Fashion has always been one of the ways of expression. With the brewing interests over aesthetic styles, whether in clothing or interior design, some people remain unsure what conforms them better.
Our team at AestheticDef aspires to demonstrate these disparities one by one, in harmony with our mission of helping our readers and clients identify their aesthetics. This awakening to the fashion that matches their tastes, elements, and personality should allow them to indulge in a more vibrant lifestyle.
We also recognize that styles have transformed over the years. While this guide lists ten aesthetic types, AestheticDef’s research and discovery go beyond the surface. Also, there are still plenty of aesthetics to cover. Our team of experts will drive updates to this article, and we’ll keep everyone in the loop through our email flyers and social media channels.
Without further ado, let’s delve deeper into the world of Aesthetics.
Aesthetic Explained
In its simplest definition in fashion, aesthetic refers to the various combinations of clothes and wearable items with remarkable harmony with each other. Aesthetic also means the vibe and look that one creates through wearing clothes.
Clothing styles referring to aesthetics rely on fashion popularity. It implies that trends can establish a theme as a staple of an era, or it can help a fashion emerge into the market’s awareness, which could explode as the next big thing in the industry.
Meanwhile, the field of interior design values cohesiveness. The blend of attributes in space should emanate an eye-pleasing discernment. While a regular viewer may not describe the allure, the naked eye should recognize the amity of all objects that intertwine in the space.
Although some aesthetic styles would respect the mingling of two or more genres, every facet must harmonize each other for the design assemblage to work.
With the term explained, listed below are various aesthetic styles that exist. Which one matches your entirety? Read on.
Different Aesthetic Styles: Artsy
Your body is an art, and so are the garments you wear every day. Artsy aesthetics flashes vibrancy in the way wearers clothe their outfits. Like any dramatic art, the details need to scream robustness and vivaciousness. The artsy, also called the artist or hoe style, reflects a person’s high-spirited energy.
In effect, one can wear an artsy aesthetic through rich colors. Fashion experts prefer orange and yellow as base hues that wearers can apply on jumpers or t-shirts. As with other visual art, artsy aesthetics also employs elaborative lines, shapes, and visual texture to bring bold statements to the outfit.
The artsy type is perfect for people who:
- Collect album records
- Those who paint the walls of their bedroom and love doing DIY stuff
- Has an interest in accessories and prints involving plants and flowers
- Individuals who keep daily journals
Staying true to the artsy aesthetic means wearing clothes that match this style and surrounding yourself with objects a real artist would. Display easels, Van Gogh replica arts, pastels, and adopted indoor plants. As for garments, you might want yellow, blue, and green shades and fabrics with sunflower, leaves, or pineapple details.
Grunge
Known for its rebellious and unconventional look, the grunge aesthetic relates well to a music genre bearing the same name. Grunge was the contrary result of the absolutists’ desire to impose formal dress codes. The sort became a staple of grunge artists whose fans copied them during concerts.
Wearing this aesthetic means being unorthodox; this is quite ironic when reading guides about grunge. Plaids are staples in fashion and denim fabrics—be it a jacket or pants. Oversized graphics t-shirts would suit a lady’s outfit well, with matching ripped jeans that pose a punkish design. The more graphic the front of the shirt looks, the more it will catch attention.
There are many grunge types, though the influence aims to stay away from the norms. As a result, garments made for the followers of this aesthetic are the opposite of slim-fit and tidy clothing. This unusualness also constructs a grunge interior space.
The grunge aesthetic is excellent for:
- The thrifty
- Those who disregard curfews
- Warehouse party-goers
- Hardcore fans of Kurt Cobain and other grunge personalities
Living the grunge life may be full of dark or black tones. If not, it will always have a band tee, oversized shirts, flannel plaid fabrics, and some headphones hanging around.
Smart Casual
Smart casuals are fashionable business attire that young adults wear. While this aesthetic falls under business outfits, each cloth piece harmonizes well with the other. This makes smart-casual looks versatile to wear; it brings enough elegance.
Typical smart casual attire involves lighter wear than normal, spawning from the use of sleeves, slacks, skirts, sportscoat, and jeans. Only in smart casual that wearing jeans for formal meetings becomes acceptable, so as long it the top wear compliments it. In their fashion palette, wearers can also opt for cool colors like blue, green, and grey.
Smart casual is sometimes a requirement in office clothing. Still, it is an excellent aesthetic for:
- Work at home employees
- Antique enthusiasts
- Residents of exclusive villages
- On-the-go big spender
Chic
A gender-specific style, the chic aesthetic centers on ladies’ interests. While chic’s original definition refers to the casualness of the outfit, the style is anything but casual by today’s standards. Unlike other aesthetic types in this list, this cluster requires meeting a certain level of sophistication. It means imposing high regard for elegance and imposing classy codes in outfits.
