What is RoyalCore?

RoyalCore is a recipe consisting of the following: A touch of anglophilia, an aching feeling you were born in the wrong time period, and a burning desire to attend a high tea or royal ball with Mr. Darcy as a date. Combine this with fashion and decor that would make any current grandmother’s house look modern and voila! RoyalCore.

In less poetic terms, RoyalCore is an affinity for incorporating lifestyle and aesthetic influences dating back from the 16th century Tudor period of British monarchy (and potentially other western European royalty) up through today’s evolution of Great Britain’s royal family. Adjacent trends in this family include PrincessCore, which may originate from the same influences as RoyalCore, but in America often evolves into emulating Disney princesses. We’re not going to go there.

When did the RoyalCore trend start and who influenced it?

Certainly there has always been a subset of people who are not tied to British (or any type of) royal aristocracy who long to embody this lifestyle. Females are fed princess culture from birth and are trained to wait for their “Prince Charming”, so we can thank the Grimm Brothers’ Fairytales for that. From a historical event standpoint, the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, better known as the fashion icon and royal rebel Princess Diana, played a role as her tumultuous and tragic story unfolded through the 80’s and 90’s. But the real mania began when the tradition of sensationalized television coverage joined forces with the dawn of omnipotence of social media to cover the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011. From Westminster to the Whitehouse, the modern world seemed plagued with anglophilia that served as a primer for RoyalCore.

Since then, media & entertainment has answered the call for those who are ravenous for royal, paving the way for daily escapes to time periods full of horse drawn carriages, corsets, soaring cathedral ceilings, ladies-in-waiting, and social events that make the Met Gala look like a child’s birthday party. It must be something about the British accent, so hypnotically enchanting that it takes hold of consumers’ minds and - well - consumes them. If Hogwarts were in The Bronx and all the characters came from New York City’s 5 boroughs, would Harry Potter have garnered the same success? We digress.

Alongside real-life British Monarchy events, networks and streaming services developed and released shows about the lifestyles of the royal, rich, and famous. PBS released the smash hit Downtown Abbey in January of 2011 (previously released in the UK on iTV in September of 2010), just 3 months before the wedding of William and Kate. As the media scrupulously followed the Cambridge’s journey of building a life and family together, Netflix released The Crown in 2016. An instant success, The Crown sits somewhere between historical fiction and non-fiction, detailing the life of Queen Elizabeth from her wedding up through the current-day events of the entire family. Another royal wedding came along to give closeted RoyalCores reason to rise from their 4-post beds when Prince Harry married Hollywood’s Meghan Markel in May of 2018. As the media shifted some of their attention from the older brother to the younger, this niche got more than it bargained for watching them give birth to their son Archie just one year later followed by their earth shattering announcement to leave the royal lifestyle behind in the Spring of 2020. “Megxit”, as it is sensationally known, spurred a forensic investigation of the Royal Family (and “The Firm”) by big and small-time media alike. From Oprah to independent internet sleuths and “sources close to the family”, culture shifted from glorification to expositional criticism as society tore into the skeletons in their closet.

In our FREE trend|collectiveX report we go even deeper on RoyalCore’s influence within hospitality and give actionable recommendations on how owners & operators interested in catching the early wave of this trend can innovate to suit these royal demands. Preview the report at the end of this article and download all 25 content rich pages, including a limited preview of 20 additional pages of premium content so you can be ready for RoyalCore.

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Simultaneously, enter another brilliant release from Netflix: Bridgerton. Beyond brilliant, it was the streaming service’s most successful launch to date. Similar to Downton Abbey, Bridgerton follows the life of a well-to-do aristocratic British family dating back even further into the early 1800’s. First airing on Christmas of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 winter when binging was the only way to pass the time, it was Bridgerton who finally spurred the use of the term “RoyalCore” in mainstream social media and where the traction really begins to pick up. Their soundtrack serves as a microcosm for the trend, flanked with modern-day songs performed by string quartets and seamlessly blending the milieu of this historic time period with the zeitgeist of today.

We’d also like to give Taylor Swift an honorable mention for her role in promoting visions of RoyalCore in her 2014 Blank Space music video and the 2015 rumors that she was buying a Scottish castle built in 1570.

Who is likely to be influenced by the RoyalCore trend?

