Culture, SCAD
Culture, SCAD

From Punk to Tomato Girl

Written by Ananya Panchal. Graphics by Ananya Panchal.

How rebellious subcultures evolved to make today’s micro-trends.

I think of micro trends as distant cousins of subcultures, both are niche differentiations of an aesthetic, a vibe or a color palette. But some might argue that micro trends have drifted too far from the family.

Subcultures have long challenged the mainstream, while their micro-trend relatives, modern-day “cores” and “aesthetic” categories, now define it and fuel our consumerist society, according to a 2024 analysis by Studio Q.I.D. for Global Fashion Agenda.

Micro trends may have evolved from subcultures, but they’ve become so differentiated that they hardly represent cohesive categories or ideas. Today, the term is often used as a catchall for visually pleasing photos loosely tied together by a vibe.

As an experiment for this article, I used a random word generator (filtered for nouns) and searched each result on Pinterest to see if it could form an Instagram-worthy “aesthetic.” I did this 10 times, and in six of those instances, the word translated into a visually appealing, desirable aesthetic. These results could easily land on someone’s Explore page. The takeaway? Everything is a micro trend.

While this territory is clearly oversaturated, there’s still joy to be found in exploring micro trends. It’s fascinating that our minds can transform regular photos, inanimate objects and color palettes into entire universes. For example, we might see a girl in red stockings, a bright, blushed face, a basket and velvet Birkins and instantly say, “That’s so tomato-girl-core.”

It becomes a game, spotting patterns and naming them. A pale yellow sundress isn’t just a dress; it’s “butter-yellow-core.” A bold graphic tee? “Indie sleaze.” Even an ugly sweater or scarf can be absorbed into a beloved aesthetic like the “2000s-rom-com-frazzled-English-woman” look.

Still, the rise of micro-trend absurdities mirrors, and arguably feeds off, our growing capitalistic tendencies. Often, these trends serve one purpose: to make you desire the hyper-specific look they present. And to emulate that look, you usually have to buy it. Following the coastal grandmother aesthetic, for instance, might mean investing in a $300 striped cashmere sweater, beige linen pants and silk skirts.

This is where the fun gets complicated. Micro trends subtly seduce consumers into indulgent, sometimes unnecessary spending.

It’s a little sad, because subcultures used to stand for the opposite. Consider a perspective from The New School for Social Research, which notes that postwar scholars at the Birmingham School believed working-class subcultures like Mods and Punks symbolized resistance to the consumption-driven values of mainstream capitalism (The New School for Social Research, 2025).

Take Punk, for example. As Paris and Ault wrote in their 2004 essay in Peace Review, punk culture was rooted in “anti-capitalist, do-it-yourself” values. The Bristorian, in a 2020 essay, also described punk’s emergence in 1970s Britain as a direct response to conservatism and the rise of neoliberalism.

Micro trends, by comparison, don’t represent rebellion or ideology. They don’t carve out subversive identity groups. Instead, they create capitalistic desire.

In today’s society, one might argue that the very idea of subcultures no longer exists. We’re united not by belief systems, but by products. Style is no longer an act of liberation, it’s a disguised form of product placement.

So while micro trends like “tomato girl” and “coastal grandma” are fun to emulate or explore, it’s important to stay aware of their deeper implications. They may have roots in rebellion, but they now serve a very different system. We should remember where they came from, subcultures that created space for people who opposed the norm, not as elite branches of hyper-consumerism.

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