September —24 TAC


“Why No One’s Doing It Like Sabrina Carpenter”


By Giselle Acosta



    Nobody’s doing it like Sabrina Carpenter. That’s not a statement—it's a fact. Henceforth, 2024 will be known as 0 ASC (After Sabrina Carpenter), as it is this year that the five feet flat blonde made her grand debut on the world stage. She was helped, no doubt, by her unforgettable style.
    Though she’s been in the industry for almost ten years at this point, Carpenter only broke into the mainstream after refining her trademark style, “Sabrinacore.” Despite seeming inimitable, if you put on your Bayonetta glasses and squint really hard, you’ll find it can be reduced to a simple mathematical equation:

Sabrinacore = Barbie + vintage + cheeky 

    The Barbie part is obvious. Sabrina rose to fame only a year after Barbiemania and in the midst of TikTok’s coquette craze. In times like these, how can a hot blonde in pink not succeed? It doesn't hurt matters that the basic ingredients of Barbieness are the same for history’s greatest divas. After all, nothing says pop princess like a blonde blowout and blush bright enough to flag down planes.


 
    Her style’s vintage quality makes her look timeless and memorable. In other words, she dresses like a trendsetter, not a trend follower. Her vintage influence is subtle, but definitely there. You can see it in the ’60s babydoll nighties that are now emblematic of her Short ‘n’ Sweet era. Even before that, her fifties-esque headscarves and one-piece swimsuits in her “Espresso” Music Video were part of what made that video so iconic. 
    The cheekiness of her style is a bit harder to pin down. Carpenter has sex appeal like most female pop stars, but she makes herself attractive in a specific way. It’s flirtatious, self-assured, and uniquely witty. When the two other addends–Barbie and vintage–are given the Sabrina Carpenter treatment, you get iconically cheeky staples like her just-a-bit-too-short miniskirts and decolletage-bearing heart cutout corsets. 


    Still, like all well-dressed people, Sabrina Carpenter doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The framing of her outfits in her music videos add the last few sparkles to her Sabrinacore halo. In her “Taste” behind the scenes video–characterically titled “Taste (Me Too)”–Carpenter smugly says, “In the Sabrina Carpenter Cinematic Universe, women never die. Men unfortunately suffer most of the loss.”
    That statement holds true for her last four hit singles. In their Music Videos’s, Sabrina dances around in showstopping outfits while men get run over, thrown out of boats, disemboweled with a chainsaw, you name it. Her figure-hugging two piece gingham set? Flawless. Her trademark blonde locks? Nary a strand out of place. Try to think of any other pop star who can pull off those looks amid bloodshed, and I bet you can’t. It’s best to leave that one to Her Vengeful Highness, Sabrina Carpenter.

           



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