Welcome to the Age of Accessories

If there was one takeaway from the spring 2025 fashion season, it was that accessories ruled the roost. Not since the aughts salad days of “It” bags and mile-long wait lists have we seen this much commotion around must-have extras. The viral bag charm trend found its way to the runways of Fendi and Stella McCartney, while items like sneakers and phone cases are also getting their own tricked-out, customized iterations. Unexpected, conversation-starting pieces—like Coach’s oversized bear-shaped bag and Tory Burch’s edgy, pierced shoes and handbags—are going viral on our feeds. And categories that don’t often get much runway play, like colorful tights and elaborate headpieces, were the surprise hits of the season. For our March spring fashion issue, the ELLE team pulled together a play-by-play of all the highlights.

Leg Day

Whether you’re a street-style star in a pop of red or Charli XCX in wine-splashed sheer tights for her “360” music video, hosiery has become a staple, no matter your aesthetic. For spring 2025, Valentino and Chanel fancied patterned-lace tights and knee-highs; Balenciaga and Dolce & Gabbana went provocative with sultry takes on hold-up stockings; and Prada opted for a rainbow of opaque styles.

model wearing white lingerie and stockings on a runway

LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

Statement hosiery at Balenciaga (left) and Prada (right) for spring 2025.

model walking the runway in a green dress with flowing sheer elements and green tights

Filippo Fior//LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

“Statement hosiery, once reserved for avant-garde runways, has now infiltrated everyday style,” says Cami Téllez, executive creative director of L’Eggs, a 55-year-old legacy brand experiencing a revamp. According to the brand’s customer research data, 45 percent of women plan to wear more colored and patterned tights this year. Téllez calls it “the red lipstick of the category.” Another view comes from the founder of a brand you’ve likely seen on Beyoncé: Destiney Bleu of d.bleu.dazzled. “Tights are like eyelashes,” Bleu says. “They give the appearance of a little extra effort.”Madison Rexroat

fashion handbag with fringe detailing and decorative charms

LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

A charm-heavy handbag on the Fendi runway.

Charm Offensive

These days, you can’t swing a purse without rattling your bag charms. Fendi, Coach, and Stella McCartney capitalized on the trend for spring, offering an array of charms and mini bags-on-bags. “Ultra-personalization is great for your feed,” says Ryan Kleman, director of non-apparel and fine jewelry for Moda Operandi. “Before the internet dominated fashion, we called these ‘conversation starters.’” (He cites Jane Birkin and her charm-covered namesake Hermès bag as an example of the trend’s endurance.)

Bonbonwhims founder and designer Clare Ngai-Howard recently started a conversation of her own, going viral for posting a Louis Vuitton bag decked out with charms and chains from her own brand and travels. She chalks it up to “this collective appetite for revisiting past fashion trends. Growing up in Hong Kong, it was a given to personalize my flip phone’s case and layer key chains and Tamagotchis on my school backpack.” Today, everything from hats to hair clips has become a canvas for personalization. Shoppers have an “ongoing desire for individuality,” notes Silvia Merati, CEO Americas of Golden Goose. The brand dedicates an entire station, called Co-Creation, to luxury customization of its bags and sneakers, helping shoppers feel connected to the design process. With so many combinations of monograms, birthstones, zodiac signs, and trinkets, it’s nearly impossible to look exactly like everyone else. The only question left: Is there any frontier left uncharmed?MR

fashion model showcasing a striped shirt and a patterned handbag

Courtesy of the designer.

Bottega Veneta’s whimsical purse for spring 2025.

Odd Squad

There’s no denying that fashion has gotten kooky lately. And spring 2025 brought an avalanche of novelty accessories, from Coach’s Teddy bear clutches to Tory Burch’s Pierced bags. For Viv Chen, who writes The Molehill newsletter on Substack, the absurdity is indicative of something larger: an ever-growing struggle for uniqueness. “With the influx of microtrends and the homogeneity of style online, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out,” she says.

And there’s a social element. “You don’t bring out a life-size plush dog bag without expecting to be approached,” Chen says. So is it a satirical Trojan horse intended for political subversion? A social crutch for a digitally native generation? Is it just plain fun? It’s a bag shaped like a bear; it’s whatever you want it to be.Meg Donohue

fashion model on runway wearing a gray shirt and maroon pants with bags

Courtesy of the designer.

