Dreamy

Dreamy is an aesthetic that revolves around dreams. The Dreamy aesthetic can dance between the realms of being somewhat grounded in reality to being so surreal that there's no confusing it with one's state of reality.

Visual[]

Dreamy visuals have a very ethereal vibe, which can either be a "realistic" ethereal (which can give it plenty in common with Angelcore or Cloudcore) or a "surreal" ethereal (which can give it plenty in common with either Synthwave or Vaporwave), but shares a lot in common with the Lo-Fi aesthetic (which has a similarly hazy vibe to it). What differentiates the two, however, is Lo-Fi deals almost exclusively with the waking world, Dreamy deals strictly with the "sleeping" world.

Fashion[]

Realistic Dreamy[]

Ruffled tops
Lace tops
Soft tees
Flowy/silk shirts
Ballet flats, white sneakers, sandals, lace white heels
Boot cut jeans
Flowy/silk dresses
Accessories such as pendants, simple necklaces, pearl earrings, pendant simple earrings, simple rings, and simple glowy makeup
Tulle dresses, skirts and blouses

Surreal Dreamy[]

Fiber optic light clothing
Glow-in-the-dark clothing
Glowsticks
Iridescent clothing textures
LED clothing

Media[]

Film[]

Being John Malkovich (1999)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Dreams (1990)
Eraserhead (1977)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Inception (2010)
Inland Empire (2006)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Perfect Blue (1997)
Pi (1998)
The Cell (2000)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Music[]

Among the many "dreamy" styles of music, the most noteworthy is Dream Pop, a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that grew out of ethereal wave/darkwave and developed in the 1980s. The style is typified by a preoccupation with sonic texture and atmosphere as much as melody. It often overlaps with the related genre of shoegazing, and the two genre terms have at times been used interchangeably.

Artists[]

Cocteau Twins
Fleur
Julee Cruise
Lush
My Bloody Valentine
Piano Magic
Slowdive
The Ocean Blue
This Mortal Coil

Songs[]

"I Dreamed I Dream" by Sonic Youth
"Only in My Dreams" by The Marías
"REM" by KISSOFLIFE

Activities[]

Bubble baths
Cloudgazing and stargazing
Coping with nightmares
Dreaming and daydreaming
Enjoying the company of others
Laying in bed
Lucid dreaming
Relaxing
Sleeping
Writing and reading poetry and fantasy stories
Writing and talking about dreams

Subgenres[]

Baroque Pop[]

Under Construction

Hypnocore[]

Hypnocore is a subgenre of Dreamy that relates to surreality and a sense of being controlled, hypnotized, or otherwise losing one's self-control. In terms of visuals, hypnocore often has spirals, moving patterns, eyes, optical illusions, unreality, deja vu, and an undeniable sense of things being wrong.

There are several ways to engage with hypnocore, just as there are several different views of hypnosis. Hypnocore can be experienced in everyday happenings where one is in a trance of sort, such as when reading, driving, or when half-asleep. A darker version of hypnocore can also be experienced in dreams or nightmares that involve doing out-of-character actions, and dreams where one knows they are dreaming but is unable to wake up. This leads to overlap with Dreamcore.

Feverdream[]

Feverdream is a subgenre of Dreamy inspired by the thoughts, sounds, sights, feelings, and emotions caused by a fever dream, or an experience similar to one; a dream or nightmare altered by a fever, causing a particularly confusing and bewildering dream at the time, and even more so when remembering it. Th

Nightmare[]

Nightmare is a subgenre of Dreamy that deals specifically with nightmares people may have, which can deal with some rather dark and disturbing imagery. These can be brought up by examples of trauma, feelings of isolation, and unearthly images that can be seen as incredibly jarring - this makes Nightmare similar to Traumacore.

Resources[]

External links to help get a better understanding of this aesthetic.

Pinterest Boards[]