Dark academia is a social media aesthetic and subculture is dedicated to the appreciation of higher education, writing/poetry, classic Greek and Gothic architecture. The aesthetic focuses on a romanticized lifestyle inspired by the fictional lives of people who live and breathe classic literature, art, history, and the sciences.
Dark academia male fashion style is originated on Tumblr and is an aesthetic that is deeply rooted in literary culture. Guys who identify with this subculture are often fans of classic art, poetry, and books. While dark academia has become synonymous with a preppy, collegiate aesthetic (think tweed jackets), some men may also identify with the darker side of dark academia, which can include anything from gothic-inspired to Victorian fashion or even emo or grunge.
If you’re interested in learning more about this clothing style for men, here is a masculine dark academia fashion items checklist:
Dark Academia Scarves
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✅ Best Cuddle Dreams Luxurious Men’s Silk Scarves
100% silk and excellent quality – So sumptuous, our exclusive scarf is nothing short of exceptional! Finely crafted with sophisticated silk Charmeuse and softly brushed silk backing, this unique scarf brings a chic accent and cozy warmth as well.
Dark Academia Shirt
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✅ Best Men’s Classic-Fit Oxford Long Sleeve Shirt
Excelent product, excelent store. – This color is particularly great. Polo is Polo, nothing more to say. Good Product! Good Service!
Dark Academia Style Trousers
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✅ Best Men’s Derby Tweed Trousers
Great pants, great service, great shipping. – The quality of these pants is astounding considering the price and that they were made in Great Britain. They are made of thick, rugged wool but are 100 lined with cotton so they are not “scratchy”.
Dark Academia Blazer Jacket
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✅ Best Men’s Casual Slim Fit Two-Button Sport Coat
Perfect 👌 – Product arrived all wrinkled up but sort of expected. Took it to the dry cleaner. Wore it and it was a perfect fit. No adjustments are needed. The color is perfect.
Dark Academia Sweater
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✅ Best Men’s Button Up Mock Neck Sweater
Great Product – Loved the sweaters, very comfortable, excellent quality, very soft cashmere, will purchase them again and highly recommend the product.
Dark Academia Cashmere Pullover
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✅ Best Men’s Classic Turtleneck Sweater
Superior Cashmere sweater looks good, feels good!!! – Thanks to State Cashmere for coming out with a flawless cashmere sweater!! Was looking for a comfortable turtleneck sweater since it is in style, happened to come across the State Cashmere product and ordered the first cashmere.
Dark Academia Tote Bags
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✅ Best Women’s Canvas Shoulder Hand Bag Tote
Love it! – It’s a tote bag. Nothing unusual. Zipper on top is a cool feature. Like the design, get a lot of compliments. Starting to get a little dirty. Hope it cleans easily.
Dark Academia Pants
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✅ Best Levi’s Men’s XX Standard Tapered Chino Pants
Levi’s does it again Perfect in every sense of the word! – These chinos are magnificent! They fit perfectly, they’re comfortable, they stretch beyond belief, they’re breathable. Did you mention they have a secret zippered pocket in the right pocket?! No. Well, they do! Levi’s always makes a quality product and they do not disappoint this go around. So, buy them. What’re you waiting for??
Dark Academia Cotton Jacket
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✅ Best Men’s Cotton Twill Steampunk Tailcoat
Quality Product – Ignore amazon sizes and use the ones they provide in the Description! It fits well. If you like baggy jackets go 2 sizes up. This is a quality product. The pockets are real and the buttons are silver snaps.
Dark Academia Wool Blend Vest
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✅ Best Premium Wool Blend Waistcoat
This Vest is a Professional Delight! – It looks amazing. Great material, buttons, tweed front and back. The sizes are just way too small. Maybe this is an English 3x or something.
Dark Academia Half Zip
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✅ Best Polo Ralph Lauren Men’s Half Zip
Great product – This is a great shirt and worth the money. Unbelievably well made. Heavy and super soft material. It’s Ralph Lauren.
Dark Academia Skinny Jeans
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✅ Best G-Star Raw Men’s Revend Skinny Fit Jeans
Fantastic Fitting Jeans – These fit wonderfully in all the right places are super comfortable, especially for slim-fitting jeans and the carbon black wash stands out from other black denim. Too often men’s G-Star jeans have oversized back pockets which hang too low, but this isn’t the case with the Reverend Super Slim-Fit jeans.
Dark Academia Trousers
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✅ Best Corduroy Cotton Trouser Pants
Warmth and Comfort – This product really surprised me. It is a very good weight of corduroy at a very reasonable price. Perfect fit. Try them.
Dark Academia Vintage Glasses
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✅ Best Persol Po0714 Aviator Sunglasses
The Perfect Sunglasses, Hands-Down! – These didn’t turn up due to a mistake with the delivery, however, the issue was soon rectified and bought the same glasses were somewhere else due to time constraints. These glasses are very classy and are both elegant and robust. These glasses are not for activities, as the lenses are heavy enough to mean the glasses slowly slide down your nose but not heavy enough to be uncomfortable. Overall, great glasses.
