What Are We Wearing In 2026?
As we've already ruminated over in more than one place, fashion has been in a state of transition, top to toe. Barely anywhere to be seen these recent fashion weeks, sneakers are giving way to takes on more traditional footwear designs, adapting to rather than outshining the apparel they're paired with.
What may sound like trouble for brands, is more of a call-to-action to reinterpret the bounds of what defines their offering. Because in actuality, this development of casual shoes beyond the tropes of streetwear has been a long time coming, hiding in plain sight alongside the broader apparel trends that've prioritized an elegant ease and evergreenness over ephemeral eccentricity.
Now, after dissecting these currents as part of a bigger context, we teamed up with GOAT to present these trends in the shape of the products they materialize as. Is what's happening across apparel, accessories and footwear a proper identity crisis? Or is it merely a matter of reinvention, of maturing? You be the judge below.
Footwear in Flux:
Low Profile, High Fashion
For what does indeed feels like the longest time now, designers have been obsessed with flattening and slimming their sneaker-adjacent shoes. Not seldom in reference to retro runners of the '70s, a lot of what everyone from Miu Miu to JW Anderson has been doing is stripping silhouettes down to a foot-hugging, minimalist form.
Recalling none other than adidas' OG Samba or Nike's Moon Shoe in the process, the slender sneaker trend has been surprisingly enduring, despite some of the thin soles this often translates to reading as anything but. Alive and well, the low-profile footwear trend is still very much present in high fashion.
Performance Tech = State of Mind
With Milan's Winter Olympics in full swing, performance is once again front and center. But increasingly, all this feels less about athletes, and more about how what they do and wear and advertise can promote optimization. Footwear and apparel are increasingly engineered with advanced materials, responsive cushioning, and lightweight constructions designed to move with the body. Same goes for clothing here, by the way.
Comfort is a selling point, but so is the idea of self-improvement. Wearing performance tech is no longer just practical, it’s psychological. Is this retail therapy? If what it means is that people are investing in their health, postures, daily stamina, all this just might just be worth the fuss.
Hybrid Silhouettes
Footwear's never been for the ambivalent. Even if one doesn't care about which shoe is one's daily pair, there is always the notion of picking that lands the decision-maker in a certain camp. Not until recently have chimeric designs like New Balance's snoafer, adidas' ballet sneakers, or Nike's Tabis cracked into the mainstream.
Controversial? Sure. But also: refreshing. Pair this with something equally two-faced like, say, a faux-layered t-shirt, and you've got yourself an all-over half-and-half. Indecisiveness has never looked so good.
Lazy Indie
This conversation about Indie Sleaze making a comeback has circulated for a good bit now, and while there are plenty smaller scale pieces of evidence to somewhat verify the prognosis, it hasn't yet crashed back into culture with the same force TikTok essayists once had us believe.
Ever so gradually, however, are motifs of that time being reintroduced into wardrobes. Vans are everywhere right now, people are retiring baggy jeans for something more body-fitted, and Hedi Boys today are rocking those pirate-y jackets and silky black bombers from way back when. Not as sleazy as it is lazy, maybe, but something grimy and nostalgic is definitely in the water here. Just wait until it really murks up ...
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