S/S 25/26 Fashion trends: Data analysis

The S/S 25/26 Fashion Weeks confirmed several exciting trends for the upcoming season.

Before exploring these trends, it’s important to highlight how data plays a key role in forecasting and planning collections. WGSN’s reports offer clear design and product guidance, helping brands turn insights into successful products.

In this exclusive preview, we cover the standout colours, apparel, and accessory trends for S/S 25/26, based on forecasts available to WGSN subscribers only.

Colours

With our AI-powered Colour Vision tool, WGSN tracks and analyses the colours featured on runways, providing accurate data on how seasonal colour trends evolve.

#EnhancedNeutrals

With a 36.5% presence in the S/S 25/26 collection colour category and a 1.7% growth over the previous year, the pastel shade that stood out the most this season is neutral.

Like Wax Paper, a Key Colour 26/27 highlighted by WGSN and Coloro, neutrals, in addition to bringing feelings of comfort and serenity, are ideal for brands that want to use a timeless approach and enhance classic pieces.

Click here for more information on the 26/27 Key Colours.

Future Dusk

As WGSN's New Darks trend highlights, from 2025 onward, the importance of dark shades will increase as the polycrisis worsens and consumers opt for more versatile and durable colours. WGSN and Coloro announced the Colour of the Year for 2025 will be Future Dusk, a shade between blue and purple.

This Fashion Week, there was an 11.2% increase in the dark blue colour mix on the catwalks compared to the previous season. Dark blue reached a 33.2% presence on the runway, bringing a sense of mystery and escapism.

In WGSN's Buyer's Briefing, an exclusive feature on the Fashion Buying platform, we highlighted that dark shades and black combined accounted for 44% of the colour category on the 2024 runways.

Key trends

#Minidress

Although dresses continue to represent the largest proportion within the apparel category at 20%, their share decreased by 1% compared to last season, indicating that other garments are gaining ground.

The #Minidress is one of the key garments in the summer 25 dress category, with head-to-toe denim (9.1% of the total denim category) and asymmetrical styles (21.9% of the total dress category), highlighting its versatile appeal.

#WideLegJeans

While WGSN TrendCurve AI points to denim as a stable garment in the U.S. and U.K. for Summer 25, it is seeing a shift toward tailoring, #OfficeWear and #SartorialStyling.

However, #WideLegJeans grew by 1.3% in the U.S. and 1.6% in the U.K., reaffirming itself as the dominant model for yet another season, accounting for 27.1%

Accessories

According to WGSN data, bracelets, earrings and ties dominated this season's collections, highlighting items previously forecast, such as long necklaces with pendants and metal bracelets.

Eye-catching bracelets

An accessory that brings sophistication to the category, metal bracelets, favoured by the demand for #LuxuryRelaxed style, showed the second highest growth, behind necklaces, on the S/S 25 runways, up 4.8% over the previous year.

Eye-catching bracelets consolidated their position as the top item, accounting for 15.9% of the accessories category.

Fashion Buying

Are you familiar with WGSN's forecasting and market intelligence data solution for shoppers?

According to research by WGSN and OC&C, adopting a data-driven, demand-driven planning and buying model can reduce overproduction rates by 5% to 15%, eliminating one of the main sources of waste generation. WGSN's Fashion Buying platform emerges as a solution for buyers seeking to understand product trends and identify investment items. Read the study here.