Ah Yes, The Light At The End Of The Simple And Bland And Monochromatic Fashion Tunnel
Reflecting on fashion this past year, and where it looks like we might be headed in 2026.
2025 was quite an exciting year for fashion. Across the industry’s biggest luxury brands, it seemed like every day there were headlines of a new creative director taking over—from Gucci to Versace to Balenciaga to Bottega Veneta to…should I continue? And so, the luxury fashion industry in 2025 underwent quite an interesting transition.
But despite the many changes that happened on fashion’s surface, a lot of trends that dominated 2025 were actually not very exciting at all. Instead, much of this year was marked by economic uncertainty, and the simple, bland, monochromatic fashion trends that followed. Like the rise of corporate-core, or the prominence of muted earth tones. I mean, remember the very jeans-and-a-t-shirt Coachella, or how the hottest trend leading up to summer was a basic white tank top?
In addition to current anxieties, or perhaps because of them, another force that heavily influenced fashion trends this year was nostalgia. On a large scale, consumers turned to brands and products that felt quite familiar, or that they perhaps even already owned. Like vintage Coach bags, or Tory Burch ballet flats, or classic check Burberry scarves. Or Hervé-Léger-and-Alaïa bandage dresses, or Alexander McQueen skull scarves. And so on.
And while it’s great to see trends come back around—as most of them do—it’s also interesting to see fashion be out with the old, and in with the…old? Because, with so many consumers excited by what has already happened, where are brands supposed to go next? When will we return to fashion that feels fun and bold and exciting and maybe even optimistic?
Thankfully—and especially after this past fashion month, where many of luxury’s biggest brands showed runway collections under new creative directors—it seems that fashion is headed in a more positive direction. There’s already some increased consumer interest for bolder fashion trends, like leopard print, which rose around 34% in popularity in early November. Or like the loud, logo jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, which saw a spike in search traffic last month following a special appearance at the World Series.
Plus, one of the colors that has been dominating culture lately, from sports to entertainment to music to technology—and continues to dominate much thanks to Timothée Chalamet—is orange. That sounds pretty fun to me. And, hopefully, these fun and bolder fashion trend lines continue well into 2026.
“I THINK I’VE SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE, AND I DIDN’T LIKE THE ENDING”
Interestingly, around one year ago, fashion seemed like it was trending in the same direction as it is now. And actually, twenty-twenty-five was meant to be the year fun and bold fashion took over. Sure, maybe some of this has to do with how bolder styles naturally rise in popularity during the holidays, or the general optimism that comes along with celebrating a new year—that this one will be better than the last!!!
But after about a year and a half of fashion’s restrictive “quiet luxury” craze, the winter of 2024 was the first time the fad started to consistently decline in popularity. And, at least in the early months of 2025, it did seem like fashion was meeting its “loud luxury” predictions.
For a deeper dive into the conflicting fashion forces that shaped 2025, you can read more about it below:
But the fun fashion phase of early 2025 unfortunately ended up being exactly that—a phase. And for what was supposed to be fashion’s bold reawakening, style on a large scale in 2025 ended up remaining quite simple and bland and monochromatic. Sigh.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT NOW?
So yes, there is a possibility that, despite signs pointing to otherwise, 2026 could be yet another year of not-so-happy style choices. I mean, what makes this time around any different?
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