Aesthetic of Ugliness

5 min readNov 6, 2022

Crocs are on the catwalks of fashion weeks. For a long time symbol of bad taste, crocs are now the pinnacle of fashion. Balenciaga is one of those brands that constantly challenges our concept of beauty, and especially ugliness. But what is ugliness, and can we say in 2022 that this notion still exists?

Before answering this question, we will take a look at styles considered ugly, which are now fashion trends.

Ugliness, a fashion trend

Gorpcore : Dressing like a mountaineer

In 2017, The Cut magazine is already predicting the arrival of Gorpcore, a style that features all the gear needed to survive in the mountains, but with an urban use. This aesthetic based on functionality, reserved for many years for sportsmen and mountaineers, can now be found in cities and on fashion shows (see off white fall 2020 show).

Dadcore: Dressing like a dad

The other catwalk trend is Dadcore. The slogan of the New Balance add “worn by supermodels in London and dads in ohio” is a testimony of this new fashion trend. To make this style your own, you’ll need a pair of white running shoes (ideally New Balance), an oversized sweater (jjjjound or apc) and a pair of faded Levis 501 jeans that doesn’t fits you. If you want to accessorize your outfit, a pair of Oakley running glasses is recommended.

These styles, deviated from their main function, namely the search for comfort at the expense of aesthetics, question the idea of beauty and good taste. Alice Pfeiffer, in her book “Le goût du moche” (The taste of ugliness) sees a political dimension in the bad taste asserted.

Ugliness, a political matter?

According to Alice Pfeiffer, the definition of the beauty and the ugly is cultural, because this one is defined by a dominant group dictating what is good taste. This deduction starts from the fact that fashion changes perpetually and is defined according to the good will of some privileged persons.

“The forms of your oppression will be the aesthetics of our anger”

From this first idea, she also explains that in opposition to these trends, there are counter movements that assume their bad taste. We can mention here Dadaism in art or the aesthetic of the punk movement in the seventies and eighties. These movements aim at provoking and questioning the public opinion which accepts and undergoes the dominant order (see Dick Hebidge, sous culture : le sens du style).

However, Dick Hebidge and Alice Pfeiffer have a classist vision of good taste, which seems to assume that only the wealthy classes are at the origin of artistic or cultural fashion phenomena. I think that this grid of analysis is no longer relevant today. To support my point, I will speak about the works of Henri Mendras and Alexis de Tocqueville, on the moyennisation of the society, then of Bernard and Véronique Cova who studied tribalization.

Ugliness, an outdated concept

The end of social classes according to Alexis de Tocqueville and Henri Mendras

According to Alexis de Tocqueville in “On Democracy in America”, democracy enables, through the “passion of equality”, the creation of a society where social heredity no longer takes place and where social mobility is a possibility. This results in the end of the status society in favor of a society with converging lifestyles and standards of living. This theory is confirmed by the analysis of Henri Mendras in “La seconde révolution française”. Indeed, this author notes that during the “Trente Glorieuse”, the social classes diminished in favor of a “central constellation” of middle-class people. We can thus speak of the “moyennisation” of society.

Towards a constellation of tribes, according to Bernard and Véronique Cova

This moyennisation of society, accompanied by the increasing individualism, has the effect of freeing the individual from social constraints but also induces a fragmentation of society.

The fragmentation of the social structures, push people to meet again in tribe. The modern tribes are nicknamed neo-tribes by the authors. According to them, this need to gather in tribes is a consequence of the prominent individualism in our world. The neo-tribes are formed around common passions and are not organized or hierarchical.

Here is why there are more and more “ugly” styles in our modern societies. With the end of social classes, and the emergence of neo-tribes, individuals no longer dress according to codes defined by an upper class, but by affinity with other people who share the same tastes. If we take the example of the Dadcore style, we can see it as the expression of a group of peers with an appetite for minimalism, as well as for a more sober and mature fashion.