Hello internet.
Lately, I’ve been seeing lots of articles on personal style, which declare the death of microtrends and suggest we’re heading into a new era in which people finally value their individual aesthetics. Of course, this is false. There will always exist those who are genuinely embedded in a visually-driven subculture or sentimentally connected to their stylistic expression lean into their self-cultures and set trends. There will always be trend followers. And there will always be those who feel the need to explain the tangible into a vision beyond face value, I am one of those people. And there will always be a need for marketing. Thus, there will always be microtrends. While I detest these silly little descriptions that say nothing new (i.e. cherry cola hair), I’m also guilty of using them as a tool to romanticize my life.
My black hair can be just black hair or it can be silk sable hair. My nails can just be lace press-ons from Rite Aid, or they can give the Lana Del Rey Nadia Lee Cohen Interview Magazine1 photoshoot. My love for vintage nautical pieces can exist as it is or it can be dubbed efficiently as fishermancore.
Microtrends and –cores are useful for conveying a dream beyond the tangible image, visions only existing in abstractions, so although we detest the microtrend for its connection to fast fashion, we can’t deny the need for a language of aesthetics. That leaves me here, trying to articulate my own visual identity and culture: camicore. I am not trying to start a trend, or to lay claim to any obscure aesthetic, I am simply sharing what inspires me, what influences me. This is an exercise in self-inquiry and embodiment. Alas, we begin the hermit year.2 If there’s any time to stop looking at it girls and the influencers and dig deep into your own tastes and history, that time is now.
How can camicore be characterized and how does it characterize me?
eclectic, kitschy, whimsical, decadent, maximalist
I’m not sure I could ever finish mining my memory for what influences my style and taste, but I think this is a good place to start:
I Love Lucy on Sunday mornings, the soundtrack to my life consisting of Disco and Motown, but also Bobby Martin and Frank Sinatra, my grandmother watching movies from the Golden Age, their Mid-Atlantic accents swimming around my mind. Also, I found Lana del Rey at 9 and though I wish not to associate myself with the brand of the coquette girlblogger, I can’t deny that her aesthetics have had a great impact on me.
Additionally, camicore encompasses my interests in…
Beatniks and Hippies
The Girls by Emma Cline at the beginning of high school made me realize that I wanted a sensational, subversive girlhood, and to ride the coattails of youth and beauty. It was one of my first literary encounters with hippie culture. Theodore Roszak’s The Making of a Counter Culture and Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test are very formative books in my life as well. I seemed to follow a bit too closely to Wolfe’s “beatnik cum hippie“ (lol) that I’ve ended up spending a lot of time in Santa Cruz and SF’s North Beach.
Surf Rock, Tiki Bars, Exotica
This very much feels like an intersection of my racial and national identity. As a Filipino-American, I feel like a mixture of these aesthetics, one that is at times entirely different from its derivatives. I also did Polynesian dancing for a bit when I was little. The surf rock-tiki bar vibes are a fantasy of the East as told by the West, which is indeed problematic. Nonetheless, I like how the art and the music interact with each other to create a romantic, sublime view of the exotic. It’s dangerous, sexy, psychedelic, cinematic. Without saying a single word, oftentimes the titles are like “A Kiki in Lanai,“ and the music just sets the scene. Unfortunately, this aesthetic paints the islands as a beautiful, submissive place for one’s own selfish enjoyment. A bit White Lotus…Despite its ugly history, exotica is my favorite music to listen to if I want to feel beautiful : )
Oriental Maximalism
I suppose this is in the same vein as my interest in beatniks and exotica and the Belle Époque of the 1890s. The aesthetics of oriental maximalism (which I admit is a kind of fetishism)3 that I enjoy most are the dreamy silhouettes, psychedelic and lush fabrics, settings of fantastical hedonism. Smoke and saffron. Opium dens. Bedouin culture. Baudelaire’s artificial paradises. Dim lights and draping never did anyone any harm. I think the aesthetics of Persian culture in particular are very beautiful, there is a sensory richness.
60s Pastiche Films and TV Shows
You know I loved The Love Witch (2016). Candy-colored palettes, polka dots, pinstripes, Sabrina Carpenter’s universe, saccharine set design, I want it all. My favorite movie is La La Land, which I feel uninteresting saying, but hey, it’s popular for a reason. It was inspired by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is beautiful sonically and visually and man they just don’t make ‘em like Catharine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo anymore do they?? I can’t recommend either of these movies highly enough, even if you aren’t a fan of musicals. I predict a continued rise of pastiche in 2025.
Camp
Sister of pastiche. Camicore would not be complete without camp. I largely connect to this in performing, satiring, and criticizing the high femme. Some favorites: Interview Magazine, Nadia Lee Cohen, Kourtney Roy, Dita Von Teese, Amanda Lepore…
Burlesque + the Showgirls Boudoir
Y2K postfeminist aesthetics (think The House Bunny) and revival of burlesque (The Pussycat Dolls, the world of Miss Xtina, Dita Von Teese) gave me insight into women using their seductive charms creatively. I found this exhilarating to watch as a young child, perhaps because it was part of my queer sexual awakening. Burlesque images informed my girlhood, filling me with an exhibitionist urge that exclaimed, I would like to be sexy and powerful one day! I would like to be witnessed! Burlesque revealed to me a new kind of power exchange, one in which the object of desire has the upperhand.
Other things I’m a fan of (not pictured)
90s + Y2K Gwen Stefani4
Eastern Spirituality and its art (esp. Buddhism + Taoism)
Playboy
Erotic art and writing, esp. Anais Nin
Thanks for tuning into my variety show of writings. Until next time…
*the curtains draw to a close*
. ݁₊ ⊹.ᐟ
Listen to the official Cusp of Cami playlist 🐇
Apparently the magazine was nicknamed “the Crystal Ball of Pop.“ This in itself is camicore.
in tarot
This is clearly a generalized romantic fantasy of real cultures. I’m not saying it isn’t problematic…I’m here to share beautiful things.
Was her Harajuku Girls era cultural appropriation or appreciation? I don’t know, but it was enticing to me as a kindergartener and Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was the first CD I ever owned.