The Tumblr Girl Is Back—And That’s Your Recession Indicator

Rae, the TikTok star-turned-singer, recently posted up in Iceland with wired headphones and a bleached-blonde mane dipped in hot pink. She wore low-rise underwear, and her music video looked like it had been edited in with an Instagram filter and uploaded in 2014. Emo music is back, so is matte lipstick and boho tops.

Mind you, the Tumblr era was over a decade ago, and somehow, in 2025, we’re back to our Tumblr/WeHeartIt roots. 

The Tumblr Era Revisited 

From 2008 to 2014, fashion went corporate: blazers over bodycon dresses, belts cinching everything, and business casual somehow making its way into the club. Forever 21 was at its peak. Peplum tops, Daisy Dukes, and skinny jeans were everywhere. Meanwhile – from 2007 to 2009, when we were all too busy on WeHeartIt to notice – the economy was tanking. Yeah, maybe my parents were quietly stressing over the bills, but Gossip Girl was on, life felt simpler, and social media still had that electric, novelty spark. Turns out, we cycle through crisis just as fast as we cycle through clothes. The only difference now is that we have a name for it: recession-core – and it's being used to explain the exact kind of fashion whiplash that comes with economic anxiety.

Brands like Celine and musicians like “The Dare” have helped bring indie sleaze back from the grave, but Addison Rae is doing the real groundwork. Her latest track Headphones On could double as a Tumblr gifset from 2013. If you told me someone screencapped it and slapped a lyric from Born to Die on top, I’d believe you. Marina, a talented Welsh singer who literally started her career on Myspace, is also performing at the Governors Ball this summer. Lana Del Rey has been teasing an album for a year, and Lorde has fully defrosted, showing up at red-carpet events and teasing music. 

Fashion in the past 5 years has been ruled by TikTok. In this case, with the inflation, burnout, and the absurd cost of living, people are feeling angsty. The clean girl aesthetic (that polished, minimalist ideal) isn’t cutting it anymore, and neither are slickbacks. They're reaching for ripped jeans, dark lipstick, and messy hair instead (I mean, who would want to spend over $100 for a haircut in this economy?).  

It makes sense, though. When everything feels chaotic, people dress how they feel. They're forced to retreat within themselves. "I think that ‘grunge’ style in a broader sense will always exist," said style content creator Marta Langston in her TikTok video "Tumblr was the first place to widely romanticize the edgy, mysterious soft-grunge girl." 

But it’s not exactly a one-to-one copy. Hailie Barber, another fashion influencer, pointed out the updates and said, "Berry lipstick shades are being swapped for more peachy tones; there’s fewer grid patterns and more checkerboard; and ripped skinny jeans are being replaced by straight-leg and boyfriend jeans."

Some call it recession-core. Some call it indie sleaze. Others just say it’s what happens when people get sick of pretending their lives are sterile and aesthetically pleasing. “There’s this trend that everyone’s been talking about that’s taking Instagram back to its golden era, when people were posting unhinged selfies and filters,” said Rebeca Oksana, a fashion content creator on TikTok, when speaking to The Independent.

However, there's a reason it keeps coming back. For a lot of millennials, it never really left. They weren’t swayed by the clothing trends, stayed loyal to their skinny jeans, and never stopped listening to Arctic Monkeys. With this in mind, the resurgence isn’t so much about fashion but more about memory, nostalgia, and finding yourself and your personal style, one that isn’t curated by the algorithm.  "I believe that people will start to go against those trends and start to actually create their own personal styles," Oksana said. "Something I have seen a lot on social media are people saying, ‘Stop creating a trend over everything. Just be yourself.’"

Easier said than done when you’re up against microtrends that age like milk. Yet even if Tumblr Girl 2.0 ends up being a phase, it’s one a lot of people are ready to live through again. Daisy chains, Doc Martens, eyeliner so black it stains – it’s all back in the recession.

So yeah, Addison Rae has neon hair. Who cares? Maybe we all should – because that might be the real indicator worth watching.