Smoking has made a cultural resurgence, or at least that’s what the majority of my friends and I tell ourselves. Living in a media savvy society, our mood is decided by what this week’s ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ are, according to Charli XCX. And now, cigarettes have seemingly been ‘in’ longer than the Joni Topshop skinny jean.

Wait no, those are making a comeback too. In an era of wasteful consumerism, smoking has become a trend, an aesthetic. One where people engage in the leisure as a way of being perceived as ‘cool’.

No matter how much we deny that this is who we are, and it’s our individual choice, I highly doubt that half of our student finance would be going towards nicotine if Addison Rae didn’t purse her lips to take that drag on the cover of Aquamarine. The very real addiction has been normalised for some, and even glamourised by others. To understand this, the 90s and early 2000s, in some ways influencers of the time, paved the way for the Gen Z ‘it girls’ of now.

A social movement in some cases, the Ladettes fronted a liberating revolution for women, covered in a cloud of smoke. When men were macho, sexually promiscuous (or whatever that means), chopping pints and chain smoking after work, women were apparently watching in awe, asking why can’t we do that? These Ladettes, with stereotypically masculine energies, were liberating themselves in a way which kept people talking.

This transition of womanhood and what femineity is, was disguised by the statement of smoking as a form of female liberation. Taking something created to be inherently masculine and flipping it on its head. Parallels between the times have been established, with Skins in the early 2010s, and now with Euphoria.

The glamourisation of these lifestyles is palpable. Their tears are glitter, Labrinth narrates with the groundbreaking soundtrack providing a sense of disassociation from the pressures of being a young person. And smoking is no exception, being the side ‘not that bad’ habit.

Smoking has become an aesthetic thanks to capitalist consumerism

I guess compared to cocaine or ecstasy... Go on then, hand me a cigarette, I’m in a pub garden and it’s above 10 degrees, or it’s -5 degrees and it’s going to warm me up. A trend on TikTok, of course, there are apparently times and situations where taking that drag doesn’t always count.

Topping the list we have, that cigarette you smoke with a pint or on a night out. Another solid contender, cigarettes on holiday, apparently, they don’t count. No wonder more people are smoking.

The constant normalisation of the unhealthy habits which construct the ‘party girl’, brat summer aesthetics consume the media. And therefore, consume us. Glamourisation in an age of consumerism is striking, and these cigfluencers seduce us down that road.

From the YSL 2005 smoking suit exhibition called ‘Yves Saint Laurent Smoking Forever’, to Charli XCXs’ summer essentials, “a pack of cigs, and a Bic lighter.” Smoking has become an aesthetic thanks to capitalist consumerism, and the lacking ability for individuality. Influencers determine our likes and dislikes, and now, able to dictate our health habits.