The bow-ification of Tiktok
"yes fuck it I am in love with bows and they are in love with me"
Simple pink ribbons tied into bows have taken over the for you page. It started as girls adding them to a ponytail, to now adorning their blue razz vapes. It makes me think, have the bows gone too far?
Bows have emerged from the coquette side of Tiktok and have infiltrated the mainstream. Coquette is a broad, internet aesthetic ; hyper-feminine, frilly, and with an emphasis on anything traditionally girly. Historically, bows have been associated with young girls, pretty pink dresses topped off with a decorative bow. Now the bow is the property of those older than 6 years old.
In December 2023 Tiktok was swarmed with an influx of videos of just about anything decorated with little pink bows, alongside Lana Del Rey’s dreamy song Let the Light in. Cans of Diet Coke, ice cubes, anti-anxiety meds. You name it a bow has decorated it.
Bow-ification did not start with decorating tampons however. Since the summer I have noticed bows creeping into fashion, tied onto the back of ultra-mini uggs, scarves transformed into ridiculously large bows and re-lacing shoes with the infamous pink ribbon. The trend has now trickled down to every retailer imaginable, seemingly every other item on Asos is now plastered with bows.
The bow is not without its faults however. Tiktok user @phoemomnix pointed out that the Gen-Z bow is eerily reminiscent of the forgotten millennial moustache.
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Will the bow have the same downfall of 2020'‘s cowprint fixation.
Symbolically, the bow represents the recent trend of “girlhood”- girl math, girl dinner, hot girl walks. A mass reversion to focusing on the simple pleasures of being a girl. #whatwasimadefor
This has now led to where we are now ; the great ribbon drought of 2024. Ribbons are now impossible to buy, as they are too busy decorating a bottle of vodka.