Four years have passed since the world changing, earth shattering, phrase “hot girl summer” was coined by Megan Thee Stallion in the summer of ‘19. Alongside making you contemplate the terrifying passage of time, it would make sense that you might be craving a new neologism.
OK sure, we had sad girl autumn. But when isn’t autumn/winter, at least a bit, sad? As the evenings get shorter and darker and wetter. Hot girl summer did feel like a celebratory ‘vibe shift’, of sorts, years before New York Magazine coined the buzzword of 2022 (where trend forecasters predicted “the return of early-aughts indie sleaze. American Apparel, flash photography at parties and messy hair and messy makeup.”)
This is our first sleazy summer, and it’s creeping up on us across all aspects of culture. Take Lily Rose Depp’s sexy, sweaty, smoky, morally dubious series The Idol, currently occupying the HBO/Sky’s prime time slot (aka Succession’s warm grave). Whether you believe the controversies or not, the show’s flashing paparazzi light bulbs, skimpy outfits and vivid colour palette are a welcome sight after a spring that felt 50 shades of greige. Heck, even the fact it has controversy surrounding it is buzzy and sleazy — so much so that i-D wrote a piece defending our right to sleazy art and lambasting the oft-puritanical younger half of Gen Z.
This summer’s vibe shift sees Beyoncé’s tour dominating the music world in all its opulent, scantily-clad, disco-ball smashing glory; a looming financial crisis making us all insane; more men wearing crop tops than ever; and everyone
And no one is welcoming summer’s new mood more than stylist, social commentator and self confessed sleazy girl Jess Doolan, who thinks the era began slowly infiltrating mainstream culture during the Euphoria years.
“I would like to preface this by saying that being a sleazy girl is for life, not just for summer,” she says, “but for the not-so-scantily clad amongst us we can see how sleaziness in culture has been channelled into the mainstream for some time now. In the Euphoria era we were constantly subject to stars and characters who were quirky and problematic which, like everything, will eventually travel down into real life.”
Perhaps the best example of this is sleazy girl queen Chloe Cherry, who pivoted from online sex work (porn, camgirling etc) to acting in season two of hit HBO series Euphoria, where she starred as a recovering heroin addict and set the internet alight with her XXL lips, which weren’t even attempting to look natural. During the peak of her post-Euphoria fame, Cherry subsequently gave us one of the first celebrity shoplifting scandals in years when she was charged with theft for stealing a $28 blouse from a shop in Pennsylvania. Cherry’s reps denied the claims, telling TMZ “there was confusion over a blouse that wasn’t properly charged to my client’s credit card,” but still, it was enough to hark back to the good ol’ days of Lindsay Lohan and Winona, and it all felt very sleazy chic.
The SGS aesthetic can be rooted in the Y2K renaissance that has been hard to ignore of late. Which perhaps explains why its key stylistic markers are retro ones: peek-a-boo underwear via whale tails, visable tan lines, bras protruding from vests, heavy eye makeup, micro-shorts, messy dressing (think DIY-cut crop tops, odd layering). Most importantly, lots of skin on show. The sweatier, and shinier, the better.
Your modern-day icons embodying the trend? See Jemima Kirke, Lily Rose Depp, Rachel Sennott. Or masters of the form, the noughties brat pack: Britney, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson and co. This list of inspirational poster girls purposely does not include Kardashians because, according to Doolan, they embody everything that sleaze is fighting against.
“I see 2023 sleaze as being an opposition to the clean living TikTok influencer we are bombarded with in the 21st century,” she explains. “With the indie sleaze trend coming up quicker than Kate Moss at Glastonbury in 2005 it’s no wonder the actions of being a sleaze girl are following suit.” So, unless it’s that picture of Kim trying and failing to drink Grey Goose from the bottle in a 2000s club, don’t expect to see the Kardashians on any moodboards any time soon.
What you will need on your moodboard, though, are Doolan’s three essentials for sleazy girl summer. “Kohl eyeliner, a packet of Marlboro golds and a change of knickers. These girls are characterised by their ability to party all night and look semi-fresh the next day.” Commendable, when you think about it.
