You only have to enter the hashtag #coquette on TikTok (17.8 billion views) or Instagram (1,487,236 posts) to realise that this trend seems to be making an increasingly strong comeback. The coquette style, a French word that translates as coquette, could be defined as a hyper feminine style, in reference to the Victorian Regency era, which stands out for its doll dresses, bows, ruffles, corsets, soft and vaporous fabrics, pastel colours, glitter, pearls and cute prints. But completely decontextualising the garments from their original meaning.
Although Generation Z has been the latest generation to appropriate this trend, its beginnings can be traced back to 2010, coinciding with the release of Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” and the rise of Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift as style icons. 14 years later, they still maintain their inspirational status – just look at Skims’ latest Valentine’s Day campaign. The campaign starring Lana features everything the coquette girl of the moment loves: bows, transparencies, cats, pastel shades and soft fabrics such as satin, lace and satin.
Like all of them, those who follow this trend drink matcha tea, give a lot of importance to literature (from Jane Austen to Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation) and music. They are devoted to Repetto shoes and dream of brands such as Vivienne Westwood, Dior or Chanel. This sexualised and hyper-feminine innocence makes sense in today’s society because it involves appropriating everything that has served to mock or belittle women, reclaiming self-expression and forgetting prejudices.
That this trend is more alive than ever is confirmed by fashion brands such as Rodarte, in its Spring-Summer 2024 collection inspired by flower gardens and 1930s silhouettes. Or in the Simone Rocha x Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture collection for the same season, with big bows, lace, tulle and flowers as the main protagonists of its collection. The trend has even reached the beauty world, with a way of applying make-up that transposes the doll-like canons seen in Maison Margiela’s Haute Couture fashion show.
Generation Z is familiar with the issues surrounding characters that have been sexualised over the centuries, such as Nabokov’s Dolores, or the nymphs; deities from Greco-Latin mythology who live for enjoyment and external judgement. All of them have served to illustrate relations of inequality in which the male gaze plays a fundamental role. In the past, when a girl liked “basics” such as pink, Starbucks or Twilight, it was seen as negative. Now, all those things that were to be ashamed of are reclaimed and celebrated.
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