Fashion's Intense Craving for Culture
By Iris Vaughn
You are what you eat, or in 2026, what media you consume.
Everyone wants to absorb valuable and lasting content rather than empty aesthetics. Online communities are creating long-form content and video essays about personal style, curation, history, community, intentionality, and obsession with G.L.A.M (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums).
Credit: Smithsonian
This year, my FYP is filled with content about G.L.A.M. I am no different than my peers when it comes to feeling drawn back to these spaces. I think part of it is the vibe and nostalgic factor, but a major draw is the obsession with societal and cultural implications that aesthetic codes carry.
Yes, it is that deep.
“People are tired of images without context. And by that logic, beauty without context,” says historian podcaster Stephanie CP when asked what the appeal of these spaces is.
Stephanie CP is a 25-year-old Stanford University graduate who has applied her history major skills to her podcast Dear Americana. She has spent copious amounts of time in G.L.A.M spaces and gained a deep cultural awareness. CP’s podcast is centered around various groups of women in American culture, most recently Gallerina’s. The Gallerina is a woman who works in the gallery space, often with an art history degree and always refined (much like a ballerina).“She is somewhat of a 'vibe curator' as she facilitates sales and embodies her environment,” says CP.
Sex and the City; Sourced Through Pinterest
These poised, aspirational women were an essential element in the booming New York gallery scene in the 90s. Charlotte York from the popular series Sex and the City is the prime example of this, as she is intelligent, sophisticated, and feminine. She is the blueprint and the inspiration for many Gen-Z women interested in G.L.A.M spaces as of late. Yes, it is a job, but also a look and an attitude.
Culturally rich spaces naturally foster intentional taste shaped by values and lifestyle. CP has a quiet confidence and a curious nature, while her job in the archives is both mentally and physically intensive. Naturally, this reflects in her style, which she describes as feminine, intellectual, casual, and functional.
Roles in G.L.A.M have increasingly devalued since the 90s, and since the online world has peaked and is now falling, people are looking to return to physical, nostalgic, cultural, and community-driven media.
Constant instant gratification is not fulfilling. We crave more.
The current zeitgeist in fashion all points back to these jobs in preservation as a means for community culture. Looking to G.L.A.M, not to mimic past aesthetics, but to thoughtfully communicate. It is a display of intention and knowledge when a celebrity wears vintage/archival pieces. “I think it’s funny because it both signals humility (look at me paying tribute to my predecessors) and self-seriousness (look at me knowing this history),” says CP.
Credit: Museum of Arts and Design
With a collective yearning online for jobs in G.L.A.M (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), major fashion labels are opening their archives. paired with a thriving vintage market and constant pulls from brands' archives, maybe it’s not the aesthetic we’re desiring but taste with substance.
Since aesthetic and context hold equal value, fashion must be enriching to satisfy. “There seems to be a real appetite now for beauty that is shaped by sensuality, life experience, values, politics, artistry— in other words, dimension!”
