Because it felt like everyone that took it too seriously seemed to be emulating people from the coast and it was like "Chill. You grew up in Lenexa, KS. We're not different."
I recently went back to my side part and I suddenly felt like myself again! You can take the girl out of the scene but you can’t take the scene out of the girl 😍 you were also the first beauty TH-camr that spoke to me, probably because of the similar background!
Omg, the nostalgia of that hair! I’m the same age as you, but I rode the emo to Metalcore scene girl pipeline, lol…I used to cut all my friends’ hair and my own with a hair razor 😅 I had absolutely no training but maybe that was part of the appeal hahaha i also had the deep side part with bangs and dyed the underside of my hair black (the rest of it was blonde). Wardrobe was mostly band tees and jeans but I went through a ballet flats and layered shirts phase too. I still have my stretched ears and still love going to metal shows lol!
I went to college in Boston from 2003-2007 and was absolutely THAT kid. Rockstar hookups, ridiculous fashion, the works. I'm happy I experienced that time the way I did but am also happy to now be an established adult!
The pop punk ish video and now an indie sleaze video ?! Idk , these make me so happy 😂 reminds me of being little and wanting to be like my older cousins so bad then growing into a warped tour kid myself ( and of course an indie “ phase “ )
You pulled out so much of nostalgia from back of my mind! Those little things that were so important to us back then 😂 I am 37 btw, so yeah, leggings and skirts, side bangs, black under eye , and those party pics! We used to go to those party bars, remember me dancing on the edge of windows to be seen and photographed 😅 and we used to do so many bad things 😅 and I am ok with that! So many great memories ❤
"I could be...too powerful." My favorite time in life is getting ready with my friends and listening to music in the car with my best friend. I'm 36, too. We were really into Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Thursday. We were emo kids, but also stoners, so...big into 311, Incubus, Sublime. And then the classic rock always. So much throw back! Big eyes foreva. I had side bangs and then spiky messy short hair in the back and my eye liner was awesome and always trashed cuz I was awesome...and always trashed. 😅
Aaaahh! I still have my black brimmed bowler hat!!! Also I cannot even count how many ballet flats I wore to death and to this day the back of my heels/ankles have calluses. I have used all the things to remove most of it but I am still traumatized and will never wear a pair of ballet flats for the rest of my life. And yes also TO THIS DAY I crave that high of getting ready for a show and all the things that went through the mind and body during that process. ❤
A bit older than you iirc, so when I was 14 I went through this phase of first shaving my head bald, wearing long wool dusters with white poet shirt/slip dresses & combat boots while painting my face white, lips black (or red), thick greasy black eye liner rimming the eye. To full goth, to hippie chick, to preppy punk/hardcore/straight edge, to just finally settling into my own skin around age 20 lol I'd say my style is now more reminiscent of crunchy granola person who just doesn't care, but also almost exclusively wears black.... Or purple. 💀*oh btw the basma samples came in & I'M IN LOVE! thank you so much!
Omg this is my favorite video EVER. I was born in early March 1986, I'm yee shy of turning 37 and my little Pisces heart sang with emotion and nostalgia just now 🥲 Oh, to be 20, dressed in a melange of grandma cardigans and American Apparel leggings, for me it was all about the blush and mascara (M.A.C. Peaches was my favy fav and I never wore or owned foundation or concealer until my late twenties), wanting so bad to be Cory Kennedy, flipping through fashion magazines, updating your MySpace page (true story, I met my future husband on MySpace in 2006...now we have two beautiful daughters together), living for shows and being so so proud because your mate's band has made it...sigh. Restrospectively, I was so very happy, too bad I couldn't see it at the time, although I enjoyed the crap out of my twenties. Hugs from Brussels, Belgium 💋 Ps: regarding the hiring process at American Apparel, yeah, I can confirm it was ALL about your look and your vibe, one of my friends got "recruited" around 2008-2009 for one of their Parisian flagship stores the same way a model would be scouted, she was just walking around campus and someone stopped her and asked her to work for AA, and I mean, yeah, she is gorgeous and was spot on that esthetic, that Lolita-ingenue-meets-Deepthroat, sexy and lush seemingly without intent, innocent but ready, yeah it was kind of specific 🧐
I love this! What a throwback! Honestly, I miss those AP bodysuits so much!! I think I still have one just for old times sake. And now I feel like Skims are the grown up version of AP body suits lol. I live in those!
Reminds me of my experience in the 90s goth scene. Similar emotions and experiences but different music and dress code. If only we had cameras everywhere then….
I was very loyal to that cardigan, vintage high-waisted shorts, tights, and boots uniform. Add a slouchy beanie and a scarf regardless of the season. I don't need to bring it back 😂
I loved every minute of this! I’m 30, so this was very much my style and music taste toward the end of my high school years. Very fun nostalgia. But being in high school with no car and no money, I wasn’t going to many shows lol
I owned one American Apparel shirt found at the local Rugged Wearhouse. My small-mountain-town adolescent self could only aspire to that level of cool! By the time I got to art school in 2013, that vibe had passed.
