Anti-AI messiness, MAGA fashion trends, and inconspicuous diamond brand deals

Alright, we are back on a format that I really wanted to stick to (but didn’t) where I cover 2-3 trends in fashion and culture using less than 300 words.

I hope you enjoy, and let me know your thoughts / any topics you would like to see me cover <3

At the beginning of the year, one of my most reacted-to trend predictions was the rise of imperfection in fashion and beauty as a way of signaling that something is human-made rather than AI-generated. And 43 days into the year, we already have some strong supporting signals.

First, Prada sent models down the runway at its menswear show wearing visibly dirty and stained sleeves. The coverage that I saw (example linked here) framed this as a reflection of the stress and economic pressure people are under, and the fact that clothes will be “lived-in” and ill preserved under such circumstances — rather than connecting it to AI discourse. (Although, let’s be honest how “under pressure” is someone who can afford an intentionally dirty Prada shirt? I wouldn’t know.)

Second, EDITED’s runway coverage flagged an increase in crushed cotton, crinkled, and deliberately un-ironed textures across men’s fashion month.

Third, I remember getting my first Teen Vogue in 2010 and in there was the perfect curls and ultra smoothed skins that defined GUESS campaigns at the time. Yes, the styling was a little undone in a sultry way, but Anna Nicole Smith and Kate Upton still looked *perfect*. The newest Guess Jeans campaign, however, pushes said messiness into the next stratosphere. Here was have a mash-up of the go piss girl memes, gen-z sequel-style photography, make-up that looks intentionally amateur, no logical type hierarchy (I’m sure even chatgpt would tell you this is a mistake).

And finally, according to EXOLYT, videos using the hashtag #messymakeup accumulated 218M views over the past year, up roughly 28% compared to 2024. The most obvious interpretation is that this represents a rejection of the clean-girl aesthetic — a take I will spare everyone from repeating for the hundredth time.

Overall, this remains one of my favourite predictions for 2026, and you can safely assume that I’ll continue collecting evidence for it throughout the year. Possibly even participating in it. Or at least attempting to. During NYFW, Byronesque is hosting a sale of 1989 to 2009 Margiela pieces at Assembly on the Lower East Side. I am already trying to secure the ss93 crushed cotton waistcoat if it doesn’t sell during the event.

The jacket:

How to get it:

We’ve recently seen extensive coverage of the mar-a-lago face — a way of labelling the beauty (and sometimes fashion) choices of the women in Trump’s inner circle. While over-filled faces, two-shades-too-dark foundation, and 2016 brows are the most-discussed identifiers, the goal here was to build out this list and identify visual markers associated with this aesthetic through digital discourse analysis. Yes, this is just for fun, but it is also interesting to dig into the potential reasons why they make these choices (more on that later).

“Digital discourse analysis” is a bit of a vague term, so here are some specifics: I used an APIFY actor was used to scrape 350 comments off of posts that were discussing the MAGA women’s fashion choices. Text-based data was analysed in R using frequency-based natural language processing techniques (i.e., word and phrase counting) to identify recurring fashion brands, pieces, and descriptors.

Unsurprisingly, plastic surgery was the #1 signifier, especially conspicuous plastic surgery, as it plays into the aesthetics most valued by Trump himself. Here, it is not about looking like you are young or flawless, but more about looking like you spent a lot of money injecting things into your face. Nude heels was also a common item, and I found this one pretty funny as it is recommended that you wear nude heels when entering modelling camps and beauty pageants as it ‘gives the illusion of making your legs longer’ — I supposed the MAGA ladies received the same advice. And finally, “fake chanel” pieces (jackets, skirt suits), fabrics (boucle, tweed) and brands (tuckernuck, self portrait) were mentioned frequently.

Maybe the most interesting part of this conversation was the discussion around how these women are basically in drag (ironic, I know) — dressing as caricatures of the “ideal woman” (or at least the idea of one that we had as kids). When I was growing up, I also thought that the ideal working woman was walking around in pointy toe stilettos, wearing skirt suits, and was able to afford RTW Chanel. I have since been proven wrong, but the MAGA women haven’t gotten the memo.

Paywalling this one because I have some receipts.