Months before President Donald Trump was elected for a second term last year, Gen Z fashion influencers on TikTok said they could have easily predicted his win.
The way fashion was trending, you could tell America ― and more specifically, American women ― were moving toward conservatism: They pointed to the tradwife-y milkmaid and prairie dresses. The way Americana as an aesthetic was showing up, and Ralph Lauren and little Nancy Reagan squared jackets were back. How the racially-loaded “clean girl” and “quiet luxury” aesthetics were going viral. Embracing thinness again through GLP-1s.
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The fashion girlies were right: National exit polls showed that Trump carried white women’s vote again in 2024, with 53% of white American women voting for the Republican.
The truth is, fashion is always in conversation with politics: simultaneously reflecting and shaping society, said Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a historian who writes about fashion and politics, and the author of “Dressed For Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism.”
“What’s interesting now is that, while during Trump’s first administration we saw more resistance and backlash from the fashion industry, now we see more compliance,” Rabinovitch-Fox said.
Fashion brands are no longer declining to dress First Lady Melania Trump. American Eagle Outfitters is comfortable putting out a “good genes” jean ad with the blonde, blue-eyed Sydney Sweeney at a time of heightened concerns about white supremacy and the return of eugenics discourse. On the runways, looks are decidedly feminine and safe. And Victoria’s Secret is back in a big way.
Fashion is always in conversation with politics: simultaneously reflecting and shaping society, said Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a historian who writes about fashion and politics, and the author of “Dressed For Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism.” Illustration: HuffPost; Photos: Getty
It’s all a little depressing to those who prefer fashion to be bold and avant garde.
If America really is lurching into authoritarianism as some academics on the subject say, now, more than ever, we need fashion and art that pushes the envelope and embraces individualism, Rabinovitch-Fox said.
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“Fascism as a whole asks for unity, and stressing individuality and uniqueness can serve as a form of resistance,” she said. “Fashion can be a powerful tool of resistance.”
Fashion as resistance is deserving of its own story. For now, let’s examine all the ways fashion ― both high fashion and mainstream ― seem to be falling in line with the conservatism of the times.
Fashion brands aren’t afraid to pick a political side. (Or join the culture war via jeans.)
As the American Eagle Outfitters jean controversy showed, fashion retailers aren’t afraid to get political. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Only in Trump’s America would we be having a cultural war over mall jeans: At one point this year, we had Sydney Sweeney and her “great genes” at American Eagle Outfitters, and KATSEYE, a racially inclusive Gen Z girl group, shilling denim for Gap. Naturally, a conversation broke out comparing the two ads and what, if any, political messages were being made by the two companies.
“What is happening right now is that people on the street and fashion designers alike are making more calculated style choices,” said Henry Navarro Delgado, an associate professor of fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University.
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“Retailers may embrace conservatism to appease or deflect unwanted political attention, or they may make bold, controversial choices of style and how they are marketed to capitalize on the reactions within an ideologically charged environment,” he said. “That’s what we saw with the viral American Eagle ad.”
Hyper femininity is in: Milkmaid and prairie dresses are all over the runway.
In the last NYFW, designers like Anna Sui (her fashion show pictured here) and Sandy Liang put an emphasis on femininity and a romantic look that spoke to a wider cottagecore trend. Nina Westervelt via Getty Images
During the pandemic, the cottage core aesthetic, with its prairie dresses, milkmaid dresses, was all over the aisles of Target and Walmart. Some shoppers on the left found the trend a little unsettling; they looked like outfits from the “Handmaid’s Tale,” they said.
There’s a definite trad-wife undertone, too: the long or below-the-knee hems, modest necklines, and simple gingham or floral patterns all evoke a modest, homebound, nonthreatening femininity.
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Now tradwife looks are on the runway, too, Rabinovitch-Fox said.
“I think that we can definitely see a shift toward more conservative fashions in recent years ― the ‘tradwife’ look and aesthetic,” she said. “In the last NYFW, designers like Anna Sui and Sandy Liang, for example, really put the emphasis on femininity and romantic looks.”
