Mochette is a niche internet aesthetic that juxtaposes 'ugly' and 'gross' imagery, usually decay or disease, and cute, feminine imagery. Its name comes from combining 'moche,' the French word for 'ugly,' with the suffix -ette, meaning 'little.'

While it has similar aesthetic origins to Morute , Mochette focuses on contrasting cuteness with the 'disgusting,' 'ugly,' or 'grotesque,' while Morute utilizes the 'dark,' 'creepy,' or 'morbid.' Additionally, Mochette has a higher emphasis on decay and rot, particularly outdoors and in nature, and the colors green and brown. Where Morute may inspire feelings of fear or unease, Mochette intends to instead cause revulsion and nausea.

Perhaps the earliest origins of Mochette are surrealist films, particularly European ones from the 20th century, which are often posted by Mochette bloggers. The most popular ones include Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970), Daisies (1966), Alice (1988), and Little Otik (2000). These films often have a whimsical atmosphere, and handle dark or disturbing concepts with a light tone, and pretty, feminine imagery, and are strikingly similar to what bloggers would create intentionally to invoke the aesthetic.

Mochette's earliest origins can also perhaps be traced to the fashion, photography, and art of multidisciplinary artist and musician Katie Jane Garside. While she is often associated with Kinderwhore , particularly as member of Grunge rock bands Daisy Chainsaw and Queenadreena, her personal brand of the aesthetic contained more blood, dirt, nudity, and torn clothing than her peers did, and was known for her stage antics, where she reportedly would do things like drilling holes into dolls' heads, strangling or otherwise mutilating herself, tearing off her clothes, and drinking from baby bottles.

In the latter half of the 2000s, she both formed the duo Ruby Throat, and released her debut solo album, Lullabies in a Glass Wilderness, both featuring a combination of soft, whispery, at times pretty and at times creepy, vocals, and disturbing or unsettling lyrics. One of her most popular solo songs, for example, is called "Roadkill."

In 2007, Katie Jane Garside presented a multimedia art exhibition titled Darling, They've Found the Body. While there are very little photos from it online, the exhibition featured artworks, photography, short films, and handmade/upcycled clothing all made by Garside herself, all of which were similar to and later influenced Mochette bloggers.

In 2010-2012, there became an offshoot of the Pale and Delicate Sweet aesthetic movements where users would post images that had similar faded filters, light colors, and pink, feminine elements, except with more grotesque elements, particularly bugs, insects, and worms, and injured or sick people. The most famous of these bloggers was Nicole Dollanganger, whose usernames at the time (@pinkcum, @babylarvae, and @bugsinricepudding) reflected this contrast between 'gross' and unsanitary elements, and more cutesy and sweet ones.

As this aesthetic developed, and Dollanganger's personal aesthetic and music evolved, the more disturbing and disgusting elements of it were slowly replaced with more gothic and morbid ones, becoming what is known as Morute .

However, many of these bloggers, often friends or fans of Dollanganger, continued to err on the 'disgusting' and grotesque side of the aesthetic, continuing into the late 2010s. An earlier version of what became Mochette, containing things like abandoned rural homes, burned childhood bedrooms, and battered and dirty dolls and toys, began appearing under tags like 'forgottencore,' 'lostcore,' and 'usedcore' in the latter half of the 2010s, with the most graphic of these images (often containing gore, nudity, or vomit and other bodily fluids) being tagged as 'grosscore' and 'vomitcore.'

In early 2022, now-deactivated Tumblr user @frowup coined and defined the term Mochette, and gave a brief overview of its most common themes, motifs, and visuals, including a collage and a playlist, leading to the term having widespread use on sites like Tumblr and Pinterest.

Mochette visuals typically consist of 'gross' or rotting imagery, and pretty, feminine imagery. This is often accomplished by simply posting cute things, like dolls and stuffed animals, and 'gross' things, like mold and bugs, on the same blog. However, many Mochette bloggers intentionally find images which combine both elements, either by cute-ifying 'ugly' things (for example, photoshopping a bow onto a picture of a worm) or by 'tainting' cute things (for example, ripping or staining a pretty dress). Soft, pastel colors (especially pink) are commonly contrasted with 'sickly' shades of green, yellow, or brown to evoke this.

Common Mochette visuals include:

Mochette fashion are often simple lacy dresses.

Mochette media often overlaps with Morute , as they, broadly, both combine 'pretty' or 'cute' elements, and dark or disturbing ones. However, Mochette typically has less of the Gothic horror elements of Morute media, in favor of more 'raw' and 'gritty' ones. In addition, it is often more weird or surreal than many pieces of Morute media.

While Morute music has evolved to encompass many different genres, even including electronic and pop music, Mochette has grown/evolved very little since its conception. Artists popular with Mochette bloggers are generally confined to folk and singer-songwriter, grunge, metal, early industrial music, 'outsider' music, and avant-garde/experimental music, with Nicole Dollanganger and Katie Jane Garside being fan favorites.

Artists popular with Mochette bloggers include: