Mimetic

"Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires."

For the past few days as lethargy has taken over me, the same way it did a month before this, I have been combing through old things. Tumblr posts, youtube videos, movies even, that I can use as a sense of comfort for the simplicity of yesteryear.

Something i’ve noticed is, I am not the only one yearning for this simplicity. Many are trying to recreate how they felt in certain eras, marked by comments i’ve seen on youtube videos from 2012 “anyone here in 2024?” and tags on tumblr blogs that repost content first created in 2012 up to 2016 and lament “i miss 2012” “i miss old tumblr!” (you miss swag? trill? mustache tattoos and cat tights?) and as a society, we can see that in the unnecessary (and sloppy) reboots of every piece of media and trend released in the last 25 years

We can see it in Bella Hadid dressing like Fiona Apple did in the 90’s and 80’s Office outfits being rebranded as Office siren wear.

We can see it in Trad Wives trying to send us back to the 50’s

We can see it in New songs being released with old beats.

But Why? my closest guess is

The Future.

What with current politics, inflation, lack of jobs, scarcity fresh off the heels of excess from influencers to celebrities and your neighbour collecting items just to make tik tok content. Our future feels uncertain, there is no current trend, sound, visual, clothing item or accessory that does not mimic something of old. We are looking to the past to inform us about what to do with our future, should we dress like Marie Antoinette in coquette retelling? Should we follow the face routines of an American Psycho ? Should we go back to the days of nothing being better as skinny feels?

As all things, these feelings, thoughts and visuals are cyclic every trend is but, this time, the trends do not feel progressive or new, there is nothing about them that feels inspiring, why?

Celebrities

We’re losing them, some in actuality, some in essence and others in influence. Celebrities have always been used to push trends and new things and as they engage in new trends, quickly copying one another and even tik tok influencers, self proclaimed chefs, wives who stay home and tend to the homestead, showing more than ever that they aren’t trendsetters, they’re absorbing the trends to spit them back out to us in annoying and excessive fashion. Now that they’re losing their influence and the direction of the trend cycle in the hands of the consumer, the public has no idea what to look towards. We’re losing our minds cycling through different variations of micro-trends such as blueberry milk nails and cinnamon honey hair, subcultures of subcultures, and so on and so forth. What does one do, when not even their favourite celebrity has enough influence or pull to tell them what they want? In a cloud of confusion, celebrities are grappling with every day people who are interested in deinfluencing others from trends and sustainability efforts but, so are consumers, who want to feel they are allowed to have their excess, and to engage in trend and be sold things by people who get sent things for free for the purpose of influencing, to be close to and involved in a concept (Stanley cup craze) but, also want to feel like they’re against the grain.

As one of the only artists able to move me from my nostalgic station in lieu of something fresher, something new has stated “There’s gotta be somebody you wanna be so bad” it is quite troubling that many don’t know who they are without someone telling them who to be or selling them something, every thing has been done, everyone has been copied at an alarming rate as time goes on and truly fresh faces crop up, and yet we are further from knowing who we are. No amount of Stanley cups or Sonny Angels can tell us that, either.

Fatigue

We are simply tired. This society is burnt out, exhausted. It is easier to mimic somebody else, mimic another concept because it has already been done, we know what to expect, it is safer to go with a flow that has guaranteed expectations and outcomes, than to continue to move forward in ever changing conditions that none of us have experienced before and are not well equipped to deal with. Why not look back to carefree attitudes and getting drunk at the jersey shore, or acting like a character out of a Wes Anderson movie, for something simple, something done

Newness

Newness is scary, the things we expected of life at 12, when looking forward to 25, are much different by the time we get there, It’s hard to cope when looking around and being thrusted into something unknown because it was not what you prepared for and no one told you even as you approached. It’s hard to keep your wits, childish wonder and your naivety about you to create something new and move ahead with gusto. A lot of mimicry has come out of being not so young, still a little dumb, plenty lost and plenty broke.

All of that to say,

There is no longer anything original under the sun and our overexposure makes it hard to feel surprised, wowed or moved by what we see and what we consume. Yet, what can always be made new as time goes on? Familiarity. We are going back in time, as unsure times bubble to feel the very skewed versions of our old selves, our old lives and bringing them into present day to mimic something, anything and any nostalgia buff like myself and Tame Impala knows, looking back may create a new and better version but, that version isn’t true, the new versions are always divorced from what went wrong in those times, with those clothes, that film and that music.

With those not old enough to remember, Indie sleaze is trying to make a comeback, surely urged on by BRAT summer. it looked like so much fun, freedom, partying and no heavy social documentation of any of it outside of cameras that were unloaded days after into facebook folders, it was the best time, wasn’t it? Not when many we’re under heavy drugs and assaulted whilst, not when the often older men in the scene were preying on young party goers and saying that’s just how it is here, not when many were numbing themselves, unable to recall this period of their life.

Today and in 2006, Cory Kennedy is/was considered the queen of Indie Sleaze and the internets first IT girl, even being named so by the NY times, for at the time being a cool dressing, fresh face, hanging with the hottest celebrities, getting magazine covers and having the time of her life but, in reality she was just a 15/16 year old girl, predisposed to depression and getting treated for it, something she would later say numbed her through most of this timeline, with access to parties through her 21 year old mentor and eventual boyfriend.

Is this energy or timeline really what we want to mimic? Of course not, we want the genuine feeling of having fun, we want to opt out of the performance but with glamorization comes romanticization and we mustn’t forget why we had to leave many of these fun times behind, for the better.

This is not condemnation because i regularly engage in nostalgia trysts and wish for simpler times but, I must ask, with more power in our hands than ever, why are we choosing to slide 10 steps back, repackage and mimic yesterday when we are better informed and much more capable? Is there a good way to hold onto the comfort of the past without absorbing the negative traits of those times by proxy? Can we break out of this new-old phase and finally emerge with something new and brighter? Can we sustainably be ourselves? Can we afford to not be mimetic? Many questions that I turn over to you.

I am holding your hand as i say this, as safe and comfortable as it is, to mimic others and attempt to relive old times, celebrities and influencers are losing their likability, influence (their darn minds, as of late…why are celebrities engaging in politics?) and star power, influencers are no better, and those old times? were left in the past for one reason or another, You do not want the chemically destroyed hair from that clown red drug store box dye, nor the galaxy tights, not the Jennifer Lawrence brand of funny, you don’t even want the low rise jeans and you damn sure don’t want the misogyny and racism that was laced throughout half of whatever was popular through many of the past decades. Take what was good about those old times and renew it but, leave the cringe, the harmful and the outdated behind. It is up to us to get rid of what they sold us and start showing each other new (maybe old) ways of independent dress, enjoyment and thought, ways that uplift, are safe to pass down and don’t drag us back to past decades that were filled with plenty of horrific trends, memories, behaviours and toxic slogans to last us a lifetime but, bring us to creating or repurposing what we love, nurturing one another and knowing, understanding and loving what we have including ourselves.

What I do miss, is the hope we had, the urge to be creative, the fun that wasn’t yet sullied by simply growing older and that is the one thing I wish we could reclaim that mimicry is not getting us closer to, because mimicry is not having the feeling but merely observing it and trying it on. and maybe this didn’t make sense but still, i will leave you with it, mull over it, ponder or reject the notion, throw it out of your mind, do with it what you will

xoxo Cherry