The snatched hourglass silhouette is having a comeback, too, Rabinovitch-Fox said. Skims and other lingerie and shapewear brands have released retro lines that embrace a more corseted 1950s look.
High fashion seems to hate women’s bodies ― again.
The models at Margiela’s show during Paris Fashion Week walked with clear cheek retractors that stretched their mouths wide open. Lyvans Boolaky via Getty Images
The most unsettling trend during international fashion weeks this year? Looks that seemed to suggest women should be seen but not heard.
During Paris Fashion Week, Stella Bugbee, the Styles editor of The New York Times, noted that even if they weren’t conservative or authoritarian aesthetically, some visuals on the runway suggest a subtle hatred of women.
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That was also noted by Peggy Heffington, a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother.” (She’s a big fashion follower.)
“For instance, you had the models at Margiela with their lips literally stitched shut or models effectively in armless straight jackets at Alaïa,” she told HuffPost. “These are not particularly subtle about where society and politics is on women.”
It was also notable to Heffington that the attempts fashion houses were making in recent years to increase diversity in terms of body size seem to have disappeared. Even the 2010s turn toward fit, muscular-thin frames seem less prevalent, she said.
“Models across the board were extremely thin,” she said. “It’s probably the effects of Ozempic as much as anything, but visually we’re back to the 1990s and early aughts, where women’s beauty standards required making themselves as small as possible.”
Athleisure wear had its day. Now people want to make ‘power statements’ with their clothes.
Bold statement looks, like those worn by Teyana Taylor, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson and Kim Kardashian, the cast of “All’s Fair,” are in. Jamie McCarthy via Getty Images
Even if Vogue isn’t your Bible, you know that fashion is cyclical.
“Just like if you ate the same meal for dinner every night for a week and started to crave something different, consumers crave a change in fashion trends every few years,” said Danielle Sponder Testa, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).
The meal fashion people seem to be sick of in 2025 is lazy athleisure wear, Sponder Testa said. Perhaps it’s a depressing reminder of the pandemic.
“We have been in a period of leisurewear and Y2K-inspired fashion since COVID-19, and we’re ready to change up our fashion menu,” she said. “The shift toward sleek lines and formal professionalism is not unexpected. In fact, it has been forecasted since before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. After five years of leisure wear dominating fashion, consumers are ready to dress up and make a power statement again.”
Victoria’s Secret fashion shows are back with a vengeance.
Candice Swanepoel walks the runway for Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on Oct. 15, 2025, in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris via Getty Images
The revival of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in October definitely deserves a mention here. While the press leading up to it was trying to sell it as an updated, modern, body-positive version of the show’s “famously featured thin models walking in lingerie in front of a crowd that seemed to have more finance bros than fashion people in attendance,” Heffington joked, the show didn’t feel materially different in the end.
“For all the talk of celebrating women’s bodies, it seemed to just be more models walking in lingerie,” she said. “Less an opportunity to celebrate women than to ogle them in lace.”
“Maybe this is a time honored tradition, and I’m reading too much into it, but it does seem notable that after not holding it for several years due to public backlash, the brand felt that 2025 was a safe time, even a good time, to bring it back.”
Nancy Reagan-esque little boxy suits are popular in conservative circles.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt favors boxy, hyper feminine suits. Bloomberg via Getty Images
When it comes to political fashion, primary colors and boxy little suits a la Nancy Reagan are very much back. (Reagan preferred Chanel, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s bougie bouclé is more likely to be made in China.)
Heffington thinks the combination of preppy workwear ― blazers, sheath dresses ― and super heavy, almost exaggerated makeup and hair among conservative women in politics and within the Trump administration is one of the most interesting things happening in fashion right now.
“It almost seems like a statement that there is a place for women in conservative circles, but only as women ― a fashion and aesthetic rejection of efforts on the left toward gender equality or even gender neutrality.”
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