Fashion trends change naturally over time. While some have considered the idea of quiet luxury—or, the act of dressing like you’re a millionaire in understated pieces devoid of logos—to be the new “in” thing, it has recently gone out of style. In its place has emerged the newest fashion trend that some are now calling “loud luxury.” Generation Z is in part responsible for this.
Having evolved over the new year, loud luxury’s signature trademarks are bold and stylish, ensuring that anyone who looks upon a piece of clothing knows that it is expensive. Animal print, oversized logos, and dramatic shades of bright color are all a part of this style. Its trademark, in a way, is to be “overly glamorous,” both to showcase luxury and a bit of tackiness at the same time.
Kendall Jenner, known to sport a more understated look, has recently become one of the celebrities to jump into the loud luxury movement. Over this winter season, fur jackets became a staple in her wardrobe, and perhaps nothing was more overstated than her $27,000 shearling coat.
Of course, Kendall Jenner isn’t the only one following this trend. Kim Kardashian’s love for bold designer logos has drawn recent attention, as has The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Theresa Giudice’s large hair and leather ensembles.
This aesthetic, which some are coining the “mob wife” look, is largely indicative of this shift in fashion. The aspects of tackiness are part of the goal for dressing this way, as style stars have discovered reinvigorated passions for smokey eyes, blowout hair, oversized gold jewelry, and even vintage fur, which became popular as the temperatures dropped last year. The #mobwife hashtag has already gained 224 million views on TikTok, and has been inspired in part by influencer and self-proclaimed “Mob Wife Aesthetic CEO” Sarah Arcuri’s resources for those looking to partake in a bolder and more extravagant style. If she’s buying a Louis Vuitton bag, it’s going to have the logo on it. Arcuri naturally gravitates toward bold pieces.
This shift isn’t just coming out of nowhere, however. Fashion psychologist Shakalia Forbes-Bell claims that these changes can partly be inspired by people’s inclinations to escape into more extravagant versions of themselves. Partaking in these popular style aesthetics creates a distant removal from their daily life that is more than just a mere fashion swing. It is, in many ways, a way of releasing tension, and a form of what is called “dopamine dressing.”
At the core, the aesthetics of dressing in an overly glamorous way is not just a superficial change we are seeing in fashion, nor is it just a shift in algorithm trends. For some interested in fashion, it is about not only embracing the facets of fashion that inspire joy and bring excitement to one’s life and wardrobe choices but also about making oneself feel more confident in the process. Making fashion fun again is the primary goal of this new year’s trend.
