Whimsical Wardrobes: A Journey Through Coquette, Dollette, and Romantic Academia Styles 🌸

Serinette 🌸
May 4
5 min read

Hi deer, this is Seri 🌸.

If you don't know about me, my name is Serina, and I come from the charming city of Kobe, Japan. I created this blog (in English but there's also a French and Japanese version) to share a glimpse of my soft life, a gentle dance between nihilism and positivity.

You’ll find a space where delicate dreams meet quiet contemplation, where beauty exists in both softness and philosophy.

The Art of Soft Femininity: Exploring Coquette, Dollette, and Romantic Academia 🌸

Lately, I’ve been falling in love with tender, feminine aesthetics that feel like daydreams wrapped in lace and sunlight.

Each one tells a little story of softness, romance, and gentle beauty.

From the delicate charm of dollette to the poetic layers of romantic academia, these styles feel like pages from my inner world.

Here are some of the aesthetics that inspire me the most… 🌸✨

1. Dollette

The dollette aesthetic is a soft, feminine style that blends the gentle and romantic with a touch of playful charm. It's often characterized by delicate, pastel-colored outfits, ruffles, lace, and a sweet, youthful vibe. Imagine dresses with dainty details, bows, soft fabrics like cotton or chiffon, and an overall look that's both dreamy and girlish.

While similar to coquette in its femininity, dollette leans a bit more innocent and tender. It embraces a kind of whimsical charm, often with vintage-inspired pieces, soft accessories, and an overall sense of nostalgia. It's the aesthetic of someone who might enjoy picnics in the park, wearing dresses that make them feel like a character in a fairytale, and simply radiating a soft, gentle energy.

🌸 Inspired by: vintage dolls, antique fashion, and delicate femininity.

🌸 Key features:

Ruffled dresses, lace details, Peter Pan collars
Hair bows, knee-high socks, dainty accessories
Pastel colors like blush pink, lavender, and ivory
A porcelain-doll aesthetic: soft, innocent, almost fragile

🌸 Mood: dreamy, girlish, vintage fairytale

2. Coquette

The coquette aesthetic is a playful, flirtatious style that exudes charm, confidence, and a touch of mystery. It’s all about creating a soft yet alluring look, often through delicate clothing, accessories, and a feminine, slightly seductive attitude. Coquette fashion typically includes items like lace, corsets, frills, stockings, and vintage-inspired pieces, with a focus on soft, sensual textures and romantic details.

Colors often found in coquette style are soft pastels, especially pinks and reds, which reflect a sense of sweetness mixed with flirtation. The overall vibe is a mix of innocence and seduction like a soft, feminine approach to looking and feeling alluring, while maintaining a sense of elegance and grace.

Think of coquette as an aesthetic where femininity is embraced with a hint of playful allure, like someone who's coy and charming, but also confident and in control of their own charm.

🌸 Inspired by: flirtatious vintage glamour, soft sensuality, and elegance.

🌸 Key features:

Silk ribbons, corset tops, lace gloves, satin fabrics
Heart-shaped accessories, perfume bottles, pearls
Makeup is usually soft glam with flushed cheeks and glossy lips
Often mixes innocence with romantic allure

🌸 Mood: playful, romantic, a little mischievous but still sweet

3. Romantic Academia

The romantic academia aesthetic is an elegant and dreamy style that draws inspiration from the intellectual and artistic pursuits of past centuries, particularly the romantic period. It combines elements of vintage academic fashion with a romantic, nostalgic vibe. This aesthetic celebrates soft, intellectual beauty, often inspired by classic literature, poetry, and the refined styles of university students from the 18th and 19th centuries.

🌸 Key elements of romantic academia include:

Vintage-inspired clothing: Think of long flowing skirts, blouses with lace or ruffles, tweed blazers, cardigans, and structured coats.

Soft, muted colors: Earth tones like browns, creams, burgundies, and deep greens, which create a cozy, intellectual atmosphere.

Layered textures: Velvet, wool, tweed, and lace fabrics, often paired with scarves, vintage jewelry, and hats like berets or bowler hats.

