Dark Academia

Dark Academia is an aesthetic that revolves around classic literature, the pursuit of self-discovery, and a general passion for knowledge and learning. It is one out of several variations, each with their own unique historical focus. Dark Academia visually stems from European cultures, as with its most well known variations.

(Dark Academia es una estética que gira en torno a la literatura clásica, la búsqueda del autodescubrimiento y una pasión general por el conocimiento y el aprendizaje. Es una de varias variaciones, cada una con su propio enfoque histórico único. Dark Academia proviene visualmente de las culturas europeas, al igual que con sus variaciones más conocidas.)

Notes

While this aesthetic is not inherently negative, it has come under scrutiny as of late due to its seeming encouragement of classist/elitist attitudes (menial work being 'inferior' to mental work) and unhealthy behaviour (sacrificing sleep, relationships, mental health, and hygiene for study). If you are interested in this aesthetic, please be sure to embrace the positive aspects and be cautious of the potentially harmful ones.
While the aesthetic lends itself to Eurocentrism, let it be known that every culture is welcome and you are encouraged to find ways to blend your heritage with this aesthetic. Do not feel as if you are not Dark Academic enough because of where you are from. (And feel free to share POC book recs in the comments or in the main list.)
The Style Guide is first and foremost a guide, not a uniform. It is meant to inspire, not hold you back. You should not feel inadequate if you cannot wear everything featured on the list; those are mere suggestions and what you wear is up to you. If you prefer following the aesthetic to a 'T', good for you; if you prefer taking inspiration and wearing bits and pieces, congrats.
There is no place for any type of shaming or bullying within the community. Be it against race, religion, social status, sexuality, education, ability, or body type, etc. it is not welcome. The academic community is here for anyone who holds an appreciation for learning.

Si bien esta estética no es intrínsecamente negativa, últimamente ha sido objeto de escrutinio debido a su aparente aliento de actitudes clasistas / elitistas (el trabajo servil es `` inferior '' al trabajo mental) y el comportamiento poco saludable (sacrificar el sueño, las relaciones, la salud mental y Higiene para estudio). Si está interesado en esta estética, asegúrese de aceptar los aspectos positivos y regular los que pueden transformarse fácilmente en cosas negativas.

Si bien la estética se presta a ser extremadamente eurocéntrica, deje que se sepa que todas las culturas son bienvenidas y se le anima a encontrar formas de combinar su herencia con esta estética. No se sienta como si no fuera lo suficientemente académico oscuro debido a su lugar de origen. (siéntase libre de compartir las recomendaciones de libros de POC en los comentarios o en la lista principal)

La Guía de estilo es ante todo una guía, no un uniforme. Está destinado a inspirarte, no a detenerte. No debe sentirse inadecuado si no puede usar todo lo que aparece en la lista, esas son meras sugerencias y lo que use depende de usted. Si prefieres seguir la estética a una 'T' buena para ti; si prefieres inspirarte y lucir partes y piezas, felicidades.

No hay lugar para ningún tipo de vergüenza o intimidación dentro de la comunidad. Ya sea racismo, estatus social, homofobia, educación, habilidad o vergüenza corporal, etc., no es bienvenido. La comunidad académica está aquí para cualquier persona que aprecie el aprendizaje.

Variations

Art Academia: Based in classical art movements.

Chaotic Academia: A mixture of Dark Academia and 'chaotic' or 'feral' aesthetics like Goblincore. Cramming for tests at midnight and riding caffeine highs for days until you crash. Committing arson with your friends and shoplifting stationary. Spraying 'fuck the electoral college' on brick walls. Falling asleep in the school library and saving all your Monster Energy cans.

Classic Academia: A mix of the Academia family of aesthetics. Impeccable notes in class. Leatherbound bags crammed with textbooks and pens. Lots of coffee with scones, and even more late nights. A wide vocabulary (that people constantly comment on). Lives in the library.

Darkest Academia: Similar to Dark Academia, but with darker, even sinister visuals and more serious themes.

Fairy Academia: Based in the visual aesthetics of Victorian and Edwardian childhood.

Fantasy Academia: Dark Academia but with themes of magick, fantasy and fiction. Often takes cues from Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, or Discworld.

Grey Academia: A deliberate push back against the elitest attitudes, Eurocentric view, and exclusion of neurodivergent, poc, and queer people from some (not all) academia spaces. There is a trend towards more diverse styles of dress, tools used, and a focus on activism and social issues.

Light Academia: Similar to Dark Academia, but with a distinctly lighter color palette and overall aesthetic.

Pagano-Lovecore: A hybrid of Academia aesthetics and Lovecore, based in love in Greco-Roman mythology.

Pastel Academia: Less mature than the other forms of academia, pastel academia showcases much more colour and a childlike "kawaii" aesthetic. It is less Eurocentric and more based around Japanese styles of study and clothing.

