Medieval Girl Winter

Hast thou layered sufficiently? Thine houppelande will not wear itself

Mar 06, 2026

∙ Paid

Getting dressed is a creative exercise.

Kellyn here.

We’re at the point of the year where I feel like we are all getting tired of our winter clothes, and we could use a little whimsy to keep us going. I often use obscure inspiration to find new ways of looking at my existing closet, and holding out from buying anything new. The past few weeks, I’ve entered a phase I’ve dubbed Medieval Girl Winter.

MGW is for anyone– lads, knights, wenches…find your own quest (and call it whatever you wish, king.) I’m on this kick for a few reasons—

For one, it feels like fantasy and medieval themes are everywhere in pop culture at the moment. Movies, TV, literature, art, fashion, etc. When the cultural imagination is unified, it has a way of making itself at home in your wardrobe.

And beyond the trend of it, I think there's something deeper—it’s a form of escapism that, unlike anything futuristic or within neighboring centuries to our own, gets you up and all the way OUT of our current world situation. Game of Thrones ushered in a big interest in fantasy for those that weren’t already LOTR-indoctrinated. Fantasy books have become so mainstream in the past few years that I even recently overheard a group of high school cheerleaders talking about High Fae from the ACOTAR series. That really rang my zillennial bell. I’ll tell you, that would not have been the case in my public high school, circa 2013.

And because fashion has this lovely ability to reflect signs of the times back out into the world, we are seeing so many medieval elements in fashion, even if they’re subtle.

There’s also an entertainingly small leap to be made from your typical 14th century togs to some garments that are very much in style today.

Bonnets and balaclavas?