Credit: Mischa Lee

Join reporters Mischa Lee and Elyssa Grillo as they discuss their fashion predictions for 2024.

A new year calls for new trends, specifically new fashion trends. With the clean and simple aesthetic taking over in 2023, we think 2024 may bring new “messier” trends, as well as revive some older trends.

Messier makeup and hair
Fashion gurus are already growing tired of the colorless “clean girl aesthetic” that has taken over the fashion world for two years. However, the average person hasn’t let go of it quite yet. We hope to see a lot more laid-back styling and looks this year, since most makeup, outfits and hair have strictly consisted of “no-makeup makeup,” solid colors and slick-backs. All of these trends promote a type of perfectionism that may be on its way out in 2024. Since Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” came out in 2023, many people have already taken an interest in one of the main characters, Venetia’s, makeup looks. Her eyes are darkened with a mini smokey eye, her lips are shaded with a faded red and her eyebrows are thin and light. Inspiration from Venetia seems very likely this year because of the popularity of “Saltburn.” Additionally, we can see trends veering from the flawless “clean girl aesthetic”  towards an effortless chic that resembles not only Venetia, but also past style icons like Serena Vanderwoodsen and Carrie Bradshaw.

Color of the summer
Every year, there appears to be a prominent color due to pop culture or trends that are circulating at the time. We would consider last year’s colors to be dark blue due to a rise in popularity of the “coastal granddaughter aesthetic” during all of 2023. Our prediction for the color of 2024 is pale yellow, since it is not too bright and seems perfect as we make our way out of the minimalistic era of the “clean girl” aesthetic. Yellow is close enough to beige, which was the staple color for clean girls, but colorful enough to bring a new and exciting life into mainstream fashion trends again. Yellow can also be brightened up with other colors for a vibrant 60s look, or it can be worn as a solid yellow on a girly mini dress to align with the simple vibe of the early 2020s.

Hair scarfs
As a subset of the current bow trend, we think that scarves are going to make a comeback from the 60s, specifically for hair. Small, colorful scarves wrapped around a ponytail or as a headband not only spice up what could be a boring outfit, but are a more mature spin-off of the ribbons that have been popular for the past couple of years. They also have a strong connection to the 60s schoolgirl style, which was introduced to the media in late 2023 through Sofia Copolla’s “Priscilla.” For the spring and summer, scarves could be useful for keeping hair out of a person’s face, and people can even wrap scarves around their heads to protect their hair from the wind, which was an extremely popular way to style headscarves in the mid 20th century.

Leopard print
This year, with the “clean girl aesthetic” taking over fashion trends and fashion in general, some people perceived patterns as “ugly” or “cheesy.” Wearing plain colors with no patterns was extremely popular in 2023. This year, however, we think there’s going to be a big change to that. Given  the huge animal print, and especially leopard print, surge in the early 2000s, we believe that leopard print will be “in” again in 2024. Not the cheugy kind of leopard print, but a more classic and elegant vibe of leopard print will likely be worn. This print will be everywhere– in bags, tops, pants, tights, coats and it will definitely be popping up a lot more in 2024 than in 2023.

Unique/cool bottoms with plain tops
We think the classic and basic going out uniform from 2023 will be completely different in 2024. The 2023 basic pants with a more outgoing and unique top will be switched out with unique bottoms and a plain top in 2024. We think the bottoms will be the high point of the “going out” outfit in 2024. There will still be really cute tops that factor into these outfits, however, the focus will be more on patterned pants or special skirts. On top of that, it won’t all be solid, boring colors. We think 2024 will bring out glitter, patterns and more vibrant colors that we used to see in the early 2000s.

Two-toned mixed jewelry (mix gold and silver)
Simple one-toned jewelry took over the internet and the world during 2023 because of the trending “clean girl aesthetic.” Although one-toned jewelry is an effortless and timeless trend, we think that there will be a lot more variation to jewelry this year, one of them being mixing different tones of jewelry. Because of “clean girls,” many people, including ourselves, wore simple small gold or silver hoops. This year, we think people will be wearing both silver and gold jewelry at the same time or jewelry that has both silver and gold mixed together.