Oversize bows where six months ago there was cleavage. Flouncy, lacy, columnar dresses instead of skintight styles. More knee-length shorts, fewer micro mini skirts.
After viewing about 3,000 photos from more than 100 runway shows held during fashion month, a sense of delicate restraint was a discernible thread connecting various looks. Many designers in their spring 2025 collections offered ladylike alternatives to the flashy, logo-heavy and revealing clothing that filled stores and closets in the wake of pandemic lockdowns, as people were retiring sweats for attire that channeled a new liberation from their couches.
Modesty was detectable in brands’ different takes on floppy bow blouses and nightgown dresses with Victorian flourishes like ruffled collars, as well as in footwear like low-heeled pumps with sensible box toes.
This was not the lone dominant trend on the runways, which also featured an abundance of bubble pants, flight suits and preppy-style blazers. But it was the only theme that could be tied to a word that has lately gripped popular culture: demure.
The term, after being thrust into everyday lexicons through a viral TikTok video from August, came to be seen as an aesthetic counterpoint to the disheveled chaos of this year’s “brat” summer, which was sort of a continuation of the sleazy chaos that defined the look of the “hot vax summer” of 2021.
Describing the “demure” look, the Styles reporter Callie Holtermann put it this way: “It’s tucking your hair behind your ear. It’s a Peter Pan collar. It’s nibbling on some raspberries!”
The Prada show in Milan featured two of those criteria: Peter-Pan-collar jackets in supple suedes and models with tousled hair tucked behind their ears. (There were no berries on the runway.) The designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons said the brand’s latest collection, which also featured minimal makeup and structured bags, was a commentary on social media algorithms. By incorporating components of the demure formula, they played right into one.
Though designers had already begun developing their latest lines by the time the chatter about all things demure had hit an inflection point, their collections nevertheless seemed to tap into a larger conversation.
And the fact that clothing from spring 2025 collections won’t be appearing in stores until early next year suggests that the demure look exemplified by the following six runway trends may have longer legs than other fads.
Cardigans
The 1950s came to mind seeing sweet little cardigan sweaters paired with knee-grazing skirts at shows including Bottega Veneta, Jil Sander and Alainpaul, an up-and-coming label co-founded last year by Alain Paul, a former contemporary dancer who had worked under Demna Gvasalia at Vetements and Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton.
Shrunken Jackets
More formal but no less dainty than cardigans were the boxy little jackets shown by brands like Sandy Liang, Prada, N21 and Coperni, some of which evoked styles worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Capelets
Capelets, the prim equivalent of knit ponchos, may be less practical than other outerwear. But they were used plentifully as a finishing touch. Comme des Garçons’s version was a giant pouf, Burberry’s was pleated and seemingly crossbred with a parka, and Colleen Allen’s was elegant: The brand, founded by its eponymous designer six months ago after working at the Row, showed a golden-orange, ruched-velvet capelet meant to be worn slightly askew over the shoulders.
Organza
Organza could be described as chiffon’s uptight sister, a stiffer yet equally sheer material that had its last good run on runways in the ’90s before becoming a preferred textile of prom-dress makers. This season, the use of organza by brands associated with femininity (Simone Rocha, Cecilie Bahnsen), as well as by those considered avant-garde (Luar), brought to mind the material’s last heyday.
Princess Seams
Princess seams run down the front of a bodice or a dress, following the shape of a woman’s body. They were popular elements of debutante gowns in the mid-19th century and, more recently, frocks in the 1950s. Labels that harked back to midcentury femininity with garments incorporating princess seams included Gabriela Hearst, Gucci, Valentino and Marni, which incorporated the seams into full-skirted dresses to achieve a Betty Draper effect.
Bermuda Shorts
Dries Van Noten, Diotima and Hodakova, the winner of this year’s LVMH prize, were among the brands that embraced Bermuda shorts, a style that falls lower on the leg and thus shows less skin. Most versions fell to the knees, others were even longer and many were styled with matching jackets to create spring-weather suits.
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