The Healing Way of Contemporary Young People: Pastoral Aesthetics

Just a piece of gingham, a piece of green grass, some scattered sunlight, a long floral dress, and a bunch of red wine, fruits and baguettes placed at random, it is like going to Paris, France.

Unexpectedly, this kind of lifestyle continues to increase in popularity around the world.

Similar topics have recently become popular again on Instagram. Related videos on TikTok have been viewed 4 billion times, creating an idyllic utopia on the Internet, bringing people both visual and spiritual comfort. ".

All the healing scenery revolves around one word: Cottagecore.

The "Cultural Revival" of Pastoral Aesthetics

If you don't know much about Cottagecore, it's simply rustic.

Wikipedia details, Cottagecore is a nostalgic aesthetic movement, which refers to the combination of various traditional skills and handicrafts in the scene of mountain farmhouses to create a way of life that returns to nature.

But it does not imitate old-fashioned country life, but a new pastoral style, expressing retro scenes with modern aesthetics, focusing on the fairy tale sense of surreal atmosphere.

Cottagecore is not just a form of picnic. Baking, farming, flower arrangement, pottery making, and embroidery are all the landing forms of Cottagecore.

But pastoral aesthetics are nothing new.

When it emerged in the 2010s, it was a niche subculture until 2018, when it was named cottagecore on tumblr.

The pandemic was the first wave of cottagecore revival.

When the city was rapidly closed, people began to have enough time to think about the relationship between man and nature; when the bombardment of negative news kept coming, people were thinking of ways to find a source of happiness to heal their body and mind during isolation, and go to a place of peace that is far from reality.

So, cottagecore came.

It not only allows people to return to the original beauty, but also allows people to find the motivation to live. Even if they can't walk into the crowd and become the focus of attention, they can still be the brightest female star in the circle of friends.

However, Cottagecore has become popular until now, and there are more stories behind it.

In July 2020, Taylor Swift released her new album "Folklore", returning to her original folk style, once again setting multiple charts and sales records around the world, while also setting off a country-style craze.

When the pastoral aesthetic wind is blowing hotter and hotter, the fashion circle is also eyeing this trend immediately. Brand designers exhibited a large number of "Cottagecore Fashion" works, leading the trend of the new year.

The 2021 spring and summer shows and early spring collections of many brands such as Dior and Burbeery have rich cottagecore elements: soft and fluffy design silhouettes, full of floral plaid patterns, natural materials of tulle cotton, natural retro tones… …

Digital idyllic utopia

Soon, the cottagecore craze went global.

From people's outdoor activities, to home design, gardening and flower arrangements, there is a trend of Cottagecore.

Under the hashtags of cottagecore and farmcore on Instagram, the summer feeling, southern French style, and candy color are overflowing, creating a contemporary aesthetic vane;

TikTok videos show people resting in the fields, jumping in the woods, running into the sunset, and even plowing the land.

Of course, as we all know, they left after filming, and no one could see the seeds germinate.

The forest garden where they check in on weekends is the password of social software; those natural and casual sultry poses are a required course for urban beauties.

Flowers and butterflies hair accessories, romantic flower embroidery, quirky freckles makeup... Behind every pastoral element, a fairy who hits the trend is being born.

Cottagecore is just an idyllic dream

The ubiquitous sense of dreaminess, fairy tales, and idealized text descriptions in this new rural style have already revealed its unreality.

To put it bluntly, Cottagecore is actually a beautification of rural life.

There is always a gap between reality and ideal.

But during the epidemic, what people actually need may be just a temporary escape, a release from long-term depression.

The new crown virus has made everything full of uncertainty: the economy, work, school, social... Compared with the confusion of the future, the beautiful moments of the past are as reassuring as utopias.

The popularity of Cottagecore also reveals the dissatisfaction and counterattack of contemporary young people with the acceleration of capitalism and urbanization.

Just like Thoreau published "Walden" in 1854, attacking the rapid industrialization in his life; just like in the 1860s, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood raised the art reform movement in Britain, using romanticism to oppose European industrialization. utilitarianism.

This Internet cottagecore carnival is far from the high-pressure life of the city, far from the closed concrete forest, everything is carried out at a slow pace, people start to think inward, examine life, everything starts to become simple, they are interconnected and full of meaning , without being restrained by capital, without being impacted by material desires, and without discrimination by geography, politics, and race.

This is not a sensational reform, but a bottle of timely and soothing antidote, a long-awaited respite.

It is foreseeable that the Cottagecore trend will continue in the future.

It advocates natural health, returning to nature, environmentalism, ecological fashion, and sustainable development, and will continue to lead the trend to spread on the Internet.

It's hard to say exactly what form cottagecore will take in the future, but the dream it created is struggling to wake up and getting closer to the reality we've come to expect.

Until everyone can hear the grass sprouting seeds and the leaves rustling in the wind.