Literary and artistic influences: The aesthetic is often associated with reading books, visiting libraries, journaling, and writing poetry. It's about embracing a love for knowledge and creativity, alongside a passion for beauty and elegance.

Romantic academia is romantic in the sense that it celebrates a deep connection to nature, intellectual pursuits, and emotional experiences, often with a dreamy, wistful quality. It’s an aesthetic where someone might walk through autumnal forests with a book in hand, enveloped in layers of cozy, vintage-inspired outfits.

Romantic academia and coquette can overlap, especially when romantic academia incorporates pastel tones like pink and white. While romantic academia typically has a more vintage, intellectual feel, the inclusion of pink and white can give it a softer, more whimsical and playful touch, aligning it with the coquette aesthetic.

🌸 Inspired by: literature, poetry, vintage academia with a soft, feminine twist.

🌸Key features:

Earthy tones (cream, beige, brown), lace blouses, gold jewelry. Pinks and whites (when it leans more whimsical).
Layered outfits: collars, cardigans, skirts, vests
Florals, soft knits, vintage books, and handwritten notes
Gentle intellectual energy, a girl who reads Keats in a garden

🌸 Mood: poetic, melancholic, gentle intelligence

4. Spring Girl (or Spring core, Bloomcore)

Bloomcore is an aesthetic that centers around the beauty and joy of nature, particularly flowers, growth, and all things soft and blooming. It’s a celebration of life in full bloom, focusing on the peaceful, serene, and vibrant aspects of nature.

The aesthetic often incorporates:

💐 Floral patterns and motifs: Dresses, accessories, or home decor adorned with flowers in a dreamy, almost magical way.

💐Pastels and soft colors: Light and gentle colors like soft pinks, lavender, mint green, peach, and pale yellow. These evoke the colors of blooming flowers and springtime.

💐Natural elements: Incorporating elements of nature, such as wildflowers, plants, and greenery in outfits, photography, and decor.

💐Gentle, romantic, and ethereal vibes: There’s a focus on softness, growth, and beauty in both a literal and metaphorical sense. It’s a very dreamy and nostalgic look that often feels like a daydream in a blooming garden.

People who embrace bloomcore surround themselves with flowers, wear floral-inspired clothing, or simply enjoy the aesthetic of living in harmony with nature’s cycles of growth and renewal.

💐Inspired by: blooming flowers, sunshine, and the freshness of spring.

💐 Key features:

Light, airy dresses, straw hats, picnic blankets
Daisies, tulips, butterflies, bees
Yellow, soft green, baby pink, sky blue
Often seen picking flowers or reading in a meadow

💐 Mood: cheerful, warm, soft nature energy

🌸 How They Differ:

While all of these styles share a soft, feminine essence, each expresses it in a unique way.

Dollette is like a porcelain doll come to life innocent, delicate, and vintage-inspired, with bows and lace that make you feel like you're in an old fairytale. Coquette, on the other hand, adds a flirty, romantic twist, it's more playful and subtly sensual, often mixing sweetness with allure through satiny textures and soft glam.

The coquette style can be loved for its playful, feminine aesthetics without necessarily embracing the more flirtatious or seductive connotations that the word “coquette” often carries. You can enjoy the softness, the delicate fabrics, the bows, lace, and pastel colors without the need to focus on flirtation or charm in a romantic sense.

In this case, you can simply embrace the coquette style for its soft femininity, its emphasis on delicate details, vintage-inspired clothing, and a dreamy, ethereal look. It’s about feeling cute, romantic, and elegant, while not necessarily focusing on the attention-seeking or teasing side of the aesthetic.

Romantic academia brings the elegance of poetry and vintage literature into fashion. It's intellectual, melancholic, and timeless, with layered neutrals, florals, and soft knits that feel like an old love letter.

Finally, Spring Girl (or bloomcore) is joyful and fresh, inspired by blooming gardens and warm sunshine, think light dresses, straw hats, and daisies under a blue sky. It’s less about books or vintage charm, and more about nature’s purest beauty.

Each one is soft in her own way, whether she’s writing poetry, walking through wildflowers, or tying a ribbon in her hair.