We Called It. They Wore It. SS25 Fashion Trend Forecasts Proven True
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Spring / Summer 2025 Runways Validate That Trend Suite’s Forecasts Are Right on Time
In 2023, we released our SS25 Fashion Trend Books with one goal: to help designers, brands, and creatives look into the future before it arrives.
Now that Spring/Summer 2025 runway shows have landed—and the street style dust has settled—we can say it confidently:
We called it.
From surrealist silhouettes to insectoid sunglasses, our predictions didn’t just appear… They took centre stage.
Here’s a breakdown of five key Trend Suite forecasts that came to life in Spring/Summer 2025.
Craft Punk
Punk isn’t dead—it just grew up.
In our SS25 Trend Book, we coined Craft Punk to describe a new wave of anti-establishment fashion refined by craftsmanship: the rebellion is still raw, but the execution is elevated.
This trend takes the spirit of subversion and translates it through elevated tailoring, intricate material work, and intentional styling.
Gone are the days when punk was synonymous solely with torn denim, safety pins, and DIY angst. In SS25, designers redefined rebellion—not by rejecting fashion, but by reshaping it with purpose, skill, and conceptual depth.
The result? A new aesthetic language: raw but refined, tough but tailored, aggressive yet artisanal.
Proof on the Runway:
Jordan Luca SS25: Polished silhouettes and artisanal detailing delivered a modern take on punk—spiked not with safety pins, but with intention.
From cut-outs to hardware, the runway walked the Craft Punk line: rebellious, refined, and razor-sharp. Tap the video below to play and count the number of Craft Punk hits from this single collection.
In the Wild:
Keshi at Coachella 2025: His performance aesthetic was a masterclass in Craft Punk—layered textures, subversive silhouettes, and handmade metal accents.
The look fused underground energy with high-concept detailing, just as we predicted.
Key Traits Realized:
Subversive layering
Handcrafted metalwork
Punk emotion, couture execution
Surreal Revival
Fashion turned fantastical, just like we said it would.
In our Spring/Summer 2025 forecast, we introduced Surreal Revival: a visual renaissance where Baroque and Rococo opulence collide with surrealist imagination.
This wasn’t just about referencing the past—it was about reworking it through a dream lens.
SS25 collections across the globe brought this narrative to life, embracing fashion that feels less like clothing and more like performance.
Silhouettes became sculpture.
Accessories became symbolism.
And runways transformed into theatrical dreamscapes.
At the heart of this trend is emotional exaggeration—a desire to escape realism and lean into the strange, the ornate, the otherworldly.
In an age defined by digital fatigue and cultural uncertainty, designers leaned toward maximalist fantasy as a form of storytelling, rebellion, and relief.
Dior Men SS25
A full surrealist experience: oversized ceramic hats, animal-shaped brooches, and a runway adorned with anthropomorphic statues.
Kim Jones’ collaboration with artist Hylton Nel turned the show into a living dreamscape.
Aniye Records SS25
Billowing, Rococo-inspired silhouettes rendered in soft, ethereal hues. Dreamlike proportions and marble-palette tones brought our vision of “past-meets-fantasy” to life.
Key Traits Realised:
Sculptural storytelling
Fantastical silhouettes
Soft opulence with a surreal twist
Dreamy Realities
What if fashion felt like a lucid dream?
In our SS25 Trend Book, we introduced Dreamy Realities—a forecast rooted in the blurring lines between the real and the imagined.
This trend explores what happens when technology, emotion, and aesthetics converge in a softened, surreal visual language.
Born out of the rise in AI-generated art, immersive virtual worlds, and the desire to escape hyper-productivity culture, Dreamy Realities represents a shift toward introspective fashion—one that’s fluid, emotionally intelligent, and texturally expressive.
These aren’t garments meant to command with volume or power. They drift, glow, ripple, and respond like digital daydreams made wearable.
Dreamy Realities is less about form and more about feeling—hazy silhouettes, shifting translucency, and delicate chaos.
It evokes a mood somewhere between memory and simulation.
Iris Van Herpen SS25
Her dresses hovered like digital fog—pleated forms that evoked air, code, and liquid movement. This was Dreamy Realities in motion: couture that floats between real and unreal.
Each garment felt like it was algorithmically generated, yet deeply human—engineered precision softened by an ethereal presence. Transparent layers moved like ripples through time, capturing the emotional surrealism at the heart of the trend.
Yohji Yamamoto SS25
Deconstructed prints, collage-style compositions, and painterly abstraction—all anchoring emotion over literalism. His surreal storytelling was fragmented, poetic, and deeply personal.
