State of Grace

I’ve been thinking a lot about what life felt like back around 2017–2018 lately. Idk why, but I’ve been feeling so nostalgic for that exact vibe. Not just the clothes I used to wear, but... everything about it. The heavy cloudy weather, the cold streets, the hours spent inside coffee shops, the way everyone around me dressed, the whole Pacific Northwest energy. There’s just something about that specific slice of time that I really miss (and honestly, I can’t even explain why).

When I look back at my old photos from those years, I realize my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. We were all living in this bubble of casual streetwear and practical layers. My daily uniform was basically hoodies, relaxed jeans, jackets, and a beat-up pair of Vans that were always slightly damp from the drizzle (which, tbh, was basically unavoidable). The style was so deeply connected to the outdoors—everyone was wearing Patagonia, The North Face, fleece jackets, and raincoats. We were basically doing the whole “functional but somehow still cool” thing before the internet even gave it a proper name.

But what I loved the most about living through that era was that it didn’t feel too perfect. Nobody was walking down the street looking like they had just stepped out of a high-fashion campaign. There was this very casual, slightly messy, “I just threw this on and left my apartment” kind of feeling to the city. And honestly? I kinda miss that.

Though, to be fair, my memory tends to filter out the chaos (lol). It wasn’t all just effortless coffee shop vibes back then. 2017 and 2018 were actually pretty wild years to be online. That was the exact moment Instagram killed the chronological feed, and suddenly we were all obsessing over creating the perfect, curated grid. I remember pulling out my phone to take photos, making sure everything was edited with those moody, faded VSCO filters—usually M5 or HB2—just to match the overcast sky. Like... why were we all doing this? 

And honestly, the internet drama back then was exhausting but addictive. Your feed was either people arguing about the tech boom and the gentrification of our favorite indie dive bars, or it was absolute celebrity warfare. That was the era when Kim Kardashian leaked that infamous phone call, Taylor Swift wiped her entire internet presence, and we watched the Reputation era drop in real-time. Literally every comment section on Twitter and Instagram was just a wall of snake emojis. (I remember watching Kim’s fans flood the comments with those snakes until Taylor literally turned it into a merch empire and brought out that massive inflatable snake named Karyn on tour. Like... you really couldn’t make this stuff up.)

Does anyone remember how Instagram completely lost its mind when Kylie Jenner secretly hid her entire pregnancy for months, only to break the internet with that Stormi video? (I’ll never forget the day she dropped that “To Our Daughter” video out of nowhere, with everyone analyzing that Tyler Ross footage and the Jacob Pace song in the background. Literally everyone became a detective overnight.)

Or even the massive Twitter meltdowns when the Selena Gomez, The Weeknd, and Justin Bieber love triangle was changing every single week? Everyone on Twitter was constantly picking sides (especially when Abel dropped My Dear Melancholy and we were all looping “Call Out My Name” because it literally exposed their whole breakup right before she got back with Justin for that final Jelena run). Like, looking back at it now... what even WAS 2017? :(

It felt like every single day there was a new internet-breaking scandal. Tumblr was practically on fire with people crying over the end of Fifth Harmony or tracking Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth getting back together. We had Cardi B and Nicki Minaj physically fighting at a New York Fashion Week party, which took over our feeds for weeks (waking up to the news that Cardi actually threw her red platform shoe at Nicki at the Harper’s Bazaar Icons party was wild).

Then there was Ariana Grande dropping “thank u, next” out of nowhere after breaking up with Pete Davidson, making everyone on Twitter obsess over their chaotic whirlwind engagement (honestly, hearing her name-drop Big Sean, Ricky, Mac, and Pete in the first few lines felt like a total cultural reset). And then we were all tracking her Sweetener era like it was a full-time job. 

Even YouTube was completely out of control—like when Logan Paul got massively cancelled early in 2018 for the Japan forest video, or when the Tati Westbrook and James Charles drama started brewing, and those endless “tea channels” were blowing up our feeds every single day. I swear there was ALWAYS something happening. It felt like the absolute peak of toxic, monoculture pop drama before everything got fractured into tiny algorithmic niches.

Behind those aesthetic feeds, there was a ridiculous culture war happening right in front of us. It was the absolute peak of the Hypebeast craze. You’d go out and see the classic indie guys in thrifted flannels sharing the sidewalk with kids camping outside stores or dropping insane amounts of money on Supreme box logos and Off-White just to flex on their feeds for the clout. Every local meme account at the time was just making fun of tech workers wearing that infamous corporate Patagonia vest over a button-down shirt (you know EXACTLY the look I mean).

We were trying so hard to keep the old, gritty vibe alive on Tumblr—right before the platform banned adult content in late 2018 and essentially killed its own community. But despite all the noise, the fashion shifted beautifully for most people. By 2018, everyone was ditching their super-tight skinny jeans for looser, straight-leg denim and oversized fits.

Though, honestly, I never fully made the switch. I still wear my skinny jeans today, and honestly, they still look really good on me. Believe me, they still look great, and luckily they still fit well (so I’m not giving them up anytime soon, lol). But back then, dad sneakers started having a massive moment anyway, and I remember staring at a pair of chunky New Balances trying to decide if I actually loved them or hated them (still not sure, btw).

If someone gave me the choice today between going somewhere incredibly fancy or going back to a completely normal, rainy Tuesday afternoon back in 2018... I’d pick 2018 every single time. No hesitation. Just let me walk around the block, grab a warm coffee, put my headphones on, and watch the city pass by (and maybe spend way too long in a coffee shop for absolutely no reason).

Maybe that’s the whole appeal. I just really loved the way my world looked back then

-B :)