valley of the dull
I want to preface this by saying I am NOT an arbiter of good taste or style or anything in that realm. Still, it's hard not to notice the group of college kids sitting across from me in this Starbucks, all dripped out like they came from the same hyper-curated Gen Z Pinterest board. The same muted tones, oversized fits, carefully disheveled hair that probably took longer to arrange than the "effortless" outfit underneath it. They don't look bad. They just look... dull. Like the Avengers of being okay. What's supposed to signal individuality ends up feeling like performative uniqueness. All style, no sauce. Aesthetic expression that forgot to express anything in particular. Yeah, I'm a bitch. Individuality today feels less like something you discover and more like something you select. We still use words like unique and authentic , but they increasingly function as branding terms. Everyone is different in the same marketable ways. A lot of this comes down ...