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Bubble butts, bag charms and brats: The 2024 Trend Report is here

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Bubble butts, bag charms and brats: The 2024 Trend Report is here

This time last year, we were gazing back on 2023 through hot pink lenses, reminiscing on Barbie dream worlds, girlhood, girl math, girl dinner and cutesy coquettishness. Sandy Liang was our overlord and everything had bows on it. By comparison, 2024 has been a year of pure, unfiltered, brainrotting, Brat-ified chaos. In the fashion world, that chaos continued, with musical chairs affecting some of the industry’s key players (the biggest question of all, who will land the top job at Chanel?).

When it comes to trends, on and off the catwalk, some of the most obvious patterns emerged alongside music trends: Britpop, Brat and country, for example. As has been the way for the past few years, we took guidance from TikTok, but less so than previously. Though it does seem that we’ve killed the -core suffix, according to Pinterest’s 2025 trend predictions, medievalcore is supposedly on the horizon. 

But before we get into what’s to come, first we must reflect back on what has been. Fashion in 2024 has been a disorderly soup of many ingredients. There’ve been gothic moments, ironically patriotic moments, prim and proper moments, you name it. As a tumultuous year draws to a close, we take a look back at the biggest fashion trends of 2024.

It may not feel like it, but the mob wife wave happened this year. Back in January, the first few days of 2024 brought with it one of the year’s most impactful trends, with rollers, fur and leopard print in tow. Beginning on TikTok as Gen Z discovered The Sopranos and Scarface for the first time, the mob wife look marked a mature, glamorous move away from 2023’s coquettish girliness (remember how last year was the “Year of the Girl”?). Bows were quickly replaced with large gold hoops, cosy cardis swapped for leather bikers, and Barbie pink painted over with tiger stripes. Even Francis Ford Coppola chimed in: “I hear the ‘mob wife aesthetic’ is making a come back…” he wrote on Instagram, and for a brief moment at least, he was right.

It was a big year here in the UK. Not only did Girls Aloud reform for an arena tour, but after 14 years under a Conservative government, Labour won the general election back in May. In the run up to polling day on July 4 – not to mention the Olympics and the Euros in the same month – fashion got that bit more patriotic. Dua Lipa and Nia Archives both announced Britpop-inspired albums, Rachel Chinouriri reclaimed St George’s flag in her album artwork. Doja Cat turned to a Ginger Spice-inspired Dilara Fındıkoğlu corset to headline Wireless Festival in July. Meanwhile, Azealia Banks used the same red, white and blue to announce her tour “Back To The Union Jack”, which she brought to Brixton in September wearing a similar corset to Doja’s. There are many things that suck about Great Britain, and though many people wear the flag ironically, you can’t deny, we landed a good one.

Just like the fashion patriotism happening here in the UK, a similar story was sweeping the US. On reflection, both trends are much less fun post-elections. Queen of Americana Lana Del Rey headlined Coachella in April, said she’s releasing a “southern gothic” album, and even married an alligator tour guide. Chappell Roan and her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess took over the planet (and seemingly, everyone’s Spotify Wrapped), all whilst performing on stage dressed as Lady Liberty. Meanwhile, back in February, Beyoncé stole Usher’s limelight at the Superbowl when she announced her new album, Cowboy Carter – followed by a slew of country and western-inspired garb. Don’t get me wrong, cowboy boots have been the summer’s hottest trend for the past three years, but between Bey’s album, Bella Hadid’s cowboy boyfriend, Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton and Chemena Kamali’s Chloe, lassos were huge in 2024.

It wouldn’t be a 2024 roundup without a mention of Brat somewhere. Naturally, the album that shaped summer also had an impact on fashion. Just like Prince’s royal purple and Yves Klein’s blue, lime green will now and forever be associated with our young girl from Essex, Charli xcx. Every festival this summer saw a sea of the slimy shade, from flags to t-shirts, caps and bumbags. But it wasn’t just the colour that wormed its way into wardrobes, the Brat aesthetic kicked into action with Charli’s “360” music video, featuring It-girls Julia Fox, Chloë Sevigny, Rachel Sennott and Gabbriette, wearing wine-soaked white vests, grungy monochrome ensembles and Saint Laurent-esque tights, prompting many a Halloween costume, as well as a race to the M&S basics section.

