| Then there’s GQ putting Kim Kardashian on the front cover of its men of the year issue eating a bag of Cheetos while wearing an expensive, luxe suit. While she’s supposedly licking orange dust off her thumb, the rest of her fingers remain clean – an impossible feat, anyone who has eaten the corn-puff snacks will know. Not to be outdone, her half-sister Kylie Jenner promotes her debut clothing line, KHY, while posing with a half-eaten burger and can of Coke. The burger is carefully sliced rather than gnawed at and there is not a trace of sauce on Jenner’s meticulously lined lips. Another dead giveaway? Full fat rather than Diet Coke. On and on these neatly drawn up plans of simulated disarray go. It’s happening online, too. Gone are well-lit DSLR photos of avocado on toast. In their place are blurry shots of smeared dinner plates and wine stained tablecloths and plenty of unfiltered crying. This laissez-faire attitude is spearheaded by influencers such as the 22-year-old Emma Chamberlain, who the New York Times says “invented the way people talk on YouTube … particularly the way they communicate authenticity”. Then there’s Julia Fox, who has been known to embrace slob style. “Everyone is a little scared of being too perfect online,” says Rachel Lee, a global insights strategist at the London-based agency the Digital Fairy. “We have reached the tipping point. Being messy is now the default.” This new chaotic mood is less of a surge and more of a gradual shift. In December last year the public chose “goblin mode” as its Oxford word of 2022. The term refers to “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”. Then this summer “bed rotting” became popularised. Hailed as a form of self care by gen Z, it advocated for shunning productivity and instead lying in bed all day. There’s also been “feral girl summer” and “ugly core” with grotesque rather than neat nails. | 