Applying this aesthetic means one must follow a formal dress code of skirt or slacks. Some good recommendations for the top outfits are blazers, trench coats, turtle necks, and long coats. A specific genre-related to this aesthetic, high fashion, involves all elements of elegance and uses branded clothing to showcase status.
Bohemian
There are enough beach vibes in bohemian aesthetics. Part of the reason why boho chic radiates so much summer feels is because of the textile textures and how loosely the clothes are to their wearer. Bohemian aesthetics also roots back in the hippie movement in the 60s.
Thus, when executing bohemian aesthetics, one must acknowledge that this type has nature as its inspiration. Colors should have earthy neutral tones, with light brown being the most popular. Some bohemian outfits entail nature-related fine prints and even floral textures. Accessories are also in-demand for this aesthetics, focusing on floral designs, bead necklaces, wooden accessories, and turbans.
Bohemian interior design, however, encourages a mix of different styles that work. It may be tricky for a greenhorn designer, but anyone who handled such client requests knows that overdoing things in boho is the real style killer.
Boho is for:
- Those who love earth skin tones
- Mix-and-matchers
- Beach-goers
Gothic
One of the most infamous aesthetics to exist, gothic is one of the fashion styles that poses a gloomy tone. Iconoclastic to the artsy aesthetic, this type focuses on dark themes rather than standing out through vibrancy.
Pop culture had also quoted gothic through references in the form of vampire appearances. Thus, implicating such aesthetics would require dyed hair, black pants, a skirt, and even sleeves.
While there are similarities between grunge and gothic, the two are completely different from each other. For one, gothic aesthetics focuses on completely black fashion items. Makeup also plays an important difference between the two aesthetic styles, with gothic creating a pale effect on the skin tone.
Goth would suit those who are:
- Fans of The Cult, Evanescence, The Cure, Depeche Mode and other goth rock bands
- Friendly with black makeup, lipstick, and other dark cosmetics
- Have strange love for the occult, death music, vampires, and similar entities
Streetwear
From the word itself, streetwear pertains to the wearable fashion that anyone can take out when walking down the street. Like grunge, the streetwear aesthetic has some music inspiration, specifically from hip-hop, when the genre is still blooming on small scales within the streets. This history makes streetwear focus on masculine outfits even if the style appeals to all genders.
Aside from hip-hop influence, streetwear emphasizes comfort rather than placing a high regard on some fashion code. Thus, casual cloth items like sweatshirts, jogging pants, and sneakers are permissible as long as they are proportional to each other.
Preppy
The term preppy used to be a culture within the northeast regions of the US, particularly in the university-prepping schools where it got its name. Preppy aesthetics have outfits that are usually not revealing. The context lies with the region bearing a lot of conservative families living in it, so it’s only natural that the fashion remains conservative, too.
Executing preppy aesthetics would spell collared shirts, blazers, and sweaters as top outfits in a woman’s wardrobe. Neutral colors are also staples on a preppy skirt or pants.
There has been a short period where shirts are worn over button-down shirts in an attempt to make a color combination work. This quirky fad also falls under the preppy style. On the other hand, preppy interior decorating operates on the same concept: use vibrant hues against traditional colorings to bring out that youthful confidence.
Bois Soft
In response to toxic masculinity, a part of the fashion and design industry came up with soft boi. Unlike men’s fashion, which represents strong, independent men, this alternative introduces the side of emotional guys who act and dress far from traditional expectations.
While not necessarily effeminate-looking, the soft boi fashion inclines on artistry and musicality, often leaning toward gender fluid clothing. Its interior design facade reveals the same ideals — a home with elements that suggest sexual liberty and openness to diversity.
Bois Soft is great for:
- Those who like to emulate Harry Styles, Tom Holland, and other popular soft bois
- Men who want to break free from the time-honored fashion that limits them from sharing their real selves with the world
Different Aesthetic Styles We Will Discuss Soon:
- Light Academia Aesthetic
- Dark Academia Aesthetic
- Vintage Aesthetic
- Soft Girl Aesthetic
- Baddie Aesthetic
- 90s Aesthetic
Different Aesthetic Styles: Which One Are You?
There are still many different aesthetic styles to discuss. But no matter how complete our list is, finding your style that truly defines your persona and represents your tastes is a detailed process to tiptoe on, especially if it involves a huge sum of investment.
However, choosing an aesthetic doesn’t have to be very tedious and methodological for some people. Many would favor elements that jive well with their character — with or without enough knowledge of aesthetic types and their characteristics.
While things work out for a few businesses and individuals, some people, including budding artists or stylists, would struggle to find their zone.
This case of ambiguity is where our friendly AestheticDef team comes in. We virtually sit down with our clients and understand their sense of style. After careful analysis, decoding, and judgment, we use the information gathered to recommend a shortlist of aesthetics to adopt. It will still be up to our patrons whether they will heed our advice or not.
As we understand that not everyone can put their thoughts into words, our blog publications aim to deliver the most informative articles that tackle day-to-day chaoses regarding design and aesthetics.
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