According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 2023’s defining word of the year was “rizz”. The term, which is short for “charisma”, relates to a person’s ability to attract a romantic partner. Essentially, “rizz” means that you can playfully yet seamlessly strike up a conversation with a new love interest and flirt with them in a light-hearted, resolutely non-intense way. In the world of dating trends in 2023, then, single people were all wearing “rizz-tinted glasses” and swapping the wishlist criteria of “tall, dark and handsome” for belly laughs and good chat.
In the fashion sphere, there were certain events we could have never predicted. Like Doja Cat dressing up as Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved feline friend Choupette at the Met Gala in May. Or those viral Big Red Boots, which looked like the plasticky cleats worn by the Fifties manga character Astro Boy. We watched “coastal cowgirl core” (think boho LA girl fashion), “ballet core” (an aesthetic based on the clothes worn by ballet dancers), and the “underwear as outerwear” trend (women wearing men’s boxers as a fashion statement), all flash past as brief, buzzy fashion moments. And if you didn’t want to be exhaustingly hip, there was also the revival of “normcore”, the unpretentious everyday clothing trend last seen a decade ago.
