THE LUXURYVERSE SAYS THEY’RE CLEANING OUT THEIR CLOSETS. SO WHAT’S NEXT?

We’ve *apparently* hit the end of the micro trend cycle as well as the quiet luxury uniform of ballet flats, logo belts and love bracelet bangles. The women we talk to in our studies about luxury and fashion seem to be doing more clearing out and consigning than buying. 

With apparel sales still down, the overall perception of fashion is a bit “meh.” As our Gen Z social media manager Taya put it: “As much as I’m looking forward to indie sleaze coming back and getting a second chance at becoming the kind of girl my 2014 self would be proud of, it doesn’t feel revolutionary that we’re resurrecting styles that were popular 11 years ago.”

The general feeling is malaise and a bit of exhaustion. Everything feels it’s been said or done before. LuxuryVerse member Tatiana called out “the luxury world now feels like smoke and mirrors. It all became so mainstream that it has lost a lot of its allure.” There’s so much black this winter – is it 1995? Fashion publications seem to be scrambling to make predictions that stick, Glamour announced this week that powder pink is the color for Spring… Pastels for Spring? Groundbreaking. When every trend and color is ‘on the rise,’ nothing truly feels like a trend anymore. We’re becoming fashion-resistant. Because when everything is trending and being recycled, nothing is.

When luxury buyers are purchasing clothing, it’s investment pieces they love from trusted brands (often independent, smaller ones with no logos) that they feel they’ll want to wear for years to come. It’s the fast fashion industry and manic speed of social media that have prevented the rest of the world from getting on board with that promising and earth-healthy trend. 

But after the closets are gleaned, what will come next? 

Ashantéa Austin said it best to Vogue Business, we’re going to be aligning ourselves with a “vibe” this year, rather than buying new pieces simply because they’re trendy. “A vibe communicates without direct signaling, whereas a trend often relies on explicit markers. Trends are mainstream and product-driven; vibes are niche, personal and culturally expressive.”

With cautious optimism, we think the Fashion Pause will lift later this year, perhaps when the new Creative Directors begin to arrive on the scene, with the most excitement around Mattieu Blazy at CHANEL.

And in the meantime, there are some green shoots here and there. Our LuxuryVerse women tell us they are putting their money in brands that create a clear vibe, like Loewe (up 54% YoY in the Americas), Miu Miu (up 105% YoY) and Bottega Veneta (up 15% YoY). We’re watching Khaite continue to expand its bricks and mortar footprint with statement architecture and a fierce point of view. A lot of their new arrivals seem to disappear very quickly. (This skirt!!) All of these brands have a clear perspective. You don’t need to buy the latest Miu Miu pieces to achieve the Miu Miu aesthetic, but part of what makes this house so aspirational right now is that anyone can dress like a Miu Miu girl. You can achieve some of the look without buying the product, but you still want to buy the pieces to buy into the vibe.

PINTEREST PREDICTS 2025- TIME TO DRESS UP AGAIN? 

The things that made Barbie and Brat summers so impactful and fun were the attitudes they embodied. They reflected the collective mood of those summers. In 2023, we were unstoppable—supporting other women and owning our achievements. In 2024, that energy evolved into something wilder: having more fun, being a little reckless, and caring less about outside opinions. We’re not ready to let go of a themed summer and it seems like Pinterest agrees, predicting ‘Dolled Up’ as a theme for 2025 (I’m hoping this year we go for Polly Pockets). This is just one prediction out of twenty that Pinterest has created for this year, but each of them resonates with elements we’re already starting to see.

Pinterest’s predictions feel refreshing because they align with Vogue Business’s take: fashion is shifting from buying into trends to simply participating in a vibe. You don’t have to buy the Free People French Courtship Half Slip in order to participate in Rococo Revival, just grab your frilliest dress and don’t put the bows away just yet. You don’t have to decide if you’re going for Indie Sleaze or Boho Chic, you can be both with ‘Moto Boho’: think Chemena Kamali’s Chloé meets the AW25 Tory Burch collection.

Pinterest is calling it ‘Castlecore,’ (again, enough with the cores…) but we spotted this aesthetic back in October on @luxuryverse100—only, we called it ‘Medieval Revival.’ With chainmail, headpieces, and gothic influences, this vibe finally feels new—breaking the endless loop of 20th-century revivals we’ve cycled through for the past five years.

STATUS: OFFLINE

One often-overlooked luxury that LuxuryVerse members highly value is privacy—a rare commodity in today’s chronically online world. Many LuxuryVerse members tend to keep their personal lives offline, but it’s still easy to spend too many hours immersed in a digital world. With work, social lives, and dating existing online, getting offline feels like an elusive luxury.

What we hear increasingly is that women are craving a sense of community and connection that we’re missing in our day to day lives. Run clubs are the new dating apps, the flip phone has resurged as a way to disconnect from the expectations of social media, and Gen Z is traveling off the grid. Maybe in 2025, true luxury may be an exclusive invite—to somewhere you’ve never heard of. 