Double bagging on the Bottega Veneta spring 2025 runway.

Double Bagged

Why carry one bag when you can make it two? In true city-girl fashion, this season is about multitasking—whether it’s a high-fashion take on the shopping bag paired with a luxury handbag, as seen at Bottega Veneta, or a smaller purse affixed to its larger counterpart, à la Chanel and Stella McCartney.

According to Madé Lapuerta, who runs the digital platform and Instagram account Data, But Make It Fashion, this trend is an accessible way to experiment with style. “When trend cycles change quicker than ever—sometimes in just a matter of weeks—double bagging resonates with people tired of feeling like they need to constantly purchase new products,” she says. “Instead, what if I just wore my old Balenciaga City bag with my mini Moynat…at the same time?”

black handbag with keychain attachments being held by a model

LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

It can also be a more attainable entry point for those who want to invest in luxury fashion, as it offers more functionality than the smaller mini-bags while also being a more interesting purchase for customers. Lapuerta explains, “Maybe I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend, but if I can purchase a smaller item and pair it with a tote I already own, that’s a way I can still engage with luxury.”Dale Arden Chong

three models showcase unique fashion outfits

Courtesy of the designer.

Prada’s quirky headwear for spring 2025.

Head Over Heels

So much for minimalism and quiet luxury. For spring 2025, Bottega Veneta, Prada, and McQueen used headwear to offer a window into a future where bold accessories reign supreme. Ornamented with diamonds, fringe, and playful motifs, these pieces are more like wearable sculptures, offering an avant-garde approach to styling.

Prada’s co–creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were particularly intentional, and timely, with their depiction of a world beyond two-dimensional dressing—one that featured leather goggle hats with circular cutouts that looked almost like astronaut gear, and a raffia fringe headpiece that hung over the eyes. In his sophomore season leading McQueen, Seán McGirr experimented with knitted “skull masks” that were both functional and extravagant. One particularly glamorous iteration came complete with crystal embellishments and chains that extended all the way down to the waist.

As conversations swirl on social media around individuality and personal style, writer and fashion theorist Rian Phin notes that these headpieces provide a new road map to individual expression, emphasizing “flamboyant accessorizing, rather than just cycling through trends.” Bottega Veneta’s offering was the perfect example, as then-designer Matthieu Blazy gave the youthful idea of playing dress-up a luxury makeover with leather wigs. Strips of leather were cutinto thin, hairlike pieces that bounced and flowed as models walked the runway.

With creations like these, it’s safe to say that fashion is not just fun again­ —it’s also, well, funny. They are proof that “the future of fashion should be unpredictable, joyful, and capricious,” says creative consultant and fashion theorist Ashantéa Austin. Designers seem to be urging us to take ourselves a little less seriously, challenging us with the question: What’s stopping us from having a good time with our clothes? The answer: Absolutely nothing.Tasha Nicole Smith

fashionable handbag paired with stylish attire

Gaspar J Ruiz Lindberg

A Gucci spring 2025 bag featuring one of the house’s archival prints from the ’60s.

The Ones That Got Away

Everyone has a story, whether it’s the sample sale where The Row’s Margaux bag slipped through their fingers, or the time they completely missed the boat on Proenza Sorels. Now, just as our exes pop up on our Instagram feeds, so too do our long-lost fashion finds—and thanks to luxury resale, a reunion is just a click away. Meanwhile, amid rising interest in heritage and vintage fashion, many designers have been increasingly primed to revisit the archives, reinventing and reimagining the hits of the (sometimes not-so-distant) past and delivering new versions of the grails we missed the first time around. In Prada’s spring 2025 collection, everything from spring 1999’s split-soled loafers to spring 2024’s pointed heels got a refresh. At Gucci, Sabato De Sarno brought back some of the house’s jet-set ’60s-era prints on handbags and hats in vibrant shades of orange and chartreuse. Nicolas Ghesquière combed through the Louis Vuitton archives for the brand’s new Greenwich handbag, based on a travel style from 1997. And for his much-heralded Valentino debut, Alessandro Michele looked to the maison’s ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s archives for looks that included whimsical polka-dot motifs. Turns out the past is never really dead.Véronique Hyland


A version of this story appears in the March 2025 issue of ELLE.

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