“Perfection is stressful,” notes design critic Linda Ho. “A 4K nature documentary is stunning, but it feels alien. A VHS recording of Bob Ross has artifacts, tracking lines, and warm color decay. It feels like memory. It feels like Saturday morning when you were seven and had nowhere to go.”
There is a visual component to this shift as well. Look at TikTok’s “Core” taxonomy. For years, it was all about "Cyberpunk" and "Goth." Now, the dominant search terms are "Cottagecore," "Boho," and "Retro-futurism." bexxxy
To understand the rise of the cozy, we must first look at the state of the "loud." “Perfection is stressful,” notes design critic Linda Ho