Escaping Through Fashion: Introducing a New Series

The Cultural Shift Toward Escape

When constantly surrounded by digital noise and the demands of everyday life, many feel the need to step away from it all, even briefly. While fully unplugging isn’t always realistic, we are now turning to small acts of escapism through books, hobbies, spirituality, and increasingly, what we wear.

The emergence of niche aesthetic ‘cores’ reflects something deeper than style; it signals a deeper need for comfort, identity and connection. When loneliness is at an all-time high, with The Atlantic finding we are spending more time alone than ever, and nearly half of young adults in the UK reporting feeling lonely, these aesthetics offer emotional grounding and belonging.

Whether whimsical, nostalgic or ironic, they aren’t always just trends, but a personalised way of seeking refuge. With each offering its version of escape, carving out a place for slowness, messiness and emotional release in a world that rarely allows for it.

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Why Have ‘Core’ Aesthetics Emerged?

These trends don’t arise at random, they answer something cultural. The explosion of niche ‘cores’ such as Cottagecore, Clean Girl, Losercore or Digital Mysticism responds to collective desires for control, calm, or hope in everyday life. Many trace back to the pandemic when isolation pushed people to romanticise the everyday or invent entirely new realities.

But what really accelerates and amplifies them today is the algorithmic power of platforms like TikTok. The For You Page can curate a unique aesthetic for you, without doing any work, pulling user-specific aesthetic bubbles of content. Online, a mood board or nostalgic references can become a whole new way of being. Offline, DIY crafts, solo hobbies, and spiritual guides become ways to connect and restore ourselves.

In different ways, they all provide permission to focus inwardly and dismiss the rest.

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Making Sense of the Movements

To better understand these aesthetics and their cultural role, we have created a framework to map how they function as forms of escapism.

The Physical-Emotional axis explores what kind of escape each aesthetic offers, whether it invites a retreat into nature and activity or leans toward emotional distancing. This lens helps to uncover the desires driving each movement, from taking a break from city life and indulging in a solo hobby to fully disconnecting from the norm.

The All Time-Play Time axis looks at how deeply these aesthetics are adopted. At one end are lifestyle-based aesthetics rooted in values and identity, shaping how people dress, live and self-identify in the long term. On the other are short-term trends and activities, offering momentary relief or surface-level play.

Together, these axes help decode the function and appeal of aesthetics in today’s culture, revealing how they influence consumer behaviours, emotional needs and shifting definitions of identity.

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What This Series Will Do

This series will explore key aesthetics through this framework, analysing their origins and real-world impact. Examining why certain aesthetics resonate, how brands are responding, and whether these movements are fleeting or reflecting deeper movements in how people express themselves.

As fashion has always mirrored society, today it soothes, resists and reimagines. These aesthetics remind us that dressing down can serve as a provocation, while dressing up can be a form of checking out and survival in the face of burnout and overload.

In this series, you’ll find out:

• Why fashion is shifting from self-presentation to self-preservation as a way to find community and comfort in everyday life.
• How solo hobbies are becoming mechanisms of emotional regulation and identity building, offering quiet away from the constant stimulation and trend cycle.
• Why alternative spirituality is emerging as a form of emotional anchoring, with practices like energy healing, building a sense of structure and self-trust.
• How niche aesthetics are moving offline, becoming lifestyle blueprints and soft belief systems to offer escapism.