Each piece felt like a visual diary entry—layered with memory, instinct, and imperfection. It wasn’t about clarity, but about feeling your way through the form.
London SS25 Street Style
In the streets of London, SS25 fashion echoed the emotional surrealism forecasted in Dreamy Realities.
Loose, layered silhouettes moved with the wind—draped knits, gauzy overlays, and washed pastel palettes created a hazy, cinematic presence. It wasn’t about being styled to perfection. It was about feeling something.
From fluid tailoring to barely-there fabrics, these looks felt like visual sighs—effortless, intimate, and suspended between sleep and consciousness.
Streetwear blurred into dreamwear. This was fashion as atmosphere—not statement.
Key Traits Realised:
Mood over logic
AI-inspired silhouettes
Poetic surrealism
Chrysalises
We predicted insect metamorphosis as a defining design metaphor—and the SS25 fashion landscape proved us right.
Chrysalises isn’t about surface-level insect references. It’s about transformation as an aesthetic principle—shapes that evolve, garments that protect, and silhouettes that feel like they’re in mid-metamorphosis.
Inspired by the fragile strength of cocoons, exoskeletons, and winged creatures, this trend imagines fashion as a living, shifting organism.
In an era of transition—technological, environmental, and psychological—Chrysalises taps into the desire to shed old skins and emerge redefined. It speaks to resilience, softness, and alien beauty all at once.
Designers embraced this language through biomorphic forms, membrane-like layers, and light-reactive materials that echoed evolution in motion.
Chet Lo SS25
From tactile knits to shimmering membranes, the collection fused body-hugging protection with soft evolution. This was the chrysalis mid-change—sensual, strange, and stunning.
Each look seemed to hover between states: not quite cocoon, not yet creature. It captured the tension of transformation—delicate, deliberate, and quietly powerful.
Prada SS25
Sunglasses with compound-eye lenses and gossamer fabrics draped like wings. This wasn’t fashion inspired by insects—it became them.
The collection blurred the boundary between human and otherworldly, as models moved like evolved beings from a post-natural future.
Every detail suggested emergence—delicate, elusive, and deeply intentional.
Key Traits Realised:
Winged silhouettes
Protective textures
Alien beauty through biomorphism
Cartoon Culture SS25 Fashion Trends
In 2023, we forecasted a bold shift: fashion would become more playful, more expressive, and more exaggerated.
Cartoon Culture was our prediction that nostalgia, pop surrealism, and character-driven design would break through the minimalism fatigue—and by 2025, it had fully arrived.
This trend celebrates the animated, the absurd, and the unapologetically graphic. It pulls from comic books, 90s cartoons, childhood toys, and pop art—injecting fashion with humour, colour, and visual storytelling.
But it’s not just about referencing cartoons. It’s about becoming one.
Oversized proportions, surreal accessories, and hyper-saturated colors made the SS25 runways feel like moving illustrations. Fashion became fun again—not polished and perfect, but quirky, exaggerated, and full of personality.
London Fashion Week SS25
A standout moment came with a Louis Vuitton x Van Gogh collaboration, where classic fine art was reimagined through a cartoonish, pop-art lens.
The painterly textures were vivid, joyful, and graphic—transforming a historic masterpiece into a fashion fantasy piece.
From the accessories to the styling, the energy was clear: style as spectacle, fashion as character.
SS25 Street Style
Outfits with blown-up proportions, character-like styling, and performative flair made fashion feel like a comic strip in motion.
In this look, exaggerated lavender sleeves mimic cartoon silhouettes, while bubblegum-pink boots and sculptural sunglasses bring a sense of animated boldness. It’s not just an outfit—it’s a costume for the main character.
Stockholm Fashion Week SS25
Playful nostalgia collided with digital surrealism in streetwear that looked like it came from a storyboard.
In this look, a cartoon-embroidered varsity cardigan and crisp pleated skirt channel school-uniform fantasy—while red patent boots and a bold clutch inject graphic, comic-book contrast.
Key Traits Realised:
Fashion as character
Comic-book exaggeration
Whimsy meets high style
Trend Suite Doesn't Just Predict Trends, We Define Them
Spring/Summer 2025 proved the accuracy, depth, and vision of our forecasting work. What once lived in our books now lives on the runways, in the streets, and across fashion’s most exciting conversations.
If you're a brand, designer, editor, or creative leader looking to lead with clarity and confidence, our insights are your competitive edge.
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