It's time to dress like a pirate

Imagine this: the sun is setting over a ghost port, the wind lifts golden dust into the air, and you’re walking—knee-high boots, an unbuttoned white shirt, a corset tight enough to squeeze your thoughts. Your hair is tousled with salt, and you're wearing an earring stolen from a forgotten queen. You're not in a movie. It’s 2025. You are piratecore. Because the future of fashion looks to the past, but it does it with smudged eyeliner, a poorly laced corset, and a blade hidden in a boot. And today, more than ever, that vision takes shape: gritty, sensual, irreverent. An aesthetic that smells of the open sea and absolute freedom. What once was a niche style, somewhere between Tumblr and cosplay, has now exploded on runways and among celebs. But beware: this isn’t a costume party, it’s a style code. Piratecore is not a game, it’s a call. To excess, to lived-in sensuality, to independence with no rules. Even in fashion. It’s Keira Knightley taking the helm, it’s Jack Sparrow mixing leather and pearls better than a Parisian stylist. In 2025, the trend doesn’t just evoke galleons and bottles of rum—it speaks the language of a new boho: raw, nomadic, layered. Always a bit romantic. And as runways embrace it with flowing dresses, sculpted corsets, and talisman-like jewelry, Gen Z renames it, recodes it, makes it go viral. Ready to set sail?

Vivienne Westwood SS96

Vivienne Westwood FW81

Anna Sui FW92

Anna Sui SS07

Jean Paul Gaultier SS08

John Galliano FW01

Vivienne Westwood SS95

John Galliano SS09

Alexander McQueen SS03

Ann Demeulemeester SS25

Pirates as style icons: From Galliano to Westwood

There’s something about pirates that has always captivated fashion. A theatrical, baroque, defiant energy. From sea outsiders to society rebels, pirates were the first real style iconoclasts. With oversized hats, torn military jackets, and worn boots, they looked like they stepped out of a gothic drama (not surprising, since we built their visual identity from fantasy novels like Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and plays like Peter Pan). And they’ve inspired some of the most visionary designers in fashion. Vivienne Westwood turned them into punk creatures. In her legendary 1981 Pirate collection (with McLaren by her side), she dug into 18th-century archives, dandyism, Native American references, and the 1980 film The Island to rewrite fashion as an act of sartorial rebellion. John Galliano has celebrated pirates since his early days. In his SS93 collection for his namesake house, he transformed privateers into romantic castaways dressed in bias-cut silks and ethereal layers. Over time, season after season, he sent embroidered corsets, unbuttoned shirts, and tricorne hats down the runway like relics from a sunken ship. Anna Sui with her boho brocades, Jean Paul Gaultier and his love of nautical stripes, Ann Demeulemeester, who turned abyssal black into poetic romanticism… many designers, each in their own way, have found in pirates the perfect archetype to explore freedom, fluid sexuality, and romance, bringing not just fashion, but storytelling to the runway.

Piratecore in 2025: boho revival and sartorial freedom

Today, in 2025, piratecore isn’t just a trend—it’s a compass that rejects the map. It has returned to dominate the aesthetic scene with new codes, infused with nomadic sensuality and anarchic layering. It’s part of a boho revival  that no longer wants to be just hippie or indie chic. It’s boho that’s weathered storms, smelling of rope and amber, with new adventures to chase. In the latest 2025 fashion collections, this spirit becomes fluid, powerful matter. From Isabel Marant and Chloé, where layering is sensual and textural with voile and wide-brim hats, to Dior, fusing military rigor with travel-ready lightness. Louis Vuitton and Etro float between deconstructed tailoring and urban buccaneer details, while Zimmermann, Les Fleurs, and Dilara Findikoglu reinterpret frayed silks, gothic corsets, and baroque silhouettes. More transparent muslins than heavy brocades, more over-the-knee boots than spats. There’s an echo of the ’70s, sure, but today’s freedom is even more liquid, more fluid.

What’s in a pirate girl’s closet and beauty bag?

Yes, you can be a pirate even on the city streets—just start with the right pieces: a billowy white shirt, maybe unbuttoned down to your navel, with voluminous sleeves fit for a rogue captain, in linen or light cotton gauze that dances with the breeze. On top, a structured corset, worn like armor, best in worn leather or brocade, to sculpt the figure like a self-portrait. Feet? Inside tall, worn-in leather boots, ready for a dramatic escape over waves or a night with no return. Legs move under asymmetric skirts, jagged ruffles brushing like ship decks, or under wide, deconstructed, low-rise trousers that scream movement, never perfection. And then, the details that seal the look: chunky rings, dangling earrings (mismatched, preferably), gold and silver chains mixed like treasures pulled from a sunken chest. The key? Everything should look found, not bought. Because if the pirates of the past looted treasure, those of 2025 loot archives, symbols, and fabrics, rewriting them with a compass that doesn’t point north, but toward radical self-expression. And what about pirate beauty? Say goodbye to perfection. Make-up mimics a life lived under sun and sea. Messy, wavy strands still wet from salty wind. Faux freckles, rosy blush, not runway-ready, but authentically sun-kissed. And the eyes? Imperfect, kohl-rimmed, smudged, like after a romantic brawl or a sleepless dawn.

The new muses of piratecore

Of course, what made this aesthetic go viral are the new it girls. Remember Sabrina Carpenter at Vogue World in a red-and-white striped look worthy of the One Piece crew? Or Hunter Schafer and Iris Law, both at the Cannes Film Festival—the former in a custom Prada look with a white headscarf and corset, the latter in a distressed Saint Laurent mini-dress with a pirate belt. Bella Hadid, effortlessly shifting from cowgirl to office siren, from steampunk looks to bohemian corsair, rocks flowing tops, capri pants, vintage corsets, and layered jewels like treasures. Devon Lee Carlson, Taylor Hill, and Charli XCX, the underground pop icon, pair lace-up tops and distressed pants, hussar jackets New Romantics-style, soft leather boots, sheer blouses, and frilly mini skirts, with bandanas, headbands and waterfall-like jewelry. And TikTok amplifies everything: millions of videos where young would-be corsairs flaunt oversized blouses, handmade bustiers, and jingling trinkets. It’s an aesthetic that speaks to personal rebellion, a longing for escape, and a raw beauty that doesn’t ask for permission—always with a hint of romance.