If you want to dabble in indie sleaze, look no further for the trend guide to rule all trend guides.
After what feels like the never-ending, noughts-inspired Y2K and McBling trends (think Paris Hilton with tiny bags and tinier crop tops), young people have shifted their sights onto ‘indie sleaze.’ If you haven’t heard this phrase yet, you almost certainly know the reference: think the infamous 2007 photo of Kate Moss leaning out of a balcony, cigarette in mouth, as then-boyfriend Pete Doherty (of The Libertines) plays the guitar.
While it certainly wasn’t known by that label at the time, indie sleaze roughly encapsulates the years from 2006 to 2012. The culture was heavily influenced by British bands and their groupies, and track festivals like Glastonbury. Famous rockstar girlfriends like Kate Moss and Alexa Chung led the way in style, and the big Topshop on Oxford Circus was a fashion cornerstone. “The fashion was hipster subculture, performatively vintage, mixing 70s, 80s and grunge,” writes Glamour UK’s Emily Maddick, who saw the scene firsthand. The era was defined by indie rock track, as well as copious partying and the consumption of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. (Vapes were not yet widespread.)
Mark R. Milan
Indie sleaze began to gain traction online around 2021, which is when Instagram account @indiesleaze was born, posting rave photos by photographer Cobrasnake and style icons from the era like model Agyness Deyn. As someone who is part of Gen Z, I think this era feels so romantic to us because it seems worlds away from today’s highly-commercialised London nightlife, where one double vodka can set you back £16 in some clubs. It feels like you can’t go out every weekend unless you have a trust fund, let alone multiple times a week. (Grassroots events still exist, but I digress…)
It was also before social media became omnipresent in our lives, so it seems simpler, more fun and social, and less performative. It was a time before “aesthetics” and “cores”, when young people dressed a certain way because they were part of a subculture, rather than because they stumbled upon a neatly-packaged, shoppable label online. There’s something that feels much more authentic about this era, even with all its shortcomings. And there were many.
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