Since there are more style tribes and era-revivals to align oneself with than ever before, digging into any particular one can often prove futile. And while we haven’t seen Gen Z this enthralled by this particular aesthetic before, 2014 Tumblr – chokers, tennis skirts, black lipstick – has been a thing on TikTok since the first lockdown, and Pink Tumblr – all cupcakes, Yankee candles, and Victoria Secret body sprays – has nearly 2.3 billion views. In this way, Twee seems like a natural evolution of the divisive Strawberry dress that went viral in 2020 thanks to its whimsical stylings.
Like many of today’s TikTok fads, the style first gained momentum during the 2010s on Tumblr, where people reblogged photos of Parisian markets, first edition books, and china teacups. It’s the antithesis of the kind of culture we saw in the early 2000s, which pledged allegiance to gorgeous party girls and sex tapes, making Twee “the utter dispensing with of ‘cool’ as it’s conventionally known, often in (favour) of a kind of fetishisation of the nerd, the geek, the dork, the virgin,” as The Atlantic described in 2014. Awkward introverts and self-professed old-fashioned “ guys and gals”. Men wore chunky glasses, flimsy cardigans, chinos, and got really into Morrissey and acoustic guitar, thinking themselves Joseph Gordon-Levitt or perhaps a Jack Kerouac type. Everything came festooned in bows or dotty bird-like motifs (see Miu Miu SS10) and our wardrobes were bought at ModCloth or Topshop – though people were insufferable and pretended they were thrifted. Tavi Gevinson and her saucer-like spectacles were a major proponent, as were Charlotte Olympia kitten flats, mustard-coloured tights, and leather satchels. It’s modest, cutesy, and quirky, and could just as easily be labelled Waterstones-core, Ukulele-core, or English teacher-core.
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