“Pink Pilates princess” and design as the new luxury
In 2025, vibes are in, trends are out
Ciao!
I hope we’ve all had a beautiful week. Mine started strong… a dinner at Brawn in Bethnal Green where I had the most delicious pasta (Pumpkin cappelletti – need I say more?). A wine-and-real-housewives night at my friends’ place (the Salt Lake reunion was as good as I anticipated, and NYC has given us *much* to talk about).
The highlights, however, ended there. The following days were spent barely leaving my flat – working, yes, but mainly sleeping in an attempt to get rid of a very annoying cold.
Alas, I’m back in full health (for now), and ready to dive right in.
Agenda for today’s letter:
“Pink Pilates princess”: how trends are out and vibes are in for 2025
Design as the new luxury
“Pink Pilates princess”: how trends are out and vibes are in for 2025
So says Amy Francombe for Vogue Business this week
2024 was, undoubtedly, the year of the microtrend. Thanks to Tik Tok’s algorithm and our inherent need for ‘newness’, the trend cycle accelerated to speeds that created whiplash. One day it was all ‘mob wife’, the next it was ‘cottagecore’. It was a lot (to say the least).
And so, it was to my delightful surprise when I came across this Vogue Business article this week. Titled “Micro-trends are dead. Long live the vibe”, it posited that 2025 will not be dominated by trends, but by ‘vibes’. As Amy Francombe reports, a vibe is an ethos or cultural mood that extends far beyond a certain outfit or look. It’s not just a look, but a feeling or a mood.
While this concept is nothing new (lest we forget indie-sleaze and boho-chic of the early aughts), a vibe replacing a ‘trend’ is an interesting concept to me. One that I think speaks to our exhaustion with the trend cycle and our desire for more individuality, interpretation and expression.
In the pre-TikTok days, dressing on trend gave one a certain kind of cultural cache. It meant they were ‘in the know’, cool, trendy. Today, dressing on trend is allegedly killing personal style. A direct signal of how chronically online you are.
Supposedly, in 2025, it’s increasingly déclassé to dress to trends. As brand strategy consultant Eugene Healey who is interviewed in the piece says, “Dressing in a way that reflects online micro-trends is increasingly viewed as a low-status trait — it makes people feel like cosplayers instead of individuals dressing for their real lives.”
As such, “vibes” are said to replace microtrends in 2025, allowing for greater interpretation and personalisation.
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