The millennial brand is dead

The millennial brand is not just dead.

It’s been MURDERED in cold blood by Gen Z and their rejection of everything clean, curated, and cohesive.

The brands that dominated Instagram from 2010 to 2020? All built on relentless symmetry and an ultra-polished aesthetic? Now relics of a bygone era. TikTok user Crump defines millennial brands as those that operated under the principle that everything needed to be on brand.

The colour palette? Soft pastels, always. The fonts? Sans-serif, naturally. The mood? Soft yet aspirational, like the contents of a Sunday morning routine video shot in golden-hour lighting. It was a world where everything was smooth, minimalist, and aesthetically perfect. But today - ew.

So, why the shift?

Tastes have always cycled between embracing and rejecting industry-driven modernism. One era’s sleek, high-tech, mass-commercial aesthetic gives way to another era’s authenticity-obsessed rejection of it.

As Molly Fischer of The Cut put it, “furniture dealers joke that brown goes in and out with every generation.” Right now, Gen Z is calling the design shots. They're the ones ushering in a world of micro-fringe bangs, septum piercings, and an overall kinda ugly, low-budget aesthetic.

For millennials, this is a personal attack. We spent our entire adult lives curating our social media presence. We meticulously staged and styled our iced coffees, bookshelves, and brunch spreads. We Facetuned, we filtered, we made sure our selfies had fresh lighting.

For Gen-Z, it's a welcome change from the god-awful Blanding.

What’s driving this shift? After some digging, it’s clear that a combination of cultural forces have led to the demise of the millennial brand:

• The value of authenticity – Gen Z craves raw, unfiltered reality. Nothing too polished, nothing too perfect.

• Perfectionist fatigue – We were exhausted from curating our every move. Gen Z would rather post something unhinged than overly edited.

• The death of “trying too hard” – Effortlessness is cool. Effort is cringe. Or maybe more, looking like you put in effort is cringe and putting in effort to look effortless isn’t? Idk.

• TikTok + microtrends – Rapid trend cycles mean long-term brand identities are harder to maintain. Chaos reigns.

• Residual pandemic trauma – YOLO. There are no style, design, or fashion rules anymore. Comfort rules.

• Anti-capitalism – The curated influencer aesthetic screams “selling you something.” Gen Z isn’t buying it—literally or figuratively.

The rejection of the millennial brand isn’t actually about aesthetics—it’s about power and identity. Millennials came of age in a world where personal branding wasn’t just encouraged; it was expected. Social media rewarded cohesion and a polished image.

The clean-girl aesthetic, the Glossier glow, the perfectly arranged avo-toast—these weren’t just trends. They were survival tactics in a gig economy where looking like you had it all together was part of professional success.

Gen Z, on the other hand, grew up in a world where that perfectionism looked fake, exhausting, and—perhaps worst of all—capitalist.

Their rebellion is about the rejection of the idea that your worth is tied to how brandable you are. Hence the rise of chaotic posting, blurry selfies, and aggressively anti-aesthetic fashion. It’s a cultural shift from aspiration to identification. Brands are no longer something to look up to; they’re something to align with, mock, remix, or reject entirely.

And let’s not forget the final nail in the coffin: the rejection of minimalism, hyper-organisation, and monochrome aesthetics. You've seen the likes, popularised by brands like Yeezy and Skims. Clutter, chaos, and personality are in. Kim's pristine snack drawers? A museum piece for an era that’s over.

What’s Next?

Millennial brands thrived in a world where looking expensive, streamlined, and polished was the goal. That era is done. Brands that want to stay relevant need to embrace the mess—imperfection, humour, personality. Less curation, more chaos. Less branding, more raw connection.

The millennial brand had a good run. But it’s time to move on. Rest in peace queen.

-Sophie, Writer