Dark Academia Trench Coat
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✅ Best London Fog Men’s Iconic Trench Coat
Perfect fit, excellent coat. – This coat is excellent, as one would expect from London Fog. A wonderful coat. Warm and waterproof. The material is a very fine corduroy.
Dark Academia Shirt
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✅ Best Lacoste Long Sleeve Solid Linen Shirt
The color is so beautiful – This is a linen shirt with a modern flair and exceptional quality. You pay a good price, you get a great product! Thank Yeshua HaMasiach.
Polo Cable Knit Pullover Jumper
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✅ Best Polo RL Men’s Cable Knit Pullover Sweater
Typical Ralph Design – Comfortable to wear Not too heavy, rather for cold summer nights Very noble, ordered a second one right away. Size fits.
Dark Academia Cardigan
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✅ Best Long Sleeve Cardigan Sweater
Great cardigan sweaters. – It doesn’t get more essential and classic than a basic v-neck sweater long sleeve cardigan with front button-down closure for males with a perfectly tailored fit for a timeless look. Masterfully crafted in a versatile solid color so you will coordinate it with ease. Mix it up with our modern slim-fit cardigan for casual outings or professional settings.
Dark Academia Backpack
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✅ Best High Capacity Canvas Vintage Backpack
Versatile, roomy, stylish canvas backpack! – This is a really nice canvas backpack with leather straps. It has a magnetic connector to close the top flap plus drawstrings to close it tight. inside the large space, there is a padded pocket for your laptop, a small zippered pouch, and a pouch that holds pens, chapstick, or whatever. It also has three good-sized zippered pouches around the front and sides and a small zippered pouch on the back as well as broad, padded shoulder straps that make it comfy to carry.
Dark Academia Messenger Bag
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✅ Best Dark Academia Messenger Bag
Ideal size for travel – Great size for on the plane travel bag, it is in between sizes of the messenger bags/satchels and smaller shoulder bags/satchels so ideal for that. Has compartment divider inside and pouches there is an outs pocket as well the look and feel of the material is of good quality and looks like leather, the strap adjusts to a good length so it can hang down just below the top of your back on to your bottom the only issue was it doesn’t come with a shoulder pad on the strap so did purchase that separately otherwise a good buy.
Dark Academia Book Bag
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✅ Best Leather Comfortable Lightweight College Bookbag
MAX COMFORT ASSURED – Effortlessly carry your laptop and accessories, the backpack is a feather-light, a soft leather backpack that forms a suspension system to protect your back from discomfort and to encourage maximum support. The bag boasts thick padded adjustable straps is designed to relax your shoulders. Looks attractive, so makes it perfect for college, school, business, travel, short hiking, camping, and outdoor activities.
Dark Academia Leather Bag
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✅ Best Genuine Leather Messenger Handbag
Excellent bag – For the money, this is well worth it. Roomy and the feeling of quality for the price is better than messenger bags costing two or three times the price. Sure, you can find a better bag, but it will cost a lot more.
Dark Academia School Bag
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✅ Best Leather Messenger Bag For Men
A nice leather bag that looks expensive – A very nice bag. The front buckles are very secure, the front pockets are useful, and the design is sleek, classic and the bag looks very expensive. It fits a 15.6″ laptop.
Dark Academia Shoulder Bag
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✅ Best Dark Academia Leather School Bag
Great bag for a great price – Slim messenger bag construction with dual magnetic closures under the leather flap. Roomy main compartment can fit documents, everyday essentials, a laptop or tablet, and features a full-length zipper pocket. Rear exterior open pocket for easy access to frequently needed items.
Dark Academia Laptop Bag
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✅ Best Leather Shoulder Bag
Solid bag with lots of styles! – The bag feels as thick heavy leather should. The frame of the bag is more rigid while the flap is soft and flexible. The strap is still stiff, but I imagine it will become more flexible over time. It gives the impression of an “Old West” saddlebag, sturdy, weather-beaten and well-traveled.
Dark Academia Crossbody Bag
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✅ Best Chest Shoulder Backpack
It’s perfect – This is the cutest bag ♥️. It is perfect for anyone. Especially women who carry a purse. If you’re like me you don’t like it but it’s necessary. This little wonder is hands-free. Sling it over one shoulder and that’s it. It is a little larger than expected but it holds necessaries like a phone, ID, gum and keys. Plenty of room for checkbooks and credit cards. No worries about some fool trying to snatch it. It is on your body not in your hand.
Dark Academia Fashion Mask
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✅ Best Cool Goth Face Mask
Spectacular Fun – love this. It fits perfectly. It’s well made high quality. The graphics are amazing and totally fun. You will buy more. Love this.
How to dress dark academia for males?
Dark academia clothing is a romantic combination of muted earthy tones, tweed pants, and an armful of books, with roots in the classic Greek arts and traditional 19th century England boarding school. That is why the dark academia style encompasses a wide range of prep school staples such as sweater vests, tailored trousers, collar shirts, Oxford loafers, long trench coats, small leather backpacks, and plaid patterns with knee-high socks.
