Fashion Trends of 2021

2021 is a big year for fashion and new trends. There have been many new styles recently coming out. In the past, fashion trends have been seen from fashion shows and magazines, but as social media gets bigger fashion trends are beginning to grow there. 

The biggest fashion style recently has been “streetwear.” This is a style where people wear more baggy clothes with many layers and accessories. It includes oversized shirts and pants, sweatshirts, sweatpants, tracksuits, bucket hats, and sneakers. These are only some clothing pieces that are considered streetwear. Streetwear has been mostly influenced by hip-hop and 80’s-90’s style. It was mostly inspired by 90’s rappers like Jay-Z, Snoop, and Biggie. Vou.com says that, “To some extent, the current styles resemble the 90s fashion trends in the sense of mimicking the silhouettes and patterns of those seasons. However, there’s one big difference; this time, classic styles are reinvented in oversized and loud colors, activewear, and streetwear styles.” In the 80’s and 90’s streetwear was also influenced by California skaters/surf culture and MTV. The modern style of it is now more known from sneaker and hip-hop culture. 

The more expensive and original streetwear brands are brands like Supreme, Bape, Off-White, Balenciaga, Nike, Billionaire Boys Club, GOLF, OBEY, Stussy, and more. Now that it has become more popular, many brands are remaking dupes of the more popular brands style to sell at an affordable price. Many people whose style is influenced by streetwear have leaned more towards thrift stores and affordable fast fashion. 

But even though streetwear is one of the biggest styles right now, it's not the only one. Another style that has been brought back is Y2K Fashion. This is a style that is more influenced by the early 2000’s. It resembles a late 90’s to early 2000’s pop culture style and is a cross between streetwear and luxury. Some of the influences on this style are Bratz Dolls, Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliot, Paris Hilton, and the movie “Mean Girls.” More modern day celebrities that are drawn to this style are Rico Nasty, Kali Uchis, Bella Hadid, and Saweetie. This style features lots of pink, denim, many different bright colors, and gems/rhinestones. Clothing featured in this style includes tiny skirts, crop tops, flared jeans, leather jackets, cardigans, denim on denim, velour tracksuits, matching two-piece sets, translucent clothing, tiny hand bags, and many accessories. This is more of a vintage style. Some of the biggest or most popular brands for Y2K are Juicy Couture, Dior, Fendi, True Religion, MISS ME, Kate Spade, Lacoste, Abercombie and Fitch, and Tommy Hilfiiger. Since this style is starting to get popular again, many affordable places people like to shop at Y2K are Depop, Etsy, Shein or any fast fashion, and thrift stores. 

Another not-so-popular, but still trending, fashion trend is the E-girl trend, which is inspired by anime. This trend sees lots of blush, eyeliner, mesh clothes, jewelry, and chokers. Also trending are “soft girls” which are mostly pastel and floral sweater vests, skirts, and cardigans, with chunky boots, like DocMartens. Grunge or Goth, which is mostly black clothing with a lot of plaid patterns, mesh clothing, and silver jewelry, is also making a comeback. New to the scene is Cottage Core, which has a lot of flowy dresses with many floral patterns and light colors. This style is inspired a lot by things like “Little House on the Prairie.” Also worth a mention is dark academia and light academia, styles which feature more blazers, sweater vests, and plaid in either light or dark colors, depending on the style you are going for.

More recent fashion trends from this year that are not so much styles but more fashion statements to have in your closest are hoodies under blazers, Bohemian florals, wide leg pants, chunky loafers, pieces that offer opportunities for color clashing, oversized shoulder pad jackets, pastel colors, yellow bags or purses, blue accessories, and white knee high boots. 

Paris Fashion Week is famous for producing the latest trends. According to thetrendspotter.net: “Paris Fashion Week attendees wore tones like camel and grey, sprinkled with splashes of gold, reds, and blues. Popular clothing choices for the season included slouchy blazers, cinched waists and structured separates. Plush leather handbags, dainty clutch bags and oversized totes hung on the arms of the fashion lovers, in a wide array of pastel and natural shades.” Another source, whowhatwear.com, reported that some of the biggest influences of fashion in 2021 are Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, Lizzo, Margot Robbie, Hailey Beiber, Ashley Graham, Naomie Harris, Bella Hadid, and Tracee Ellis Ross. More places that influence where people get their latest fashion trends are looks from Paris Fashion Week, many fast fashion brands, popular clothing brands, popular celebrities, influences, or models, and social media platforms such as tiktok, pinterest, instagram, and twitter. 

Those have been the biggest fashion trends of 2021 and the most popular. All the time fashion is changing and there can be new trends and styles coming out everyday.