The Boom Boom aesthetic takes us back to the 1980s We are not sure if it is a good thing
They say that when the going gets tough, skirts get longer and morality tightens. And yet, something seems to have gone awry, because in a historical moment where everything appears to be spiraling into chaos, an aesthetic emerges that tells a very different story. Broad-shouldered blazers, glossy lips, voluminous hair and bronzed skin: trend forecaster Sean Monahan has dubbed it Boom Boom, and the Eighties-inspired flair is unmistakable. Boom Boom like the Boom Boom Room, the lavish golden club atop the Standard Hotel in New York, but also like the “Boom, done!” that seals a deal with a bottle of champagne, as Emilia Petrarca writes. Boom Boom is about spending money just for the sake of it, being seen as beautiful, tan, successful. Think Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character in season three of The White Lotus, with his golden boy energy; or any photo of Kim Kardashian, who already in 2023 appeared on the cover of GQ’s Men of the Year issue—dressed, of course, in menswear (was the Boom Boom aesthetic already in the air? Who’s to say).
From quiet luxury to flaunting wealth
After years dominated by the mass post-pandemic casualization—where wearing only hoodies and joggers was not just accepted, but celebrated—and the not-so-silent rise of quiet luxury à la The Row, unapologetic glamour now seems to be back in vogue. Monahan calls it a "fetishization of the past," with the caveat that we should know better by now—that not much from that past is actually worth bringing back, especially given the consequences we’re still dealing with. While body positivity fades into the background, Hollywood—and the rest of the world—gets swept up in the Ozempic craze, once again idolizing perfectly sculpted, lean bodies. Meanwhile, runways are filled with fur—real or faux, the ultimate symbol of wealth—blazers with exaggerated shoulders (anyone remember Chappell Roan in The Giver?), over-the-knee boots and pointed bras. Everything screams Eighties (and early Nineties), and we’re deep in it. While we blame boomers and Gen Xers for ruining our lives, we dress just like them: as if we’re caught between the economic dream we wish we lived in, and the reality we’re stuck with.
The myth of the Eighties: not all that glitters is gold
Everything about the Boom Boom aesthetic screams glamour, excess, and greed: a scene straight out of American Psycho set in late-Eighties New York, where everything revolved around the almighty dollar. The problem is, as Morwenna Ferrier wrote in The Guardian, "then, as now, the rich were getting richer and the poor, poorer." And if that wasn’t enough, 1987 is remembered for Black Monday: the worst Wall Street crash since the Great Depression. Not all that glitters is gold, indeed. So what’s going on? Sean Monahan argues this trend isn’t political. Translation: it’s not directly tied to those who helped elect Trump, or to the rise of far-right politicians more broadly. And yet, something’s there. It’s natural for styles and trends to ebb and flow through cycles of nostalgia, and maybe we really were just tired of anonymous cashmere sweaters and €300 tracksuits. But we also have to learn from the past. We can fool ourselves into thinking things are getting better by dressing as if they already are, but we also need to get to work. We can wear grandma’s fur coat, draw bold brows, and tease our hair to achieve maximum volume—but we must remember that it won’t be enough to fix the world. It’s 2025, and the Eighties are just a (bittersweet) memory.