Fashion Personas Like Chic Desert Aunt Are Inspiring Travel on TikTok

It’s no secret that TikTokers love to aestheticize, attaching the word “core” to just about anything and presenting their trends in the form of starter packs. They move fast, too. Blink and you might miss, for example, that we’re ditching the maximalism of influencer culture for “underconsumption core,” or that this year’s Brat summer is the new Barbiecore. Particularly interesting is the way destinations provide inspiration for such moodboards, suggesting Gen Z might soon be weighing where they choose to travel with the personas they hope to embody.

Recently, TikTok darling Allison Bornstein, a stylist famous for coining the “wrong shoe theory,” threw a new character into the chat: the chic desert aunt. Bornstein so thoughtfully lays out this fashionista’s vibe: “She’s wearing suede, she’s wearing earth tones, she’s wearing natural fabrics, she has a fun, artsy, statement necklace.” “She’s gonna put on a very chic, linen blouse, but she’s gonna add an amazing necklace that her friend in Arizona made her.” “I don’t even think she lives close to any stores, especially not department stores, so when she does go shopping, it’s usually on a trip, or a vacation.”

The “chic desert aunt,” or CDA for short, became so popular that Bornstein created an offshoot: the surfer nephew, who shares some style similarities with his aunt, but leans more west coast than southwest. One user commented, “I’m a coastal granddaughter sun, desert aunt moon, and surfer nephew rising.” And the aunt-nephew duo is not the only aesthetic rendering that’s rooted in place.

Let’s not forget the coastal grandmother of years past. Enveloped in cream-colored knits, she looks like she stepped out of a Nancy Meyers film. She ran so coastal cowgirl, her fringe-wearing Western counterpart, could walk. Cottagecore will continue to live on as the ideal aesthetic for bucolic, fairy-tale-like settings around the world, while the current sartorial obsession with Carolyn Bassette Kennedy harkens back to ‘90s New York City. The vacation dad is also having a moment, as white crew socks (not ankle socks) continue to reign supreme. Then there’s the classic European summer look, which, in addition to evoking images of linen, puff-sleeve blouses, also gives way to archetypes like Scandi girls, who bike around Copenhagen in baggy jeans and clunky sneakers.

The desire to explore such niche subcultures goes hand-in-hand with the ways in which Gen Z is prioritizing hyper-personal travel experiences. According to Thrillist’s recently released 2024 State of Travel Survey, 76% of millennials and Gen Zers surveyed feel their travel experience says a lot about who they are, and 72% say traveling is core to their identity and part of how they express themselves. So it’s no wonder that TikTokers are fusing personas and places, and we wouldn’t be shocked if the promise of chic desert aunt vibes are, at least subliminally, inspiring the next flight out to New Mexico.