Dark Academia - anyone who loves this style?

[highlandcoo]

And where to find it?

This is how I want to dress this winter. More skirts and dresses rather than trousers as my waist is not the best and the trousers can look bulky unless you have a good waistline I think.

I love tweed and wool and flannel and autumn colours. Not black! Although brown is sometimes hard to find. Love brown leather for boots and bags. I really want to get away from jeans and chunky boots for a change.

I think I can knit some jumpers and cardigans. But I would love a big tweedy coat. I have a couple of really nice brown tweed hats from a shop in Edinburgh who made the hats for Peaky Blinders. But I need the right sort of coat to go with them. My long cosy puffy coat is cosy but totally wrong.

Any aficionados out there?

@teawamutu you have made my day you gorgeous person!!

Much as I love you all, you are terrible for my bank account! Hit up TK Maxx today and got some new jumpers. Outfit ideas...

And culottes ideas...

Saw these beauties too but they were too small for me, alas! They've come out canary yellow in the photo but they were actually more a mustard colour. I think they would be lovely with culottes in Spring?

I'm in love with the navy jacket in the top right picture, where's it from?

I love those green culottes

Perfect outfits, @helenahandcart78

@teawamutu, do you mean the one with the hood? It's more of a coatigan. It was in TK Maxx today in Newtownards in NI (if there are any locals on here!) it has a really good quality heavy woollen feel. £30. Will be great for these milder Autumn days I think.

@MsAnnFrope the green culottes were from gap about 3 years ago. They are a good go-to for spring with loafers as well. They are quite a thick cotton so can be difficult to style with jumpers. They need something tucked in I think.

The rust coloured pussy neck bow blouse was also from tk Maxx today, as were the green and rusty red jumpers. The black culottes were from Tesco a few years ago, would you believe! They hang really well and were a staple when I was in the office all the time.

And the orange jumper (with the grey coat and jeans) happened to fall into my trolley while I was getting groceries in Sainsburys this morning 🫣

I was meant to be just shopping my wardrobe! You are all very naughty...

Very kind of you to say. 🤗 If only I went out more often I could actually wear them all 😂

But I have made a decision today that I WILL wear them all, even if I am just going to Tesco for toilet rolls...

@helenahandcart78 I was thinking of the more square cut one with the really big check pattern? But the hood one is also lovely.

Oh sorry! The photos show up in a different order on my app. That is from Bon Marche. Do you have that in GB? It's a bit like Matalan. Cheap as chips and lots to avoid 😁 but that caught my eye a couple of years ago.
TK Maxx was full of similar checked/tweedy coats today. Get thee hither!

Yes, I had much the same visions for a cricket jumper.

I don't recall ever trying to look 'pretty' - it would have been a thankless task anyway, as I never could be. Florals have never really been my thing, I prefer to stick to plain colours - I do admire women in floral tea dresses, but just know they were never for me. My dear late DM was always wanting me to wear bright colours, but even as a child I liked fawn and brown clothes, and while blue has always been a favourite (as long as it's not bright blue!) I really love earthy colours. I watched a TV drama once set in Egypt in the 1920s, and how the women dressed was how I wanted to dress.

Oh, they are just lovely. I'm definitely going to look for some for next winter! I've already started making a list.

Thank you. I think the DA aesthetic veers very much away from 'pretty'. The early female academics wanted to be valued for their brains, not their looks. I think you can definitely get away with a touch of lace, or even an embroidered blouse but the accessories must be masculine.

Thank you. I think what makes the DA aesthetic work is the juxtaposition of the feminine Vs the masculine. So, a print dress but worn with chunky brogues, a heavy knit cardigan and horn rim spectacles etc. Or an embroidered blouse worn under a cable knit vest and culottes.

I love your cullottes outfits. Can I ask how long they are, they look ankle length in the photos but I assume they're mid calf?

I love the discussions that have been ongoing here! Just catching up.

I watched Enola Holmes with DD this evening and the vibe was very DA.

The mother, played by the utterly fabulous Helena Bonham Carter, in particular, embodied all of the descriptors that have been mentioned. Very seditious suffragist Victoriana. Mannish collars and waistcoats with flowing skirts and stout boots.

The direction the thread is taking makes me think of Countess Markievicz with her advice to other women revolutionaries, “Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank, and buy a revolver.” 😄

Morning everyone!

@RedLem0nade, loving the reference to seditious revolutionary women - I feel a Movement starting 😁 And Helena Bonham Carter is one of my style heroes. She sometimes goes a little too far for me, but her attitude is definitely what I want to emulate. I loved Enola Holmes but hadn't realised the DA connection - isn't it great that now we've got a name for it, we are seeing it everywhere!

Was talking to my friend about all of this the other day, and she said, "god, before you know it you will have taken to quoting Sylvia Plath and carrying a slim volume of poetry around with you at all times..." 🤣🤣

@bookist on the culotte length, I'm 5 ft 4 and I would say just a shade lower than mid calf on me.

I haven't worked out how to post links/photos from the web (too busy reading subversive poetry and attending suffragette meetings 😁) but if anyone had the time and inclination today, a few pics of inspirational DA women of the present or past would be very much appreciated 🙏🙏

Oh and a couple of DA inspo films - On the Basis of Sex - the story of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking. Any others?

Oooh Mona Lisa Smile is a goodun. Julia Roberts character in particular IIRC.

Fab - hadn't heard of that one but that definitely looks like it fits the bill. Like a female Dead Poets Society?

Some examples. I must watch this again!

I do like this style, but why is it called dark academia? It looks like an eclectic mix of witchy/WWI&II/gothy/Poldark to me.

Hi @PurpleSpade! Well, this is the question we are all having fun debating and discussing ☺️ And, yes, all those styles you mentioned have a place in the aesthetic.

So far, I think we are exploring the idea that it is not just clothes but an ethos and an attitude. See @bookist and @RedLem0nade upthread - they are both really good at setting the context.

Possibly we are straying too far from Style and Beauty now, but I'm very much enjoying it all!