The Cottagecore Trend.

Cottagecore, stemming from online movements including grandmacore, farmcore, goblincore and fairiecore, is an Internet aesthetic which celebrates a return to traditional forms of craft such as foraging, baking and pottery. According to its proponents, the ideas of Cottagecore can help to satisfy a popular desire for "an aspirational form of nostalgia" as well as an escape from many forms of stress and trauma. The New York Times termed it a reaction to hustle culture and the advent of personal branding.

The movement gained further traction in many online spheres and on social media due to the mass quarantining in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, it has been described by The Guardian as a "visual and lifestyle movement designed to fetishize the wholesome purity of the outdoors." It emphasizes simplicity and the soft peacefulness of the pastoral life as an escape from the dangers of the modern world.

Gardening, interacting with farm animals, and dancing with a loved one under the moonlight. These classic cottagecore themes eschew digital connectedness in favor of a connectedness to nature.

— Writer Amelia Hall in The Guardian, 2020

Predecessors and cultural context

While cottagecore as a named movement arose in 2020, prior works have employed similar aesthetics and ideals. Two examples from the early 20th century would be Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows. Both feature a pleasant portrayal of country life, an absence of advanced technology and industry, an appreciation for nature, and turn-of-the-century cottages. Interpersonal interactions within the framework of a close-knit and caring community play a central role in these stories. Characters are often seen baking, gardening, walking in the woods, or engaging in other peaceful, pastoral activities. Most items seen in the stories are handmade, rather than manufactured. While the authors, A. A. Milne and Kenneth Grahame respectively, were familiar with turn-of-the-century rural English life, many of their contemporary and modern readers were not. Thus, these works offer a form of escapism into a calm and comprehensible world. Winnie the Pooh found popularity when first published in part because "the idyllic setting of the 100-Acre Wood was a welcome sanctuary from the horrors of the Western Front that remained fresh in his mind and those of many readers in the 1920s.". The Wind in the Willows likewise focuses its attention on "quieter events."The two series continue to be read and adapted a century later.

The idyllic land of The Shire in J. R. R. Tolkien's works first appeared in The Hobbit in 1937. Its residents occupy themselves with baking and farming, living in small, cozy homes. It is the only set from the film adaptation to be converted into a destination for tourists, with particular attention given to its rustic aesthetics and its proximity to nature.

A more recent ancestor of the genre would be 1970's Frog and Toad, which likewise is set in a small community of rural cottages. The narratives revolve around friends and neighbors interacting in emotionally-supportive ways. The characters regularly engage in domestic activities like sewing and baking, as well social activities such as writing letters and visiting each other's homes. As in Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows, handmade items are commonplace.

Another series in this vein would be Brambly Hedge, first published in 1980, which presents themes of camaraderie and community against the backdrop of the English countryside. Stakes are typically personal in nature (such as planning a surprise birthday party) and the scope is limited to a small, "idyllic" rural settlement. Unlike The Wind in the Willows, which was set in the time of its writing, Brambly Hedge portrays turn-of-the-century country life in retrospect and so is an example of nostalgia in the genre.

Premiering in 2001, the social simulation video game series Animal Crossing has gameplay centered on crafts like fishing, gardening, and carpentry, as well as cottage upkeep and the building of social relationships in small communities. Because of its release near the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has received considerable praise as a means of self-care for those impacted by social distancing.

In the 2010s, documentary television programs such as Edwardian Farm and to varying degrees the rest of the BBC historic farm series show presenters (themselves often archaeologists or other experts) living and working in cottages for periods as long as a year. Such programs examine the way culture romanticizes cottage life through the lens of anthropology. The shows recreate traditional methods of farming, cooking, foraging, and other activities for a combination of entertainment, education, and experimental archaeology.

The Great British Bake Off, first airing in 2010, regularly features traditional baked goods and baking methods, including some which were more common in historical cottages than they are in modern-day kitchens. The show's outdoor baking tent is meant to evoke the "cultural tradition of afternoon tea on sprawling country homes." Its spin-off series, The Great British Sewing Bee and The Great Pottery Throw Down, take a similar approach to other crafts.

Cottagecore has also become a subculture of the lesbian community, stemming from the thrive for isolation from a hetero-normative society. Videos of cottagecore lesbians performing tasks like baking bread, embroidering, and thrifting to calming music have gone viral on social media app Tiktok. Artists like Hozier (musician), Lord Huron and Mitski often have their rustic and romantic musical style associated with cottagecore.

This article is more than 2 months old

Why is 'cottagecore' booming? Because being outside is now the ultimate taboo

Amelia Hall

This article is more than 2 months old

The visual and lifestyle movement is designed to fetishise the wholesome purity of the outdoors

Amelia Hall

Published onWed 15 Apr 2020 08.24 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/15/why-is-cottagecore-booming-because-being-outside-is-now-the-ultimate-taboo

Youth movements are always about more than what meets the eye. For example, 1970s first-wave punk wasn’t really just about punk music. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols defined the punk world’s position on harmonics as such: “We’re into chaos, not music.” But it’s not just the appeal of an ideology that sparks a new youth subculture. The most memorable feed off a taboo of the times. In the case of early punk, if the world was tipping toward Thatcher-era conservatism, maybe it was time to put a safety pin in your face and get in the pit.

As expected, there’s a new taboo on the scene, ripe for fetishization. What’s not expected though, is the taboo itself: “The Outside World”. Today, the simple act of being outdoors poses a very real, very mortal threat. So while mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, and encountering collages of young women lying in grass, cradling bunnies, wearing outfits out of Picnic at Hanging Rock – I felt as though I’d found something as illicit as a schedule 2 drug.

