March 2026: A Letter from FASHION’s Editor-in-Chief

One of my proudest essays was a piece I wrote in 2020 called “The End of Trends.” Even six years ago, TikTok was already churning out fads and niche, flash-in- the-pan style movements with all the speed and carelessness of a weed whacker slashing through established norms and predictable fashion cycles.

“When everything is trendy, nothing is. Blend all the colours together and you just get brown,” I had written. (Funnily enough, brown has been a trending colour ever since.) Now, the trend wheel spins so fast that we’re all reminiscing wistfully about what we wore 10 years ago as if 2016 were a bygone century.

So, it is with a cheeky dose of irony that I present this issue’s Trend Report. Two truths can coexist: We are living in a kind of post-trend, late-consumerist free-for-all, but it can still, occasionally, create a fertile soil from which new ideas and trends can sprout.

We’ve turned getting dressed into a coping mechanism.

Take, for example, the Napoleon jacket. Prominently featured on the Dior Men’s runway and, later, on Greta Lee in the brand’s official campaign images, the frogged-front top- per captured imaginations and quickly became the season’s It item, with iterations by McQueen and Ann Demeulemeester joining the formation and second-hand and “archival” versions going for many, many thousands of dollars (a pertinent reminder that staying ahead of the trends is always cheaper than chasing them).

And while we can spill a lot of ink pontificating why this jacket and why now, the easiest explanation might just be that the typical (that is, pre-TikTok) trend cycle functions on a 20-year timeline. What did Dior Men (then under Hedi Slimane) present for 2006? You guessed it: Napoleon jackets. It’s a comfort to know that even in the most frenzied times, designers will predictably look to the past and that what was once passé will become suddenly, urgently relevant again.

Looking at the bigger picture, when we’re putting together a Trend Report, what we’re really doing is collaging seemingly disparate ideas (shell embellishments and kooky hats) and attempting to draw a unifying line. Why giant trousers and colour blocking? Why the 1980s and the 1880s simultaneously? My answer: We’ve turned getting dressed into a coping mechanism. Calming neutrals and inconspicuous luxury aren’t doing the job of soothing our racing minds and slowing our scrolling fingers. We want to swathe ourselves in sheltering layers and to be distracted by punkish flowers and absurd proportions. We’re taking our internal chaos and the yearning for simpler times and wearing them out in the fragile wider world.

The final result: maximalism lite with a heavy helping of sartorial escapism. Very on-trend indeed.

Warmly,

Liz Guber

Read more stories from the March 2026 issue, and subscribe to FASHION here.