David Beckham leads the way as men flock to 'cottagecore' look
By Priya Elan
Latest trend conveys ‘a more romanticised ideal of masculinity’, says fashion professor. He took sarongs, bleach-blond locks and all leather outfits into the mainstream, but can David Beckham do the same to the latest trend for whimsical outdoor living: “cottagecore”?
During lockdown, Beckham’s Instagram account has featured him in some distinct poses. With a scythe in hand against a bucolic sky with a field in the background, he’s usually wearing a flat cap, corduroys and a woolly cardigan or jumper. Sometimes he’s wading through fields in his Hunter wellies and trenchcoat and he’s even filmed himself building a beehive in a V-neck smock top. At another time Beckham channelling what could be mistaken for Tory chic from his Cotswold’s home may have sounded an uneasy note, but right now it strikes a chord with the fantasy of agrarian life that is part of cottagecore.
“As we emerge from lockdown, men are embracing cottagecore as a means to convey a more romanticised ideal of masculinity,” says Andrew Groves, a professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster. Here, he says, Beckham has idealised the agricultural worker and reimagined himself “as the gamekeeper from Lady Chatterley’s Lover”.
Cottagecore for men could be seen as a natural branch of both the utility-led “gorpcore” trend (outdoor clothes for people who don’t go out) and the acid ramblers scene.
“Those original 90s ravers are now to be found on the moors, both rambling and raving,” says Groves, “wearing a mixture of cords, knitwear and country smocks.” In that sense, he believes cottagecore is a trend that “is only going to become more prominent over the coming years.”