The Year of the bow: Why fashion is suddenly obsessed with looking gift-wrapped

If you thought bows were just for birthday gifts, Victorian portraits or Minnie Mouse, fashion in 2025 is here to laugh in your face. Bows are not merely back, they have multiplied, mutated and taken over the cultural landscape like glitter-coated gremlins. From couture runways to supermarket clothing rails, the bow has staged a chaotic, fabulous takeover that nobody saw coming. ( Image credit : X/bobell2 | How is the bow surge taking over 2025 style? ) Welcome to the year of the bow-pocalypseAnd it is not subtle. This is not a sweet little ribbon perched delicately on a ponytail. This is XXL, in-your-face, chest-plate-size bows that demand attention the second you walk into a room. Gen Z did not bring bows back to be cute. They brought them back to cause a scene. ( Image credit : Freepik | How is the bow surge taking over 2025 style? ) Cinema, but make it bow-codedThe incoming Wuthering Heights adaptation lit the internet on fire the moment the trailer dropped, not because of the moody moors or the feral romance, but because Cathy is wearing more bows than Brontë ever imagined. Red bows, navy bows, garden-pot bows, villain bows, climatic-scene bows… and yes, a bodice bow being cut off with a knife in what can only be described as pure, chaotic thirst-trap energy. ( Image credit : Warner Bros./Avalon| All tied up … Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights. ) The film basically whispered, “What if emotional trauma… but make it couture ribbons?”Why bows suddenly feel rebelliousWhile bows may scream “soft girl energy,” their resurgence is anything but soft. Fashion curators have pointed out that wearing traditionally girlish elements is no longer seen as intellectually weak or unserious. Instead, leaning into girlhood aesthetics has become a power move, a reclamation. ( Image credit : X/bobell2 | How is the bow surge taking over 2025 style? ) One fashion historian explained that the modern bow is “a signifier of femininity with a twist of irony.” In other words, a bow on a slip dress or a tailored suit is not naïve. It is a wink. It is armour disguised as innocence.Designers like Simone Rocha, Chopova Lowena and Sandy Liang have made bows into symbols of identity, plastering them on handbags, lingerie, combat boots and even bridal wear. Their message? Femininity is not fragile. It is ferocious. ( Image credit : X/hollyarchival | While bows may scream “soft girl energy, ” their resurgence is anything but soft. ) High-street stores are bow-bombing everyoneIf luxury designers planted the seed, high street brands have set off the confetti cannon. Next is selling nine bow-covered cardigans. M&S has little black dresses with bows so dramatic you could use them as flotation devices. Accessories aisles are overflowing with bow earrings, bow clips, bow headbands, bow everything. ( Image credit : X/lirikamatoshi | How is the bow surge taking over 2025 style? ) It is a full sensory attack, and honestly, the chaos is delicious.Bows are not just girly, they are genderless glamHistorically, men wore bows long before women turned them into fashion statements. Think Louis XIV’s court, aristocratic men flexing giant ribbons for status. So when modern kings of the red carpet like Harry Styles, Andrew Garfield and Ncuti Gatwa rock massive bows, it is not camp, it is lineage.Bows now sit comfortably in gender-fluid fashion, not as props but as declarations.And maybe that is the whole point. After years of minimalism and muted practicality, fashion wants drama again. Big, sparkly, unapologetic drama.