2014 Tumblr

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For popular 2014 Tumblr aesthetics, see Soft Grunge, Emo, Galaxy Hipster, and Cuddle Party.

2014 Tumblr is one of the biggest influences to the contemporary aesthetics movement. As an image-aggregating site, it allowed people to curate personal reblogs easily. The ability to create a customized theme for the blog also enhanced the aesthetic value of the website. This article focuses on 2014 (more broadly 2011–2018) because this was the era before -core suffixes existed, Tumblr was at its greatest cultural relevancy, and the aesthetic trend was at its infancy.

Around 2020, many 2014 Tumblr aesthetics came back into style(often with slightly new looks due to different fashion trends), such as Morute, Pink Parisian (which evolved into Pink Princess), Delicate Sweet (which evolved into Gloomy Coquette), and Pastel Goth (which became popular among the E-Kid/E-Girl aesthetics). Nymphet regained popularity and along with Delicate Sweet and Pink Parisian formed the modern interpretation of Coquette aka Dollette.

History[]

Popularity and Decline of Tumblr[]

Tumblr is a social media platform in the form of blogging. It was at its peak of popularity around 2011–2018; during this time, it was highly influential in many forms of internet and popular culture, including aesthetics. Several aesthetic or fashion styles, for instance Pastel Goth and 2014 Girly, were either pioneered or popularised by Tumblr users.

After 2018, the platform declined in mainstream popularity, mainly due to a ban on content containing nudity, which Apple required apps to ban in order to have it in the app store. Nowadays, Tumblr remains a popular platform for certain fandoms, pop cultures and alternative subcultures, but it is no longer as culturally influential as before. TikTok has since replaced it as the culturally significant platform.

Adjective Tags: Before suffixes[]

Before the aesthetic community largely segmented itself off into aesthetic communities, people would "find" their aesthetic through tags which were based on adjectives and objects that described the photograph itself, rather than an entire community that comes with it. Of course, there are common terms that appeared, such as kawaii, hipster, and grunge, but the extent was not to the one in the late 2010s-2020s. From there, communities were centered around who was following who, without an established name that encompassed all the community.

For example, for Pink Parisian, one of the aesthetics on that site, people would tag it #pink, #old-hollywood, #feminine, #romantic, #vintage, #parisian, etc. This led to some variation on what appeared in the search bar. For example, the search term "pink" could bring up Fairy Kei, Morute, Delicate Sweet, and Pink Parisian. Because of this difficulty in finding terms with consistent aesthetics and users, "Follow Forevers" existed. These were lists of users that someone would compile after reaching a certain number of followers. In effect, these popular users were influencers who allowed their followers to find their sources of inspiration, which united the aesthetic further and created a more tight-knit community. An example of a Follow Forever could be found here.

Related Aesthetics[]

Fandom-based Aesthetics[]

Gryffindor aesthetic — An aesthetic based on Gryffindor, from the Harry Potter series. Credit goes to @starduststorms on tumblr

Fandom aesthetics are mood boards, playlists, and edits done based off of the aesthetic of a piece of media with a fandom. Users would take distinct visuals, colors, and attitudes associated with the setting of the work or a distinctive character design. These images would be arranged into either a square grid of nine photos or two columns that can span for however long the user sees fit.

For example, a fan of Harley Quinn would make a mood board that has an image of a playing card, smudged lipstick, a quote about toxic love, and a strong use of the color red. One of the most popular examples, and arguably a precursor to Dark Academia, are the Harry Potter mood boards, which were very popular due to the diversity of themes such as Hogwarts Houses or important buildings.

The people who create these fandom mood boards were expressing their love of the fandom and both the aesthetic community and the fandom would reblog their work. The presence of fandom mood boards have diminished in the following years, largely because of the rise of aesthetics that are unaffiliated with fiction, the general loss of fangirl enthusiasm (see the section on Dashcon for a better explanation), and migration to other websites.

This also applied to other subjects, such as MBTI types, zodiac signs, and colors. Users often sent requests through asks, and the person on the blog would create their own interpretation. For example, "I love your blog! I am Slytherin, INTP, and Libra." The user would then combine all of those elements into one moodboard like the one to the right.