Trends provide the season with structure, but do they end up subtracting from summer’s traditional sense of spontaneity?
BY JULIE HUANG – arts@theaggie.org
Summer is nearly turning to fall, but the summer trends of 2025 were in the works as early as spring, as people planned their wardrobes and vacations. As the season where most people get time off from work and school, summer is traditionally associated with freedom, relaxation and new horizons. For those who suddenly find themselves with an increased amount of free time, the dominant trends of the season can provide inspiration and a sense of personal growth.
Summer has always been idealized as a time for self-care and self-exploration. During these balmy weeks free of life’s usual demands, there’s a sense that anything can happen. The extra time and space often encourages people to pursue new experiences, whether that involves changing up their fashion sense, trying a niche hobby or starting a new show.
As always, people wanting to make changes to their lives but are lacking inspiration can turn to the latest trends for ideas. Summer trends, which once may have been used to refer more specifically to clothing and fashion trends, have now become a more general description of a conceptual ideal meant to encapsulate the entirety of the season.
Notably, many of these general, large-scale summer trends are associated with specific pieces of media. Examples from the last few years include “Hot Girl Summer,” exemplified by Megan Thee Stallion’s 2019 hit, the cinematic phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” in 2023 and the “Brat Summer” of 2024, inspired by Charli XCX’s iconic lime-green album. On several occasions, “Stranger Things” was influential on summertime culture, leaving people to reminisce on the notorious summer of 2022.
The media-based nature of these summer trends reinforce a sort of escapism long associated with the season of summer itself. Unlike the more structured routines of the other months, summer seems to offer transformative experiences comparable to entering a parallel world, like Barbieland or Hawkins, Indiana. Instead of focusing on life’s mundane necessities, people are free to imagine fantastic possibilities, taking inspiration from fiction.
Over the years, this enthusiasm surrounding summer trends and the escapism they provide has become increasingly aware of itself. As the season gets closer, people take to social media and speculate on the next major trend, posting their predictions and engaging in discussion on what they would like to happen.
The generalized nature of these large-scale trends also means that nearly every area of life can be subsumed into the overall trend. Anything can become a core component of the trend, from specific clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, shoes, songs, albums or locations (the neon green Brat Wall comes to mind). This general approach to trends means that an endless amount of questions can be raised on the nature of the next trend, which inevitably leads to another question. Will the next trend live up to the hype?
Summer trends should not be a source of anxiety, but the level of self-awareness currently surrounding the creation of trends often leads to a sense of pressure to hit upon the right content material to turn into a trend. Especially insidious is how influencers are free to use the arrival of summer as a marketing tactic, pushing a product or lifestyle that will supposedly maximize one’s enjoyment of an up-and-coming trend. Summer trends are meant to be joyful and inspirational, but when they become the framework through which one views the entire season, it might inhibit spontaneous and authentic expression instead of encouraging it.
Over-reliance on what’s trending this summer encourages people to use their time and money in ways that they may not personally resonate with, simply because the reigning trend is everywhere and thus must be applicable to everyone, right? It’s not easy to tell what will bring personal fulfillment and what is simply a passing trend that becomes more appealing every time it appears on one’s screen or in one’s social circles.
In an era where every trend is aware of its own existence and promotes itself accordingly, it becomes increasingly important to remember that summer earned its reputation as a special time of the year because of its lack of structure that offers a chance to act spontaneously. This time could and should be used to travel in a wide range of directions, physically or otherwise. Though trends can augment that sense of wonder and opportunity, they should not ever become restricting.
As summer passes, instead of feeling pressure to immerse yourself in whatever trends prevail, consider them as guidelines that might enhance your warm-weather experience. Remember, summer is a time to experiment and explore hobbies that have always piqued your interest but didn’t fit into your schedule during the school year.
Written by: Julie Huang — arts@theaggie.org
