What’s A Grandmillenial And Are You One?

Once you hit a certain age, it seems like there’s always some new term you need to use urban dictionary to understand. While most of us know which generation we fall into (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, Gen Z), we don’t always recognize how much the generation we come from affects our style. If you’ve witnessed the online war that’s been raging between Millenials and Gen Z-ers about skinny jeans and side parts, however, you might be beginning to realize just how attached you are to a style attributed specifically to your age bracket. And this doesn’t just apply to clothing and fashion. Ever hear of Grandmillenial style with regard to home decor? No? Well neither had we, but, as it turns out, some of us definitely fit the bill. 

Here we were, thinking we were just charmingly old-fashioned, loved frequenting estate sales, and were influenced by our grandmothers’ cozy homes — but as it turns out, we’re Grandmillenials! We didn’t even realize we were following this style craze, yet our patterned china, frilly curtains, and floral bedding are all pretty clear indicators. One Kings Lane defines Grandmillenials this way: “Ranging in age from mid-20s to late-30s, grandmillenials have an affinity for design trends considered by mainstream culture to be ‘stuffy’ or ‘outdated’—Laura Ashley prints, ruffles, embroidered linens.” Check, check, and check. The article elaborates: Grandmillenials “are building a party closet and collecting their grandmothers’ china. … They’ve never met a chintz they didn’t like.”

The rise of grandmillenial style

This style does also spill over into clothing and fashion. According to Today, Etsy reports an uptick in orders for items that would be considered old-fashioned, like vintage clip-on earrings, glasses chains, and lockets. “Millennials are saying goodbye to minimalism and looking to express their personal style with unique, standout pieces, so it only makes sense that ‘granny chic’ accessories, which are filled with character and charm, are on the rise,” Etsy trend expert, Dayna Isom Johnson, told Today.

Why do we feel so attracted to things that most would consider “outdated?” Designer Lilse McKenna told One Kings Lane, “It’s classically informed. … The look is so vastly different from the social media accounts of most millennials that are clearly just so trend-based. Those of us who are drawn to this style are trend-averse at our cores.” Interior designer Becky Boyle says it also goes beyond being trend-averse and is more about nostalgia for a time in when we were less focused on our phones and more invested in in-person entertaining (which is when things like patterned china, colored cocktail glasses, and floral tea sets originated). “I think there is now this new wave of saying, ‘Get me off my phone. Get me off work. I just want to sit with my friends and host and enjoy life,'” she explained (via One Kings Lane). And those of us who do identify as Grandmillenials do in fact buy into that mentality as much as we buy estate sale teacups. 

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