Opinion | Hopelessly romanticizing ‘cottagecore’

Mady Dever, Opinions Editor

Picture this: You’re in your backyard on a warm summer’s day, washing your laundry in a bucket and hanging it to dry. You’re wearing a flowing cotton house dress with daisies on it and breathing in the smell of the fresh-baked bread you made an hour earlier. Beyond your little bubble, a pandemic surges outside while you sit blissfully and idly, trying to find something to do with your time. 

This, in a nutshell, is “cottagecore” — the internet aesthetic and resurgence of wearing “peasant blouses,” house dresses and corsets that was popularized last spring. 

I noticed it beginning around when the pandemic did, which is a very interesting correlation. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, women were pinned to the household, taking care of children, cleaning and cooking for the family. House dresses are reminiscent of “Little House on the Prairie.” Dainty nightgowns and corsets make one feel like they are living in a Jane Austen novel. Puffed sleeves and long cotton skirts allow for a string quartet to play in your ears 24/7.

 Last summer, we were spending an unprecedented amount of time in our own homes and trying new activities. Instead of buying Starbucks, we’d make our own coffee — a novel idea! We learned how to bake bread and use a sourdough starter. For me at least, I felt like I was living in a different time period (before I had to hop onto Zoom class, that is). 

Everything around us was forcing us to revert to older ways — more time with family, home cooking, gardening, arts and crafts, hobbies. Yet at the same time, we were being pulled in the opposite direction into the future — “Zooming” into our university classes, submitting homework online and having solely virtual human contact. 

All of this brought with it a fantasization of the old into the new and current time period. 

Why do we as a society become obsessed with past ideals and imagery? I can’t help but think about the origins of these cottagecore fashions and the time period in which they were worn. I posted in March about “Pride and Prejudice” on my “Bookstagram” — an Instagram account dedicated to reviewing novels. In it, I noted that I wanted to go to a ball in a pretty dress and dance the night away. 

But then I sit down and think about how those balls were held for not only socialization, but also to ensure a young woman found a husband. Women hovered at the edge of the dance floor with a card and pencil on their wrists for men to sign up to dance with them. Their only option was to find a husband who would work for them, or a family who could give them a dowry. 

If you were approaching 25, then you would be considered an “old maid” and all hope was lost for you. If you were a wealthy woman, then your maids would tight-lace you into a corset that shaved inches off your waist and oxygen out of your lungs — all for your appearance. All to obtain a husband. 

We idealize these time periods that were historically unequal for women and people of color. Yet, the media portrays a blissful yet ignorant version of history, leading us to believe these time periods were a perfect picture: Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” or the 2020 television series “Bridgerton,” to name a few. 

We can romanticize all we want, but these picturesque glorifications and distorted versions of “back then” are lifestyles we’ll never be able to obtain. This fantasy world of peace, springtime flowers, perfect romances and dresses solely for frolicking doesn’t exist and likely never did. Not to be doom and gloom, but Zoom classes, desk jobs, paying bills and sitting on the phone for three hours with customer service doesn’t exactly fit into the cottagecore mood boards of muted pinks and greens, fields of flowers and serenity.

But that’s OK. Maybe that’s the catalyst for this trend toward the past. The cottagecore style is more than a few dresses — it’s a lifestyle of calm, connection with nature, a deeper focus on the little things like tea time, baking, reading and returning to simplistic hobbies. Maybe it’s getting us closer to a life we want to lead — one we so desperately crave after a year of pure insanity. We want to move slowly in a world that speeds ahead around us.

So maybe we are allowed to love past trends that were built upon misogyny and rebrand them for our own enjoyment now. It’s not an ignorance of the past, but an acknowledgement and a re-creation of what we want it to be.