By Giulia Piceni. Cover image: Margie Mitchem for I’M Firenze Digest.
Walking through the streets or scrolling through my feed, I notice a trend that is impossible to ignore. People want to look disheveled, runway shows are embracing the intentionally ugly, and accessories like the Labubu are gaining traction not despite their tackiness, but because of it. As a culture, we have developed a fascination with the imperfect, the messy, and the chaotic. This is not simply a rejection of beauty, but a deliberate embrace of a kind of aesthetic honesty that feels soothing and democratic in the current moment. The current obsession with ugliness in fashion, social media, and everyday life may not be accidental. It is a way to embrace imperfection, assert individuality, and navigate a society obsessed with curated appearances.
The Rise of Ugly Aesthetic: How Instagram and Fashion Are Breaking the Rules
To understand this shift, we first need to look at social media, our window on the world. Pre-pandemic Instagram feeds, around 2016, were polished, cohesive, and tidy. Each post was carefully curated with warm filters, consistent color palettes, and a sense of perfection. As the platform evolved, users started posting more frequently and in less structured ways. The Instagram dump emerged, a collection of last-minute, seemingly messy photos that document a moment or a series of experiences. Trips, outfits, or everyday snippets are thrown together without concern for aesthetic perfection. The intentional messiness signals authenticity and immediacy. It is a conscious search for ugliness as a form of self-expression and cultural commentary.
But this attraction to ugliness goes beyond social media. Walking through cities, noticing street style, and observing new runway shows, one sees a collective embrace of disheveled appearances. Clothes that look unpolished, hair that is intentionally messy, and the blending of high and low fashion all signal a shift away from the rigid standards of beauty and polish. Ugliness feels democratizing. It communicates awareness of time, place, and social position. People acknowledge where they stand in society, and assert their individuality by rejecting perfection in favor of authenticity. In this sense, ugliness becomes a visual language that is accessible to everyone, not just the elite.
Why Fashion’s Embrace of Ugly Is Shaking Up Beauty Standards
Fashion designers have long flirted with ugliness, but recent shows embrace it consciously and boldly. The debut show of Jean Paul Gaultier by Duran Lantink is a clear example. The collection was intentionally shocking, designed to provoke discomfort and challenge conventional notions of beauty. Clothes were messy, exaggerated, and at times deliberately off-putting. The purpose was not to please, but to awaken a new awareness in the audience. Similarly, accessories like the labubu, once dismissed as tacky, are now celebrated. They function as a form of affordable indulgence, a lipstick effect as experts would say that allows access to luxury in times of economic uncertainty. In this way, ugliness can be playful, practical, and politically aware.
The truth is thatthere is a comforting quality to ugliness and disorder. Messiness signals honesty. In contrast to curated perfection, which often feels performative and inaccessible, imperfection creates space for empathy, identification, and relatability. It is easier to see oneself reflected in the messy, the unfinished, and the deliberately chaotic. The rise of disheveled aesthetics reflects a cultural need for reassurance and connection. When everything feels curated and polished, imperfections become revolutionary. They remind us that beauty is not the only marker of value or taste.
Designers like Lantink are intentionally amplifying this trend. Their shows revel in shock, discomfort, and deliberate ugliness. The goal is not mass appeal but cultural provocation. By presenting exaggerated, chaotic, or messy visuals, designers challenge the audience to reconsider their assumptions about beauty, taste, and desirability. In doing so, they create spaces for conversation, reflection, and emotional engagement that polished, minimalist presentations cannot achieve. Ugliness becomes a tool for dialogue, critique, and even empowerment.
The Push Against Minimalism: Embracing Chaos and Playfulness
The embrace of ugliness also marks a subtle rebellion against minimalism. Minimalist aesthetics often signify status, either through fast fashion replication of clean lines or through the subdued elegance of high-end luxury items. While minimalism can be aspirational, it is also alienating and exclusive. The messy, the chaotic, and the unconventional offer an alternative. By deliberately choosing what is messy, odd, or intentionally ugly, people and designers claim authorship over their style. Ugliness becomes a conscious, socially intelligent choice rather than a compromise or mistake.
Furthermore, accessories like the labubu also illustrate how ugliness can serve multiple cultural purposes. While it may be considered tacky, it also provides an accessible way to engage with luxury fashion. It is a form of indulgence that feels democratic in a time of recession and economic uncertainty. Wearing something intentionally conspicuous or slightly ugly signals self-awareness and confidence. It communicates that the wearer is tuned into the cultural moment, aware of their position, and comfortable embracing a form of beauty that is unconventional and playful. In a world that has long rewarded polish and perfection, the ugly feels surprisingly soothing and profoundly democratic.
