My phone buzzed at 7: 23 am Thursday morning with a text from my younger sister Emma asking, “Madison are you more cottagecore or dark academia?” I had literally JUST woke up. Like had not even_yet processed what those words meant when placed together to describe fashion philosophies. Don’t get me wrong-I understood what cottage meant.
And core. And dark and academia when those words stood on their own. Together?
My mind was still functioning on alertness levels of “find me coffee.” “I’m barely awake- core today lol.” I responded. Which sounds so intellectual and not-at-all ignorant for barely having caffeine in my system yet.
She sent three crying emojis back at me.
Followed by what seemed like seventeen TikTok links to teenage girls modelling their carefully curated outfits that oozed every aesthetic known to mankind…possibly.
I ended up spending my breakfast time watching all of them (guess who let her oatmeal get cold?) and shamefully came to the realization that I had missed a whole cultural wave. In my literal JOB we talk about visuals EVERY DAY.
And I consider myself pretty savvy to pop culture, what with constantly scrolling through Instagram for hours at a time. How did I miss this? So before we get into the breakdown of all the cores I didn’t know existed let me first give you a little background on how I found myself in this predicament.
Being a millennial, you think you’re hip to all the newest trends. TikTok pops up and suddenly there are 47 micro categories of people under the age of 22 that could probably recite every “core” at the top of their lungs while I sat here googling what fanny pack season actually meant. It’s like realising you’ve been saying dog mature incorrectly your whole life, now multiplied by 17 different generations of style.
I proceeded to do what any normal person would do when they discover they might be absolutely ancient in pop culture terms. Avoid all responsibilities and research all the cores I didn’t know about instead of working on a logo redesign I’ve been sitting on for weeks. My boss is convinced I’m suddenly into social media marketing, which ….
Isn’t far off. If you too find yourself embarrassingly lost in what teenagers these days consider to be “basic” let me help enlighten you. Back in 2014, we were introduced to normcore, which was essentially taking regular clothes and making them look cool on purpose.
Remember Seinfeld ? Now imagine him but make it trendy. Cut to 2020 where we all were well aware we were going stir crazy during quarantine and cottagecore was born.
Bless those TikTok trendsetters for recognising we all were imagining running away to live in the woods baking bread and befriending deer instead of refreshing our Twitter feed every other minute. From there, someone must have hit copy and paste and created new “cores” because every mood, aesthetic, and anything in between now has it’s own specific core attached. Literally everything.
Get this- there’s goblincore. THERE IS ACTUALLY A CORE THAT INVOLVES MAINLY YOU STEALING SHINY OBJECTS AND BEING A LITTLE BIT FERAL. There’s light academia vs. dark academia.
Light vs. dark. Like Kendall and Kylie Jenner but with hipster glasses. Apparently, based on the algorithm these TikToks showed me versus what my sister got- they are also creating these insane micro communities within each core.
While I was over here watching cute little videos on how to dress in sustainable clothing, my sister was being brainwashed by some weird corner of the internet/TikTok known as “coquette.” Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…bows. LOTS AND LOTS OF BOWS. After copious amounts of research (and highly regrettable purchases that I hopefully won’t see on my Amazon bills tomorrow), I have compiled all of the cores I could find into what I think are the main ones buzzing around young peoples brains these days.
If you want to sound cool and understand what the hell anyone under the age of 25 is talking about when they describe the aesthetic of their outfit, keep reading. Barbiecore. What else is there to say.
Barbie. Plain and simple. Pastel EVERYTHING, blowing out your hair until it’s blonde (but not too blonde), and accessories that will blind someone across the room.
Middle school me would have never worn pink because it was “anti-feminist.” Now women in their 30’s are buying $700 pink dresses because of Barbie. Go figure. Balletcore.
Also pretty self-explanatory if you read the title correctly. Ballet flats (AKA kill your feet if you actually walk anywhere in them), flowy wrap jumpers, leg warmers, knee socks, and the colour pale pink. Do it all.
I rocked this for a day and my coworker asked if I was teaching Pilates after work. We’ll let that sink in. Coastal grandmother-aka what happens when you take major grandmother vibes and put them by the ocean.
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Linen shirts, neutral cashmere, straw hats, and the vibe that you’re about to go antique shopping or spend your afternoon watering ALL of your plants that you also grew in your backyard. Honestly, I pulled this one off for a client meeting a few months back and received more compliments that day than I probably year. Best. accident. ever.
