Mina Edwards
Pink walls, palm trees, frappuccinos, Tumblr, rose gold and Music.ly…is this the vibe we’re in for this year? There has been a resurgence of 2016 aesthetic and romanticization within the media since New Years, and it has me wondering what trends we are about to see take over 2026. 2025 was the year of clean girl, leopard print, low-rise jeans, labubu, TikTok and brain rot. We were all over the place. Society is itching for a shift, and it appears everyone is wanting to turn back the clocks and relive 2016 to its fullest. We were living in a social media dense, pre-COVID, heavily saturated world. Since then, superstars have become sambas, Music.ly has become TikTok, and full glam became “clean girl”. A lot has changed.Â
Perhaps the most drastic difference between now and ten years ago in relation to trends is the way that we consume media. We consumed trends from Pinterest, YouTube and Tumblr. All of which are platforms where content is more long-form and thought out. Scrolling Pinterest for aesthetic images while watching 30-minute-long videos posted by influencers was where we derived inspiration. Trends were built up and they were solidified within society while they lasted. Now, we mindlessly scroll through 15-second videos while usually moving on to the next before the last one is over. The same goes for trends; we are over them before they really get a chance to shine.Â
The desire to detach ourselves from doomscrolling is becoming stronger and stronger. We are seeing more and more content revolving around how analog activities are “in” and mindlessly scrolling is “out”. This is going to naturally make trends stick around longer. The 2016 aesthetic has appeal to us because it highlighted summertime, free spirit and embracing our cringe. We have already seen people start to pull inspiration from the makeup and fashion of that year in 2026 already. It is becoming a trend in itself to post yourself during 2016 and go back to the same colors and filters. The more we see this on our feed, the more it is going to naturally seep into the other parts of our lives.Â
I would predict that in 2026, we are going to see a rise in the full glam, the short cut off jean shorts, heavily filtered Instagram feeds, side parts and skinny jeans. To an extent, every era of trends tends to cycle back around at some point. In 2019, we saw the 80s and 90s have a greater influence. Now that our trend cycle is more short-form, we are going to start seeing these waves start cycling back faster, even though it was only ten years ago and most of us had vowed to never pull our hair into a side part again, it’s inevitable 2016 would make its return.Â