This year has truly been the year for the girls — girl dinner, the tomato girl aesthetic, girl math, strawberry girls, the social acceptance of being delulu. Girls have made 2023 a “be unapologetically you” type of year. These TikTok trends have given the world some great content and memes, but there’s another trend in our midst: coquette-core or the coquette aesthetic. It has many putting bows on everything, even food.
What is the coquette-core?
Coquette-core is a hyper-feminine style that goes for a soft and flirty look and sometimes features bows, preferably pink.
We’re in an era where food and beauty have started to become heavily intertwined — strawberry makeup, glazed donut skin, blueberry nails, and brownie makeup to name a few. Most of these trends add a level of simplicity to beauty, one that is easy to follow or allows you to see more relatability in the beauty world. Coquette, which has 14.7 billion views on TikTok, falls into this category as it leans back to girlhood.
Adding bows to food is a satirical trend. Videos of bows wrapped around a Taco Bell order are complete with Lana Del Rey’s “Let The Light In” as the background music. I can’t think of a better song and artist to unknowingly be a part of this trend as the artist gives off such soft, feminine, and coquette energy.
Most videos like these bow-ified pickles have the caption, “Me if you even care,” and we do. Bows just add an extra layer of cuteness, and, as @sexithriftqueen said in the caption of a bow-filled Wingstop order, these are meals “fit for a princess.”
It’s like that pink bow belongs with the delicious Wingstop ranch. You can even go the extra mile and wrap all your ice cubes in a pink bow or make coquette pasta.
The creator of this pasta, @mooncake3000 on TikTok, recommends cooking your pasta when it’s not too soft and then tying the pasta to make bows.
Brands like Taco Bell and Waffle House are also hopping on the trend wrapping bows to individual items of an order.
Fans loved this type of marketing. “Smothered, covered, chunked and coquette 🎀,” said one user under Waffle House’s post. “I’ve BEEN saying Waffle House is so lana,” commented another, and with good reason Waffle House IS Lana Del Rey.
Add these bows to any snack even your mac n cheese, it’s the epitome of girl dinner — a way to express femininity and the self-awareness that sometimes something as simple as a pink bow will make your day better.