I think a huge part of this too was a sort of newfound visibility at the time due to the internet. Your college years were my high school years so I sort of saw this from a distance but it was definitely part of my high school experience too. I guess I didn’t directly participate in indie sleaze but it was definitely in my circles in hs/early college and oh my god the Facebook photos. Whole albums dedicated to just one night out and all the tagging - it was definitely how we measured how much fun we had the night before and it was where you wanted to be seen. We were chasing that internet visibility in an in unbothered way which is so funny bc I find gen z almost doing the opposite now, or at least having a minimal “mysterious” presence online. What a time
Kackie, I don't even wear make up anymore but I click on your videos the second I see them for the Vibes and thoughtful analysis of beauty and society...and the scene, apparently. I remember those days fondly for the most part.
Yay! Been looking forward to this!! I was not this person, so I'm very interested! And I just had to come back and edit this because I thought you were talking Scene kid stuff. This is different...okay, good to know. Lol How fun for you to take this walk down memory lane!
I'm 42, but ('but'? or just 'and') this video made me feel like I'm much much muuuuuch older than you, because it definitely felt like there was a clear generational shift between my indie kid era and your indie kid era. I was like 27 in 2007 but already felt old. I guess I was born at the arse end of gen x, so that probably explains it. Super fun to see you talk about your cool cool past though!
This brought up a memory of my friend and I begging our moms to take us to an American apparel store when we were out of town at a marching band review… what two high school freshmen girls wanted with indie sleaze club wear clothes I’ll never know! But I still wear the shirt I bought
As someone who was a bit too old to participate in indie sleaze this was fascinating. It like the IDGAF of grunge, but with less of the PNW grey aesthetic over it
Though I'm a similar age I can't say Indie Sleeze clothing was big in my circle (minus general bits and pieces like leggings and American Apparel), but Mac and Big Sexy Hair and the makeup and the deep side part with side bangs...memories ❤️
I was a stripes/french inspired ballet flat kind of indie sleeze era girl. I honestly feel like there weren't rules. There were just a bunch of statement items you threw on. Fashion blogs were at their height!
I cannot believe we are invoking the name Cobrasnake in the year of our lord 2023 THIS WASNT ON MY BINGO CARD. Also god, Cory Kennedy. That is such a specific time of our life, it's so hard to explain, though you did a fantastic job at it
I was your age now, then… I was Indie Sleaze in the 90’s. (Grunge, I guess.) Was Aussie living in Vienna pre-Eu, (illegally) singing for a living, working in bars. Have a few memories left. Pre-mobile phones, social media, etc. There were a few dodgy photos on people’s fridges for a while, but no evidence left that would horrify my very conservative (sigh) teens until my friends come over an reminisce.
Omg this was one of my favorite videos ever!!! I am about 10 years younger, so I remember all of the fashion you described and kinda the vibes I'm but I was too young and too sheltered to ever be a part of it, so I didn't really understand it. But now it makes so much sense lol 😂
Dude. As a girl who was at FSU the same time, this is my favorite video of yours I’ve ever seen, like I’m crying 😭 I feel so much nostalgia I’m overwhelmed. Also your experience at FSU sounds way cooler than mine was 😂
I so resonate with this ✌️😎🇦🇺 A grunge girl turned Indie sleez, man my eyeliner.. I might as well have got a crayon haha I look back and I must have look ferral but thought I was hot as in my flannel shirt and black suede jacket jeans and weird as boots my hair took so long to look completely ratty and I loved it 😂 I used to mostly shop at 2nd hand clothing stores and thift shops ✌️😎
Ok just got to the end this is so weird I used to put literal talcum powder in my hair having fine fair hair. Yes talking to myself on my own little thread here lmao🤣
I was an indie kid in the late 90’s early 00’s. (Well, still is, but an adult one). Black hair, fringed bob, cute t-shirts, jeans skirt, studded belt and lots of black around the eyes. And super pale. In 06-08 I did my masters of arts degree and I remember, as I was 29-31, looking to Kate Moss and Sienna Miller. I bought my first red lipstick (Ruby Woo), my first high rise slim fit jeans (Cheap Monday) and exchanged my desert boots from Clark’s to ballerinas from Clark’s. I’m happy that the smudged eye is back. Makes me feel like home. 🥰
As a millennial who grew up where there was no show scene, this is the most fun I’ve had in the internet in a while 😂 like I know allll the visual references but it’s like seeing another timeline that didn’t exist in mine
Omg I was more of the art student who went to metalcore and punk shows all through college ('04-'08) and didn't really look like she fit in there, but I'm so excited for the video anyway lol
You were so cute in those old photos! (You still are, absolutely. It’s just different now. 💗) I don’t think I was ever apart of any particular group in my early to late 20’s; I didn’t identify as emo or a scene kid, and I didn’t really have the indie sleaze look. However, I did style style my hair in a very similar way. Minus the skinny headbands, lol. I’ve always been more of a hippie/bohemian scarf kind of girl. Pile my hair up on my head and then use a scarf as a headband or wrap. Funny thing is, my hair wants to have a deep side part to the right, no matter what I do, lol! I don’t mind it though, I like side parts. However, now that I’m in my late 30’s, my hair has definitely thinned out and I can see that along my hairline. 😢 I hardly ever heat style my hair these days. I have loose, “weak” waves, and it takes so much work to style it- the gel, the scrunching, the “plopping”, using the diffuser, etc. And it looks almost completely straight if I just air dry it. Nowadays I just sleep with my hair in French braids. So much easier! I haven’t even been using any products with “hold” anymore (gel, hairspray, etc.) I’ve almost always had long hair, sometimes *super* long hair. Right before my wedding in 2013, my hair was 34 inches long! I miss my “Disney Princess” hair, but it’s changed so much in the last 10 years. And it’s waaay different than it was 20 years ago. I guess that happens to most people, but I’m not loving it. I don’t really let my hair get past the bottom of my shoulder blades now, otherwise it starts to look stringy.
