This year the biggest thing in fashion will be dressing like a real live human being. Thanks to social media’s endless churn, homogenising influencers have become passé and digital fatigue has set in. In their place the particular proclivities that make you you will define the year’s outfits and accessories.
Whether it’s grandpa chic, vintage patinas or the textured wardrobe of a well-informed shopper, here a style reporter, a fashion buyer and a forecaster share trends to look out for in the year ahead – almost all of them guaranteed to prove you’re not a bot.
Colour’s comeback
For years we’ve been living in a monochrome world: charcoal suits, white linen sets and beige on beige, but happily, pops of colour are returning to a wardrobe near you.
According to Laura Yiannakou, the womenswear senior strategist at the trend forecaster WGSN, which catalogues upcoming fashion collections to advise buyers and fast fashion retailers on what to produce, in 2026 joyous colours like celestial yellow and mid-tone pinks, blues and purples will be brightening retailers’ racks.
Rachel Tashjian, a senior style reporter for CNN, says seeing splashes of purple, yellow, orange and pink at a number of spring/summer shows – particularly at Dries Van Noten’s in Paris – felt really fresh. “I think people have been afraid of colour because we’ve been in such a period where it’s sophisticated to wear all black or all cream,” she says. “It was an illuminating moment. Don’t you want to look like you’re alive?”
Dressing for feel, not look
Although social media has long been a driver of fashion news and trends, Tashjian believes that this year style will move offline. She says fashion people are extricating themselves from digital discourse and treating the internet like an optional thing.
“Remember a couple of years ago when it was trend mania and the reaction to that was this conversation about personal style? The next version of that is just completely opting out,” she says. “How you feel and how you want to look in real life becomes much more important.”
This was crystallised by her experience at the Chanel spring/summer show, when she realised she could not capture the garments’ beautiful movement and construction in photographs. “It’s about you and your emotions and your physical feelings,” she says. “Which are things that you can’t really convey online or through a digital image.”
The informed shopper
If 2023’s quiet luxury trend and Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski-trial outfits had a baby, the “informed shopper” would be it. The materials are the same – heavy cottons, wool tailoring, fluffy cashmere and luxurious silk – but the lines are less predictable and the textures are more exaggerated, as is the styling.
Think Jennifer Lawrence in pearl earrings, trousers and a T-shirt with a back so long it drapes on the floor. Or Emma Stone in voluminous black silk tracksuit pants, a black cashmere sweater and ballet flats.
“It’s a tasteful woman wearing oversized silhouettes and a whimsical hat and silver statement jewellery,” Tashjian says. “A sort of refinement that comes a lot from the Olsen twins and the Row.”
This style is in part driven by the newsletter app Substack, one place that seems immune from the online exodus. It has become a hub for fashion writers, editors and stylists, and a place where in-depth conversations about shopping and product recommendations thrive.
“It’s different to shopping for fast fashion or reading Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar or following influencers,” Tashjian says. “It’s the first time in a long time where we’re seeing … trends really driven by a desire to shop well.”
The Carrie Bradshaw effect
Although 2025 was the year we said goodbye to Sarah Jessica Parker’s beloved Sex and the City character for good, the eclectic personal style created for the character by Patricia Field endures. Rather than dressing head to toe in a look you’ve seen online, the idea is to treat style like your personal playground– whether it’s adding driving gloves and a neckerchief or mismatching proportions.
Harriet Sutherland, a fashion buyer and consultant based in Paris, describes it as “art-school energy layered on to otherwise sane clothes”. Add one strong, sculptural or odd element to your outfit, like a “large flower brooch” or oversized tailored shorts and pair it with a shoe that’s a bit off-kilter from the rest of the outfit – like a chunky brogue or an “iconic date heel”.
Take it as a licence to dress-up, whether it’s for dinner, a run to the grocery store or any other in-between moment.
Grandpa chic
In some ways, grandpa chic is the affable older brother of indie sleaze – another way to wear a cravat and loafers that indicates you have swapped doom scrolling and the notes app for novellas and a pencil. Think button-down linen shirts, pleat-front chinos, double-breasted coats, chunky cardigans and leather satchels in muted neutral tones (ie various shades of brown).
WGSN data shows that in 2026, brown and dark brown will have the most significant growth of any colour. “Dark brown rose from 28.4% to 39% of the colour mix and brown was up by two percentage points overall,” Yiannakou says.
Some places on the internet – like the mood board site Pinterest – are calling this Poet Core (searches for it are up 175%). But to us it feels more like Oscar Levant in An American in Paris, or someone in their 20s (like Aaron Chen’s character, George, in the ABC comedy Fisk) raiding their grandfather’s wardrobe or the menswear racks at their local op shop.
Sexy-edgy-raver-cool-girl
The popularity of 2000s style among gen Z does not seem to be waning.
It has become mashed up with K-pop and “ASMR aesthetic” – think braids, distractingly long nails and, according to Pinterest, gummy phone cases – so it’s cuter and less innocent than what people wore at the turn of the century. Since it also draws on anime and IRL brain rot, which seems inseparable from the popularity of Labubus, it is easily the most commercially driven, online trend on this list.
It’s miniskirts and bedazzled T-shirts, platform boots and slashed, cropped singlets; hoodies and body-con dresses; corsets and strategically placed strappy harnesses. It’s the Fifth Element (the 1997 movie) meets the costume designer Christina Flannery’s work for HBO’s 2025 comedy I Love LA – best exemplified by Charlie (played by Jordan Firstman) showing up to a party in a hot pink faux fur coat, black baggy shorts and a white tank top.
Vintage patina
When Jane Birkin’s original Hermès bag (the Birkin) sold for US$10.1m in July, it revealed the significant economic and intellectual appreciation people have for her style. A murmur reverberated through the fashion industry: instead of buying fast fashion, perhaps we could be buying things that last?
Reflecting this renewed reverence for pieces kept and worn on repeat, vintage patina is creeping back into street style. We’re seeing more celebrities wearing things over and over again. “Maybe there’s a frayed hem or the fit isn’t perfect, it’s somehow a little worn in or a little down at the heel,” Tashjian says.
“The idea is you’re busy living an amazing life and you’re letting that show in the things that you own. I do think that’s really appealing to people.”
