Whimsigoth + Global Village Coffee House= Whimsicraft ? (90s-inspired aesthetic combos I'm NUTS about)
- Dollie Guest
- Sep 21
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 22
Well, folks. Tomorrow marks the final day of Summer. And this is The Summer I Turned Whimsicraft. I mean...I think that's what happened, according to the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute, and a little girl math by yours truly. You see, I found myself being drawn to a particular look that felt like more than just something that applied to my housewares and clothing: This was a whole entire vibe. Visceral, you know? Every sense is getting involved here, friends. Though I admit that even after some searching around on pinterest, I couldn't quite nail down what it was that I was pining for. Some time around early July, I stumbled upon what I was looking for and apparently it's called the Global Village Coffeehouse Aesthetic. It's been named this for the past 3 or 4 years and I see a longing for little bits and pieces of it all over the internet. Now when I see folks going bonkers for the design on a can of Fruitopia, or the way Starbucks' website used to look back in the day, I feel that. On a spiritual level.
Being a 90s girlie, and a witchy one at that; I do remember a lot of elements of what we now call Whimsigoth. As an adult, I've made all of my celestial dreams come true in collecting anything from that era that I always wanted but was too young to get my hands on before futurism took over, and I got so deep into 60s and 70s style that I went so far as to dump a lot of the things from my childhood that didn't fit into my rose-tinted vision of Beatlefreak Peter Max inspired perfection. Now, that's not to say that the 90s didn't do the 60s justice in many cases. The first Austin Powers film is a great example of this. And have you ever seen The Brady Bunch Movie? People don't even realize that was a spoof! But let's get back on topic. The 90s was extremely diverse in fashion choices and much like the 60s, things moved in and out of style FAST. At least with clothing. Housewares and home decor was a bit more slow moving and adaptive.
The global village coffee house aesthetic for example started with art made in the 80s with a rustic, earthy, lino-cut feel to a lot of print ads and product packaging. The coffeehouse comes into play when places like Starbucks and Border's cafes adopted these artistic elements in their marketing. But if you had a local cafe, you probably still see what I would personally describe as whimsicraft in the furniture and tableware. I had vague memories of this style of art that used to be all over the place in advertising, and could even envision certain typefaces from that time but would never guess their names in a million years off the top of my head (and I've been a graphic designing computer geek since I was like, 9 years old). So putting names to this aesthetic combo that I've come to deeply identify with really made my summer. So much so that I put together my first serious playlist on Spotify in celebration of how I think these aesthetics sound:
I love to bury the lede in these blogs. You get it. Anyway- these 3 aesthetics kind of bang into each other and as much as I want to just wrap this in a neat satin bow and call it one thing, I'm not sure that's doing the subject any justice. I do think that 90s celestial/gothic/whimsy + global village coffeehouse equals whimsicraft...but there's more to it than that. I don't exactly have all the answers. Certainly not via the written word, though I'm never at a loss for them I just can't nail this look down without some visual aids. So please accept this collage as a brain dump of my interpretation of GVC aesthetic with that Whimsigoth flair that I suppose amounts to Whimsicraft, but maybe it's just Dolliecore 2025:
The cobalt blue mugs, Pure Moods CD, red hot chili pepper lights, tiffany-style lamps, the iconic prints...I've been incorporating all of it into my world and it really does feel like home. I think you can see why I'm unwilling to just pin this in the GVC board. I very intentionally made sure the blues, purples, and even pops of pink didn't get lost in the earth tones. Doing collages like this help my brain sort things out so much and I highly recommend mood boarding if you are looking for a way to give your nervous system a break! Aren't we all these days? This stuff is nostalgic, of course; but I think people are always searching for a personal style that feels true to them without getting lost in the past. The thing that I most appreciate about this look is that though it reminds me of my childhood to the max, it doesn't smack of "kidcore". I have plenty of knick-knacks and things in my home and my wardrobe that are downright childish depending on how you perceive it, so I always try to balance out anything pink and plastic with the more deep and sophisticated things that bring me joy. I've discussed the dichotomy of the name Dollierocker as being essential to who I am and that yin yang mentality is exactly what I'm talkin' about, people! A little dollie. A little rocker. A little gothic. A lot of whimsy. I hope you enjoy this look into the aesthetics that have been speaking to my heart and how I fold them into my groovy witchy world. Now if you don't mind, I gotta run. My sources tell me the "kitchen TV" is back in vogue and I could not be more thrilled ;D Now if I could just get some DANG FRUTOPIA...
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