Romantic Academia: Closer to Light Academia, with a focus on romance and elements of Baroque.

Theatre Academia: Based in plays, operas and other musically inclined types of art

Witchy Academia: Similar to Dark Academia, but with themes of Witchcraft.

Writer Academia: Also known as writercore or poetcore, is a branch of Academia specifically for writers. Writer Academia holds the belief that anyone could be a writer, or poet, as long as you enjoy writing and hold a passion for your work.

Inspirations

Books (by author surname)

The Women in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis
Emma, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Bunny by Mona Awad
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Books of Blood by Clieve Barker
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson-Burnett
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Shakespeare Secret by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Glass Essay by Anne Carson
Belle du Seigneur by Albert Cohen
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K. Dick
Crime And Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Bacchae by Euripides
The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Magus by John Fowles
Maurice by E. M. Forster
The Likeness by Tana French
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Lie Tree by Frances Harding
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
The Montague Siblings series by Mackenzi Lee
We Were Liars and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft
Oleanna by David Mamet
Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
Songs of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller
The Wild Girls by Path Murphy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Tapestry Series by Henry H. Neff
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
1984 by George Orwell
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Satyricon by Petronius
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
The Golden Compass trilogy by Peter Pullman
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Mortal Engines Quartet by Phillip Reeve
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Memoirs of a Woman Doctor by Nawal El Saadawi
All for the Game by Nora Sakavic
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
Vicious by Victoria Schwab
Frankenstein, or: A Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (especially book 5, The Austere Academy)
All The Wrong Questions By Lemony Snicket
Antigone by Sophocles
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Goldfinch and The Secret History by Donna Tartt
War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy
The Glitter and the Gold by Consuelo Vanderbilt
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
The Truants by Kate Weinberg
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

Authors (by author surname)

Dante Alighieri
Maya Angelou
Aristotle
Jane Austen
James Baldwin
Beat Generation (post-war literary movement)
The Brontë sisters
Albert Camus
Emily Dickinson
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nicolai Gogol
Donna Tartt
Greek Tragedies
Homer
Franz Kafka
John Keats
Count Lautréamont
H.P. Lovecraft
Milton
Vladimir Nabokov
Friedrich Nietzche
Sylvia Plath
Plato
Edgar Allan Poe
Alexander Pushkin
Arthur Rimbaud
Sappho
V.E. Schwab
William Shakespeare
Lemony Snicket (pen name)
Sophocles
Noel Streatfield
Leo Tolstoy
Virgil
Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde
Virigina Woolf

Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan, Left) and Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe, Right), both have their hands held out as if to 'high-five'. Allen's palm is visible to the audience reveling a gash down the center, Lucien is holding the knife they used with his other hand. The characters are performing a 'Blood Oath' while at a party. — Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan, Left) and Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe, Right) are performing a blood oath while at a party.

Movies (by year)

The Invisible Man (1933)
Rope (1948)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
If... (1968)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Suspiria (1977 or 2018)
Another Country (1984)
Maurice (1987)
The Unnamable (1988)
Heathers (1988)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Metropolitan (1990)
School Ties (1992)
Peter's Friends (1992)
Scent of a Woman (1992)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Little Women (1994 + 2019)
Se7en (1995)
Total Eclipse (1995)
Wilde (1997)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Ninth Gate (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Skulls (2000)
The Skulls 2 (2002)
The Emperor's Club (2002)
Bright Young Things (2003)
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
The Dreamers (2003)
The Skulls 3 (2004)
Jane Eyre (2006)
Like Minds (2006)
The Prestige (2006)
The Great Debaters (2007)
Northanger Abbey (2007)
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Cracks (2009)
Dorian Gray (2009)
Black Swan (2010)
Hugo (2011)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012
Kill Your Darlings (2013)
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
The Riot Club (2014)
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Testament of Youth (2014)
Carol (2015)
Victor Frankenstein (2015)
Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016)
Indignation (2016)
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them (2016)
Yesterday Once More (2016)
Handsome Devil (2016)
The Beguiled (2017)
Phantom Thread (2017)
Colette (2018)
Mary Shelley (2018)
Postcards From London (2018)
Vita & Virginia (2018)
Tolkien (2018)
Knives Out (2019)
The Goldfinch (2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
The Mortuary Collection (2019)
Enola Holmes (2020)

Podcasts

The Magnus Archives

TV Shows

Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Sherlock (BBC)
How To Get Away With Murder
The Magicians
Peaky Blinders
The Alienist
Deadly Class
House of Anubis
Carnival Row
Hannibal
Mindhunter
Riverdale (Season 4)
Gilmore Girls (Seasons 4-7)
What We Do In The Shadows
Daredevil
Endeavour

Plays

Archie's Weird Fantasy
Spring Awakening
Othello
Total Eclipse
Another Country
The Inheritance

