I bought a medium sized mystery style bundle from May’s Closet on Depop for $75 plus $12 shipping. That is 4-5 items plus 2 accessories curated and picked out just for me. I chose to have her style me one light academia outfit and one dark academia outfit so that I could try out the academia style which I have been intrigued with for quite some time. The package was sent super quickly. Now here I am! Ready and excited to open it and see what’s inside. For my full reaction to all the pieces in the style bundle I received, watch the video version below, otherwise read on for the blog version.
What is Academia?
The term ”Academia” describes a group of aesthetics that are connected to learning, primarily through reading and intensive research. The different variations of the social media subcultures are visually distinct from each other while focusing on different cultural beliefs, ideas and eras. Academia as a style aesthetic has branched off into many subtypes, pastel academia, writer academia, romantic academia, darkest academia, chaotic academia, green academia, art academia, vintage academia etc. I’m not going to go into all of these today. I’m going to stick to the two most common, light and dark.
Dark Academia is an aesthetic that revolves around classic literature, the pursuit of self-discovery, and a general passion for knowledge and learning. Dark and moody, this aesthetic is all about a love of learning and the pursuit of knowledge about yourself and the world. There is a not so great side to all this though – elitism, lack of diversity of voices, hideous workloads, perfectionism, tweed covered men who treat you like a child to name a few. There is a lot of info out there on this subject. Feel free to do further research if you are interested in that.
Light Academia is an aesthetic that’s essentially the emotional opposite of Dark Academia. This means it consists of lighter themes and visuals. It involves enjoying the little things in life and life in general such as the outdoors and the company of others. It includes an interest in literature, music, art, history, and learning amongst other things. The most significant part is a passion for learning and a love for life.
As I’m referencing each of these aesthetics today, I’m talking about the fashion and outfits from each. Not so much about the culture behind each. I feel I would definitely lean closer to light academia if culture and lifestyle was in question. But let’s see about the clothes!
Light Academia
So, the collar of the shirt doesn’t look as unusual as I thought it would. The shoulder pads though are quite noticeably yellow through the shirt, and they sit weirdly behind my shoulder. The material and fit is nice though. I have a fair few white button-up shirts, but I think this one might be my favourite now. As all my other ones don’t seem to breath very well. This one feels light and soft. I do also like the vertical detailing on the front.
As for the pants, they are a bit too big like I suspected. When paired with the belt, I don’t think you can tell. The belt only just fits through the belt loops though and then only just does up on the first hole. The trousers are a great basic neutral pair of dress pants. I’m keen to add them to my wardrobe and see how else I can style them. The little gold hoop earrings were a good match too and are going to be very versatile in my closet.
The pieces on their own are a good start but the outfit needed just a little bit more styling. To really lean into the light academia aesthetic, I popped on my tan Oxfords, a dainty gold chain necklace and some tortoiseshell glasses. I rolled up the sleeves and put my hair in a soft half up-do with a scrunchie. I also tried out some hats and outerwear pieces that I thought would match the light academia aesthetic. These included a beige grandpa cardigan, cream cable-knit sweater, a sweater vest, a white linen blazer, a trench coat, a white beret and a chunky beige beanie. The trench coat and chunky beanie were my favourites and were what I wore to work.
I really enjoy the light academia aesthetic but after wearing it for the whole day I’m questioning whether it suits me. While wearing it, I just feel a little masculine and not myself. I look at the same outfit on someone else and think it’s beautiful and stylish, but I feel a little weird in it for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s the whole aesthetic or just this outfit. So, I decided to try and create another light academia outfit from pieces already in my wardrobe to see what I thought.
I wanted to go for a skirt this time to see if that combated the masculine feeling I was getting. This brown button front mini skirt with a white collared crop top with a grandpa cardigan over the top was what I went with. I used the same tortoiseshell glasses, gold hoops earrings and tan Oxfords but added some white thigh high socks. This outfit felt suitably academic while also feeling cosy and feminine. My filming room set definitely matches the light academic aesthetic well. I tend to like these colours better but let’s see what the dark academic outfit has in store for me.
Dark Academia
The black mini skirt fits absolutely perfectly. I’m pleasantly surprised that it passes my fingertips, which means it isn’t too short for me. The only problem is it hasn’t even come into contact with my cat Cleo, and it’s already covered in white fluff. It’s that kind of material that just picks it up so easily! That’s a little frustrating! That means I will never not have white fluff on this skirt. I really like the fit and style though. This is another versatile piece to add to my wardrobe.
The sweater fits perfectly too. I love that the sleeves go past my wrists to my fingers. I love warm layers that have long sleeves. It just feels cosier! It’s not a colour I ever would have picked for myself or even for the dark academia aesthetic. I normally lean toward to warmer hues like burgundy, mustard and rust orange. But I don’t mind it. I shall have to see how many other pieces in my wardrobe it will pair with though. Olive is kind of a suedo neutral though so hopefully it should be okay.
I find it interesting that I was less excited for these pieces than I was for the light academia pieces but weirdly I feel better in this outfit as a whole. Let’s style this up a little more! I added a black turtle-neck underneath the sweater as was suggested in the letter and chucked on my shiny black Oxfords. Since my hair is quite light, I thought I would hide the blonde tips a little by putting it in a loose low ponytail. This time I have black glasses on and a black knitted beret to top it off.
I could stop there as the outfit is complete, but I wanted to see how double layering some blazers and coats would look. I tried out a navy blazer, a black blazer, a black vest, a grey grid patterned blazer, a plain black coat, my grid patterned black coat and a black and white diamond kind of patterned coat. My favourite of those was the grey grid patterned blazer. I felt the outfit needed a pattern in there to give it more interest and all the black ones were just a bit too much. I like the difference of shades.
My husband thought I was dressing as a beatnik today. Which if you don’t know, is a young person from the 50s and early 60s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation. This was my mum’s generation and thinking about it he’s not wrong. Beatnik’s did seem to wear black turtle-necks, fitted minis and berets quite a lot. I left my purse at home and tried out the extremely tiny bag for the day. It was totally ok. Just goes to show, I carry around way more than I need. I could see this being very useful when I just want to take the keys and my phone when I go for a walk.
After spending the whole workday in this outfit, I feel way more comfortable stylistically in this one than the light one. I do prefer more brown-based dark academia outfits though so for my own take I’m going with these brown wide leg pants with a black belt and a black turtle-neck. Once again, reusing a lot of the same accessories. I tried out a range of outwear pieces with this outfit too. My favourite was the grandpa cardigan again even though it’s more on the light academia spectrum.
This leads me to believe that I’m not dark or light and am instead somewhere in the middle or a mixture of both. After doing some research, I think that might be classic academia. The Aesthetics Wiki says that “Classic Academia is a sub-genre of academia that involves everything academia. It is basically a mix of all other academia aesthetics.” I enjoy the contrast of pairing the lighter colours with the darker colours so mixing all the other academia aesthetics together sounds right to me. I have said before that I don’t think anyone is ever just one thing. It’s fine to just take what you like and leave the rest in the case of fashion and aesthetics.
My mystery bundle cost $75 for these two outfits and I worked it out. If the earrings were $3, the belt $5 and the bag $5 then each clothing piece would be $15.50 each. If I was to go thrifting myself, I wouldn’t be paying $15 for each of these pieces. It’s better value per clothing item to go thrifting yourself but you got to have the time and patience to find the good pieces. What you are paying for in these bundles is the styling and the time put in curating it for you. In that respect I think it’s worth it. Going through this style bundle was so much fun! I’m hooked now. I want to try out all the styles! Which aesthetic should I do next?
