A span of years within a decade where we feel this aesthetic was most relevant. These years are usually given Early/Mid/Late modifiers, roughly corresponding to the beginning, middle, or end of a decade:
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Soft Colonial Wanderlust

Namesake: Refers to the colonial imagery used throughout this style and the twee, problematic sense of wanderlust it is intended to convey.

Photos of people spanning from the Victorian era to the 1940s (at most, not too into the Fifties) culture/aesthetics appropriated for modern day consumption. Maps, wanderlust and leisure travel via boat or small aeroplane. Chinoiserie/Japonisme and general Orientalism (think blue on white Ming Dynasty pottery used exclusively by white people). Carnivals and boardwalks, mail art, Neutral Milk Hotel's/Arcade Fire album covers, Baroque Pop, privileging of nature/ecology in art (throwbacks to Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts Movement), sense of whimsy, hot air balloons, magical ways of looking at travel, phonographs, typewriters and general machinery of the decade that's on the verge of modernity being used today, but NOT exactly steampunk, floral wallpapers with crowning seen in cafe's that serve New American cuisine.

Links

  1. Are.na - https://www.are.na/consumer-aesthetics-research-institute/soft-colonialist-wanderlust-t1i6gagksli
  2. Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1814814568843897
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