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. Gaining initial traction sometime around 2018, its founders imagined and discussed idyllic escape from the endless dopamine trap of digital media and the brutal judgment that accompanied it.

In contrast to the choker-donning eGirl, those worshipping at the church of cottagecore wear traditional, Victorian-inspired dresses – a wholesale dismissal of cyber-inspired everything. Well, not everything – Nintendo’s latest, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, fits perfectly within the calming, pastoral universe imagined by cottagecore devotees.

It’s well-established that most contemporary movements are dependent on social media for growth. So it’s funny that cottagecore is both dependent on it, and simultaneously ignores its existence. It’s easy to understand why. Millennials were the first generation to grow up with the internet, yet Gen Z has led the entirety of their adolescence in a state of constant social media performance. It makes sense that on a foundational level, cottagecore would tap into a taboo familiar to many teens and young adults: To be “disconnected”. To be “unavailable”. To be “off-the-grid”. In 2018, “to be outdoors” was a symbolic act of rebellion. Fast-forward to 2020, and the outdoors are a pipe dream (featuring pink baby lambs, of course).

Gardening, interacting with farm animals, and dancing with a loved one under the moonlight. These classic cottagecore themes eschew digital connectedness in favor of a connectedness to nature. But this isn’t anything new: the movement’s aesthetics are part of a larger visual tradition that peaks in cycles when urban grit, industrialization and the drudgery of daily life demand escape.

In 1854, David Henry Thoreau published Walden, a response to the rapid industrialization he witnessed during his lifetime. In the 1860s, the avant-garde art movement known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood romanticized nature in firm opposition to the utilitarian ethos of industrialized Europe. Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement of the 1880s quickly followed in a further attempt to highlight a human touch when machines continued to replace man.

It was assumed that because we’re living in socially distanced, Zoom-mediated reality, our visual tastes might follow suit. Maybe the increasingly outdated Millennial Aesthetic of the 2010s (frosted pink, potted fig trees, sparkling terrazzo) would give way to something hyper-digital – referencing the synthetic-ness of a life spent online. But to hold up a mirror to our current situation would be too simple. Perhaps the more apt reference is a window into a rarified reality. We revere what we can’t have, and today that looks a lot like what cottagecore celebrates: a taste of nature, the human hand and an aesthetic that soothes us to our very core. Visual ASMR, anyone? Perhaps we could do with some baby lambs right about now.

Amelia Hall is a Brand Strategist working at Deutsch LA. She’s also a contributor to Clickbait.la — an occasional internet culture journal

David Beckham leads the way as men flock to 'cottagecore' look

Latest trend conveys ‘a more romanticised ideal of masculinity’, says fashion professor

Priya Elan

Published onFri 3 Jul 2020 13.10 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/jul/03/david-beckham-leads-the-way-as-men-flock-to-cottagecore-look

He took sarongs, bleach-blond locks and all leather outfits into the mainstream, but can David Beckham do the same to the latest trend for whimsical outdoor living: “cottagecore”?

During lockdown, Beckham’s Instagram account has featured him in some distinct poses. With a scythe in hand against a bucolic sky with a field in the background, he’s usually wearing a flat cap, corduroys and a woolly cardigan or jumper. Sometimes he’s wading through fields in his Hunter wellies and trenchcoat and he’s even filmed himself building a beehive in a V-neck smock top. At another time Beckham channelling what could be mistaken for Tory chic from his Cotswold’s home may have sounded an uneasy note, but right now it strikes a chord with the fantasy of agrarian life that is part of cottagecore.

“As we emerge from lockdown, men are embracing cottagecore as a means to convey a more romanticised ideal of masculinity,” says Andrew Groves, a professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster. Here, he says, Beckham has idealised the agricultural worker and reimagined himself “as the gamekeeper from Lady Chatterley’s Lover”.

The trend, which began in 2017 on social media sites like Tumblr and TikTok, combines lifestyle with fashion. It is about a yearning for the romantic sheen of rural life expressed in part through the look of the 1970s (lace trimmings and denim) – Laura Ashley reimagined by newer labels like the Vampire’s Wife and Batsheva .

During lockdown it has increased in popularity. “For those who felt trapped in their apartments in the grimy, crowded city, it made sense to start daydreaming about pastoral settings, where one could be cosy and feel free from disease,” says fashion historian Andrew Luecke. Cottagecore activities like baking, gardening and making your own clothes have all boomed during the pandemic.

Now, menswear is taking note. Searches for the staples that make up so-called “granddad style” have increased: flat caps (monthly searches are at 27,100 according to Digitaloft.co.uk), cardigans (40,500) and smocks (74,000).

Harry Styles’ multi-coloured chunky patchwork cardigan by JW Anderson has become a cottagecore challenge, with users on TikTok attempting to knit their own versions, resulting in the hashtag #harrystylescardigan. Styles has also been seen wearing a yellow daisy shirt from New York label Bode, a sustainable designer whose autumn/winter collection was the first cottagecore line. It had a strong animal/ agriculture theme, set in a community garden and featuring gardening gloves, animal prints (cow, sheep) with a heavy focus on embroidery and crocheted items.

Similarly designers like Virgil Abloh used his spring/summer 2020 menswear collection to focus on the idyllic outdoors with patterns featuring anemones and pansies and gardening boots.

Cottagecore for men could be seen as a natural branch of both the utility-led “gorpcore” trend (outdoor clothes for people who don’t go out) and the acid ramblers scene. “Those original 90s ravers are now to be found on the moors, both rambling and raving,” says Groves, “wearing a mixture of cords, knitwear and country smocks.” In that sense, he believes cottagecore is a trend that “is only going to become more prominent over the coming years.”