What is the dark academia fashion color palette for men?
Cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, Oxford shoes, houndstooth and tweed clothing are among the most commonly associated with the men’s dark academia aesthetic, with its color palette primarily consisting of black, white, beige, dark brown, forest green, olive, dark orange, cream, gold, navy blue and burgundy.
What is light vs dark academia fashion for guys?
Light academic men’s outfits promote a light color aesthetic of optimism, friendship, motivation, and happy feelings. Dark academia men’s outfits, on the other hand, are rooted in rather doom-focused dark themes such as literary tragedy, the meaning of life and death, escapism, pessimism, sadness and sensitivity.
What is the dark academia fashion history?
With the creation of a book club centered on classic and gothic novels in 2015, the dark academia genre began to grow into an aesthetic on social media site Tumblr. The aesthetic then evolved into a distinct subculture, with Ryan Taylor and Maria Teresa Negro spearheading a wave of popularity on Instagram in 2017.
Fashion from the 1930s and 1940s is prominent in the dark academia aesthetic, particularly clothing worn by students at Oxbridge, Ivy League schools, and prep schools during that time period.
How to dress dark academia for guys for Summer?
For summer dark academia outfits for guys, you can wear lighter, brighter pants, such as beige chinos, shorts, and jeans, then accent them with your favorite dark colors for the top. Simple cotton or chambray button-downs, camp collar shirts and polos are examples of classy shirtings. Your outfit will still reflect your personal style while still conveying the summer vibe you’re going for.
How to dress dark academia for guys for Fall?
Autumn-themed imagery is the most popular for dark academia mood boards because of the matching color scheme. You can wear a simple classy long-sleeved shirt layered under a dark, muted or black color oversized sweater. Wool, cashmere, linen, cotton, and corduroy are the best material for keeping you warm and cozy. For a vintage or nostalgic vibe, look for vintage, washed, and worn fabrics.
How to dress dark academia for guys for Winter?
Dark academia men’s outfit for winter is very classic. You can include a navy blue sweater over a white collared shirt, with some brown corduroy trousers (or jeans), some black oxford shoes (or brown loafers), and a gray scarf. This look has a lot of nice textures for the cold weather — the sweater is knit, the shirt is made out of cotton or silk, and there are elements of leather in the oxfords and corduroy in the pants. The scarf ties it all together: traditionally, academic students would wear these long rectangular scarves on cold days at university.
How to dress dark academia for college?
Classic pieces, such as tailored trousers, pleated jackets reminiscent of a prep school uniform, plaid or tweed separates, and a sharp pair of loafers, are driving dark academic outfits. A moody color palette of dark neutrals and deepened shades of red, olive, and navy is also essential for your dark academia college style.
How to dress dark academia for guys for street style?
In its most basic form, Dark Academia could be described as prep school fashion with a gothic twist. To make this aesthetic for street style, you can wear collared shirts, button-down tops, and sweaters that give off a more academic vibe than a t-shirt. Denim is also not commonly worn in dark academia for men, but rather plaid skinny pants, slacks and trousers.
How to dress dark academia for guys for formal wear?
The dark academia style is quite formal and classy by nature. To make the look more formal, you can pay homage to classic silhouettes and practical staple pieces by layering them in unexpected and stylish ways. Suits, cardigans, and shirts under dresses are the ideal dark academic-inspired formal wear. To project authority and formality, you should pay attention to details, dress modestly and decently. It is all about doing more with less.
What accessories to wear with men’s dark academia outfits?
A dark academia accessory is a decorative item that supplements the masculine outfit to add the classy scholar vibe. Popular items include brass cufflinks, silk or cashmere scarves, watches, monograms, square pockets, dark color leather bags and belts, Ray-Bans wayfarer or tortoiseshell vintage glasses.
Where to buy dark academia aesthetic clothes for boyfriend?
Ralph Lauren, Cole Haan, Tommy Hilfiger, Dockers, LONDON FOG, Fyre and Haggar are some fashion brands that are particularly associated with dark academia for those with a budget. Other stores carry a lot of dark academia pieces for both males and females including Nordstrom, ASOS, Anthropologie, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, Zara and H&M.
For those who want to dress in dark academia for cheap, you can find a lot of dark academia clothes and fashion websites. In fact, similar items can be purchased at a cheaper price on Amazon or eBay. If you want to buy dark academia fashion items at the lowest sale price (and do not care about long-term quality or copyright issues) then you can even explore sources like Shein, AliExpress or Wish.
Another good idea to support small businesses and get quality deals is to shop from your local second-hand stores, vintage shop, flea markets, consignment stores, yard sales and Craigslist. You can even treasure hunt grandparents’ wardrobe. Delivery time is usually the fastest when ordering from Amazon or shopping locally.
If you are into handmade crafting, ethnic clothing and indie styles, you can spend some hours in our DIY session or shop from Etsy to get inspiration. For a complete dark academia style, please check out the dark academia room decor guide here.