What is the coquette aesthetic, and why are twee bows trending? How Barbie, TikTok and Lana Del Rey pushed uber-feminine ‘girlie fashion’ onto AW24 runways at Prada, Coach and Thom Browne
- Mary Jane shoes, Barbie-bright pinks, pastels, corsets and bows are all being embraced as part of the TikTok ‘girlie fashion’ trend, repurposing uber-feminine throwbacks in a subversive embrace of whimsy
- Paper London, Marzoline, Sandy Liang and Simone Rocha – working with Jean-Paul Gaultier and stanned by Alexa Chung – all picked up on the big bow trend for the autumn/winter 2024 runways
Bows have been an inescapable presence in our lives for the last few months. Or at least they have if you’ve spent even a passing moment on TikTok, where the #coquetteaesthetic has racked up some 18-billion plus views. In this pastel-hued, Lana Del Rey-soundtracked expression of uber femininity, there is nothing not improved with a bow – including a packet of McDonald's fries, ice cubes and even irascible cats.
Such a super-feminine throwback represents a minor act of subversion. Many fans of the look see dressing in a girlie, coquette-ish way – pastels, bows, corsets – as a way of taking back agency. After all, for so long the way to get ahead was generally considered to require the packing away of frills and tulles, and donning a mannish suit. The accoutrements of girlhood were seen as the antithesis of being a serious person.
I think that the allure of girlie coquette style lies in its timeless charm and playful femininity. In today’s fashion landscape, there’s a palpable craving for nostalgia and whimsy
“It’s partly about women’s agency over their bodies, they are presenting what they want and how they want to be presented,” fashion historian Dr Serena Dyer, a professor at De Montfort University, recently told the BBC. “And while that might be a sexual gaze, there’s no sense that’s necessarily a heterosexual gaze.”
Nostalgia for the innocence and hopefulness of girlhood makes sense in an increasingly hostile and challenging world too. “I’m obsessed over something that I can actually never return to,” says Sandy Liang – a designer who has amassed a cult following for her bow-adorned collections – recently told The New York Times. Anna Sui, another designer who has long turned girlie tropes on their head with her grungy baby-doll dresses once said, “My clothes are about nostalgia and memories of my own childhood.”
It’s a feeling that Alexandra Carello, who recently collaborated with Italian head accessories brand Marzoline, recognises.