What would you consider Kesha? Because I know I didn't relate at all to the emo/scene fashion and music end of things, but the lean into glittery messy party girl was something that really hit home for me. Like, probably not quite as elevated as fashion kids, but still borrowing from that, wearing old D.A.R.E. t shirts and putting glitter gel on my eyes because I had been day drinking and didn't have the patience for structured makeup.. loved that style honestly lol
So much of this resonates. I was from a super small Midwest town, so some stuff never really reached me, like american apparel. I ended up mostly in emo/scene in high-school (graduated 07) after having spent middle school in goth. I remember my first Eyeshadow palette being the super neon color hello kitty from hot topic. Oh the MySpace pics that resulted....
For a bonus trip to the first iteration (v1.0) watch Lisa eldridge’s video on 90s grunge from last week, is a cool bit of history that links these trends (2.0 indie sleaze, and 3.0 what’s happening now) together ❤
@@kackie hey! I loved hearing your perspective on the scene. Been fascinating lately to go back and analyze a truly messy time period in which I had such limited self-awareness with my real adult brain 🙈 I guess we were enemies lol
I lived in rural Australia and as such never fully committed to any one ‘look’ but I was definitely more emo/MCR with a side of pop rock Killers than anything else… this was. TRIP! Thank you from the bottom of this crusty millennial heart of mine.
I was for sure an emo/scene kid, and I can totally identify with putting in a lot of work to not look like you cared. I remember just wearing matte foundation, no blush or bronzer, and raccoon eyeliner eyes with no mascara, and my gauges of course
Me rn- (I'm scene lol)
Oh gosh I did the full NYC thing from 2002 - 2005. I couldn’t pull off the American Apparel look so I went extreme glam. Like I was wearing sequined slip dresses under faux fur coats to alphabet city and maybe make out with a Stroke. Then the ~substances got bad and Ryan Adams got annoying so I decided to bail and go to college (you never want to be the last one at the party!).
Yeah same. I left nyc in 03. That early naughts had a early burning man vibe chaos vibe. Early days of Santa con.
@@beatdizzy it was realllllly fun until it reallllllly wasn’t.
I lived in alphabet city during 2009
Also when I started at nyu it was 2007 and my only rich LA friends started doing blow and I missed a couple hang out nights and to this day I’m like omg if I had gone that direction…. Thinking of my college life lol it would have just been 3 years of trying to dress expensive and do blow with these rich Brentwood LA girls 😂 I mean they were nice but damn we were only freshman. I kind of wonder who they knew later
Crossroads was the LA high school! Bands like the tints and people like the Olsen circle friends 😂
I got fired from my bar job because I was an hour late after getting my hair done and having to go home and restyle it because the hair stylist couldn’t do my swoop and I looked like a townie. People used to ask me how I got it to sit like that and I’d shrug and say ‘I don’t know, I just blow dry it and it kind of does it’ like an ASSHOLE
Lmaooooooo omg being black and reading this is so crazy because I wanted to know all y’all secrets !!!
Oh man as someone who grew up more in the Tumblr girl phase of the early-mid 2010s it's so interesting to see the foundations of that aesthetic in indie sleaze
Okay I'm so glad someone said this because she's describing all this as happening in the early 2000s and I'm sitting here going.... this was literally my cultural experience in high school which for me was 2010-2014. So I'm wondering if maybe it's because the city i lived in was just a decade behind and it took that long to get to us? 😂 but everything she's describing, the makeup, the American apparel obsession, the whole grungy vibe, was so what me and my friends were coming up in at that time.
Kackie I LOVED this video! “If your hair is flat, you do dat!” Is going to be in my vocabulary permanently. I’d love to see you do this with different eras/aesthetics, like grunge/Courtney Love-esque, 80’s, 70’s vibe etc! I love the combo of the makeup, hair and fashion. Such fun!