Musicals

Phantom of the Opera
Natasha Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Bare: a Pop Opera
Queer: an Opera
Dracula
Hadestown
Something Rotten
Spring Awakening
Anastasia
Light in the Piazza
Assassins
Dogfight
Fun Home
Hamilton: An American Musical

Artists

Claude Monet
Vincent Van Gogh
Rembrandt
Sofonisba Anguissola
Leonardo Da Vinci
Caravaggio
Artemisia Gentileschi
Michelangelo
Camille Claudel
Roberto Ferri
Trevor Henderson
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jenny Holzer
Raphaël
Frida Kahlo
Alfred Kubin

Tumblr 5f47ba417c70594772bb63ffb55cece0 bf780866 640

Music

Anime/Manga

Black Butler (especially the Public School Arc)
Beastars
Whisper of the Heart
The Cat Returns
From Up on Poppy Hill
The Wind Rises
Steamboy
The Garden of Words
Your Name
Colorful
Bungou Stray Dogs
Violet Evergarden
Code Geass

Comics

Morning Glories
Gotham Academy
Mother Panic
Deadly Class
Strange Academy
The Umbrella Academy
Unwritten
Sandman
Promethea
Spider-Man Noir
Fangs

A violin rests on a bed of open faced books featuring sheets of music.

Playlists

Activities

This list is adapted from Snookersneek's Tumblr post

Sports

Rowing
Fencing
Tennis
Badminton
Cricket
Rugby
Golf
Swimming
Polo
Skiing
Water Polo
Equestrian
Figure/Ice Skating
Running (to prepare for chasing after your lover, or maybe for being chased by the cops after an act of civil disobedience)
Boxing
Javelin, discus, wrestling while covered in oil (ancient Grecian Olympics)
Archery
Ballet, ballroom dancing, any traditional dance works
Snooker/Pool/Billiards
The "Oscar Wilde approach" (aka no sports)

Black and white image of white men playing chess.

Games

Chess
Croquet
Backgammon
Checkers
Cards: rummy, poker, blackjack, speed, whist, etc.
Cluedo/Clue (for the murder of course)

Video Games

The Last Door Season 1
The Last Door Season 2
Dishonored (series)
Layers of Fear (more so the 1st game)
Walden, a game
Twisted Wonderland
Cube Escape Series (inspired by Twin Peaks)
Fran Bow
Little Misfortune

Crafts

Knitting
Crocheting
Embroidery
Weaving
Lacemaking
Gardening
Realistic Drawing
Cooking
Sewing
Calligraphy
Painting
Needlepoint
Bookbinding

Outings

Museums
Art galleries
Places of historical interest
Pubs/Bars/Cafes (bonus points for sketching people around you)
Parks and gardens
Churches/Synagogues/Temples/Mosques/Quaker meeting houses (these are quiet places to think, most will be welcoming as long as you are respectful, and remember to not take pictures.)
Graveyards (be respectful and leave if there is a funeral happening, don't use grave markers as props for photoshoots)
The theatre
The opera
Concerts
Libraries
Art stores
Sporting Events
Special events (tours of local schools/universities, open houses, etc. It's an opportunity to learn and spark local intrigue because of your dark, mysterious, and alluring demeanor.)
Searching for small independent bookstores

Things to Do When Bored

Write essays (doesn't have to be intellectual, just about something you are passionate about)
Research
Daydream (about preventing the burning of the Library of Alexandria)
Write about a murder/heist
Read something light (suggestions above)
Read aloud
Dress up
Perform a play alone or to a pet
Play or practice an instrument
Take a bath
Fake your death (murder perhaps?)
Draw or paint something (it doesn't have to be good, it just has to be yours)
Write a narrative piece
Watch a movie
Write a movie review
Reflect back on the past
Journal
Read philosophy
Admire cityscape/nature (wherever you're at)
Read a physical book
Write poems for compilation
Practice calligraphy
Learn bookbinding
Write lists about something you like

Fashion

The main inspiration for Dark Academic fashion comes from 1940's prep school uniforms. Elements of the 1950's suburban American preppy look are often incorporated, such as sweater vests or sweaters worn tied over the shoulders. The main colour scheme is black, grey, beige, brown, cream, ivory, dark green, burgundy, and soft yellow. Usual fabric choices are more upscale, like cashmere, wool, and tweed, but linen and cotton are also very common. Accessories are usually minimal, like bracelets, rings, pendants, watches, cuff-links, and other dapper add-on pieces.

(La principal inspiración para el estilo Dark Academic proviene de los uniformes escolares de preparación de los años 40. El esquema de color principal es negro, gris, beige, marrón, crema, marfil, verde oscuro, burdeos, un amarillo suave. Las opciones habituales de telas son más exclusivas, como la cachemira, la lana y el tweed, pero el lino y el algodón también son muy comunes. Los accesorios suelen ser mínimos, como pulseras, anillos, colgantes, relojes, gemelos y otros complementos elegantes.)