Nymphet Alumni

This week, Alexi is joined by music critic and columnist Ella Dorn to unpack her viral essay declaring Giallobrutalism as the defining visual language of mid-2020s pop, informed by the stylish delirium of Italian giallo cinema and a pervasive unease about surveillance and stardom. We discuss the aesthetic’s formal signatures—cool temperatures, split diopters, painterly tableaux, and more— as well as the rise of early-onset popstar histrionics, the existential glamour of centripetal girls in centrifugal settings, and the decade’s watershed fashion moments so far, from Miu Miu micro-minis to Sandy Liang mega-bows. We also challenge the default Y2K reading of modern pop aesthetics, arguing for a closer look at their 20th-century antecedents, and reflect on our shared past as stans of doomed K-pop girl groups.
Links:
“‘Giallobrutalism,’ or why everything looks like that” by Ella Dorn on Fairyland!
Ella Dorn on Twitter
Fairyland! on Instagram
K-Pop Music Video Analysis w/ Alexi
One on Top of the Other (1969) dir. Lucio Fulci
A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) dir. Lucio Fulci
“Music, Fashion, Film is Charli xcx at her subversive best” by Ella Dorn in The New Statesman
Balenciaga F/W 2024
Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity by Edward Dimendberg
“The realities of being a pop star” by Charli xcx on charli’s substack
Ep. 162: Crayola Casual
Ep. 102: Just Dance w/ Lexee Smith
Nicole Kidman wearing Miu Miu S/S 2022 for Vanity Fair’s 2022 Hollywood Issue cover
Sandy Liang S/S 2024
Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting by Sianne Ngai
“In Defense of the Leopard Print Midi Skirt” in Paper magazine (the original @leopardmidiskirt Instagram account is GONE omg)
New Giallobrutalist canon entries we discuss: YENA (최예나) – “캐치 캐치 (Catch Catch)”, aespa 에스파 – “Switchblade (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)”, Gracie Abrams – “Look at My Life”, ifeye (이프아이) – “r u ok?” , aespa エスパ – “KISS N TELL”
Bang Jae Yeob
LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE – “Sweet Crazy Love” (Official Music Video)
LOONA/Kim Lip – “Eclipse” (Official Music Video)
The iconic abandoned Brutalist building from every K-pop MV
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher
Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film by Hava Aldouby
no na - “honk!” (Official Music Video)
no na - “superstitious” (Official Music Video)
Elliot Shields on Instagram (creative consultant on Aespa’s “Kiss N Tell”)
Magic by Jolin Tsai 蔡依林
但是又何奈 by Louise Tsuei 崔苔菁
Rocket Girls 101 (火箭少女101) K-pop plagiarism overview
KiiiKiii on Instagram



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe

In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the questionable decisions behind the scenes of the Possession remake, the historical accuracy cottage industry reactivated by the release of The Odyssey, the latest in infidelity surveillance via Jay Guapo, and new releases from Adela, Tyla, and KATSEYE. We also highlight a recent cornucopia of Euroweird excellence from the Depardieu family’s blissful film festival outing to the fabulous brainrot opera debut of Beata Mona-Lisa, Greta Thunberg’s perplexingly buxom sister— plus we react to fashion announcements including Marine Serre’s bankruptcy and the upcoming John Galliano–themed Met Gala.Links:
Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner on the set of the Possession remake in New Jersey
Julie Depardieu and Philippe Katerine pose with their 2 sons Billy and Alfred at the Monte Carlo Television Festival (Alexi’s viral QRT)
Billy Blanchard at Jean-Paul Gaultier F/W 2026 Couture via Lyas
“EXCLUSIVE: Marine Serre Seeks Investor Amid Financial Restructuring” in WWD
The Met Announces the Spring 2027 Costume Institute Exhibition, John Galliano: Horizons
“John Galliano Returns to Fashion Via a Creative Partnership with Zara” in Vogue
“An Uncomplicated Man” (review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey) by Emily Wilson in The London Review of Books
Millie Bobby Brown responds to bad wig accusations on BBC Radio 1
@chthonicthorn on TikTok (Hellenistic practicioner?)
“Greta Thunberg’s Sister Beata Mona-Lisa Does the Splits” by Billy Parker in Interview
Beata Mona-Lisa on Instagram
Pianist Yuja Wang
Nymphet Alumni Ep. 114: Grisch
“The Folk Singer Linda Perhacs Is Found and Is Safe, Authorities Confirm” in The New York Times
Tyla - “THAT GIRL” (Official Music Video)
Nymphet Alumni Ep. 147: Cherry Emoji Dark Feminine
Tyla in custom Phoebe Pendergast polka dot hair clip at Disney with Kai Cenat
“Valley of the Marc Jacobs Dolls” by Carwyn McIntyre in ToBe
“The Surreal, Sublime Worlds of Szilveszter Makó” by Lauren Jackson in The New York Times
Adam Green’s Aladdin - Full Movie (Official) on YouTube
KATSEYE (캣츠아이) - “Animal” (Official Music Video)
KATSEYE EP 3 ‘WILD’ (Wild heart ver.) teaser images on Instagram
ADÉLA - “Ain’t In LA” (Official Music Video)
Gabbriette in custom Matières Fécales bridal
Andrea Mauri @babedrea33 on Instagram
“Married elite NYC lawyer, 45, is caught red-handed with underling, 29, in passionate Central Park rendezvous” in The Daily Mail
“How Leopold Aschenbrenner, the ‘golden child’ of the AI trade, was laid low” in The Financial Times



