Bridget Jones is my icon. No, not my style icon. My life icon. A chaotic and quirky journalist whose love life is incredibly dramatic, she is the perfect character for me to look up to. Jones, the titular character behind the film trilogy (soon to be a series) “Bridget Jones’s Diary” is the epicenter of what it means to be a “frazzled English woman.” 

This aesthetic, which has taken the world by storm since it began going viral across social media platforms back in 2021, is meant to embody the warm, fall vibes that run rampant within England year-round. 

When I first discovered the frazzled English woman aesthetic, I immediately wanted to emulate it. I looked for cozy sweaters, oversized jackets, trench coats and even hats. I wanted to appear as hardworking and anxious as Jones looked throughout the entirety of the films. Instead, I realized that the efforts I was putting in to achieve this look defeated the entire purpose of the aesthetic. 

Fitting into an aesthetic seems simple enough, until you realize what that means. To embody an aesthetic is to take the interesting, creative and individual parts of yourself and alter them in order to fit into a box that someone else has created for you. 

Valerie Oro-Quimper, a freshman fashion design and fashion merchandising major at Kent State University, believes that aesthetics sometimes enforce a binary when it comes to fashion. 

“When it comes to aesthetic, it should be based off your own personal value towards that. For myself, I put into both aesthetic and comfort for what I wear, but I do know people like to go all the way. Anything for the fit, you know? I think aesthetic definitely plays a huge part, and it should if it’s based off of your personal view.” 

Finding an aesthetic that you are drawn toward is exciting, and dressing in a way that feels good is not a problem. There is nothing wrong with finding new and interesting ways to express ourselves. The problem is when we begin taking things just a little too seriously. 

Fashion should not bind us. It’s a problem when we are out shopping and see a cute shirt, but decide to put it back because “it doesn’t fit the brand” that we are trying to create for ourselves. 

“You can like something that’s trending, but you should also consider if it really fits your style and it really fits who you are, and you should explore it more before you just jump right into it,” Oro-Quimper said. 

While some people are lucky enough to find an aesthetic and stick with it, most of us find ourselves weaving in and out of trends, simply following the motions in hopes that something will click. 

The idea that we must find an aesthetic and stick to it enforces a binary, one-way outlook on fashion and life as a whole. Everything must fit together, and if an element of the look doesn’t work with the aesthetic, it becomes a new aesthetic altogether. 

When people who fit the “goth” aesthetic began incorporating new things into their looks, different—and more specific—aesthetics began to branch from the original one. Whimsigoth, grunge and punk are all subsets of the goth aesthetic. 

Fashion was never meant to have this many layers. Fashion is, at its core, all about self-expression. The bravest players in the fashion game are those who stepped outside of what was considered “normal” in order to better serve themselves. 

The entire purpose of most aesthetics is to make people feel as though they are expressing themselves in the best way they can. But when we trade one label in for another, how much self-expressing are we really doing? 

Aesthetics like goth or coquette or cottage core are meant to go against the norm, but now they’ve become such big looks in their own right that it no longer feels like individualism. There is no longer a uniqueness to the looks because they have become a norm entirely of their own. 

When we choose an aesthetic, we choose a label. When we choose a label, we choose to conform. Society binds us into categories. This, that or the other. There is no invisible option that allows us to be genuinely unique. But maybe that’s a good thing. I’m not Bridget Jones, and I’m not anywhere close to England. But, I love her as a character, and the feeling that the films invoke. Despite this, I’ll keep dressing the way I want to—hats just aren’t for me.

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Hi! I’m Kayla Friedman, A Magazine’s editor-in-chief. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important and entertaining news from the realms of fashion, beauty and culture. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate to A Magazine.