The meaning of downtime has changed for people, for a lot of them it means to get comfortable in their beds and scroll through short-form content on social media to block out thoughts that remind them of daily life.
During a similar doom-stroll down the lanes of instagram, a post by actor Priyanka Chopra caught my eye. The post pre-fixes the phrase 'kinda chic' and goes on to list things that may seem like setbacks, or rather mundane at first.
Chopra's post outlined things like — 'Kinda chic to have been underestimated', 'Kinda chic to start over in your 30s', 'Kinda chic to stand out', 'Kinda chic to play more...unless it's the victim', 'Kinda chic to move continents without plan', 'Kinda chic to be in my 90s era in the 90s', 'Kinda chic to have started as a baddie', 'Kinda chic to have met your husband at the Met Gala' and so on.
Chic means being stylish, fashionable and effortlessly sophisticated, often without appearing to try too hard. In the context of the 'Kinda Chic' trend, it goes a little further: something is called chic when it feels cool, tasteful or aspirational in an understated, self-aware way — even if the thing itself is ordinary or unexpected.
However, the caption, "kinda chic to hate this trend" may throw some people off. The 'it's kinda chic' trend is what one would refer to as a double-edged sword.
While on the one hand it looks like a harmless trend where users share lists of everyday personal habits, quiet boundaries, and self-love milestones prefaced by the phrase "kinda chic to..." It celebrates intentional living, small joys, and confidence over perfection and even mundane things that make them feel confident, stylish, or cool.
On the other hand, it can use the same premise to belittle others as well, and has received backlash for this very reason. Tara Colleen, a fashion influencer was at the receiving end of this hate after she objectively categorised a group of clothing items like Lululemon and style statements like tattoos.
The trend, just like any other social media fad, opens up space for positivity and negativity both, the rest depends on what a creator chooses to do with it.
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