Dark academia is the aesthetic of the old university at night: wood-panelled libraries, candlelight, Latin verbs, Greek tragedy, strong coffee, a long wool coat and a secret that should probably stay buried. It began as an online love letter to a handful of novels and films, became one of the biggest aesthetics of the pandemic, and has influenced everything from bookshops to the runway.
What is dark academia?
Dark academia romanticises learning, literature and the elite European and American university, with a gothic, melancholy edge. The “dark” refers to both the colour palette (browns, blacks, deep greens) and the themes: obsession, ambition, grief, and often murder. The clothes are traditional and scholarly: tweed blazers, turtlenecks, pleated trousers and skirts, waistcoats, brogues and long coats. The lifestyle is about reading classics, writing by hand, visiting museums and drinking tea in rainy weather.
It has a gentler sibling, light academia, which keeps the books but swaps the gloom for cream, sunshine and poetry in the park.
Where it came from
The aesthetic’s founding text is Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History, about a group of classics students at an exclusive Vermont college whose intellectual obsession turns deadly. Alongside it sit the film Dead Poets Society (1989), set at a strict boys’ boarding school; Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and its 1981 television adaptation; and the poetry of the Romantics.
Fans gathered these references on Tumblr in the mid-2010s, building moodboards of libraries and quotations. The term “dark academia” spread from there, and then exploded in 2020, when lockdowns closed real universities and students turned to an online fantasy of campus life. Instagram, TikTok and “BookTok” carried it to millions, sending sales of The Secret History soaring decades after it was published.
The codes
- Clothes: tweed and corduroy blazers, turtlenecks, oxford shirts, knitted vests, pleated trousers and plaid skirts, long wool coats, brogues and loafers, knee socks.
- Colours: brown, black, charcoal, burgundy, forest green and cream.
- Objects: leather satchels, fountain pens, wax seals, old hardback books, pressed flowers, candlesticks, a vintage typewriter, round glasses.
- Places: libraries such as the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge colleges, museums of classical sculpture, rainy stone courtyards.
- Soundtrack: classical piano and strings, Hozier, and moody indie folk.
See the mood
IMAGES: PINTEREST. TAP ANY IMAGE TO SEE IT ON PINTEREST AND ITS ORIGINAL SOURCE.
The references
Books: The Secret History (Donna Tartt), If We Were Villains (M.L. Rio), Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), and, as a sharp critique of the genre from within, Babel (R.F. Kuang).
Film and TV: Dead Poets Society, Kill Your Darlings (2013), The Riot Club, Wednesday and Saltburn.
On the runway: the scholarly tailoring of Ralph Lauren, Miu Miu’s preppy schoolgirl collections and the gentle intellectual style that Pinterest named poetcore for 2026.
Why it caught on
Dark academia makes studying glamorous. For students stuck at home in 2020, it offered a fantasy of intellectual community and beautiful old buildings. It celebrates curiosity, reading and depth in an online world built for speed. And it is easy to join: a thrifted blazer, a secondhand classic and a candle are enough.
The debate
The aesthetic has been widely criticised for being Eurocentric and nostalgic for institutions that historically excluded women, people of colour and the working class. Its favourite novels are, in fact, critiques of elite privilege, a point fans sometimes miss. Some writers also worry that it romanticises overwork, insomnia and even mental illness. In response, fans have expanded the canon to include authors and settings from around the world, and Indian readers have their own version in the colonial-era colleges and libraries of Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai.
Where it is now
Dark academia peaked as a trend in 2020 and 2021, and several video essayists now argue it has “lost all meaning” as it became a marketing category on BookTok. But its influence is everywhere, from bookshop displays to the tailoring on the runway. Its newest relative is poetcore, which Pinterest flagged as a key aesthetic for 2026: oversized turtlenecks, vintage blazers, satchels and fountain pens.
Related aesthetics
Poetcore · Old Money · Cottagecore · Eclectic Grandpa
Learn more: hear from more voices
A clear introduction to what dark academia actually is, and an analysis of what it says about elite education.
Sources: Pinterest Predicts 2026 (poetcore); coverage of dark academia and BookTok in fashion and books media (2020–2025). Videos are embedded from YouTube and remain the work of their creators.
Leave a Reply