Nostalgia is the one and only trend of 2025

We constantly complain that everything's been done before. That films are just sequels, prequels or remakes, that fashion cycles keep getting shorter and more repetitive. We hunt for novelty in the tiniest of micro trends, clinging to anything we can label as a trend — to predict it, intercept it, dissect it, and toss it aside — immediately bored like a child who’s received too many presents at Christmas. This constant backward gaze not only bores us and makes us restless, but traps us in an endless loop that makes it harder to truly read the present. Take, for example, the return of the '80s aesthetic, which maybe should’ve stayed in the past. But it’s only one of many, many examples. Some people - like, say, the Beckhams - have built entire careers on nostalgia. Feel the fatigue?

The new Haim album and their single covers

Another example of this trend - now the only truly dominant and enduring one? The image of Haim, who are about to release their new album on June 20. To announce the singles Relationships, Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out, and Down to Be Wrong, the rock sisters recreated some now-iconic and much-referenced paparazzi photos from the early 2000s. Specifically and respectively: for the first single, it’s Nicole Kidman with arms outstretched and face to the sky, allegedly celebrating her divorce from Tom Cruise (or so the pop legend goes); for the second, it’s Kate Moss (year 2000) leaning on her car, basking in the LA sun; and for the third, the nonchalant sidewalk kiss between Scarlett Johansson and Jared Leto. Fans instantly recognized the images, reminding us that you really can’t escape the past. When the album cover was finally revealed - a photo by director Paul Thomas Anderson - people flooded the comments asking which iconic photo it was referencing. But this time, it wasn’t referencing anything. And that search for a source only diluted the power of the final image. What a shame.

What happens when all we do is look back — the nostalgia trap

Trends are too small, too fleeting, too hollow - so fast they leave no staying power behind. Fashion is flailing, unsure of which direction to take. Everything is a reference of a reference of a reference, even though postmodernism officially ended 15 years ago. We flee to the past, take comfort in what’s familiar. Because the present is frightening, and the future has never looked less hopeful - or less predictable. Because once, we were happy (mostly back when we were kids or teenagers), carefree and small. Whose fault is it? The times? The lack of top-down trend authority? Or maybe the fault lies with those who, instead of creating, just want to sell. And here’s the thing: the past, aside from being 2025’s only true trend - the only one that permeates, that touches every category of entertainment and product from music to film to beauty and fashion - is also one of the few that remains economically profitable. But can it really last? We’re already feeling the fatigue, and it can’t end well.