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It’s a Wrap: 2024 Fashion Highlights

Ayşe Oltan
5 min read

As the year draws to a close and we are bombarded with Spotify Wrapped, BeReal Recap, and Snapchat Flashbacks, Underlined would like to add to the festively retrospective nature of this time of year and present the fashion highlights of 2024.


Source: Pinterest
Source: Pinterest

Depop recently aired their second annual trend report, working alongside AI-powered retail information platform EDITED to share their review of the previous trends of the year and their predictions for 2025. The review opens presenting 2025 as the year of ‘The New Fundamentals’, as individuals move from the disposability of micro-trends to more durable and sustainable items of clothing. ‘New generations are breathing life into classic 20th-century styles’, the report explains, as 2024 saw a 150% increase in searches for ‘tennis’. Despite this, our generation’s growing understanding of sustainability’s importance and refute of micro-trends is not the only reason for this increase. The film industry has an undeniable impact on fashion, influencing people to replicate the styles and dress that are seen on screen. However, the film’s influence arguably has an effect that functions inversely to the goals of sustainable fashion, enticing consumers to invest in fleeting trends, strengthening the film’s popularity. One film comes to mind when considering tennis and 2024, none other than Justin Kuritzkes’ film ‘Challengers’, directed by Luca Guadagnino. The March 2024 film starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist follows the tennis career and journey of the protagonists, seeing their attire transcend from screen to fashion. It is unsurprising that Depop saw a 150% increase in tennis searches considering the film’s success, grossing $94.2 million globally, a figure impressive for the cinematic sports industry.


Left: Pinterest, right: Instagram

A poor resolution arial narrow font printed across a lime green square. Partying, chaos, and totally unapologetic. 2024 was the year of brat, an example of how an album or song’s influence can go beyond the music industry, finding a place in fashion. The English singer songwriter, Charli XCX, took the industries of music, fashion, and social media by storm this summer with her June 2024 album ‘Brat’, influencing a 98% increase in Depop ‘brat’ searches. The trend represents ‘that girl who is a little messy and likes to party’ as described by Charli XCX herself in a TikTok captioned ‘what it means to be a brat :)’. It’s no wonder that brat was coined Collins Dictionary’s word of the year, ‘characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude’. In fashion terms, brat replaced the refined look of the clean girl. It embodies all things acid green, black out glasses (especially in the club), leather boots, black eyeliner from the night before, and ‘a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra’ (Charli XCX in a BBC Sounds interview).


When I came across a description of ‘the most accomplished coquette in England’ in Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, I decided to search the origins of a word so analogous with today’s social media, symbolising nothing other than ribbons and baby pink to me. The term saw the peak of its use in the late 1700s and continued on a downward trajectory from the 1850s onwards. It was not until the 2000s that this term reappeared, spiking in 2024 (Google Ngram Viewer) as the term was coined a means of expressing femininity through pale pinks, hair adorned in bows, and lacey fabrics.


Sources: Pinterest

As it transpires, the term has not always held the meaning it holds today. The earliest known use of the word dates to the 1600s, used to describe ‘a prattling or proud gossip’ (Oxford English Dictionary), and defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘A woman who trifles with men’s affections; a woman given to flirting or coquetry’. The word’s synonyms being ‘flirt’, ‘tease’, and in a historical sense ‘vamp’ (which is too good not to mention!), lends an entirely different perspective into a word that has graced our TikTok and Instagram algorithms. However, as beautifully girly and juvenile as the trend may be, la vie en rose view of the coquette style can also be questioned. Whilst some view coquette as the reclamation of femininity, it arguably also promotes an infantilisation. The style is so often associated with trends such as ‘girl math’ and ‘girl dinner’, forcing the image of those that adhere to these internet phenomena to be belittled. However, when considering its etymological origins, the trend allows femininity to be embraced, enabling a word previously used to condemn and criticise women to gain a new modern-day meaning.


Source: Pinterest

Although the bows of the coquette trend prevail, seen everywhere from bags to Christmas trees, its decline in fashion opened the opportunity for a new style to emerge. Released at the end of 2023, Depop’s 2024 Trends Report predicted ‘Sleaze Academia’ as a trend that would grace the fashion of the year that would follow. Depop was right. Academia searches saw a monumental increase by 411%, as buyers searched to redefine knitwear, plaid, and pleated skirts. The office-siren aesthetic was hence born, as even brands began filming promotional campaigns in offices, dressing their muses in office-chic attire. The style, so different from the girly nature of the coquette trend symbolises a shift from girlhood to womanhood, however it is just as controversial. Vogue writer, Hannah Jackson, criticises the style suggesting it provides an oversexualisation of working women, stating ‘it would be naïve to believe that the office siren is exempt from falling victim to patriarchy’. If Depop’s predictions hold any value, then the office sire of 2024 will hopefully gain new meaning in 2025, as it is reborn and finds inspiration in ‘the well-worn elegance of collegiate New-England, focusing on timeless pieces that reflect the understated patina of age and history’ (Agus Panzoni, Depop Trend Specialist in 2025 Trends Report).


Depop also predicts ‘Contemporary Classics’, ‘Minimalist Renaissance’, ‘Retro Sportswear’, and ‘Indie Vanguard’ as styles that will emerge in the year that will follow. So, if you find yourself in the new year having a long overdue wardrobe clear out and are looking to try new styles, then Depop’s 2025 Trend Report is the place to start. Whether your new year’s resolutions are to experiment with new styles, shop more sustainably, or become an upcycling guru, we hope that 2025 is the fashion year for you!

 


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