On the eve of her 29th birthday, Kylie Jenner posted a photo of a cake that was buried under stick-on gemstones in every color. Within days, that cake had a life of its own: bedazzled phone cases, bejeweled manicures, gem-stone-covered matcha cups, and even sparkling skincare. A single birthday party had ignited what’s being called whimsy maxxing–and it’s traveling faster than almost anything Y2K nostalgia has produced yet.
For months, Gen Z had been collecting all this energy around gemstones and flashy things–you can see it in Zara Larsson’s style, which has been all about rhinestones and Barbie, and in Kylie’s own bejeweled nail design at Coachella earlier this year. And let’s not forget TikTok, where people are always digging up old stuff from the Y2K era. Kylie’s birthday cake didn’t invent this trend but rather gave people a single image to focus on and share. In return, it turned gemstones into something that everybody on the internet could get behind.
It’s worth taking a moment to think about this, because it’s a more interesting story than just someone making something popular on the internet. What’s really going on with whimsy maxxing–or also dubbed gem maxxing–is that it’s tapping into a cultural shift in mood that’s been building for a while now, ever since the whole minimalism trend was big in the early 2020s.
For a long time, the idea of quiet luxury was the thing: super understated jewelry, neutral colors, and the idea that the most expensive-looking thing in the room was the one that didn’t draw attention to itself. The aesthetic was all about being restrained, and it felt like the more subdued you were, the more luxurious you seemed. But whimsy maxxing is the opposite of that–it’s saying that restraint was never really the goal, it was just a phase, and that people never really lost their love for bright colors, fun textures, and a little bit of cheesy fun. Why be boring when you can be bold and playful, right?
Also related: Betsey Johnson by Paris Hilton prove that maximalism is back.
The trend of bedazzling has some connotations with being seen as a bit tacky, like it’s trying too hard to look fancy and landing on cheap instead. Think back to the early 2000s: blinged-out Moto Razr phones, Juicy Couture Tracksuits, Ed Hardy and the whole McBling-era. Looking back, sometimes it read rather cheap. But at the time, it read as glamorous in a campy, over-the-top kind of way. But what’s going on now is totally different.
It’s not like Gen Z is just stumbling upon bedazzling by chance, they’re actually seeking it out and embracing it, and that’s a big deal. They’re taking something that used to be seen as tacky and turning it into a compliment, like it’s a badge of honor to be a little bit extra. A face mask covered in gems isn’t trying to pass itself off as some luxury item, neither are plastic cups, hair-tie’s or anything else you can stick some colorful gems on. It’s just trying to have fun and be playful, and that’s actually kind of refreshing after years of everyone trying to look like they just rolled out of a designer catalog.
We’re so used to seeing people try to look effortlessly cool and wealthy, that when someone comes along and says: “you know what, I’m gonna cover everything in gems and I’m gonna love it,” it feels almost freeing. But like engaging in any social media trend, it is also about getting attention online. Russian instagram influencers @khrykinas and @v.gribanova make the case better than any stat could: a combined 80k followers, but one gemstone-covered collab-post pulled in more than 270k likes, with commentators raving about how whimsy they look.
Trend participation is free engagement, and brands know it. Skincare and beauty brands are already turning it into product tie-ins. Eventually, all big corporations will get in on it too–but once every brand has posted their own iteration, whimsy maxxing stops being a trend and becomes the norm. And that’s exactly when the internet is ready for whatever’s next.
What’s really going on beneath the surface, this idea that being over-the-top is okay, that’s likely to last a lot longer than the first time we saw anything »bedazzled« all over social media. The fancy cups, cakes, masks and nails will probably be replaced by something new soon. But the desire for that kind of campiness that feels exciting, the fact that people want to go big or go home, that is probably here to stay.