Hyperfeminine

Daisy explores cottage core, with its potential origins in lesbian culture, as a form of resistance weaponizing gender theory…

What do you picture when you imagine hyper-feminine fashion: super-girly colours like pastels and pinks? Long flowing skirts that trail elegantly across the ground and spin in a perfect circle of fabric around the legs? Ruching, tulle, bows, beads and all the joyful frivolities one could imagine on a single garment? Cottagecore, glitter and florals? What do you picture when you imagine the human being wearing these beautiful, feminine clothes? A beautiful, slim, young woman with porcelain white skin and long golden hair gleaming in the sun? What does she do for work — or does she just play in meadows and take selfies all day? What kind of substance does she have to her personality: is she smart, funny, creative, powerful — or simply beautiful?

I ask because odds are you just saw a vessel — a very specific image of beauty. Why’d I think that? Because who takes femininity seriously, or equates it to anything deeper than appearance?

We all know why women and femininity aren’t given the respect they deserve (starts with ‘s’ & ends in ‘exism’) but allow me to argue the case for cottage core and ultra-femme fashion being more than the fun and serenely aesthetic style that meets the eye. Not just in the way it clashes with the race to the future we’re witnessing in the fashion industry, but that this joyous reclamation and exaggeration of all things ‘childish’, ‘unprofessional’ and ‘girly’ is in fact an act of protest; delicious fourth-wave feminism in action. 

The origins of cottage core are of course not as clear as I wished when I started my research — alas, nothing ever is — but most evidence suggests this current version of aesthetic was born out of the queer community like so many others. Specifically from women on sites like Tumblr, where it spread during the 2010s, and now TikTok. The name “cottage core” supposedly originated on Tumblr and encompassed all aspects of idealised rural life: baking, flowers, meadows, cottages… as someone who grew up in East Anglia surrounded by farmers, I can tell you rural life is actually more like shovelling soil in the mud and the rain and not having working Wi-Fi. But who am I to ruin the aesthetic?

Being locked down for the past two years, the beauty of the great outdoors became one of the main sources of joy for many of us, and for those without access to an outdoor space we took the cottage core vibes inside; baking, decorating, sewing.. it suddenly became fun to be wholesome, and fashion followed suit. Viral pieces like Lirika Matoshi’s strawberry dress — literally THE dress of 2020 — perfectly defines the way we all emerged from the dark shadows of our isolation and went, “damn, I wanna dress up!”

“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

And still, in fashion weeks of 2022, we’re seeing dreamy, floaty visions drifting down the runways. Thebe Magu’s Genealogy collection reflected on the outfits worn by his mother and grandmother in a pastel haze graced with rural textures and soft, feminine draping shapes. Takashia Houma gave us a collection of big skirts, puffy sleeves, pastels and 3D flowers straight from the pages of a fairytale. Molly Goddard, the queen of cottagecore femininity, gave us a more neutral (but still femme af) version of events than her usual colourful excitements. Erdem delivered white knits, embroidery, laces and florals in an ultimately romantic and innocent collection of glamorous pieces. Simone Rocha lit up the catwalk with huge dresses, huge collars and huge sleeves — all in stunning sheer whites and pastels. 

Whilst I imagine few of these designers would willfully describe their designs as cottage core, they certainly fit the description, and are allowing the rural trend to continue to bloom on runways, in wardrobes and on the internet. But let’s turn our eyes away from fashion week and have a scroll online…

Crochet, tulle, beaming influencers taking selfies with bouquets of flowers and coordinated outfits in the utopian golden hour glow... Something about our digital selves is always drawn to imagining ourselves somewhere simpler; somewhere more beautiful, peaceful, and natural. Maybe it’s just the desire to escape the hectic, burnout-inducing lives we have been wading through for the last few years to find ourselves somewhere without all the complications of modern life… Maybe. But like I said, whilst it definitely gives space for the mind to breathe some fresh air, I think there’s more to it than a purely girly, dreamy sense of escape.

And so we turn our attention first to the online movement called ‘trad-wives’, a right-wing movement centred on traditional and regressive gender roles, i.e. that women should be feminine, bakers, homemakers, etc. While there are some superficial similarities between this hostile ideology and cottage core, which many are quick to point out, look a little deeper and you’ll find they are polar opposites. While one is about oppression and control, the other is about reclamation and fashionable joy. This is one popular internet theory behind why queer people love the aesthetic so much (on TikTok, the hashtag #cottagecorelesbians has over 33 million views) — it presents femininity and domesticity outside of the binary. And it’s camp as hell. 

It’s a perfect world where gender is not a focus; no one is specifically excluded, except perhaps the cis-male, and many forms of sex or relationships are an afterthought instead of being the sole purpose we are taught to live and search for from the moment we turn 18 in the IRL patriarchal media dystopia we currently live in. It’s a space to just feel childish delight and joy — which I’m sure you’ll agree is pretty rare these days. In cottage core, we deny hustle culture, adore nature, and feel fabulous — win, win, win! Gender codes are also up for debate (thank God because we really don’t need those outdated rules anymore) and the idea of playing with extreme versions of femininity is considered sassy as hell, very fourth-wave if you ask me.

The opportunity for rebellion, for wordless communication, is one of the true beauties of fashion, and one that is often forgotten in today’s world of fast trends for Instagram content and corresponding likes. So in what ways, does cottage core gown say ‘rebellion’ to me? Well, for starters, there’s no male gaze at play here. With yards of fabric, huge ruffles, vintage styles — it’s just pure joy. It’s also a style, a subculture even, that promotes peace, slowing down, sustainability, and even tries to start other conversations about BLM, capitalism, and politics in its online circles. 

“It’s a perfect world where gender is not a focus [...] and many forms of sex or relationships are an afterthought...”

The fact that cottage core is a space where people can exist in more than the 2-dimensional form so often expected of them (e.g. women don’t have to be perceived as just a mother, just a businesswoman, just a flirt — they can be multiple things at once) is pretty exciting. You can be an influencer, you can be making that money, and you can be laying down in a vintage dress in a field too.

credits

words — daisy riley

design — sâde popoola