By Niamh Bloomer (She/Her)

There have been many fashion trends surfacing throughout the past months such as the on-trend-hues of the colour red, metallics, cowboy boots and the resurgence of quiet luxury as influenced by fashion’s current “it girl” Sofia Richie Grainge. However, for me, the key element of the 2023-2024 season will always be remembered as the season of the bow.

This trend is accompanied by the overflowing interest in the concept of girlhood, a summer in which everyone found a way to incorporate Barbie pink into their wardrobes, and an evoking of the alluring coquette and ballet core trends. The classic bow accessory has now transcended into becoming the chicest finishing touch to any outfit.

Either tied around a ponytail or adorning knitwear and the backs of dresses, bow details have been a shining beacon across the fashion runways of Milan, Paris, London, and New York. With roots of playful femininity, designers such as Miu Miu, Simone Rocha and Sandy Laing have mastered the embracement of the bow within their Spring 2024 collections. Going one step further than bows with clothes tied onto items of clothing, but rather bows cascading down the hair and faces of models. This has led to the garnish of bows excelling amongst high street brands such as And Other Stories and H&M, becoming part of the most sought-after and sold-out items of the moment.

As with most trends in the current day, the bow is a product of social media. It slowly started gaining influence in late 2022, with bows just simply being added into a hairstyle, then they were tied around headphones, then included in everyday-makeup looks.

Now it’s almost taking an absurd turn of the viral craze of tying a dainty pink bow around random everyday objects such as cans of Diet Coke to toilet paper with the queen-of-coquette Lana Del Rey as the chosen music to accompany, illustrating that anything with a ribbon added can fit the theme of hyper-femininity. This ubiquitous use of the bow that’s exploded all over social media is a virtual reincarnation of the millennial moustache frenzy that was dominant for a good chunk of the 2010s, with many millennials becoming victims of the outdated “fingerstache” tattoo.

But putting the fashion week runways and social media to the one side, the bow and coquette fashion seems to have become a symbol of nostalgia for past generations. The bow is something for many that can be tied around your hair to make up for lost time, bringing back the memories of girlhood such as skinned knees, frilly socks and playing with dolls that most of us were quick to grow out of before realising it had gone by too quick. It’s a symbol of clinging onto childhood not just for the Gen-Z population but age groups before, who remember the bow as an iconic symbol of the 80s worn by Madonna and Princess Diana. Who knew a dainty accessory could be the secret to eternal youth?

With all that said, society can now only come to the singular conclusion; ribbons and bows are truly a girl’s best friend.