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‘Demure’ is the word of the week.
After TikTok influencer Jools Lebron’s videos of herself ironically being “very demure, very mindful, very cutesy” blew up earlier this week, a slew of users added their own interpretations. To date, the #demure hashtag has accumulated over 74,500 posts, and soon, these phrases flooded not just TikTok, but Instagram, X and Reddit feeds, too.
Retailers and brands — especially in beauty — have been quick to hop on. Ssense posted a Chopova Lowena-clad model looking very mellow: “See how I dress for work? Very cutesy, very demure, very mindful.” Tanner Fletcher debuted their new lace trimmed jorts with: “Your jorts aren’t demure enough, so we added lace trim”. Anthropologie posted a ‘very demure’ office vibes TikTok. Patrick Ta Beauty is “very classy, very cutesy, very demure”, the founder told viewers of People writer Alyssa Brascia’s TikTok. Maybelline posted a “Maybe it’s very demure, maybe it’s Maybelline” TikTok, while Nars asked: “Why be demure when you can be Explicit?” in reference to its Explicit lipstick line.
It’s a sudden shift in tone from full-throttle Brat summer, which commentator and brand strategist Tariro Makoni puts down to anxiety around the mixed messages consumers are receiving about the state of the economy. The speed of the change raises the question of whether fashion and beauty brands can — or should — seek to integrate viral-but-fleeting words and phrases into their marketing. Does it make them seem culturally relevant — or do they risk seeming like they’re not in on the joke?
Fashion friendly?
Luxury brands have dabbled. Loewe riffed on the ‘girlhood’ trend with a TikTok of girls interacting (as girls do) and Marc Jacobs leaned into the ‘aura points’ discourse: it’s +1,000 points for a mini Marc Jacobs tote, a guinea pig and a piano, according to the brand’s TikTok.
Some argue that fashion brands have to be more discerning about which terms to adopt compared to mass market consumer goods and services brands like fast food chain Wendy’s, or streamer Netflix. “Because their demographic is so broad, they’re forced to have a broader scope,” Makoni says. If mainstream companies adopt a fast-growing turn of phrase, at least a segment of their audience is likely to get it. Fashion brands, on the other hand, usually have a more targeted consumer.
Steff Yotka, director of content at Ssense, says office chatter is a good measure. “If our editors are participating in an online trend or we’re joking about it in our team meetings, that’s always the signal to me it’s something important we should turn into content,” she says. “There are probably hundreds of viral trends or moments that don’t work for us; we’re choosy in picking the ones that do.”
When it’s a fit, fashion and beauty brands can stand out from the crowd, experts agree. Like fashion micro-trends, internet speak moves fast — but it differs in that there isn’t a prescribed visual template to follow as there was with ‘cores’ like balletcore, mob wife winter and corpcore. This is where fashion and beauty brands have a leg up: creating and putting together imagery is in their wheelhouse.
That said, internet speak still exists within visual worlds. This is the case for demure, says Louise Yems, strategy director for marketing agency The Digital Fairy. “Whether it’s being deemed as a reaction to the audacious and messy ‘brat summer’ or drawing comparisons with the ‘very cutesy’ coquette trend, demure speaks to fashion’s broader push and pull around femininity and feminine elements.” It’s up to brands to translate these.
For Ssense’s Yotka, this is the easy part. “Pairing pictures with text is the oldest formula in the book — literally — when it comes to storytelling,” she says. “It’s just about finding the right look or product for the turn of phrase. We don’t overthink it: keep it simple, legible and obvious.”
The fine line between cultural relevance and cringe
Brands that have a grasp on ephemeral marketing should get on board, Makoni says. “If you are an ephemeral brand by nature, you can take advantage of things for a quick second and it will seem like you’re in touch and people will love it and you will likely grow from it as a result,” she says.
Founder-led brands that have high-profile creators are particularly well positioned, Makoni adds, because it feels natural for culture-attuned spokespeople to riff off of what’s going on online.
But, she cautions, not all brands can — or should — speak to their consumers in this way. If it’s not a fit, brands will seem out of touch. Yems agrees, and says brands need to be honest with themselves about whether they have the right to engage with a trend. “‘Demure’ itself is dripping in irony and satire. If your brand doesn’t embody these qualities, or is simply not a humorous brand, then jumping on the trend won’t land and could even read as mockery,” she says. “In the land of internet humour, there’s a fine line between cultural relevance and cringe.”
Brands need to assess whether these turns of phrase align with both their brand identity and their consumer ethos. “Hermès making content around ‘demure’ would feel weird, right? But Loewe making content on ‘demure, mindful’ would make so much sense,” says Makoni. Hermès is an ultra-luxury heritage brand with a high-net-worth, older consumer; while under Jonathan Anderson, Loewe has consistently leaned into internet aesthetics and normcore, and boasts a digital-savvy consumer base.
Ssense falls squarely in the latter camp. “At Ssense, we want to speak the language of our audience,” says Yotka. “More than half of our content on social media is not about viral trends — we publish designer Q&As, editorials, photo and video stories — so we want to balance those deeper state fashion pieces with content that has a bit of levity and humour. The balance matters because it reflects what Ssense is: the place to find the best edit of The Row and the new emerging designer nobody knows about yet. Everyone who liked the ‘very demure’ meme also got an intro to Chopova Lowena, one of the best-performing independent brands on Ssense right now.”
And the phrases get clicks. For this reason, if it does align with the brand, it’s a miss not to jump on it, Makoni says. “If you care about acquiring even mindshare across Gen Z, you just want them to be aware of who you are — even if you’re a luxury brand and the majority may not have spending power yet, it benefits you to have at least a subsegment of your brand speaking in that way.”
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Behind the term
A marketing strategy can’t be built on quick hits alone. The value of these buzzy expressions actually lies more in the meaning behind them, strategists agree. Brands should seek to understand trending words, but not just for copy-and-paste use in marketing materials.
“Being reactive to internet-terms-du-jour does not make a culturally relevant brand,” says Rachel Lee, global insights strategist at The Digital Fairy. “The key is building a cohesive brand world, with values and lore that align with the zeitgeist — and that doesn’t always involve TikTok trends.”
Brands should instead analyse the context of — and meaning behind — trending words and phrases to inform their long-term strategy, says Yems. Instead of focusing on quick benefits, she advises that brands ask: “Why does this resonate? What does this tell me about behaviour on this platform? And what does this tell me about culture right now?”
“Many brands today think that by performing their understanding of these internet terms (for example creating content around them), they are showing audiences that they are cool and in touch with culture,” Lee says. Though this isn’t necessarily the case. “Brands are better off examining how their marketing strategy aligns with these wider cultural narratives, and whether there needs to be an evolution of the brand’s tone of voice or values.”
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