TV Continues to Drive Youth Fashion Trends
Published 13 January 2023
2022 was the year that escapist television shows heavily impacted youth fashion. Much of it continues to echo in Stylus' Gen Z Style IRL 2023, confirming that this influence is only set to grow. With compelling figures, we highlight this year’s key cultural touchpoints and how best to capitalise on them.
Netflix’s Wednesday caused an online splash following its November premiere, inspiring a multitude of goth-influenced fashion trends that clearly resonated with Gen Z’s playfully countercultural ideals. Videos under the TikTok hashtags #wednesdaystyle and #wednesdayaddamscosplay have amassed 9.7 million and 244 million views respectively, while Google searches for “Wednesday Addams fashion” spiked in the week following the show’s debut.
Elsewhere, one of the most viral fashion moments in 2022 was also among the most polarising. Yet it still managed to have a major impact on the youth fashion zeitgeist. The second season of HBO’s The White Lotus left audiences struggling to decide if the chaotically and characteristically Gen Z outfits of Haley Lu Richardson’s character Portia were good or bad. Regardless, they were influential. A TikTok search for “Portia fashion White Lotus” will return videos with nearly 700 million combined views and counting.
Netflix’s Bridgerton also released its second season last year and continues to drive the popularity of historical romance among Gen Z. Swedish fintech company Klarna named Regencycore one of 2022’s hottest fashion trends, noting an uptick in searches for and purchases of a variety of items, including pearl necklaces (up 32% globally), empire line dresses (up 112% in the US) and opera gloves (up 1,398% in Germany), compared with the previous year. The #regencycore TikTok hashtag also boasts a combined 60.9 million views. With a spin-off coming this year and a third season to follow, this trend is here to stay.
Real-life royals made their mark too. Fashion search engine Lyst named the The Crown’s recreation of Princess Diana’s “revenge dress” the “screen style moment of the year”, noting that searches for “black off-the-shoulder dresses” and “black dresses with a sweetheart neckline” saw huge jumps of 58% and 103% respectively the day after images of actress Elizabeth Debicki in the dress surfaced. Videos under the hashtag #revengedress have amassed more than 134 million views on TikTok, where it’s resonating strongly with young audiences.
Netflix’s Stranger Things is a show that knows how to capitalise on its influence. In the 48 hours following the release of season four last year, searches for “retro fashion” and “80s clothing” saw increases of 103% and 80% respectively, while searches for Australian sportswear brand (and 80s favourite) Quicksilver increased by 20% (Love the Sales, 2022).
Clothing collaborations with Quicksilver as well as high-street retailers Primark and Pull&Bear followed, which emphasised not only the retro appeal of the costuming, but also brought to life in-universe elements from the show, such as sports team merch and club memorabilia. Netflix’s Squid Game – a 2021 breakout – made similar moves in 2022 by collaborating with Japanese streetwear label Bape.
Stranger Things and Squid Game have proven that not only can ample visual inspiration be drawn from popular shows, but there’s also a myriad of licensing opportunities. The key is to explore timely merchandising collaborations with brands that share sartorial and spiritual messaging with a show and hold authentic crossover appeal for Gen Z. Tees and sweats work well for Stranger Things but less so for Bridgerton – so really consider what resonates with particular audiences.
Watch out for upcoming 2023 debuts, including Amazon’s Daisy Jones & The Six and HBO’s The Idol, both of which have the potential to create viral and commercially lucrative fashion moments.
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