If indie sleaze is returning, then please can it leave these 19 items in the late 2000s

Please no one ever wear shorts and tights again

2 years ago

Ripped tights, denim hot-pants and thin headbands in backcombed hair – indie sleaze is officially making a comeback.

The fashion style synonymous with the late 2000s and early 2010s is having a revival on TikTok. The hashtag on TikTok has over 11million views with people showing throwback photos of them in their indie sleaze days or predicting which trends will be big next.

The trend was popularised by celebrities like Sky Ferreira, Alexa Chung, Ellie Goulding, the Geldof sisters, and Florence Welch. They made stumbling out of clubs with a half lit cigarette, leather jacket, dark eyeliner and a baggy vest look effortlessly cool. When we all attempted the trend we made our way to Primark, Topshop and American Apparel to bag a pair of creepers and a black skater skirt. It’s safe to say we didn’t look anything like Chloe Sevigny.

Whilst Kate Moss may be able to pull the look off, the rest of us need to learn from our naive fashion mistakes and never wear these 19 indie sleaze items ever again:

1. Disco pants

Specifically the ones from American Apparel – no one looked good in these.

2. Creepers

The clue is literally in the name. These shoes were ugly and down right creepy. I appreciate a chunky classic loafer but not these velvet platform shoes that look like you’re gonna trip up every time you take a step.

3. Ripped tights

Messy, they make your legs freezing and are just not a vibe tbh.

4. Hair flopped over to one side

In the noughties the more backcombed the hair, the better. Now I’m all for volume in the hair, but not when it looks you’ve been dragged through a hedge backward. I’m getting hives just thinking about trying to put a hair brush through it.

Also why did we insist on flopping the hair to one side? The classic Facebook profile picture became backcombed hair flopped to the side, head tilted and knees bent together at an angle.

5. The really thin headbands

Your backcombed birds’ nest was never complete without one of these. Essentially a piece of over-priced string in your hair.

They were sometimes braided, sometimes in neon colours but at all times they failed to do anything of interest.

6. Shorts and tights

I gag, convulse, shudder and feel incredibly sick at the thought of ever wearing a pair of mini denim hot pants and black tights again.

7. Little black skater skirts

These skirts were definitely on the twee end of the indie sleaze vibe. Zoeey Deschanel and every other Tumblr girl rocked them with a Peter Pan collar sleeveless top whilst looking down and posing for the camera.

This weird school girl look can firmly remain in 2012.

8. Brogues

A continuation of the school girl aesthetic. These were the flattest shoes known to man and in the early 2010s often came in pastel colours from Topshop. You’re lying if you say you didn’t have a pair.

However they were uncomfortable and made you look like an over grown toddler.

9. Cross jewellery

Are you a devout catholic? If not then there was no excuse for wearing cross earrings, necklaces and the occasional ring.

10. Fake Raybans

Pure chaos, especially if they’re worn with the lenses knocked out. How did we think this looked good?

11. Blue and white striped shorts

The nightmares these still give me.

12. Big t-shirts and tights

Honestly the chokehold tights had on us all in the early 2010s and late 2000s. It’s as if we saw perfectly decent outfits and thought “I know what will ruin this” – a pair of tights.

13. These scarves

Scarves were really everywhere in the late 2000s and early 2010s, particularly thin scarves that were only there for fashion purposes. Whilst I wouldn’t rush to wear the Alexander McQueen skull one any time soon, I respect the iconic legacy it’s left behind.

However one scarf that absolutely cannot make a return is the black and white check scarf. It was cultural appropriation at its worst. The scarf is inspired by is a traditional Arabian headdress called a Keffiyeh and yet in 2008 every single indie person you knew was wearing one. Not a good look.

14. Thigh high socks

Often wore with those varsity inspired bright shorts and “nerd” glasses, there’s just something about wearing knee high socks that does not sit well with me.

15. Those thin black long cardigans

Everyone in year eight was rushing to Primark to get one of those long, thin black cardigans that you made even longer but stuffing your hands in the pockets and stretching the material.

They looked good on no one. Absolutely no one. They add nothing to a look apart from making you look like you’ve been swamped by a mini cloak.

16. Gold crappy studs on everything

The manufacturer of these studs must have been laughing throughout 2011 because there was not an item of clothing you could buy without a single one of these studs attached to it.

Leather jackets, knitwear, shoes and even floral dress were adorned with them. The floral dresses with studs in particular were sold to us as a way to be “girly with an edge”. Please stay in 2011, I beg.

17. Slogan white vest top and black bra showing

I’m all for showing your best underwear off. Literally go out in your best bralet – it’s fit. However worn with a white baggy slogan vest it just made you look like you’d literally rolled out of bed or were attempting to look like you were in a band. Cringe.

18. Thousands of bracelets on your wrists

Friendship bracelets, festival wristbands and those wooden Jesus picture bracelets. They covered everyone’s arms all the way up to the elbow and they never, ever came off. You’d shower, sleep and go to school in them.

Just take a minute and consider how many germs were on them. If you still think wearing these is a good look, then you need to take a long hard look at yourself.