In Defence Of Girlhood: Bows, Ribbons, and Silk.

The Age of Internet Nostalgia is resurfacing with an emergence of symbols and language associated with Girlhood. From “Girl Dinner,” to “Girl Math” to “Hot Girl Walk” there has been a collective emphasis on Girlhood all across Instagram and TikTok. #Girl was tagged on socials, all over the summer along with images of Girls doing their daily activities.

The notion of Girlhood has always had a presence online, evident through the 2014 Tumblr soft-grunge teenage girls, to the happier VSCO girl. The difference with the Girlhood emergence today is that Gen Z and Millenial women refer to themselves as Girls in a longing for a past. It is important to note, that it is very different when a woman describes herself as a Girl, rather than a man in a boardroom calling a woman a girl in a patronizing manner.

There were hints of bows in the Clowncore and ribbons in the Seascape trends, which GLITCH deep-dived at the beginning of this year. The difference with the Girlhood theme is this isn’t a trend, but rather a subset of women reclaiming their identity and showcasing that your identity as a girl to woman is complex and that your younger self still informs your former self. The adornments and symbols of femininity, are a beautiful form of self-expression and collective identity for Girlhood/Womanhood and a longing for a future where women can dress freely without judgment.

The Girlhood trend was filtered into fashion with a resurgence of bows, ribbons, and silk on clothing, and a quest to embrace femininity, hyper-personalization, and individuality. Miu Miu’s Autumn/Winter 2022 collection had the debut of ballet shoes, and then along came TikTok with tutorials on how to add ribbons to your dupes (cheaper duplicates of designer items) ballet shoes, which spread into bow tutorials for hair, headphones, and jeans.

New York and London Fashion Week had bows everywhere, especially GLITCH’s top picks for bows, ribbon, and silk Sandy Liang, Simone Rocha, and Yuhan Wang’s collections: