☆How to Feel: Dark Academia Edition☆

Updated: May 22, 2021

Inspire your inner dark academia

Dark Academic: How To Feel

Write words and their definitions on your wrists
Put flowers in your heavy books; using them as bookmarks
Write short poems all over your arms
Always carry a notebook
Wear a brown coat filled with papers
Read ‘forbidden books’ at night
Light your room up with rusty lanterns
Spend your evenings with tea/coffee; especially on a rainy day, sit by the window sill, listen to ‘Clair de Lune’ with a cup of your favourite tea or coffee
Be happy when you get to write an essay
Read ancient stories and epic poems. Suggestions include Homer’s the Illiad
Mention random mythology facts to friends
Read sappho
Wander in the woods
Stargazing on cozy nights
Sleep with books under your pillows
Learn latin and greek phrases
Practice calligraphy
Indulge in aesthetic compositions; read novels, especially ones focused upon aestheticism and decadence
Visit libraries designed in the composition of Baroque, Gothic or Romanesque architecture

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for”

~ N.H. Kleinbaum

"Someday I shall write a great poem to you, so great that I shall make you famous in history, or dedicate a book to you, or collect a fortune & die & leave it to you."

~Edna St. Vincent Millay to Isobel Simpson, January 30 1918

Dark Academia: Style Guide and Essentials

timeless jewelry
gold or silver toned bracelets, ornate vintage rings, fine necklace chains with small pendants, heart-shaped lockets, belts, silver cufflinks, statement brooches, cummerbunds
simple, plain fabrics
tweed, cotton, wool, linen, crêpe, gossamer
coverings/outerwear
trench coats, blazers, pea coats, smoking jackets, waistcoats, duffle coats
Lots of plaid
Beige or brown clothing
Long socks
Handbag over shoulder

Neckwear:

cravats, neckties, scarves, ascot ties, bow ties

Tops/bottoms/other:

blouses, dress shirts, sundresses, turtlenecks, short dresses, patternless t-shirts, cardigans, polo shirts, twinsets, high-rise pants, slip dresses, palazzo pants, cocktail dresses, dress pants, leggings, little black dresses, suits

Shoes:

leather boots, Mary Janes, dress shoes, black pumps, beige sandals, flats

Accessories:

sunglasses, gloves, headbands, leather watches

Dark Academia: Playlist

Requiem Lacrimosa - Wolfgang Mozart
Ballade Slave - Claude Debussy
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2: No. 14: Pas de Deux - Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Chopin: Nocturne No.20 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. Posth. - Frédéric Chopin, Mikhail Pletnev
The Secret History - The Chamber Orchestra of London
The Cloud Atlas Sextet for Orchestra - Tom Tykwer
His Dark Materials - Lorne Balfe
The Four Seasons - Summer in G Minor, RV. 315: III. Presto Antonio Vivaldi
Swan Lake Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (choose whatever one)
No. 13 Dance of the Knights - Sergei Prokofiev

“I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”

~Jorge Luis Borges

Dark Academic: Tips

Listen to Mozart while drinking black coffee
Wear big cashmere sweaters
Being secretly in love with your best friend
Look at the moon, sitting on the balcony
Smoking while watching black and white old films
Spend the evening in the library
Read odyssey and discuss it with your friends
Have a large black coat
Recite poems, sitting in a room lit by candles
Always have a book with yourself
Wear a lot of silver jewelry
Know someone’s secret

Dark Academic: Study Techniques

Rewriting your notes, over and over and over again, not worrying about the neatness but paying close attention to each and every word
Muttering every bit you know by heart under your breath as you walk down the streets
Studying early in the morning, focusing on one sentence or chapter and pondering it through the day
Researching things that you have questions about on your own, finding books on that subject and leafing through them
Reciting your notes dramatically to your household companion or your stuffed animal
Challenging yourself to think, speak, write and consume media only in your target language
Eating certain snacks with different subjects and letting the smells trigger your memories
Associating each subject to someone you know by sight only
Romanticising bite that you have difficulty getting interested in
Chanting your notes at night on a classical tune

“Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again”

~Homer

Dark Academic: Mood

A mouth painted red with wine
Tweed blazers
A dark coat flapping behind you like crows wings
The earthy scent of old books
The clack of polished Mary Janes
Crisply folded white blouses
Ivy entangled brick buildings
The smell of violin rosin
Pressed flowers
Old biology textbook illustrations

Dark Academia: Movie/ Book Recommendations:

Books:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde- Robert Stevenson
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (not sure if I should add this one in or not)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt