It's Not Quiet Luxury, It's Not Loud Luxury, But Some Third Other Thing
Stuck in between quiet and loud luxury, fashion right now is getting very preppy. But why? And how did we get here?
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE QUIET LUXURY CRAZE
It’s the Spring of 2023, and quiet luxury is quickly becoming the biggest fad in fashion. The Succession series finale, in all its Loro-Piana-glory, is about to air. Sofia Richie’s Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc wedding is dominating social media. Hermès’ Birkin bags — logo-free and hard to get — are more popular than ever.
The idea of quiet luxury was that fashion and luxury and wealth could be just that: quiet. Subtle and under the radar. Suddenly, consumers were obsessed with signaling wealth and status in a more, Bottega Veneta, if-you-know-you-know way.
Goodbye, monogram-logo-covered Louis Vuitton Neverfull! Good riddance, big gold flashy Gucci Marmont belt! And hello handbags that are probably even more expensive but at least it’s harder to tell! Fashion became all about restraint and trying less, while very much still trying.
Never mind there’s nothing really quiet about Loro Piana loafers, a Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc wedding, or an Hermès Birkin. But alas. It’s the thought that counts.
Maybe, in a post-COVID climate, people craved timelessness. Perhaps the world was, overall, becoming more conservative. Maybe a dose of economic and geopolitical unease pushed us to be more cautious in all aspects of life, including our closets. As I’ve learned through years of analyzing trends for Data, But Make it Fashion, fashion trends don’t rise and fall for no reason.
Unlike most fashion fads nowadays, quiet luxury stuck around for a while. A year and a half, to be exact. It wasn’t until late 2024 that fashion industry began to reject its restraint. Logos, furs (preferably vintage!!!), and maximalism started to rise in popularity. As did brands notorious for their logos and loudness: Versace, Dolce & Gabbana.
Quiet luxury was dying out, and loud luxury was ready to take its place.
AND SO, THE PENDULUM SWINGS
Heading into 2025, the fashion world continued to release its quiet luxury inhibitions. Louis Vuitton dropped their multi-colored, logo-heavy Murakami collaboration, and popularity of logos spiked 70% in the week following. Runways boasted fur: seen in 36% of Prada’s and 35% of Dolce & Gabbana’s menswear collections. Loud, bold reds (perhaps following Lewis Hamilton’s debut at Ferrari?) became the color of the season. Even push-up bras were having a moment, increasing over 400% in popularity. Woah.
Finally, after over a year of stealth wealth, fashion was starting to feel fun again. The loud luxury revolution was here, it had come to save us!
But weirdly enough, loud luxury started to dwindle nearly as quickly as it came. Was it simply too drastic of a change? Too tone deaf for the shaky economic climate of Q1 2025? As the stock market began to fluctuate – like, really fluctuate — and recession anxiety reached a new high, logos and maximalism and bold colors suddenly didn’t feel quite right.
CUE THE RECESSION INDICATORS
So the fashion industry coined a new favorite buzzword: recession indicators. Fashion trends were becoming a little more muted and bland, straying from loud luxury. And, due to consumers’ hyper-awareness of the economic climate (fueled probably by New York Times notifications and the fact we can all easily Google the S&P 500), everything felt like a sign.
Recession indicators followed the idea that the muted, blander, less-flashy fashion trends we were seeing were direct reflections of a lack of economic optimism, or even a looming recession. Things like the return of corporate wear and the rise of minimalism were suddenly ominous.
But just because trends got a little bit quieter didn’t mean we were all the way back to the quiet luxury days. Instead, we went somewhere oddly in between.
PREPPY PURGATORY: HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Welcome to preppy purgatory. Instead of quiet, and instead of loud, luxury is stuck somewhere in the middle and, well, more preppy. Based on an analysis I ran on hundreds of online fashion coverage articles and Google search interest, preppy fashion rose 66% in popularity this June versus the last 12 months on average.
Preppy fashion is rooted in familiar, conservative silhouettes — button-downs and collared shirts and blazers — yet with styling that can still make it feel interesting. Like wearing two t-shirts layered on top of each other. Or, rocking a sweater that’s striped or plaid instead of solid. So fun!
Preppy fashion flaunts some colors, but nothing too crazy: pastels, muted olive tones, butter yellow. It boasts some logos without being too flashy. And after watching the fashion pendulum swing from quiet luxury to loud-logo-mania to minimalist-recession-indicators, all in the past year, preppy fashion is kind of…an awkward place to be.
DEEP-DIVE INTO DIOR
Take Jonathan Anderson’s debut collection for Dior menswear as an example. There were logos, yes, but they were small, embroidered, and almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it in a dainty serif font. There were colors, though mostly desaturated. And we got a whole lot of plaid — a pattern already established and familiar in high-fashion. Ahem, Burberry.
And being here is no accident. Dior’s parent company, LVMH, has posted less-than-stellar numbers. LVMH is no longer the world’s most valuable luxury company. That title has been taken by Hermès. And LVMH isn’t alone — most luxury companies have been struggling.
So, Dior starts playing defense. A tasteful cardigan or muted blazer or a pop of plaid isn’t a loud enough statement to ruffle any feathers. The clothes are wearable. The silhouettes are commercial. Everything looks quite familiar. But it’s not so bland and monochromatic that critics can’t say Anderson didn’t try something.
In a way, Anderson’s Dior is the clearest reflection of where fashion sits mid-2025: cautious and searching for stability. Fashion is stuck in this preppiness while we wait to see what happens to the industry and where consumer sentiment lands.
Once we get out of here, where do we go? Quieter? Louder? Does anyone want to place a bet?
IS THERE A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE PREPPY TUNNEL?
Though, there is a light at the end of the preppy fashion tunnel, and it’s called Michael Rider’s Celine. This collection gave perhaps a stronger example of how consumers can engage with preppiness right now: a masterclass in leveraging familiarity and basics in ways that are still new and unfamiliar.
Like, one can still unapologetically rock some logos: why wear one Céline triomphe belt when you can wear several? And what about (preferably vintage!!!) furs to dress up an otherwise simple outfit? Does that have to go? And, while consumers might still be preferring basics and familiar silhouettes, what if we threw a bunch of them together to make things even a little bit…more unexpected?
IN CONCLUSION…
Fashion doesn’t seem to know where it is right now. It’s like we’re watching a real-time recalibration of what luxury looks like when the industry wobbles, and taste (and creative directors) reset. There’s a lot of resetting happening in fashion this year, which is exciting, if people are willing to take a risk. In the meantime, preppy might just be the safest aesthetic we can still have a little bit of fun with.
Love this take so much. The preppy aesthetic always screamed aspirational wealth to me in an approachable way - which makes perfect sense for this purgatory we are in.
This was so informative. Definitely can see how fashion is currently recalibrating as we speak. I'm interested to see where the industry will go once things stabilize!