"My shorts are so in my crotch right now. How did I live!?" The tights! When i wore tights (shredded black pantyhose or fishnets usually) under my cutoffs, the stretch of the tights would pull the crotch down and create some space. The shorts also held up the crotch of my tights so i wouldnt have to tug them back up a hundred times a night. I don't know if sagging tights crotch is a universal problem or just because I'm tall. But you're also tall so maybe you can relate?
38:04 stopppppp the hair is bringing it all together and I’m screaming ❤❤❤
To fully explain the importance of the black eyeliner during this time period, you’d always buy two at time. Bc you’d certainly be going through it that quickly.
As someone that was just slightly too young to truly experience this aesthetic (I graduated from high school in 2012) this is so fascinating to me. I was definitely a chameleon and fell somewhere between the cringe anime nerd aesthetic, the pop punk aesthetic and the emo aesthetic but I remember seeing indie sleaze all over my first university amongst the higher level classes and being like "that looks cool" but being too intimidated to attempt to associate with them as an awkward freshman lmao.
This is exactly the same for me! Like, slightly too young for the classic Millennial experience, but definitely still soaking in the culture of indie sleeze in an aspirational way, but also (at least for me) WAY too cringe-animey to ever be the cool indie kid
I graduated hs in 2013 and this is totally my experience lol
KACKIE SOS. The intensity of the sense memories that this video brought back for me I can’t 😂😂😂😂 my side part coming from my actual left ear, the shoes with ZERO arch support that I would just destroy (AND NEVER WEAR SOCKS WITH WHYYYY), taking the headband off and then having the braid or that headband imbedded in my forehead 😂🤦🏼♀️ loved this so so much.
Had no idea until your recent videos but I was avidly listening to indie sleaze music in high school with zero context or knowledge of the scene. I was just a sheltered Southern suburban girl finding music on the internet and convinced I'd found this undiscovered treasure trove of music.
Edit: My eyeliner was also independent from but completely in line with indie sleaze lmao
I am so loving this video and I'm laughing so hard. I'm generation x we didn't go anywhere and dance our faces off. We looked like crap, we were generally angry, and we were definitely on drugs 90% of the time. I'm literally lucky I made it out alive, not everybody was that lucky. This time period sounds like a lot more fun.
Don’t be too jealous there definitely were a ton of drugs involved 😂😂😂.
That’s funny, I’m Gen x too, and I distinctly remember several different periods of getting ready, trying to attain a certain aesthetic, and dancing my ass off at clubs/bars or shows. The difference was the music: in the 80s we were new-wave kids (The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, etc.), the 90s were PearlJam and Seattle grunge mixed with Phish, moe., and the burgeoning jam band scene. The undercurrent of it all was the Grateful Dead which is still a big part of my life even though they technically no longer exist. I guess it depends where you grew up, because in NY we were all about the music. Oh, and there were a lot of drugs, too. 😉😆
Definitely Gen X but I was still partying.
I don’t even have words. The memories are too busy flooding my brain.
I know, it's a lot.
Indie sleaze never went away for me 😭 I've cleaned it up over the years, but I literally love the makeup and hair ;-;
The days of Peaches (RIP) & Pixie Geldof, Daisy Lowe, Cobra Snake, endless Tumblr scrolling, Zoe Kravitz in her Elavator Fight era. Atlanta de Cadenet, Alice Delal, Jesse Jo Stark. American Apparel i could barely fit. God...what a time. I could never pull it off but I loved it. I still have a headband somewhere
Not to under value Peaches Geldof, but for a sec I thought you meant thee Peaches had died, and got a real shock. But that is my age showing.
Alice delal I loveeeee. My first long hair Mohawk was 2010!!!
@@alicemlovegrove lol and thank goodness not!
So happy to see Kevin Barnes in the thumbnail ! of Montreal still puts on the greatest live show.
Amazing throwbacks. I’m a few years older than you but I was in college in San Diego and can remember all these indie scene kids obsessed with vintage records, those 80s slouchy boots, mini skirts, skinny jeans, American apparel leotards and yeah yeah yeahs. I always felt desperately uncool and spent most of my time in the library. This was so fun to live vicariously through the you briefly 😂 I def would have wanted to be your friend
I’ve been so stoked for this video!! I came up on the tail end of indie sleaze (when it started to overlap with hipster stomp clap stuff), so you’re giving me so much great context for all the vibes I was desperately tried to emulate in my 20s 😂 I have vivid memories of MySpace stalking the photographers and musicians from my local arts college and just being enthralled by them. Decadence is a great word for it.
Oooooooooooh Girl Talk, I looooooooooooooove! Been dying to see live, must of been THE best!
Omg, this was both so much fun and so much pain to watch. I'm old.
But the look in the end ties it all together perfectly. I mean, tights and shorts, man. Tights and shorts. And ballet flats.
