Aliyahcore is everywhere thanks to this Atlanta TikToker

When it comes to fashion trends it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint an originator, but for Aliyahcore – a style trend that has been circulating on TikTok over the past year – the history is all in the name. With her eccentric pink looks, Aliyahsinterlude, born Aliyah Bah, took influencing to a new level when she spearheaded a movement of people dressing exactly like her.  

Similar to many popular creators on the app, Aliyah first started posting during lockdown due to boredom. “I was just in the house doing nothing all day and thought I've got to do something with my life,” she explains. “But when I first started TikTok, I wasn't even on the fashion stuff. But then when I started posting the clothes I would wear people would ask me where's this from? Where's that from? And then I started focusing mostly on fashion.” What started as simply posting outfits of the day turned into thousands of her followers recreating her looks – currently the Aliyahcore hashtag on Tiktok has over 207 millions views and is flooded with people’s best attempts at dressing in her style. 

Now 2.6 million followers later, Bah has gone from living what you could describe as an average student life in Atlanta, to walking Mowalola’s AW23 show in London and styling the likes of Rico Nasty, Lizzo, and Dazed 100 musician Ayra Starr in her signature style. Hoping to continue into design and styling, earlier this year Bah dropped her first collab with indie brand Oceandeep with two ‘Aliyahcore’ oversized fluffy boots.

Below Aliyah spoke to us about how she got her start on social media, Aliyahcore, and freeing herself from other people’s opinions about her style.

Hey Aliyah! Could you tell us a bit about your background? 

Aliyah Bah: I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and I am a fashion influencer. I started getting into clothing more in middle school and high school. I've always been a DIY girl, from watching YouTube channels and making my own stuff to going to school and wearing super eccentric outfits. I used to get made fun of too but it was all trial and error, just finding out what I really wanted my style to be. And then during quarantine, I started being a content creator. I made Aliyahcore last year, but I've always been like this, so I just named it Aliyahcore and started going from there.

What is your earliest memory of fashion? 

Aliyah Bah: My gosh, my earliest memory of fashion was in middle school. I would make these bows out of duct tape and I used to give them to my family and stuff. I remember watching YouTube videos and making them from scratch and I would mess them up and I would have to start over again. I think that's my earliest memory of fashion, just DIY.

Who was your fashion inspiration growing up if you had one?

Aliyah Bah: Honestly, I don't want to seem like the type to say I don't have any fashion inspirations but I feel like I take more from different fashion subsets or different fashion cultures rather than the big people if that makes sense. So I can't really name like person specifically.

What are the fashion subsets you would say you take from?

Aliyah Bah: Definitely Harajuku culture, Y2K culture, and subversive basics. I think those are the main three and then I just add things I've created myself.

You mentioned you started thrifting pretty young, at what age did you start?

Aliyah Bah: My parents are first-generation immigrants from Sierra Leone. When they came here they started a business, and it was basically recycling clothing. So my mom would never take us to get clothes, we would just go to their business and get stuff from there and have to work with it. So I think since I was around six, seven years old, that's all I've been doing, just thrifting. 

What are your top three tips for successful thrifting?

Aliyah Bah: Okay, I would say the first one would be going in there knowing what you want because the thrift store has so many different things, you'll get in there and just be lost. I will say the second one is using mood boards to know what type of outfits you're trying to make or what type of pieces you want. Using pictures and seeing your inspirations on there and then going into with that idea. And then three go with a friend, for sure. Sometimes you need a second opinion on things and if you go by yourself you end up buying things that you actually won't wear. But if you have a friend there it's okay, it's easier.

When did you put a name to your style and decide okay, this is Aliyahcore?

Aliyah Bah: My friends and I always used to say Aliyahcore because we just put core after everything. I started doing it online, I feel like probably around September or October of last year. 

How do you achieve the perfect Aliyahcore look, what is your step-by-step guide?

Bah: I feel like the number one step before even the clothes, you have to realise that you're that girl and you have to get rid of your fear of being perceived. These outfits are not basic, they are extravagant outfits, you can't just go outside and not expect stares and stuff. So that's the first step. The second step is you need the Aliyahcore essentials you need the fishnets, the garter, the fur, and the boots, those are the top four essentials, but those altogether you can remix it any type of way you want. And it just gives Aliyahcore basically.

How did you get over your fear of being perceived?

Bah: I grew up so shy, whenever I say that to people nobody believes me but I used to be the most timid person ever. I used to always care about being perceived but then, during quarantine, there was that period where everybody was in the house and you finally got a chance to become who you are without being perceived by anybody. It's also about me expressing who I am as a person and I feel like when I wear an outfit it's always like an expression of how I feel inside. A lot of times I feel like other people don't care as much as you do about the things you wear. They see it once and they won't think about it again, but you will think about it all day.

Which celebs would you want to see in Aliyahcore?

Bah: I want to see Bella Hadid, Rihanna, and I would say Doja Cat, she’s on her alternative shit now. She would definitely eat that. 

Would you ever go into design and styling or anything along those lines? 

Bah: Definitely, I think that's the route that I'm trying to go into now. I'm releasing a clothing brand this year and it's gonna be Aliyahcore essentials and also just clothes. I also want to style like celebrities, if they were to reach out to me I will be so down. I'm styling my friends right now and teaching people how to do Aliyahcore for plus-size girls and for different types of people that you wouldn't really see like generally. I would love to do all of that honestly.

You can only have two accessories for the rest of your life which are you picking?

Bah: The garter for sure. I can't go anywhere without a garter, it's just a part of me and also fishnets.

Dream blunt rotation?

Bah: Hello Kitty… but wait she’s a kid though. So, Issa Rae, Jennifer Coolidge, and Beyoncé. 

Nightmare blunt rotation?

Bah: Who wouldn’t I want to smoke with? I don’t like smoking with men honestly. My nightmare rotation would be Andrew Tate and Shrek, just because Shrek is kind of scary, and Donkey. I would not want to smoke with Donald Trump.