2025 Fashion Trends: Finding Hope Through Their Cultural Significance

Fashion Reflects Culture, Culture Creates Fashion: 

Fashion is an expression of the cultural zeitgeist of the times. We see this in times like the Roaring 20s with the drastic rise of hemlines which correlated to a strong period of feminist achievements like women’s suffrage and women gaining social currency in male spaces like the bar. Or during the 60s during the Space Race, we see the introduction of mini skirts and modular fashion, designs that reflect the future-forward attitude of the time.

Fashion is irrevocably intertwined with politics and culture. Whether we mean it to or not, fashion is an expression of our personality, and without even meaning we are all products of the society and culture we are surrounded by. 

Let’s look at what the common 2025 trend predictions have to say about where we are headed culturally in 2025

Boho Chic: F*ck the Patriarchy

Boho chic is your best friend’s cool feminist older sister who probably dates a guy in a band that writes songs about anti-establishment. We should all be proud feminists, but given recent events and elections in the U.S., feminism will be coming full force into 2025. Boho Chic is here to remind us that women have edge, they have grit, and can be who they want.

We have seen the popularity over the past few years of the “Clean Girl”. The girl with all the perfect basics, flawlessly blown out hair or slicked back buns. The girl with matching jewelry stacks, and effortless natural makeup. While it is entirely possible to love this style and express your most authentic self, there is an element of this perfection that feels very “internalize male gaze”. In 2025 we are rejecting the perfection that often feels required of us as women and we are sticking up for ourselves, we are taking up space. Women are not dressing perfectly and modestly so that they don’t draw attention to themselves or keep themselves small and sidelined as a character in someone else’s story. Boho Chic is the main character, it is the rockstar girl friend except let’s be honest we all care more about the girlfriend than the rockstar. Boho chic is a twist of femininity with edge and funk. It is everything a woman is, soft and romantic, but hard and tough and gritty in the same breath. It is not one cohesive aesthetic because women are not one idealized version that men desire them to be. They are complex human beings who can be many things. 

Boho chic is the perfect representation of this concept that drives feminism. That feminism is asking to be seen as the same complex human beings with a range of experiences, feelings, and emotions just like men. Not simplified into one idea like a pious wife, a selfless mother, a dumb blonde with a big chest. This is what leads to equal opportunity and equality.

So how does Boho Chic actually represent this? Boho Chic is born from the Bohemian vibe, which embodies artistic, non-traditional, free thinkers. The vibe is flowy linen and fabrics, soft airy silhouettes, these details literally oppose the constraints of traditional thinking represented by structured, tailored clothing. Ruffles and eyelet moments are delicate feminine details in this fashion, but these dainty details are contrasted by edgy styles like tassels, jackets and boots, Studs on bags, shorts, and coats. One aspect of this style is that it is so delicate and soft like we imagine femininity. The other aspect is tough and loud, all of the things we tell women not to be, but us women are because we matter and deserve to be loud. Boho Chic is a rejection of all the traditional rules we’re told to follow as women. It says “I am here and I am an individual” not what you think I must be. So expect 2025 to be a year that women are rightfully loud in their demand for equality, that women don’t stand in the back, that women get their education, get their dream jobs, and continue to gain power to create a world of compassion and equality for all. 

 Individualism: Personal Style is BACK

For the greater part of the 20th and 21st decade we have seen globalization slowly conform culture and cities to similar versions of one another. This is entirely paralleled in the conformity effect that social media has had on fashion and beauty. In order to replicate all of the styles and trends we like that we see online, many of us seem to have become copies of one another with the same Abercrombie Jeans and Free People sweaters on. Oftentimes, I feel that has been done out of fear to be seen as “cool” through social media. If we don’t dress a certain way we won’t be seen as “chic”, if we don’t post perfect photo dumps on insta we’re not “cool” and of course, if we don’t all have the same button nose, filler-ed lips, and dysoned hair, we’re not pretty. That’s why with the rejection of the clean girl, and maximalism coming into full swing,  2025 is the return to individualism and personal style. Our culture has become saturated with mass connectivity that we have lost so much individualism as we all try to conform to the aesthetic that is getting the most views at the moment. 