Nylon back when it was cool! Ah I remember the good old days of that magazine. Also back in that time, someone could take my headbands from my cold dead hands. I LIVED for a headband.
your throwback pics absolutely sent me. I was LIVING in my American apparel disco pants and any shiny pants + lolitas-- thought I was hot shit. I was such a poser tho lol-- flip flop from indie sleaze to boho to twee then later (since I'm a 1993 baby) got 'hipster' lol then my Tumblr grunge era. & I literally had a LookBook account ToT*-- scouring for inspo-- omg and wishing I was lookbook famous. Your Health reference *chefs kiss*. Miss this era/ rather miss the era when I didn't have real responsibilities lol
great great great, I've 30 years on you so diff references but Edie Sedgwick, yeah, your boyfriends comment so funny because getting ready WAS the party. "Dancing your face off", partying with the bands and with house squaters in the cities, NY, NJ, Philly. Great times. you did dress for the crowd and the occasion. I had the purple shiny skin tight pants, the torn silk dress with fur, wore one gold pointed mid heal shoe, the other one same shape but black. Brought back good memories although a mix of eras for me. It was fun to make an effort and "see what you could get away with". great vid Kackie!
I went to NYU from 2003-2007 and ended up making a few friends in the Indie Sleaze scene and I can just remember the STRESS of hanging out with them. I would go to American Apparel and buy a new outfit, I once got a whole new haircut before a warehouse party in Brooklyn just to make sure I fit in!! But I did have some amazing experiences ie seeing the Decemberists at a club with like 20 people in Italy in 2004. Then hanging out with them after. It was no big you know 😂😂!!
Hi I went there from 2007-2010!! Lizzie Olsen and Harley newton were in my class lol
Omg i totally forgot about Lookbook! I loved browsing that site. I so wished I was Corey Kennedy in 2007.
What a difference a few years make. Haha. Elder Millennial here. Our preferred look was whatever would get us mistaken for a band member. Dark tight jeans, non-descript dark T-shirt, shitty beat up Converse or (hehe) Macbeth's, piercings and tattoos but nothing too flashy. You wanted to buy the merch, but also had to pretend not to care. It was a weird time.
When Kackie smashed her bangs into place I HAD A FLASHBACK TO '05 hahahahah
Cory Kennedy! Girl Talk! American Apparel! So many fun memories in this video lol
Such a sweet and care free time. Thanks for the nostalgia lady!
Hi! I watched this video earlier in the week but I saw your IG story today and just wanted to say I’m in the same boat - though I haven’t begun weaning off my antidepressants I’ve done it plenty of times before so I can only imagine that combo with everything else in your life rn.
I also remember sometime last summer you wanted to give yourself more of a break around work because your WLB was out of whack.
Depression sucks. It sucks it feels like failure to give in to curling up in a ball and resting, rather than doing the thing, especially when you’re so used to doing so many of the things.
You upload more often than any other channel I follow which is neither praise nor condemnation: I always look forward to the videos but I do not expect them, and I hope that thought is as meaningful as I intend it.
I cannot promise it’ll get better or when, but I’m a fan from afar and hope this passes like the seasons and that somewhere in the fog you’re able to find restoration.
Cut bangs, be your old self! Greatest most lovely nostalgia vid. Thank you! Also eye makeup is gorgeous!
I’m a little older than you (I think) and I did a lot of kitchen shear haircuts for friends, bleaching hair and putting manic panic in hair, and doing “messy up dos” for people with TONS of Bobby pins just randomly pulling hair up all over the place. Grungy black eyeliner was virtually the only makeup I wore through that period 😂
Also, haircuts with box cutters… and scarves as belts and scarves scarves scarves. Glasses stopped being something you wanted to hide that you wore… it was a really great period.
As soon as the hair happened it brought back memories
Okay but why do I actually love your hair like that 😳
Holy shit the flashbacks I’m having right now are next level. Hair powder and the giant swoop were a personality for sure.
I still have a pair of those thigh-high socks in green, I keep them for Saint Patrick's day. I had the side bangs, but I lived in Northern Canada and listened to a CBC weekly podcast where they would highlight indy Canadian bands. It was a very specific time...
I’m only 6 minutes in and I may need therapy after this. half nostalgia? and half wow I really hated myself during this time in my life and I’m glad it’s over 😅
Haha same!! The stuff she is describing brought up so much. How I so badly wanted to be loved and accepted and cool and I tried SO hard!
I love this video. The vibe of community, seeing people you know, seeing people like you, going out to impresss… it all reminds me on part of the London queer scene today. There’s a drag night that happens in London that people always dress to the 9s to go to, there are people there that everyone knows, if you’re someone that people knows it’s kinda cool… although the makeup/style is different the reasons why are all so similar and it’s so nice to see. I love it!
Loved the transformation! Loved watching your face light up reminiscing about all the things! Sounds like a fun time!
This was so fun. As a 36hr old who went thru college in FL at this time too, some of this HIT. HARD.
This is one of my favourite videos you've ever done. Fascinating.
Aahh my 20's. Utterly obsessed with NYLON for an entire decade; I worshipped anything Marvin Scott Jarrett did. I wanted to dress like Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes, I remember buying that book of celebs/reg people @ parties called ABOUT LAST NIGHT.
