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Examples

  • Aesthetically, cottagecore is women with long hair and long dresses holding wicker baskets, a warm berry pie resting on a cloth served beside herbal tea in a thrifted china set, mason jars, foraged mushrooms, beeswax candles.

    My Life Is Little House on the Prairie. I Blame TikTok Condé Nast 2020

  • This approach to fashion provides a fountain of surprises, creativity and weirdness, throwing up wry, eye-catching, era-splicing looks with excellent names, ranging from Dark Academia (key references: Donna Tartt and Giles from Buffy) to cottagecore (gingham, crochet and ruffles).

    Do I look cheugy in this? What can a gen Z makeover teach me about life? Hannah Marriott 2021

  • A close but more feral cousin to cottagecore, a trend for a stylised, agrarian way of life and its aesthetic – prairie dresses, jam tarts, thatched cottages and strawberry motifs – that was big last year, goblincore is, says Brennan, more “rough around the edges”.

    Goblincore: the fashion trend that embraces ‘chaos, dirt and mud’ Ellie Violet Bramley 2021

  • The pandemic was all about “cottagecore,” an idyllic or avoidant retreat to country cutesiness, sourdough bread–making, and an allegedly simpler time.

    Waking Up From the Nap Dress Matthew Schneier 2022

  • Cottagecore as an aesthetic has been around since at least 2018, when Tumblr users started collecting nostalgic images of a romanticized version Western country life on mood boards, but its popularity has surged during quarantine.

    My Life Is Little House on the Prairie. I Blame TikTok Condé Nast 2020

  • It could be the beginning of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, before the inevitable darkness seeps in, but rather it’s the backdrop of a budding aesthetic movement called cottagecore, where tropes of rural self-sufficiency converge with dainty décor to create an exceptionally twee distillation of pastoral existence.

    Escape Into Cottagecore, Calming Ethos for Our Febrile Moment By 2020

  • Cottagecore as a movement has become a kind of a shared community nostalgia for an idealized countryside cottage life, nestled in nature, where the social isolation so necessary in modern pandemic times becomes something enjoyed rather than endured.

    The Punk Rock Linguistics of Cottagecore | JSTOR Daily Chi Luu 2021

  • The trend represents a direct departure from the hyper-curated “cottagecore” influence of early pandemic days, a standout trend of 2020 that included pastel colors, bucolic scenery, and the showcasing of wholesome homemaking skills such as baking and embroidery.

    Slobbing out and giving up: why are so many people going ‘goblin mode’? Kari Paul 2022

  • The reference here is cottagecore: a visual and lifestyle movement designed to fetishize the wholesome purity of the outdoors, spearheaded by lovely queer teens of TikTok.

    Why is 'cottagecore' booming? Because being outside is now the ultimate taboo | Amelia Hall Amelia Hall 2020

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  • https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/style/cottagecore.html

    It could be the beginning of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, before the inevitable darkness seeps in, but rather it’s the backdrop of a budding aesthetic movement called cottagecore, where tropes of rural self-sufficiency converge with dainty décor to create an exceptionally twee distillation of pastoral existence.

    March 10, 2020