Dark Academia 2 - the conversation continues..

[highlandcoo]

Hello again to everyone from the last thread and welcome to anyone who enjoys talking about this aesthetic .. and if you have photos to share even better!

We've been discussing woollen jumpers, tweed skirts and jackets (with and without elbow patches), flannel trousers, fair isle tank tops, leather boots, culottes, berets and many other appealing garments, and more recently novels, poetry, libraries in general and even home decor with a DA vibe. Plus tortoiseshell spectacles and lorgnettes. I don't think we've touched on DA hairstyles yet although I've been giving that some thought ..

A DA quote I came across the other day: "I declare after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library." (P&P of course)

If curling up in a wing-backed armchair in front of a log fire, with candles flickering, sipping tea from a china mug while reading your Jane Austen or Bronte novel sounds appealing, this thread might be for you. Or if you just like the clothes - that works too.

Our first thread below:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/4861009-dark-academia-anyone-who-loves-this-style?page=39&reply=129785046

Kill Your Darlings is included with Prime at the mo if anyone is interested?

Beat poets, 1940s, ivy league university, murder etc! Very DA!

Short or elbow length sleeves on cardigan, rather than sleeveless?
I found an agnes b elbow length cardigan in charity shop a few weeks ago, wear it with D&G men's silk shirt underneath.

Oh that's a very good idea, thank you x

My pleasure; I think I may be a frustrated stylist!

Ok, lets say I had to go to Oxford - work related, but I could stay overnight if I chose... I want to fit a library tour or two in. Any suggestions on where to stay and what to do? I'll make it a recce for our DA AGM 😂

I think the Bodleian Library is still offering a tour?

I laughed my socks off over that book. It was SO on point about how precious academics get over a little-trodden research area they discover and think is their baby and their exclusive property; as are the archival materials they've just dredged up and made a discovery no one's bothered to catalogue. (Particularly as Maud's area of research chimes with one of mine, and I read the book half-conscious of an attitude of 'GET OFF! That's mine!)'.

We have our fair share of wankers, that's true. On occasion I'm also one of them!, and I gave my head a major wobble as soon as I recognised that attitude in myself.

Case in point: attend any Virginia Woolf conference and you'll see fellow-delegates muttering the words to all the quotes under their breath, to prove they're 'one of the club' and they know them. Don't get me wrong, I know plenty of lovely Woolfophiles, but that scene's definitely not for me!

My outfit today is a cropped, wine coloured jumper with balloon sleeves. A grey wool mini skirt. Black opaques and chunky black loafers. But it feels too bland. Then I remembered the stylists Third Thing Rule. So my jumper and skirt count as two things (you don't count shoes or tights unless they're super fancy) but I need the third thing to turn clothes into an outfit. I'm thinking a brooch on my jumper?

Been meaning to go back for a while. I want especially to visit the Botannical Gardens and Lyra and Will's bench. And Exeter College.

Philip Pullman must have got under my skin. Loved the TV adaptation of His Dark Materials (and especially Ruth Wilson as Coulter), and I'm waiting on tenterhooks for the last instalment of The Book of Dust.

Just catching up. So many wonderful book recommendations!

I’m putting S and the Turnglass on my Christmas list (I doubt I’ll manage to get through them, but are too beautiful to pass up). And I’ll add my weight to the Historian. One of my favourite books for many years. Verrrrrry DA.

And it occurs to me Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” is also sublimely DA.

Love the blouse with the sleeve buttons @helenahandcart78 I could definitely see that with some Mona Lisa Smile 3/4 sleeve cardi action.

Also I am captivated, CAPTIVATED I TELL YOU, by the “wrong shoe” concept. It’s such a styling gem. It just works! And the “third thing” rule. Brilliant.

"What to do?"

Snuggle me along in your trunk/valise, firstly.
I'd make sure to pay my respects at Tolkien's bench (and The Eagle and Child) browse Hoyle's and Objects of Use... and I'd visit The Story Museum!

And seconding Will & Lyra's bench... I'd go v early in case there's a gaggle of people waiting to take photos on it!

Um, how involved is your library tour likely to be?

It's just there's an early 18th marriage contract in the Bodleian which I'd rather like to see. If you could get access and it would add to your fun to read it, then I'd be overwhelmed with gratitude for photos (Bod permitting). I'm just after images good enough to read.

It's not critically important, though, as I believe I've supplied the deficit from another document in a different archive (don't you love families who dramatically take each other to court, generating a wake of highly detailed official paperwork as they go).

But of course one never knows what might really be lurking under the stone until one looks.

NB I am absolutely inhabiting Possession here, per SerafinasGoose's post! I have Found Something (actually several Somethings) no one else seems to have noticed and which will change the scholarship on my pet subjects. So to me they are terribly important... and to everyone else it's just "Who they"?

But I suspect it would be very time-consuming and tedious getting one's paws on the document, especially if you also had to register for the first time with the library.

So it's an immensely cheeky request, and one to which I'm expecting you to say No.

But also very DA, so...

A fellow lover of The Historian here. Apparently, wearing The Third Thing turns your mere clothes into an actual outfit. I've just been browsing vintage brooches online. But it could be a scarf. Or a beret. Or a waistcoat.

Afternoon. I’ve been working at home today and have played tennis so no outfit for me.

I’m a bit confused about how the film Kill My Darlings trailer passed my by because it’s right up my alley. I was in a bar in Denver this summer and discovered Ginsberg used to drink there. For some reason I was more enchanted with that than being in a pub that Dickens drank in in London. My film recommendation is Emily which is about Emily Bronte.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xaL90sMAzbY

The BBC did a great film a few years ago on the Brontes called To Walk Invisible… I had no idea what bad asses they were before that.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLULP5z9s2CVHjXJWgmwKh6hhzCuhfudlS

They also did a series called The Desperate Romantics about the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood. I think I gave myself permission to like their paintings after that… I know that sounds like a weird comment but I thought they were very uncool ( they might be but I don’t care)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAiv1_qZ2Cw&pp=ygUjQmJjIGRyYW1hIHByZSByYXBoYWxpdGUgYnJvdGhlcmhvb2Q%3D

As for the fashion side I quite liked the scarf tied in this way. I’m always a bit ho hum about scarves which I think I blame Gok Wan for but this is not too prim and works with the whole shirt under jumper aesthetic ( library core). Could it be the third thing ? ( there’s a lot of rules to remember)

I love the little scarf knot! Noticed it was very in fashion earlier this year - some do it quite loose and 'ladies who lunch' while others had it close around the throat, usually inside the actual collar (my preferred way). I can't seem to figure out where to buy these small silk/satin/cotton scarves that don't come in pale florals, though...

THANK YOU, Divebar.

I caught part of that superb Brontë film a few years ago, and have been wanting to watch it properly ever since... but couldn't remember the name.

To Walk Invisible... That's definitely the cast. Her cross, determined little face... The scene where she meets Murray in his bookshop in London is unforgettable.

Yes, that little scarf is most definitely an excellent TTT.

I potentially won't be there for very long, so the time-consumption's the thing. BUT - sent to the Bod on a document-finding mission? It's very on brand. 😂 How would I go about such a thing? PM me, if you like - I'll see what I can do (and if/when I actually can go!)

Oh my, you attend Virginia Woolf conferences?! This is literally my daughter's dream. She's 17, wants to study Eng Lit at university and has been obsessed with Virginia Woolf for years.

Liberty is a great source of small and beautiful scarves. I may have a bit of a collection.

Anyone else think that Liberty is essential Dark Academia shopping?

How wonderful of you to even consider it! Thank you! I shall look into this and PM you.

What lovely folk on this thread!