Pop-Punk Girl Summer Is On the Horizon

Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world.

Spring 2021 has brought with it the mass re-emergence of some controversial early-2000’s trends: the low-rise trouser, the visible thong, the going-out top. But a different, edgier side of the decade is in evidence too, if not on the runway, then in a certain subset of celebrity style. Some people, it seems, want to surface from the pandemic showing off not their erogenous zones but their scene cred. Pop-punk has become the season's hottest topic (I'm so sorry!) with staples like graphic tees, plaid trousers, creepers, and Vans showing up on notables ranging from Gen Z (TikToker Addison Rae) to Gen X (Kourtney Kardashian).

Part of this seems to be driven by buzzed-about pop-punk couplings: There’s Megan Fox pairing up with Machine Gun Kelly, who’s moved from rap to pop-punk with his most recent album Tickets to My Downfall, and Kardashian with Travis Barker. Fox made a U-turn from her Old Hollywood bombshell style in flannel-and-denim ensembles that match her beau's (not to be outdone, Kelly has accessorized with a necklace apparently containing Fox’s blood), while Kardashian traded in clingy, neutral separates for T-shirts with punk lyrics and towering creepers (they were Prada, bien sûr.) When the quartet double-dated at, where else, the UFC 260 event, my timeline lit up with appreciations of their couples' looks. Then there’s the eternally pop-punk Avril Lavigne and rapper Mod Sun, who can be counted on to step out in looks accessorized with skulls and zippers.

The celebrity homages don't end there. Miley Cyrus pops up on Instagram rocking trucker hats and low-rise jeans worn with a studded belt and ultra-cropped ribbed tank. Hayley Williams released a new album, along with a product that seems tailor-made for the pop-punk community: temporary hair dye in neon colors. Bella Hadid embraced chunky soles and low-rise trousers. And Megan Thee Stallion, always ahead of a trend, sported bright baby-blue strands and mall-goth studs late last summer.

The aesthetic has also been hypercharged by the fact that the music itself is enjoying a revival, with young artists like Meet Me At the Altar and pop punk-influenced rapper 24KGoldn putting their own stamp on the genre. “Vintage” pop-punk has become huge on TikTok, and songs by All Time Low and Simple Plan went viral in the app's nostalgia-driven echo chamber. The angsty lyrics and soaring choruses appeal to a younger generation frustrated with pandemic stagnancy, and they’re re-discovering the fashions of the genre along with them.

What’s most notable about the 2020s version of pop-punk is that its adherents are drawing from a larger fashion vernacular without being overly concerned about fitting perfectly into one style. Like grunge and goth before it, it’s now part of a grab bag of alternative references that musicians pull from. When trends get thrown into the blender of TikTok and Instagram, strict boundaries between eras and genres dissolve. And while this trend has yet to trickle up to the runway, can a luxury designer-Hot Topic collaboration be far behind? Your move, Demna Gvasalia.

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