What is Scumbro Style? Here’s is The Answer

It’s the query you were too terrified to look up: How do you characterize the disgusting yet mysteriously cool aesthetic adopted by well-known Hollywood scumbags such as Pete Davidson, Justin Bieber, Diplo, and Shia LaBeouf?

For better or worse, if you follow pop culture, you’re definitely familiar with the aesthetic we’re referring to. There’s a lot of Hawaiian print clothes, a little man jewelry strewn across tattoos he got “just because,” and a little hypebeast clothing and streetwear brands. Neons and “unwashed gym tee” heather grays dominate the color pallet.

And now, courtesy to Vanity Fair’s Kenzie Bryant, we have a specific moniker for the males whose style meets this description. Teeanime presents you with the scumbro.

Okay, I need a better explanation.

The word “scumbro,” which is related to words like “lit” and “Big Dick Energy” that we picked up by accident, didn’t have a reason to come into being until 2018.

Bryant writes, “It’s a catch-all term for the R.E.I.-clad trustafarian co-ed meets Supreme. Scumbro is the version of streetwear that wears irony like a dewy hint of highlighter on the cheekbone, like normcore did, but much less preciously. The scumbro wears Patagonia and Crocs, but also the newest Adidas limited drop.”

A scumbro is basically a low-key hypebeast, or someone who wears streetwear brands with an almost ironic lack of interest. From a distance, he looks like that college kid who only took a shower once a week. Up close? He is full of brand names. So, yes, he is also spending a lot on his clothes.

Tell me more about Pete Davidson’s role in all of this.

If all you know about Davidson is that he is Ariana Grande’s big arm candy, you might think it’s hard to connect the look to his rise to fame. After all, you might be thinking, didn’t Tan France of Queer Eye just give him a makeover in the style of Saturday Night Live? Yes, but Davidson was being a little modest when he called his style “guido trash.”

Bryant writes that before he was part of one of the world’s most unusual couples, he wore Supreme, Yeezy, and even Gucci while giving self-deprecating monologues as SNL’s “Resident Young Person” on the show’s Weekend Update segments.

Wait, was Ariana Grande involved?

No, Davidson has been doing this for a long time.

So, is this like, “a thing.”

Yes. Sorry.

Who are other scumbros?

Jonah Hill is also a scumbro, just like Justin Bieber (who is even more of a scumbro when he has that tiny mustache) and Shia LaBeouf, whose style has been covered by Teeanime, Complex, and this Instagram account for years.

Can anyone be a scumbro?

In short, yes. No. Part of what makes scumbros look like dirty teenagers is their Big Dick Energy, but it also has to do with how famous they are.

Bryant writes, “Shia is Shia, even if he buys his clothes at thrift stores or, for all we know, digs through trash cans. You’re just Kevin. Kevin from Wisconsin.”