CATCHING OUR ATTENTION:

Charli XCX steps out in custom Jean Paul Gaultier Couture to the Grammys, just a few days after the JPG Spring 2025 Couture show which showcased a few looks with similar corseted structures with boisterously flowing skirts.

LUXURY ON THE FAST TRACK: LVMH x F1

Formula 1 is no stranger to the world of luxury. The best seats on the track are coveted through a high ticket price or some kind of celebrity. For the last 11 years, Rolex’s branding has been a staple of Formula 1, prominently displayed on trackside banners, timing screens, and podiums as an official sponsor. This year, LVMH has taken over with a 10 year contract, alongside its iconic Maisons Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy and TAG Heuer. As we soldier through the current ‘Luxury Winter’, fashion houses are being forced to rethink how they connect with consumers. 

LVMH’s presence brings a broader luxury lifestyle into the mix—blending high fashion (Louis Vuitton), refined timepieces (TAG Heuer), and indulgent celebration (Moët Hennessy). Unlike Rolex, which focused solely on watches, LVMH’s sponsorship signals that Formula 1 is not just about speed and engineering—it’s becoming a fully immersive luxury spectacle.

Fashion and F1 have had a developing relationship over the years with brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, and Reiss partnering with different teams, but the LVMH sponsorship communicates a bigger message that fashion has a place on the race track.

“TABI’S ARE DEAD”… STILL?

Speaking of fashion publications making bold claims and waiting for something to stick, we’ve entered the next round of trying to kill the Tabi shoe. The problem? The alternatives feel like they’re trying too hard to be avant-garde. If glove shoes or the Balenciaga barefoot zero are your vibe, go for it, but don’t put down the well loved and just abstract enough tabi in order to promote a shoe that wouldn’t hold up a day walking through the streets of New York City.

Since Maison Margiela introduced the Tabi, it’s sparked controversy at every turn—loved by some, ridiculed by others. Sure, they had a short period of “IYKYK,” (maybe they still do and I’m just in the know now) but fashionistas across social media are looking for the next shock value shoe and in order to obtain credibility they need the Tabi to die so the…glove shoe(??) can rise. Please. As we shift into this era of personal style, let a pair of black Tabi boots live on the top of my wishlist without me having to hear that they’re not cool and I won’t say anything about you wearing water shoes to walk the streets of NYC.

SKINNY JEANS ARE BACK- WHYYY(?!)

So, Alix Earle partnered with FRAME on a pair of skinny jeans—or maybe FRAME is just finding a clever way to offload old stock… either way it has fashion writers quick to say the skinny jean is sliding back in. How many times have our mothers and grandmothers told us ‘Don’t throw that away—it’ll be back in style in 10 years’? If you can rock skinny jeans, go for it, but please do us all a favor and tell your husbands or boyfriends this doesn’t apply to them.

The concerning issue with skinny jeans making a comeback isn’t the style itself—it’s the message that ‘skinny is in’ sends on such a massive scale. After a decade of influential body positivity movements—especially for Gen Z and younger Millennials—this buzz around skinny jeans feels like the start of yet another cultural shift designed to make women feel bad about themselves. Lucky for us, the skinny jean is coming back at the same time as personal style comes to reign so I’m hoping we’ll let the girlies who want to wear skinny jeans do it in peace and in return, collectively we decide the best jeans are the ones we feel most confident in.

As Vogue columnist and top personal shopper Gab Waller said in one of her conversations with LuxuryVerse, “My thought process on this is that denim jean styles can’t ever be ‘out’ as a whole – they will always be ‘in’ and personally I feel strongly on wearing the style that you feel works best for you.”

DOECHII STARTED MAKING HEADLINES OVER THE SUMMER WITH THE RELEASE OF HER FIRST FULL LENGTH MIXTAPE, ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL.

Five years ago Jayla Jemiah Hickman posted a 1:20 video on Youtube saying “so I got fired today… I think tomorrow I’m just gonna go to a whole bunch of studios and… ask questions. I’m just gonna go into studios, record label companies, I’m just gonna go in and ask. I have nothing to lose.” In that time she documented her journey reading The Artists Way by Julia Cameron while going into studios and getting her name and music out into the world. Now, Hickman goes by Doechii and is an inspiration for boldly following your dreams.

She’s also quickly becoming known for her style, at the Grammy’s, she wore four different custom Thom Browne looks. She wore Willy Chavarria to her NPR Tiny Desk show. Her style leans on the masculine, but in a playful and experimentative way. Most notably, she is often seen wearing face tape to give her a more snatched look around her temples and instead of hiding it, she lets the tape show. Her stylist Sam Woolf says, “she likes exposing something that’s meant to be hidden.”