Tailoring reentered the mainstream in a big way in 2024. Thom Browne had Janet Jackson suited and booted for her world tour, The Dare got our attention with his skinny tie and Gucci suit, Doechii asked fans to wear preppy fashion to her gigs, and so did Flowerovlove. Elsewhere, queer Gen Z icons from Billie Eilish to I Kissed A Girl’s Amy Spalding became pioneers of the shirt and tie combo, and other musicians have followed suit too – Icelandic band Inspector Spacetime, London-based Chloe Qisha and brooding three-piece European Vampire all give Kraftwerk a run for their money. On the catwalk, the landscape has been similar, with brands like Thom Browne, Saint Laurent and Miu Miu all showing collections featuring boxy, preppy, silhouettes. The great thing about this trend? It suits all.

It’s a trend that Trinny Woodall has been campaigning for since the 90s: the skirt (or dress) over a pair of trousers has made a grand return this year. On TikTok, the #skirtoverpants hashtag has racked up hundreds of thousands of views, meanwhile London designers such as Johanna Parv, Conner Ives and Chopova Lowena have no qualms about sending the controversial combination down the catwalk. It’s a look that Hannah Montana would rock out in, and like Hannah, we too can have the best of both worlds.

Speaking of skirts, there was one that reigned supreme in 2024. You could barely move without bouncing off a bubble skirt this summer, whether at All Points East or Copenhagen Fashion Week, the bratty puffball made one of the swiftest catwalk-to-mainstream transitions of the year. Having shown up in the collections of Chopova Lowena, Aaron Esh, Jacquemus, Miss Claire Sullivan and HRH, it wasn’t long before London parks were transformed into bubble baths. They didn’t disappear for winter either, brands just made longer versions – or, as is the case with Chopova, put trousers under them. This bubble isn’t popping anytime soon.

During last season’s SS25 shows, street style took a spooky turn – and long before Halloween too. From protruding horns to blood-stained teeth, heavy metal-wear to humpbacks and all-black-everything, fashion got increasingly repellent in 2024, like dark, unapproachable armour meant to ward off passersby. Of course, the king and queen of the trend, Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, have been long devoted to the look for decades. A string of horror movies added to the gothic movement, from The Substance to Nosferatu, then there’s fashion designer Dilara Fındıkoğlu, artist Fecal Matter, plus Tish Weinstock’s latest reading material How To Be A Goth. As once put by Lamy, “Real style isn’t an expression of wealth or even taste, but a manifestation of the soul.” If that’s true, then fashion’s soul just got a whole lot darker.

Not this year, but last, we saw a rise in more… adventurous footwear options. Cast your mind back to 2023 and you may remember MSCHF’s cartoonish Big Red Boots, JW Anderson’s frog Wellipets, or even the Margiela tabi thief loose in New York City. This year, there was a new flock of freaky footwear in town. There were the divisive McQueen hoof boots, perfect for horse girls and for Charli xcx (who has worn them on multiple occasions). Then Vibram FiveFingers surprisingly swept NYFW in September, hugging each and every toe, as did Schiaparelli’s trompe l’oeil trainers. There were the Marc Jacobs AW24 super-pointed heels, like something from the pages of Enid Blyton or Dr Seuss. Balenciaga’s latest orthopaedic offerings, the New Balance x Miu Miu mules, the ironic four-toed Avavav x adidas collab, and those UFO Coperni heels, too. Whatever your taste in footwear, in 2024, designers ditched the humble brogue for something much more alien.

In 2024, bag charms became the method to communicate your personality to the world. Playful pins, brooches, badges and charms adorned the handbags of show-goers last fashion season, with Miu Miu, Balenciaga and Coach all sending charming additions down catwalks. Marc Jacobs has also just joined the bag charm bandwagon, with the reimagined Vaquera Stam Bag, featuring a dollar bill embellishment. Like most trends, TikTok gave it a helping hand, as did the term ‘Birkin-ifying’, named for the way Jane Birkin decorated her Hermès namesake. On hers, Jane added several strings of beads and stickers including the Japanese flag. What do your charms say about you?

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