Females, age 18-49. According to Nielsen, by season 2 Downton Abbey showed 370% growth in viewership of females ages 35-49 . In 2017, Nielsen reported that almost 66% of viewers who watched season 2 of The Crown within 3 days of its release were over 35. 65% of overall viewers were female and 40% came from households with incomes of over $100,000. While such information was not publicly available for Bridgerton, this show has an x-factor that basically guarantees a female audience inclusive of the coveted 18-49 year old demographic: Shonda Rhimes. Shondaland, the production company of the famed TV writer has produced female-skewed hit shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Private Practice, and many more. Many of these shows portrayed young female protagonists as the central characters, bringing in younger viewership turned cult-ship. She now leaves her mark on Netflix once again with Bridgerton, so it is easy to anticipate ratings and viewership falling similarly.

How long will RoyalCore be around?

In a primitive form, it’s been around in a modern media-perpetuated form for at least a decade, beginning with the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011. As previously stated, it’s the wild success of Bridgerton and the kiss of modernization coyly peppered in by Shonda Rhimes that is bringing this trend to the limelight. While it has not quite reached its pop culture peak, we can expect that to happen over the next 2 years and watch this trend stick around to live out its lifecycle for at least the next 5. With the help of continued seasons of Bridgerton & The Crown confirmed, the promise of a second Downton Abbey movie, and an incredible amount of American attention on “The Firm” in light of recent expository reporting, including a resurgence in interest in Princess Diana spurred by younger generations’ obsession with cancel culture and “bringing down” large institutions, the engine fueling this royal train isn’t stopping any time soon.

Why does RoyalCore matter in the context of the hospitality industry?

Pay attention to the rise of Royal Core Aesthetic & Events. The RoyalCore Corps spent their COVID-19 quarantine binging fiction and non-fiction royal entertainment. They simultaneously longed for the return of their social life while absorbing the social customs and aesthetics of aristocratic life of the past and present. These shows became a virtual escape from the residential walls in which society lived and worked in a confined, mundane fashion day after day; a breeding ground for daydreaming and fantasy production. As the COVID-19 vaccine shows promise of a return to normal for the hospitality industry, the RoyalCore Corps has had a lot of time to develop a pent up demand for escapism and living out their wildest royal fantasies, and it’s going to show in their aesthetics & events taste, preferences, and expectations

Where exactly will we see RoyalCore bleed into the hospitality industry?

Fasten your tiaras and hold onto your white horse reigns! We’re predicting RoyalCore to rock these 4 subsegments of the hospitality industry:

Food & Beverage

Move over pubs and fish & chips. Ladies who lunch, and also binge Bridgerton, will be looking way past heavy anglo-inspired pub fare to get a taste of their dream lifestyle through high tea service & tea rooms.

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Hotels & Overnight Accommodations

Unique & Boutique is the name of the game when looking to hop on the latest trends in overnight accommodations. Guests don’t simply want to get away anymore; they want to feel like they’re living a local or a new culturally influenced life in a brand new place. If an overnight accommodation can offer a castle or palace-like setting or make their bedrooms look like they come with a butler or lady-in-waiting, they’ll find themselves with a niche market that has an itch to take up a temporary residence.

Images from the One Queen’s Lane Hotel in London

Travel & Tourism

Game of Thrones gave Croatia’s economy a huge boost as super fans sought to make a mecca out of visiting the set of King’s Landing in Dubrovnik. With Bridgerton & Downton Abbey filmed all over the country, England and the UK may certainly expect to benefit from this sensation.

Weddings & Events

RoyalCore-inspired weddings is to the 2020’s as Rustic-Chic Farmhouse is to the 2010’s. Not every bride that had a farm-chic wedding religiously worshipped Joanna Gaines, but it became such a mainstream part of wedding and interior design culture that its origins no longer mattered. Brides of the Royal Core Corps will begin to put this style of wedding on the map as the pandemic eases and we expect RoyalCore to follow the same path, with brides opting in to castle-style weddings without ever having partaken in monarchy-driven media, entertainment and influence in 2-3 years. The Royal Core Aesthetic is sure to permeate every facet of the wedding industry.

There’s so much more to know and see on how this trend is influencing the aesthetic and experiential landscape of hospitality.

In our FREE trend|collectiveX report we go even deeper on RoyalCore’s influence within these subsegments of hospitality and give actionable recommendations on how owners & operators interested in catching the early wave of this trend can innovate to suit these royal demands. Preview the report below and download all 25 content rich pages, including a limited preview of 20 additional pages of premium content so you can be ready for RoyalCore.

Download Free Report