With all the advanced photo editing software and cameras available in 2017—from Photoshop to 4k—one sector of the internet has remained low-budget, low-production quality, and yet maintains a pervasive presence across social media platforms: memes. Even with all of the tools at our disposal, sometimes it seems the poorer the quality of a meme, the higher it’s ironic value.
Enter the starter pack meme. These multi-panel photo sets, popularized on Twitter and Reddit, often represent a subculture, archetype, or movement—some very familiar.
On Instagram, explore pages are dotted with the memes, with #starterpack boasting 324,293 posts and counting. Many of the meme creators are teenagers, making for an interesting dichotomy. Generation Z is arguably the most technologically adept, yet many starter packs, quite frankly, look like sh*t. Why? The sh*t quality is imperative to their coolness.The idea translates to one of the hottest trends on Instagram right now: carefully curated posts heavily edited with effects meant to create the appearance of being hastily thrown together without care.
While these memes earn their “cool” factor partly from the #idgaf aesthetic they play into, they also serve as an outlet to voice everything from ire to admiration, and contain an unspoken longing—to be someone or something else. At the root of all these creations there is fashion; something covetable about the style of an other, “that girl.” We’ve combed through the memes, visual lists of items put together to deny or emulate a certain style, to the point where we find many of them to be actually shoppable.
Here, we’ve created a meme gift guide with our favorite pieces that translate across type, because that’s what fashion is all about: turning the aspirational into real, personal style one piece at a time. Scroll on, shop on.
#starterpack #starterpacks #nichememe #starterpackmemes #meme #giftguide #fashion #stealherlook #thatgirl
@easybakeovenmeal
Theme: “Over-uses the Word Aesthetic”
Shop: The Boots | Followers: 28,137
@thevoidishiring
Theme: “If I had a Store”
Shop: The Scrunchies | Followers: 28,505
@iconicstarterpack
Theme: “Trendy Lady I saw in the Metro”
Shop: The Backpack | Followers: 16,554
@spikymemes
Theme: “Girl I Wish I Was”
Shop: The Crystal Elixir Water Bottle | Followers: 10,213
@astralhoe
Theme: “Stuff I Would Wear if I Was Confident”
Shop: The Velvet Jumpsuit | Followers: 2,785
@spookyassbread
Theme: “Things I Would Buy if I had the Money”
Shop: The Record Player | Followers: 16,544
THE GET
Another item that transcends type? Denim of any kind, of course.
We like that this Storets coat, with faux fur accent.
