Mushroomcore may be a term you are familiar with if you follow core aesthetics. If you are new to mushroomcore aesthetic you may be wondering what it is and how to incorporate it into your everyday style.
This unique aesthetic involves incorporating the enchanting world of fungi, forests and nature. This style blends earthy tones, natural textures and a touch of fantasy to create whimsical woodland influences of this nature inspired trend.
Whether you love to take nature walks in the forest, attend summer music festivals, or look to add woodland magic to your home or accessorize your style, mushroomcore is all about embracing mushrooms and the essence of nature.
Color Tones and Textures
When you think of mushroomcore you think of the natural earthy colors of various species of mushrooms in rich browns, soft creams, muted reds. These colors are specific to mushrooms to harmonize within their natural habitats.
When accessorizing, think of these color tones for your look and accessorize with coordinating hues. Think warm colored vegan leather belts, or faux suede bags with wood accents, clay pendants with warm metallics against a white blouse or soft ecru sweater.
Its a great opportunity to play around with textures. Incorporate natural fibers like burlap, felt, mossy fabrics and chunky knits. These can add interesting natural textures to your mushroom core look.
Mushroom Motifs
Most often when people think of mushroomcore they think of the iconic mushroom symbol, the Amanita Muscaria, mushroom with red top and white spots, often referred to as a fly agaric.
This type vibrant mushroom, with its bright red spotted red cap, makes for a fun and visual way to add a pop of color to your fashion style with many fun prints for dresses, tops and skirts, but also for accessories like tiny red mushroom earrings, a hair barrette, or accent your hair with small mushroom hair clips. For a more whimsical look, add a red toadstool pendant or a woodland scene necklace.
For the home, there are many textile fabrics with mushroom patterns available in fabric stores for diy home furnishings. With the popularity of today's mushroom motifs, you will find many home furnishing stores embracing mushroom design curtains, bedding, cushion covers, throw blankets and more.
How is Mushroomcore Different from Cottagecore?
Both mushroomcore and cottagecore encompass nature, and you will see a lot of mushrooms used in the cottagecore aesthetic, but they do branch into different focuses and themes.
Cottagecore
- Cottagecore aesthetic is about living a more simple and rural lifestyle. Think cozy cottages, vegetable and wild flower gardens, foraging, self sufficiency, simple neutral tone clothing and slow living.
- Themes: flowers, meadows, tea parties, breadmaking, hand sewing and embroidery, reading, vintage or handmade clothing, and rustic home decor.
Mushroomcore
- It’s a sub-aesthetic of cottagecore but focuses on mushrooms as its central theme. Think mushrooms in forests as well as fantasy and whimsical mushroom elements. Clothing can be earth-tones and simple layering, to bright and colorful, to dark and mystical.
- Themes: fungi in all forms, earthy, forest floor, woodland & moss, mystical & enchanting.
Adding a Whimsical Fairycore Element
With most core aesthetics there can be some overlap into other core aesthetics which makes it so fun and unique enabling you to style it the way you want.
When adding a fantasy forest element to mushroomcore you can incorporate fairy inspiration such as fairy wings, frogs and other woodland animals. For example a pair of woodland fairy wing earrings, an acorn necklace and moss green agate ring, would add a touch of magic to your look.
By adding a hair accessory such as flower crown with moss and little red mushrooms would make the perfect accompaniment to your whimsical woodland look. For a simpler look a leaf hair pin, or hair barrette maybe all that you need!
Layering for a Woodland-inspired Look
Layering clothing is an important aspect to the mushroomcore aesthetic. You can create textures with different fabrics and add blended color hues.
For instance you could add an earth-tone shawl over a mossy green blouse or t-shirt with natural brown skirt or jeans.
A felt hat with an embroidered mushroom motif creates a cozy look for Autumn with the warm tones connecting you closer to the natural world.
When accessorizing, think about the same technique with necklace lengths, mixing different materials and natural elements for your jewelry and experiment to find the perfect natural look that you are trying to achieve.
Accessorize with Handmade Items
Handmade accessories are the way to go when accessorizing for mushroomcore. They often feature unique and original designs along with the use of natural materials which makes it perfect for defining your mushroom core style.
Shopping at handmade marketplaces such as Etsy.com or Goimagine.com is great way to find handmade mushroom home decor and clothing. Whether you are looking for fungi shelves, garlands, wall art, as well as garden decor, dresses, embroidered shoes and mushroom leggings! Items made by handmade brands can often be custom made or personalized which makes them even more unique for your personal style.
Alternatively, if you are crafty, you could diy your mushroomcore accessories. Look on Pinterest for inspiration and YouTube for videos and how-tos. Here’s a video on YouTube I made to show you how to make mini clay mushroom earrings.
Handmade mushroom jewelry, whether it's made by an artisan, or by yourself, adds a sense of authenticity to your style rather than using mass-produced pieces. The small imperfections, variations, and customizable pieces add to the charm and wearability that can connect you closer to nature. Plus supporting smaller businesses and independent artists is contributing to a more sustainable fashion industry.
Conclusion
Mushroomcore aesthetic is all about capturing the magic and beauty of the forest. By incorporating earthy tones, natural textures, and whimsical fungi elements into your accessories, you can create a look that gives you a feeling of being closely connected to nature.
Whether you’re attending a festival, going for a nature walk, or simply want to bring a bit of woodland magic into your everyday life, accessorizing with mushroom motifs and handmade pieces, for your style and your home, can help you achieve the perfect mushroomcore aesthetic.
Just getting started with mushroomcore? Leave your questions below and I’ll be happy to answer them, plus share your thoughts about this post and your own favorite pieces in the comments below!