Nara Smith and the Return to Conservatism
Although many were shocked and disappointed by the election of Donald J. Trump to be the 47th President of The United States, this win might’ve been written on the walls— the walls of TikTok that is.
As TikTok begins to further influence the cultural zeitgeist, the mapping of fashion and wellness from the years before the election could have signaled trouble for the democratic campaign much earlier than November 5th.
The arguably most popular TikTok trend of this year has been the fashion and lifestyle of tradwives (short for traditional wives), popularized mostly by model and homemaker, Nara Smith.
When Nara Smith– and by extension, her husband Lucky Blue Smith– entered the TikTok sphere, many including myself were enamored by the simultaneous glitz and down to earth quality she portrayed in her videos, most of them in which she makes food “from scratch” for her children and husband while donning thousand dollar gowns and accessories. But after the shocking results of the 2024 election and somewhat less shocking but equally concerning exit poll data, I fear that political analysts and the general population alike, while absorbed in the mania that was Kamala HQ and Brat summer, ignored a key factor in predicting how young people, specifically Gen Z, would vote: the rising popularity of Nara Smith, traditionalist fashion trends, and therefore the rising popularity of conservative values.
On the surface, there is nothing wrong with the slick backs, Ralph Lauren sweaters, and little lady jackets that have resurfaced in the closets of young people in America. What is concerning, however, are the hyper feminine ideals that hide in the pockets and zip closures of this type of dress.
In a TikTok from Elysia Berman, she says, “These hyper- feminine ideals— a lot of it is about conformity.” Berman also comments on the loss of individuality when it comes to self expression through personal style, calling it “an act of resistance” to simply exist in a context that favors the traditional image of what a woman is and how she should present herself in the world.
Within the style microtrends “coquette,” “old money,” and “quiet luxury,” there is a story that wants to be told, and the same goes for general trends seen in magazines and runway shows. It is up to the person wearing the clothes to say whether that story is one depicting resistance, one of personal evolution, or one that says you’re simply too exhausted to pick an outfit.
Looking at the face of this fashion “movement”, the only issue with Nara Smith’s content is the unrealistic “quiet luxury” lifestyle that she sells to unknowing viewers. It’s the facade of a perfect household in which housework and domestic labor don’t affect her, the children wait hours for a bowl of cereal, and her husband is simply happy to be there, but underneath this picture that she paints is the full belief in the values and structures stitched into the fabric of her Gucci gown. This is the very reason that fashion is, and has always been, political.
