The Cool Girl Myth and Trend Culture as Self Abandonment

Trend culture these days moves faster than any of us can keep up with. What was framed as essential a few months ago is quickly recoded as dated or embarrassing, replaced by a new “aesthetic.” For many of us, this produces that dreaded feeling: plenty of clothes, but very little (or no) sense of personal style. But I’m here with a spoiler alert for you, my lovely listener. The problem is not your taste level, it’s the system.

This episode draws on my firsthand experience working inside fashion PR (albeit for a very brief time.) Yes, I had my very own Andy Sachs moment. And no, it was not nearly as glamorous as hers was. You’ll learn how “cool” is less a mystery and more of a series of controlled decisions about who gets seen, when and why. Participating in this f*cked up Truman show reveals the harsh reality. Which is that the more closely you follow trend culture, the less stable your sense of Self becomes. But what do I know? I’m just a millennial in my thirties. Maybe I’m just chopped and unc.

As always, we will approach all of this material sideways instead of straight on, through depth psychology, myth, and understanding of how symbols become powerful (in a truly occult sense) when we repeat them enough. Trend culture is very ritualistic. It’s a kind of shared spell that rewards constant self-editing and treats adulthood like something we should do anything to postpone. Following that logic to its end exposes the paradox at the center of the “Cool Girl” fantasy, which is that the fastest way to lose any sense of yourself is to keep trying to become her, and that real maturity (the unmarketable kind) is what quietly returns your style, and your authority back to where it has always belonged. To you.

Follow @moods.codex on Instagram to be the first to sign up for the waitlist. We’ll be posting updates about the launch there.

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