Every year claims to reset fashion. It never does. What changes is tolerance. By the end of 2025, certain ideas stopped feeling current and started feeling automatic. They kept circulating because circulation itself became the goal.
As 2026 approaches, this is the edit worth making.
1. QUIET LUXURY
It was never quiet. It was just expensive.
What began as a correction hardened into a uniform. Neutral palettes, anonymous tailoring, and high prices passed off as restraint became a shorthand for seriousness. The problem was never subtlety. The problem was emptiness. When discretion turns into sameness, it loses intelligence. Clothes stopped communicating choice and started signalling compliance.
2. ARCHIVE OBSESSION
History is not a substitute for ideas.
Referencing the past replaced thinking about the present. Pulling silhouettes, prints, or proportions without interrogation became a shortcut to legitimacy. History deserves analysis, not repetition. Wearing yesterday without reflection flattened decades of work into surface value. The archive turned into a moodboard, and fashion stalled.
3. MICRO-TRENDS
If it peaks before it’s worn, it’s already over.
Trends began expiring before they arrived. Items designed to spike on feeds disappeared before they entered wardrobes. This cycle rewarded reaction instead of intention. Fashion lost its relationship to time and gained a relationship to metrics. The result felt hollow, even when it performed well.
4. CLOTHES DESIGNED FOR THE CAMERA
If it fails in daylight, it fails.
Garments optimised for angles, lighting, and distance failed the moment they met real movement. Construction gave way to effect. Fabric choices followed algorithms instead of bodies. If a piece collapses outside a controlled frame, it was never finished. Fashion exists in space, not only on screens.
5. FORCED CRAFT
Handmade as a label, not a practice.
Handmade language became decorative. Processes got name-checked without care for context or labour. Craft was treated as texture rather than practice. When every label claims handwork, the word loses meaning. True making requires time, clarity, and respect for skill, not slogans.
6. ALGORITHM-LED DESIGN
If the data designed it, no one did.
Data started replacing instinct. Collections mirrored past engagement rather than proposing something new. Design turned reactive. Predictability followed. When everything aims to please, nothing persuades. Fashion needs direction, not feedback loops.
7. LOGO MINIMALISM
Removing the logo doesn’t add substance.
Removing logos was framed as maturity. Often, it was avoidance. Reduction without intention leaves very little behind. Minimalism works when it reflects clarity. Without that, it reads as absence dressed up as refinement.
8. ENDLESS DROPS
Artificial scarcity collapsed under repetition.
Frequency replaced relevance. Releasing constantly diluted impact and attention. Scarcity lost credibility once repetition set in. Collections blurred into noise. Fewer releases with sharper thinking would have served fashion better than constant availability.
9. UNIFORM REBELLION
Everyone dressing “different” the same way.
Anti-fashion became its own formula. Oversized silhouettes, distressed finishes, and exaggerated proportions repeated across brands until they formed another norm. Rebellion lost friction once it became predictable. Difference only matters when it costs something.
10. TREND LANGUAGE
Inflated words, deflated ideas.
Everything was framed as a movement. Every shift got inflated importance. Language stretched until it snapped. When every idea claims urgency, urgency disappears. Fashion does not need grand framing to matter. It needs precision.