Dark academia- cue all of my autumn wardrobe dreams. If you want to dress like you either go to Hogwarts or spend your free time reading Edgar Allen Poe by candlelight, this is for you. Tweed, argyle prints, oxford shirts, pleated skirts, linen trousers. basically everything that makes you want to dive into your bag and grab a leather bound copy of Romeo and Juliet (or in my case an overdue library book).
Light academia is the same but less, well, DARK. Cottagecore. LOVED IT.
TO DEATH. We all want to dress like we can step into a shoot for the BBC period drama you’re watching and they don’t even have to change a thing about your outfit. Florals, puff sleeves, peasant dresses, basically anything in your closet that gives you all the farmhouse vibes.
If you thought those blew through quicker than you could say “core” wait until you get through this list. By the time I understood what goblincore was, TikTok had decided we were over it and moved onto “coastal cowboy.” Like WTF. Seems as if these trends come and go faster than Fashion Week, yet happen constantly and take place in the bedroom of a nineteen-year-old. *sigh* But after spending my week engulfed by all of these aesthetically pleasing dictionaries, I have come to one conclusion.
Sure, these are trends. But they are more like lifestyles wrapped in outfit summaries. Someone who says they dress dark academia probably doesn’t JUST wear tweed skirts.
They want to spend their day in gothic libraries, drinking out of old china cups and Surround themselves by vintage books and classical music. It’s living for an ideal. But for us normal folks trying to maybe hint some of these outlets into our daily lives without screaming “I’m basic AF” or “I’m trying too hard to be young again.” I’ve come up with some tips.
Be realistic. I work at a small design firm in Portland, Oregon. Not a college in England or a cute little lighthouse on the east coast.
FULL on dark academia will probably come into work and get some questionable looks. But I can slip in some pieces that give nods to the aesthetic without wondering if my boss is going to punch me in my cheap faux-leather blazer. Ease into it.
I love all things hot pink, but that doesn’t mean I run to Target and buy a hot pink everything outfit to wear to work. I picked up one good quality hot pink blazer that I can toss on with my regular black trousers and white button up. It still gives me that pop of colour I’m clearly obsessed with, without broadcasting “I based my personality off a TikTok trend.” Accessorize!
Buy yourself a dark academia plaid scarf, some cozy coastal grandmother pearls or even a balletcore hair tie. Accessories are a great and super affordable way to touch on the aesthetics you love without needing to rebuild your entire closet around them. Dig through your own closet.
Chances are you already own some piece that could fit into one of these blogs. I found a light academia PERFECT cardigan I forgot I owned, and my linen shirt I “only wear on holiday” is quintally coastal grandmother. You probably have the basics, you just have to style them differently!
Please, PLEASE don’t buy from fast fashion trying to keep up with these trends. I know it’s fun to see something and want to try it, but those clothes aren’t made to last longer than your interest. Before you buy something new to try out a core, cheque out your local secondhand shops or neighbours.
My friends and I have even started doing lazy clothing swaps as our “cores” change. It’s affordable and better for the environment! Don’t take yourself too seriously.
This is probably the biggest thing I learned from my whole research spiral.
These “styles” are supposed to help YOU find what you love, not make you feel like you have to wear that specific something or you’re doing it wrong.
Pick and choose what speaks to you, ignore the rest, and remember that your REAL life shouldn’t have to match these perfectly.
When I sent Emma back my analysis that I was “ probably a coastal grandmother with some dark academia tendencies and a hint of cottagecore on the weekends” she was… amused. “That sounds so you.” Followed by her giving me yet another mirror pic of her outfit that was some weird combination of balletcore/y2k revival/ anime???? Who knows. All I know is her caption was “ Trying something new today.” To me, that’s the beautiful part about this new wave of weird we’ve created.
It’s allowing people to be incredibly specific about the styles they enjoy and find others with similar interests. Rather than just saying someone is preppy or bohemian- we can now say “dark academia with cottagecore vibes and a sprinkle of coastal grandmother on the beach.” It’s overwhelming. And absolutely ridiculous all at the same time.
But I’m also kind of digging it. And side note. If any of you try to explain “soft grunge” to me I will lose my mind.
We tried. Trust me.