Love your energy and passion coming back to this age
It's so funny to see the perspective of someone from that scene. Everyone disliked the kids in the actual scene that gate kept and took themselves too seriously, except the kids in that scene. The rest of us dressed the same, but mostly just had fun being so fucking uncool.
We disliked ourselves, too, don't worry.
@@kackie I'm from Kansas City and it was just different here. Because it felt like everyone that took it too seriously seemed to be emulating people from the coast and it was like "Chill. You grew up in Lenexa, KS. We're not different."
Omg Kackie the repressed memories are flooding in right now lol
I recently went back to my side part and I suddenly felt like myself again! You can take the girl out of the scene but you can’t take the scene out of the girl 😍 you were also the first beauty TH-camr that spoke to me, probably because of the similar background!
Omg, the nostalgia of that hair! I’m the same age as you, but I rode the emo to Metalcore scene girl pipeline, lol…I used to cut all my friends’ hair and my own with a hair razor 😅 I had absolutely no training but maybe that was part of the appeal hahaha i also had the deep side part with bangs and dyed the underside of my hair black (the rest of it was blonde).
Wardrobe was mostly band tees and jeans but I went through a ballet flats and layered shirts phase too. I still have my stretched ears and still love going to metal shows lol!
I went to college in Boston from 2003-2007 and was absolutely THAT kid. Rockstar hookups, ridiculous fashion, the works. I'm happy I experienced that time the way I did but am also happy to now be an established adult!
The pop punk ish video and now an indie sleaze video ?! Idk , these make me so happy 😂 reminds me of being little and wanting to be like my older cousins so bad then growing into a warped tour kid myself ( and of course an indie “ phase “ )
OMG Lookbook!!!! I forgot about this 😭😭😭 I had 3 pairs of Jeffrey Campbells and I felt like the coolest girl alive lmao
You pulled out so much of nostalgia from back of my mind! Those little things that were so important to us back then 😂 I am 37 btw, so yeah, leggings and skirts, side bangs, black under eye , and those party pics! We used to go to those party bars, remember me dancing on the edge of windows to be seen and photographed 😅 and we used to do so many bad things 😅 and I am ok with that! So many great memories ❤
"I could be...too powerful." My favorite time in life is getting ready with my friends and listening to music in the car with my best friend. I'm 36, too. We were really into Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Thursday. We were emo kids, but also stoners, so...big into 311, Incubus, Sublime. And then the classic rock always. So much throw back! Big eyes foreva. I had side bangs and then spiky messy short hair in the back and my eye liner was awesome and always trashed cuz I was awesome...and always trashed. 😅
Aaaahh! I still have my black brimmed bowler hat!!! Also I cannot even count how many ballet flats I wore to death and to this day the back of my heels/ankles have calluses. I have used all the things to remove most of it but I am still traumatized and will never wear a pair of ballet flats for the rest of my life. And yes also TO THIS DAY I crave that high of getting ready for a show and all the things that went through the mind and body during that process. ❤
This was such a pleasure!
lol a different style for a girl talk show vs a health show... def brought me back hahaha
I just wanted to say I really really enjoyed this one
A bit older than you iirc, so when I was 14 I went through this phase of first shaving my head bald, wearing long wool dusters with white poet shirt/slip dresses & combat boots while painting my face white, lips black (or red), thick greasy black eye liner rimming the eye. To full goth, to hippie chick, to preppy punk/hardcore/straight edge, to just finally settling into my own skin around age 20 lol I'd say my style is now more reminiscent of crunchy granola person who just doesn't care, but also almost exclusively wears black.... Or purple. 💀*oh btw the basma samples came in & I'M IN LOVE! thank you so much!
Omg this is my favorite video EVER. I was born in early March 1986, I'm yee shy of turning 37 and my little Pisces heart sang with emotion and nostalgia just now 🥲 Oh, to be 20, dressed in a melange of grandma cardigans and American Apparel leggings, for me it was all about the blush and mascara (M.A.C. Peaches was my favy fav and I never wore or owned foundation or concealer until my late twenties), wanting so bad to be Cory Kennedy, flipping through fashion magazines, updating your MySpace page (true story, I met my future husband on MySpace in 2006...now we have two beautiful daughters together), living for shows and being so so proud because your mate's band has made it...sigh. Restrospectively, I was so very happy, too bad I couldn't see it at the time, although I enjoyed the crap out of my twenties. Hugs from Brussels, Belgium 💋
Ps: regarding the hiring process at American Apparel, yeah, I can confirm it was ALL about your look and your vibe, one of my friends got "recruited" around 2008-2009 for one of their Parisian flagship stores the same way a model would be scouted, she was just walking around campus and someone stopped her and asked her to work for AA, and I mean, yeah, she is gorgeous and was spot on that esthetic, that Lolita-ingenue-meets-Deepthroat, sexy and lush seemingly without intent, innocent but ready, yeah it was kind of specific 🧐
YEAH the ethics were blurry to non existent at AA
I love this! What a throwback! Honestly, I miss those AP bodysuits so much!! I think I still have one just for old times sake. And now I feel like Skims are the grown up version of AP body suits lol. I live in those!
