Even today among fashion fans, there’s a general idea that the chicest Birkin owner is the one that puts hers on the ground while on the train or at lunch and generally beats it up in the name of daily use. Likewise, Lawrence’s favorite necklace has become part of its wearer’s identity for the same reason Birkin’s handbag did: Repetition creates a sense of personal style better than novelty ever could.
A casual Birkin in 2026.Getty
On Instagram, a cultural commentator named Jayne recently labeled this intangible element of style as “having a life”-core, the idea that the very act of being a person in the world is itself an aesthetic aspiration.
“You have to have so much going on that you’re not even paying attention to your outfit. And what it leads to is, like, people looking normal and living their life but in a way that’s, like, referring back to itself,” she says of the trend.
For decades fashion encouraged us to dress like the person we strive to become or for the job we want. But it seems the women we admire most, stylewise, are doing the exact opposite. They’re dressing like themselves—busy, occasionally mismatched, and seemingly unconcerned with looking perfect.
“Having a life”-core as a fashion aesthetic follows a pattern we’ve witnessed outside of getting dressed, too, as the masses begin to loathe the smoothness of AI-generated content.
“Authenticity is becoming a scarce resource,” wrote Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, in a post about the future of the platform. “The bar is shifting from ‘can you create?’ to ‘can you create something that only you can create.’” The same rule now applies to personal style: What’s interesting about your life, and how does it manifest in your wardrobe?
