Find out the "flirty woman" style that's trending on TikTok

Coquette Aesthetics is making waves on tiktok this season.

What is Coquette Aesthetics?

In French, coquette means “to flirt.” According to Merriam-Webster, it’s also defined as “a woman who, without sincere feelings, makes an effort to attract the attention and admiration of men.” Or, as YouTuber and cultural commentator Mina Le put it in a 2023 video , “a coquette is a ‘woman who flirts.’ The coquette aesthetic is known to embody casualness and femininity.” Bibeau notes that the coquette style is a hybrid: It’s Lolita meets Marie Antoinette’s extravagant court style.

When it comes to clothes and makeup, a quick scroll through TikTok reveals a soft color palette. “Pastel and white are key ,” Bibeau says. There are lots of bows, knits, stockings, and lace. Think corsets, bustiers, and Rococo hairstyles. As for makeup, it should be natural with a little blush, says Bibeau. “Focus on the eyes with bright eyeshadow, thin eyeliner for a doe-eye look, and black mascara with a false-lash effect,” she adds.

Impact on Coquette aesthetics

The height of the Coquette look as we know it today can be traced back to a combination of styles, perhaps starting with Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel ‘Lolita’ about a man who preys on a 12-year-old girl, whom he occasionally refers to as a “goddess”. The 1997 film adaptation emphasised Lolita not as a child but as a young woman with cherry lips seductively sucking on gum. It was a style of childish innocence but mischief.

The 1980s to the 2000s also saw the peak of Harajuku, an era named after the Tokyo neighborhood known for its eccentric fashion. Harajuku was a mix of punk and grunge, a mix of cosplay, school uniforms, lolita, kawaii (a Japanese term meaning “cute”) and goth looks. The colors were loud and bold, almost flashy at times, playful and surreal, like you were in an anime. Bows and combat boots were both likely to appear in the same outfit.

Fast forward to the 2010s and we have Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) and Lana del Ray's Lust for Life (2017) and Blue Bannisters (2017). The former is perhaps one of the more poetic odes to girlhood and a precursor to Bridgerton's hyper-femininity and obsession with hyper-femininity in 2020.

Lana Del Rey ties it all together, with a style that was notable on her two aforementioned albums, as well as the bow motif seen in the film Did You Know There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard (2023). A quick search for “Lana del Rey core” (up 300% this year, according to Pinterest, BTW) will bring up soft, feminine looks. Think lace, tulle, babydoll dresses, bows, and flowers in your hair. But there's also lingerie, plunging necklines, bold eyeliner, and the ever-present dangling cigarette.

While all of these styles influence the glamour aesthetic, there's something unique about it in that the focus isn't on an overly sexualized ideal of a girl or anything overly flamboyant or childish. Rather, Bibeau notes, the emphasis is on innocence and nostalgia.