Maximalism in fashion means all the accessories: loud patterns and colors, jewelry stacks, and wild textures or details. In order to achieve this we must have an arsenal of pieces in our wardrobe that we chose because they felt fun or exciting. We must get creative in order to style these loud items that are typically more difficult to style. This requires the type of creative thinking which connects us to our sense of self. Maximalism can be directly conducive to the expression of our individualism. As someone who has a rather 90s minimalist personal style, I have pushed myself to be more expressive in my outfits more by getting creative and having fun with fashion. While the “old money” style that has been popular in 2024 is certainly closer to my authentic self than Boho Chic, I aim to incorporate Boho elements that speak to me in order to make them my own within my more classic style. 

So ponder the items in your closet, take a break from your pinterest boards and just be with your clothes. Play with them, think of ways you can pair things together that maybe don’t “match”. Wear a mini skirt and a crop top together, break the rules of fashion. Try new things and see what styles make you feel most confident in your outfit and in yourself. Being with yourself and your clothes is the best way to find your personal style without the outside noise of what aesthetic you need to be wearing. 

Skinny Jeans: The Liberated Woman

In a similar way that the messiness of boho chic is accompanying the wave of feminism and women being heard. Skinny jeans are second in command. Just like the “Clean Girl” aesthetic held an eerie unattainable perfection to it, as does the movement of “modest fashion”. Don’t get me wrong, wear what you want to wear, but never feel the need to dress modestly or provocatively because that’s what you think the men around you want. Or better yet, because that’s what some deity requires of you to reach the afterlife (sorry not sorry I said it). You matter as a woman, your body matters and it does not need to be hidden to make those around you more comfortable. Women, If you are hiding your body for the comfort of others, please ask yourself, what else about yourself are you hiding or suppressing in order to make yourself more palatable for others. 

While baggy jeans might not have been a result of modesty, skinny jeans can be all about celebrating your body and feeling proud of it. As women, we are taking back form-fitting silhouettes and not letting them be a result of catering towards the male gaze. We are reclaiming our ownership of tight dresses and tight jeans, we are wearing them because we love how we feel in them. We love how they go with the outfits we are wearing, like the tall riding boots and cute blazer. Being able to tune out the opinions of the world around you and wear clothes simply because you like how they look on your body is a huge achievement. The liberated woman is wearing what she wants and understands it doesn’t need to be any reflection on her personal values or morals. If anything, the interpretation of your clothing by others says a lot more about them than it does you. 

Fisherman Core: A Nostalgia for Simpler Times

We have seen the coastal grandmother trend for the past year or so, now this seems to have morphed into a “fisherman grandpa” aesthetic. Including large chunky cable knits, fair isles, Hunter rain boots, and all sorts of practical fashion pieces. Let us not forget that this aesthetic was born from the utilitarian use of these types of clothing against the cold and rain of coastal fishing towns. Now these styles have turned into nostalgic aesthetics. I think that this speaks to Gen Z’s nostalgia for the simpler times that they never grew up in. For most of our lives, all we have known is the digital world. A world where fast fashion is rampant with cheaply made clothes, a world of ever changing trends and aesthetics, and a world where style is mass produced and less culturally specific. 

The Fisherman aesthetic speaks to a time our parents knew when people would spend much of their free time outside, therefore had to dress accordingly and activity-appropriate. As someone from a small fishing town in Maine, I know that to dress for the outside in Maine is conducive to this fisherman style. It was if people’s styles came directly from the life they lived and not the influencer they wanted to look like. I think this is a concept of originality that Gen Z is incredibly nostalgic for. Which is why we recreate these looks. We also see this nostalgia throughout pop culture today in folk-inspired music like Noah Kahan or Zac Bryan. It is as if our generation is yearning for time we never knew. 

As we move into 2025, I think Gen Z will bring this nostalgia for simpler times into all aspects of life whether it be hobbies or work. I think we are becoming digitally fatigued as a generation and looking for ways outside of ourselves and our phones to connect. Such as travelling, reading, fishing, camping, going out, and cooking. Anything that takes us outside our technology and makes us feel in touch with our humanity.