⬜ Finished basement core

The 2023 holiday fashion aesthetic.

Eliza Brooke: High-fashion brands are not known for their relatability, so I would like to commend Miu Miu and Jacquemus on their too-real holiday campaigns. They share an aesthetic that I’m calling “finished basement core.” In the Miu Miu ads, the actor Emma Corrin languishes on the floor of a room with taupe carpeting on the floor and walls. Over in Jacquemus land, Jennie from the K-pop group Blackpink hangs out with some cute dogs in a windowless room that has white walls, a beige rug, and a TV on the floor.

Both sets feel like they were inspired by the basement in a nice suburban home. It’s the lack of natural light, the sparse decoration, the empty walls, the oatmeal-colored everything. I had to fact-check that description to make sure I wasn’t being mean to the suburbs, but if you search for images of finished basements, that’s exactly what you get. The finished basement is not a place for self-expression through design; it serves a much more important purpose. It’s the comfortable dungeon where parents can banish their children, and it’s the bland oasis where children can escape their parents’ gaze. I don’t care how old you are — if you’re hanging out in a finished basement, you’re a teenager again.

What I love about these ads is that Corrin and Jennie look like city-dwelling kids who have returned to the suburbs for the holidays and have nowhere to wear their sparkly party outfits. Corrin captures the pathos and ennui of the situation — with its cushioned walls and ornate furniture, the Miu Miu set looks like purgatory as designed by someone’s wealthy grandmother — while Jennie evokes suburban boredom in a way that’s sweeter and sillier. If you’re going home for the holidays and want to wear your new red minidress, just know that you’re going to wind up taking selfies with the family dog. You may think that you’re better than the suburbs from whence you came, but once a year, they will humble you.

By the way, there’s another way to get fashion-owned over the holidays, and that is, as one TikToker described it, by “putting on the D-list clothes you keep at your parents’ house.” Dressing up in your coolest outfit may make you feel tragic, underappreciated, and a little embarrassed, like you’re the last bouquet left on the flower stand. But spending a day in the weird, ill-fitting sweatshirt that lives in your childhood bedroom will make you feel like an actual worm.

Eliza Brooke is a freelance writer. She publishes The Scumbler, a newsletter about fashion, entertainment, and culture.