Brand Shift Analysis: From Clean Girl to Messy Humanity

Remember when the Clean Girl aesthetic was everywhere in 2024–2025?

Hailey Bieber became the face of that aspiration, and Rhode rode the wave all the way to its eventual sale to e.l.f. Cosmetics in May 2025 — a brand valued at nearly one billion dollars. That sale feels like a cultural placeholder: a marker for a shift that had already quietly begun.

Clean Girl makeup signaled effortless perfection — the sleek bun, the minimal makeup, the Pilates routine, the curated meal. Effortlessness that required immense effort. At some point, that level of sustained performance doesn’t just fracture. It exhausts.

This is part of a broader cultural burnout.

The neutral, polished visual language that dominated branding for millennial and Gen Z audiences was designed to feel both relatable and aspirational. But over time, what was meant to feel effortless began to feel calculated. And when a visual language saturates the market long enough — when it becomes indistinguishable across industries — it gets placed into a box. Of a time. Of an era.

This is how we can instantly identify styles from the ‘70s or ‘80s, or distinguish Bauhaus from Art Deco. Over-saturation eventually creates clarity — but only after the burnout has passed. We’re in that passage now.

Enter: the rise of “messy” branding.

As AI-generated design and marketing accelerate, a quiet cultural schism is forming. People seem to be splitting in their response: some are overwhelmed and repelled, actively seeking humanity, texture, and analog experience. Others are enthusiastically embracing automation and optimization. These aren’t just aesthetic preferences — they’re becoming cultural and class identifiers.

Look at Hermès. Their hand-animated campaigns. Their illustrated website. The deliberate emphasis on time, craft, patience, and human touch. Handmade has become the new signal of luxury. Human-drawn. Human-written. Human-considered.

There’s a particular power in that contrast. When machines produce flawless outputs at scale, human imperfection becomes rare — and therefore valuable. We’re not just witnessing a design shift. We’re watching AI quietly reframe what “premium” means.

And culturally, people aren’t rejecting AI by destroying it. They’re mocking it. AI slop. Satire. Parody. Humor aimed at perfection itself. When something becomes ubiquitous and automated, irreverence becomes the natural response.

Visually, this shows up in who we’re collectively looking toward.

If Hailey Bieber symbolized Clean Girl, Charli XCX feels like the icon of what’s emerging — messy, expressive, imperfect, still intentional. Looser hair. Smudged makeup. Not careless, but less constrained. These two figures represent more than personal style. They reflect an entire shift in cultural values: from performed perfection to expressed humanity.

We aren’t rejecting beauty. We’re rejecting the performance of it.

So as you think about your brand moving into 2026 and beyond, consider this: how does your brand allow for humanity?

Even elevated, luxury brands can lead with warmth. Handwritten notes. Personal touches. White-glove care that feels felt, not automated. The decline in social media use points to the same undercurrent — people are hungry for presence and genuine connection, not more optimized content.

Perfection is no longer the flex. Presence is.

I find myself wondering whether hyper-AI adoption will solidify into its own cultural class — and whether, in the hierarchy people are quietly building, humanity has already claimed the top rung.

at do you think? And how are you choosing to balance AI tools with human touch in your branding and communication?

For my part, I’ve chosen to learn the AI tools — to understand them, work with them, and add them to my repertoire. But I keep returning to the basics: designing from scratch/basic shapes, painting, reading, touching grass, and living life. The analog anchors that keep my work human and gives me inspiration for further work.

Stay well & healthy,
Alexandra Phoenix

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P.S. If you'd like a second set of eyes on your brand, I offer a complimentary brand audit. You're welcome to connect just to say hi!