Reminds me of my experience in the 90s goth scene. Similar emotions and experiences but different music and dress code. If only we had cameras everywhere then….
I was 80s New Wave and 90s Dead Head. Lucky to have survived and *definitely glad those craziest days were before the internet! 😳😂
I was a 90s indie kid and an pretty happy about the lack of cameras personally, hee hee
I was very loyal to that cardigan, vintage high-waisted shorts, tights, and boots uniform. Add a slouchy beanie and a scarf regardless of the season. I don't need to bring it back 😂
I loved every minute of this! I’m 30, so this was very much my style and music taste toward the end of my high school years. Very fun nostalgia. But being in high school with no car and no money, I wasn’t going to many shows lol
And I also still unapologetically love this hair lol
I owned one American Apparel shirt found at the local Rugged Wearhouse. My small-mountain-town adolescent self could only aspire to that level of cool! By the time I got to art school in 2013, that vibe had passed.
I think a huge part of this too was a sort of newfound visibility at the time due to the internet. Your college years were my high school years so I sort of saw this from a distance but it was definitely part of my high school experience too. I guess I didn’t directly participate in indie sleaze but it was definitely in my circles in hs/early college and oh my god the Facebook photos. Whole albums dedicated to just one night out and all the tagging - it was definitely how we measured how much fun we had the night before and it was where you wanted to be seen. We were chasing that internet visibility in an in unbothered way which is so funny bc I find gen z almost doing the opposite now, or at least having a minimal “mysterious” presence online. What a time
You look so great in this look!! And I get you 🖤 The 90’s Goth tomboy that I was as a young adult will never die!! 🖤 (I LOVED American Apparel too 🥲)
Kackie, I don't even wear make up anymore but I click on your videos the second I see them for the Vibes and thoughtful analysis of beauty and society...and the scene, apparently. I remember those days fondly for the most part.
Yay! Been looking forward to this!! I was not this person, so I'm very interested! And I just had to come back and edit this because I thought you were talking Scene kid stuff. This is different...okay, good to know. Lol
How fun for you to take this walk down memory lane!
I'm 42, but ('but'? or just 'and') this video made me feel like I'm much much muuuuuch older than you, because it definitely felt like there was a clear generational shift between my indie kid era and your indie kid era. I was like 27 in 2007 but already felt old. I guess I was born at the arse end of gen x, so that probably explains it. Super fun to see you talk about your cool cool past though!
(PS I do still sometimes wear short cut-offs over tights)
This brought up a memory of my friend and I begging our moms to take us to an American apparel store when we were out of town at a marching band review… what two high school freshmen girls wanted with indie sleaze club wear clothes I’ll never know! But I still wear the shirt I bought
As someone who was a bit too old to participate in indie sleaze this was fascinating. It like the IDGAF of grunge, but with less of the PNW grey aesthetic over it
Though I'm a similar age I can't say Indie Sleeze clothing was big in my circle (minus general bits and pieces like leggings and American Apparel), but Mac and Big Sexy Hair and the makeup and the deep side part with side bangs...memories ❤️
Singing my life with his words…..🎵 thanks for a trip down memory lane and anthologizing my early adulthood
I was a stripes/french inspired ballet flat kind of indie sleeze era girl. I honestly feel like there weren't rules. There were just a bunch of statement items you threw on. Fashion blogs were at their height!
I have that crew neck and wore it in 2009....YOU ARE SO on the nose with this era the look. The tanning was the Florida lol
urban decay smoked was the look wow memory unlocked
I cannot believe we are invoking the name Cobrasnake in the year of our lord 2023 THIS WASNT ON MY BINGO CARD. Also god, Cory Kennedy. That is such a specific time of our life, it's so hard to explain, though you did a fantastic job at it
I was your age now, then… I was Indie Sleaze in the 90’s. (Grunge, I guess.) Was Aussie living in Vienna pre-Eu, (illegally) singing for a living, working in bars. Have a few memories left. Pre-mobile phones, social media, etc. There were a few dodgy photos on people’s fridges for a while, but no evidence left that would horrify my very conservative (sigh) teens until my friends come over an reminisce.
This video is a great idea!
Omg this was one of my favorite videos ever!!! I am about 10 years younger, so I remember all of the fashion you described and kinda the vibes I'm but I was too young and too sheltered to ever be a part of it, so I didn't really understand it. But now it makes so much sense lol 😂
Dude. As a girl who was at FSU the same time, this is my favorite video of yours I’ve ever seen, like I’m crying 😭 I feel so much nostalgia I’m overwhelmed. Also your experience at FSU sounds way cooler than mine was 😂
“We loved to put things over tights.” Omg we did though
“Snobby Tom boy.” These sound bites are gold and scary accurate.
