Cottagecore aesthetic

What is cottagecore?

Cottagecore is a daydream about slow, rural life. It is less about real farming and more about the feeling: a warm kitchen, a vegetable patch, jam cooling on the windowsill and nowhere urgent to be.

The name appeared on Tumblr in 2018. It took off in 2020, when lockdowns kept people at home and baking bread became a hobby for millions. Taylor Swift's album Folklore that same year, with its forests and cardigans, is often credited with pushing it further.

The cottagecore color palette

Cottagecore colors come from a garden and a pantry: linen white, sage green, dusty rose, honey and moss. Everything is soft and a little faded, as if it had been washed and dried in the sun many times.

Avoid neon, black and anything shiny. If you want a darker version, deep greens and browns move it toward the cozier, forest side of the style.

How to dress cottagecore

Cottagecore clothes are loose, comfortable and made from natural fabrics: cotton, linen and wool. Many pieces look handmade, and some are.

• Dresses: prairie and milkmaid dresses with puff sleeves, smocking or a square neck.
• Tops: embroidered or gingham blouses, peasant tops, knitted cardigans.
• Bottoms: long floral or linen skirts, wide linen trousers, overalls.
• Shoes: Mary Janes, clogs, ballet flats or simple leather boots.
• Details: a straw hat, a wicker basket, a linen apron, ribbons in braided hair.

An easy starting outfit is a floral midi dress with a cardigan and flat shoes. If dresses are not your thing, wide linen trousers with a gingham shirt and a straw hat say cottagecore just as clearly.

Cottagecore room ideas

A cottagecore room feels like a farmhouse bedroom. Use wood furniture, ideally old or painted, and a patchwork quilt on the bed. Floral or gingham fabrics, dried flowers hanging upside down, and open shelves with jars and teacups all fit.

Light matters too. Sheer curtains, daylight and candles in the evening keep the room soft. Add plants on the windowsill, or herbs you can actually cook with.

Cottagecore vs fairycore vs boho

Fairycore takes cottagecore into the woods and adds magic: mushrooms, moss, gauzy fabrics and fairy wings. Boho shares the love of natural things, but is warmer and more traveled, with fringe, rugs from many places and lots of jewelry. Cottagecore is the tidiest of the three: gingham, puff sleeves and a clean kitchen table.

Is cottagecore your aesthetic?

If your ideal Sunday involves flour on your hands and flowers in a jar, you may already live it. Take the aesthetic quiz to see if cottagecore is your top match, or try the room quiz if it is mostly your space you want to change.

Sources

• Cottagecore, Wikipedia: origin of the term in 2018 and its rise in 2020.