On a recent stroll through downtown New York, I started noticing a very specific outfit with uncanny frequency. Ripped jeans. Slim, slightly battered sneakers. A shrunken T-shirt layered over a thin white long sleeve, the cuffs peeking out past the wrists. Sometimes, a cardigan that looks like it might have lived several lives before this one. It’s a vibe that registers instantly if you grew up in the ’90s—even if the wearer didn’t. Which is to say: We’ve arrived at the era of girls accidentally paying homage to the late, great Kurt Cobain.
The formula is simple enough to dissect and recreate: destroyed denim, thrift-store layers, the slim, scuffed sneaker. But the effect is unmistakably Cobain-coded, with a little bit of Courtney Love chaos mixed in. What once read as rebel anti-fashion—cheap-looking cardigans, stretched and hole-laden tees, things worn slightly oversized, low, and askew—is no longer reserved for the kid who spends his afternoons in detention.
