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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Comment
Van Badham

Why the bimbocore aesthetic is the path to weaponising the social performance of the ageing woman

Paris Hilton in a grey velour tracksuit
Bimbocore ‘exists to satirise the impossibility of meeting contemporary standards of femininity by aggressively performing them’. Paris Hilton in a velour tracksuit. Photograph: RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

It was a search for the perfect velour tracksuit that put me on the path to #bimbocore. Work obliges me to catch many planes and I am old enough to appreciate that if you can travel with an elasticised waist, loose cuffs and a hood – as well as a mask – then you should.

Internet searches for the soft costume once beloved of early 00s femme celebrity brought me news of a retro revival that apparently started last year. Far further down in the fluffiest of fashion rabbit holes than I had ever intended to travel, I stumbled on to the aesthetic trend of bimbocore.

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