About

Coastal Grandmother is a fashion and lifestyle aesthetic inspired by the style of older women who live by the beach, such as the heroines depicted in Nancy Meyers movies. It is denoted by things like white wool sweaters and button-downs, cozy interiors and a love of gardening and baking. The aesthetic was coined by TikToker Lex Nicoleta in January 2022 and spread over the following months, gaining widespread media attention in April.

Origin

On January 5th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @lexnicoleta posted a video where she describes her aesthetic as a mix of a coastal grandmother and the movie The Matrix, gaining over 18,000 views in three months (shown below). This is the earliest known use of the term "coastal grandmother" to describe an aesthetic.

Lex Nicoleta continued to post videos about the Coastal Grandmother aesthetic over the following months. On January 7th, she posted a video to TikTok^[2] explaining aspects of the aesthetic, calling it "Martha Stwart adjacent" and saying "think Nancy Meyers chic," using Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give and Meryl Streep in It's Complicated as examples (shown below). The video gained over 200,000 views in three months.

Spread

On January 26th and February 2nd, Lex Nicoleta posted videos to TikTok^[3][4] explaining the differences between west coast Coastal Grandmother fashion and east coast Coastal Grandmother fashion. On March 16th, she posted an Coastal Grandmother starter pack video to TikTok,^[9] gaining over 300,000 views in a month (shown below, left). On March 29th she posted an updated explainer video on the aesthetic to TikTok,^[10] gaining over 1.9 million views in a month (shown below, right).

In April the aesthetic gained increased media attention. On April 4th, Metro^[5] published a piece on the aesthetic. On the 12th, The Guardian^[6] published a piece on the aesthetic, followed by People^[7] and Refinery29^[8] later that month. On April 18th, Twitter^[11] user @Fashionismo posted examples of the aesthetic, writing, "Simply fascinated with the new aesthetic called 'coastal grandmother', which is basically your grandmother, aunt, divorced friend, who lives on the beach, uses neutral tones, handmade items, has an instagrammable kitchen, prepares perfect cold boards. I thought it was too wonderful!" gaining over 1,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References