My bad for this stream of consciousness comment. I just can’t stop
Holy shit the t-shirt handband
I very much enjoyed your stream of consciousness thread! 😁👍
I so resonate with this ✌️😎🇦🇺 A grunge girl turned Indie sleez, man my eyeliner.. I might as well have got a crayon haha I look back and I must have look ferral but thought I was hot as in my flannel shirt and black suede jacket jeans and weird as boots my hair took so long to look completely ratty and I loved it 😂 I used to mostly shop at 2nd hand clothing stores and thift shops ✌️😎
And I'll never forget tearing my jeans and wearing leggings underneath, so true no leggings as pants back then. Hugs from Australia xo
Ok just got to the end this is so weird I used to put literal talcum powder in my hair having fine fair hair. Yes talking to myself on my own little thread here lmao🤣
I may or may not have had an indie sleaze period? But I definitely appreciate a bunch of the tracks on your Spotify list!
The side bang is GIVING.
YESSS 😂
I was an indie kid in the late 90’s early 00’s. (Well, still is, but an adult one). Black hair, fringed bob, cute t-shirts, jeans skirt, studded belt and lots of black around the eyes. And super pale.
In 06-08 I did my masters of arts degree and I remember, as I was 29-31, looking to Kate Moss and Sienna Miller. I bought my first red lipstick (Ruby Woo), my first high rise slim fit jeans (Cheap Monday) and exchanged my desert boots from Clark’s to ballerinas from Clark’s. I’m happy that the smudged eye is back. Makes me feel like home. 🥰
So early! Love your chatty vids Kacki!!
As a millennial who grew up where there was no show scene, this is the most fun I’ve had in the internet in a while 😂 like I know allll the visual references but it’s like seeing another timeline that didn’t exist in mine
I was 22 in 2003. This was my time. I miss it 😪
WOO, INDIE SLEAZE, F YEAH!!!!!!!!! 💚🖤
Omg I was more of the art student who went to metalcore and punk shows all through college ('04-'08) and didn't really look like she fit in there, but I'm so excited for the video anyway lol
And I was not disappointed! ☺🥰💗 thank you for this nostalgic warm fuzzies entertainment!
42:05 yesssss this whole bit lol
cut the bangs!!!! they will grow back! love it
You were so cute in those old photos! (You still are, absolutely. It’s just different now. 💗)
I don’t think I was ever apart of any particular group in my early to late 20’s; I didn’t identify as emo or a scene kid, and I didn’t really have the indie sleaze look. However, I did style style my hair in a very similar way. Minus the skinny headbands, lol. I’ve always been more of a hippie/bohemian scarf kind of girl. Pile my hair up on my head and then use a scarf as a headband or wrap.
Funny thing is, my hair wants to have a deep side part to the right, no matter what I do, lol! I don’t mind it though, I like side parts. However, now that I’m in my late 30’s, my hair has definitely thinned out and I can see that along my hairline. 😢
I hardly ever heat style my hair these days. I have loose, “weak” waves, and it takes so much work to style it- the gel, the scrunching, the “plopping”, using the diffuser, etc. And it looks almost completely straight if I just air dry it. Nowadays I just sleep with my hair in French braids. So much easier! I haven’t even been using any products with “hold” anymore (gel, hairspray, etc.)
I’ve almost always had long hair, sometimes *super* long hair. Right before my wedding in 2013, my hair was 34 inches long! I miss my “Disney Princess” hair, but it’s changed so much in the last 10 years. And it’s waaay different than it was 20 years ago. I guess that happens to most people, but I’m not loving it. I don’t really let my hair get past the bottom of my shoulder blades now, otherwise it starts to look stringy.
What would you consider Kesha? Because I know I didn't relate at all to the emo/scene fashion and music end of things, but the lean into glittery messy party girl was something that really hit home for me. Like, probably not quite as elevated as fashion kids, but still borrowing from that, wearing old D.A.R.E. t shirts and putting glitter gel on my eyes because I had been day drinking and didn't have the patience for structured makeup.. loved that style honestly lol
Duuude yes!! The glitter on the eyes bc of day drinking 😂😂
So much of this resonates. I was from a super small Midwest town, so some stuff never really reached me, like american apparel. I ended up mostly in emo/scene in high-school (graduated 07) after having spent middle school in goth. I remember my first Eyeshadow palette being the super neon color hello kitty from hot topic. Oh the MySpace pics that resulted....
I was in college those same years. Kackie is just like me (but cooler) fr fr
Really fun video
THIS!!!
For a bonus trip to the first iteration (v1.0) watch Lisa eldridge’s video on 90s grunge from last week, is a cool bit of history that links these trends (2.0 indie sleaze, and 3.0 what’s happening now) together ❤
The hair's giving like moistcritikal
I remember most of these MySpace pics haha 🖤
🤣🤣🤣 hey sup
@@kackie hey! I loved hearing your perspective on the scene. Been fascinating lately to go back and analyze a truly messy time period in which I had such limited self-awareness with my real adult brain 🙈 I guess we were enemies lol
I lived in rural Australia and as such never fully committed to any one ‘look’ but I was definitely more emo/MCR with a side of pop rock Killers than anything else… this was. TRIP! Thank you from the bottom of this crusty millennial heart of mine.