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe

In this episode, the ladies welcome America’s favorite game show host Ben Mora for a survey of the interior design landscape among Millennials and Gen Z. They discuss how bedroom stratigraphy reveals the history of interior design fads, the never-ending influence of the long ‘90s, the tyranny of mid-century modern, blackout curtain pleasure caves, Pinterest boards, the housing crisis, various gay predispositions, and more!
Interior Motives
Seeking Derangements
Ben’s profile in New York magazine!!
Printed out Pinterest Moodboard TikToks
$4,300 in missing rugs, online shame, 7 hours in NYPD custody: A stooping story
Samantha Wynn Greenstone (girl who married a gay guy and had a baby)
BBL Arab Gays
Tasteslop by Nemesis



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe

In this edition of Study Break, we go deep on Sombr’s ED summer track “My Body Isn’t Ready,” make the case for Obsession star Inde Navarette as this generation’s Dead Wife Montage Stacy, and extol Erling Haaland’s universal Homo Erectus charm. We also assess Olivia Rodrigo’s and Gracie Abrams’ claims to girl-loserdom and the influence of children’s literature on men’s fashion week.
Links:
sombr - My Body Isn’t Ready (official video)
James Blunt - You’re Beautiful (official video)
James Blunt’s 13 most savage tweets
Olivia Rodrigo - honeybee
Olivia Rodrigo addresses the “baby boy, honeybee” allegations
Olivia Rodrigo - the cure (official video)
Gracie Abrams - Look at My Life (official video)
Gracie Abrams - Daughter From Hell album art
Grace Abrams - The Secret of Us album art
Dior Men’s Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Celine Men’s Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Prada Men’s Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Worldpeace DMT - Love Yourself (official video)


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe

In this solo minisode, Sam enters the wilderness of mirrors to unpack Michael Jackson: child star, King of Pop, fairy-tale monster, walking logo, and one of the strangest cultural phenomena of the 20th century. Using Margo Jefferson, Wendy Lesser, Mark Fisher, Foucault, Bakhtin, Peter Pan, The Little Prince, Shirley Temple, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Fosse, P.T. Barnum, Neverland Ranch, pork pie hats, patent leather shoes, and white spats, Sam pursues Michael as a figure of inversion: the child who was an adult, the adult who became a child, the Black man who became white, the man who became a woman, the innocent who became the guilty. Along the way, she considers the glamour and horror of child stardom, the maternal diva archive, the carnivalesque body, the freakshow of Wacko Jacko, and why Michael’s legacy remains endlessly unresolved.
Stargirl’s 100th episode, we love you Emma
On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson
On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart by Weird Studies
The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, edited by Mark Fisher
His Other Half: Men Looking at Women Through Art by Wendy Lesser
Moonwalk: A Memoir by Michael Jackson
The Autobiography of PT Barnum by PT Barnum
Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin
r/LeavingNeverlandHBO
My Family, The Jacksons by Katherine Jackson
Michael Jackson’s Interview in Gold Girl Magazine, 2002
Michael Jackson - Thriller (Original)
Who’s Loving You - The Jackson 5 on The Ed Sullivan Show
Interview with Suzanne de Passe, Motown Costume Designer
Human Nature, Wembley ‘88 - Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Sylvester Stallone on Michael Jackson
Bob Fosse, The Little Prince, and Michael Jackson
The Little Prince
MJ Productions’s Letter to The Little Prince
Marianne Williamson officiates Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding to Larry Fortensky
Elizabeth Taylor surprises Michael Jackson with an elephant
Abnormals, Freaks, and Michael Jackson: Foucault, Baldwin the Truth of the Grotesque by Brad Elliott Stone
Nymphet Alumni’s Ep. 157: American Freakshow


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nymphetalumni.com/subscribe