W hen an individual French fry is being wrapped in a bow, filmed, and shared on the internet, it is a sign that something strange is going on with an age-old symbol of girl- and womanhood. By the end of last year it wasn’t just chips – everything from ice cubes to gherkins, toilet rolls, golden retrievers and a bottle of antidepressants were being prettified, neatly packaged with a single bow and posted on TikTok, where, in some cases, they would rack up millions of views. It was a satirical conclusion to a year in which we arguably reached peak bow. But the wave never crested. As a trend analyst told the
New York Times in September, after a bow-infused New York
fashion week: “If you had asked me if we reached peak ribbon two months ago, I would have said yes. But it’s still going.” View image in fullscreen A still from a TikTok video by Trovlov where she ties a bow around everything from loo roll to gherkins to wine glasses. Photograph: TikTok/trovlov Cut to 2024 and, in our TikTok age, where trends are often over before they have properly begun, the popularity of bows still shows no signs of waning: Pinterest predicts bow-stacking – the art of piling bows on bows on outfits, shoes, hair and jewellery – will be one of the biggest trends of the year and bow videos on TikTok have been viewed more than 1bn times. At Milan fashion week in February, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons showed shapeless shift dresses dripping in flat silk bows on the catwalk, as, according to the show notes, they “fundamentally reassessed” what they called “cliches of femininity”. It’s a trend that emerged from the girlification of everything, from “girl-maths” to “girl-dinner” and a “hot girl summer” that coincided with the rise of hyper-feminine fashion. Early pioneers included Sandy Liang – TikTok is filled with easy DIY tutorials for her stacked hair bows – Shushu/Tong , and Simone Rocha , who pinned whimsical ribbon-bows on to models’ faces like tears. But it was taken further by Viktor & Rolf, who wrapped Jodie Turner-Smith in a giant bow for the
Vogue World red carpet. Maligned for being bland and infantile, beloved by girly-girls and schoolchildren; bows remain everywhere, leaving even Prada wanting to know: “Why do they persist?” View image in fullscreen Whimsical … a model with bows on her face at Simone Rocha’s show in February 2023. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images “They portray a kinderwhore -derived grunge aesthetic or a super pretty Simone Rocha or Ryan Lo princess, or even an elegant grownup sexiness, depending how you wear them,” says LA-based stylist Mimi Wade , who references directors and artists such as Sofia Coppola and Petra Collins as her inspiration. She recently designed a froufrou, bow-filled collection for Heaven , Marc Jacobs’ playful clothing line, modelled by Pamela Anderson and Grimes. “Seeing the world through a female lens is comforting,” she says. “It helps us to navigate and make sense of what it means to be a girl and a woman and the many different representations and contradictions that can exist within it.” A new generation of designers are subverting feminine motifs as a way of challenging people’s perceptions about what it means to be female. Take the buzzy, punky Chopova Lowena – when they choose to adorn their clothes with bows, you know the once-saccharine decoration has shifted gear. The English-Bulgarian brand has threaded tartan ribbons through chunky knitwear and linked folkloric silver medallions on a denim midi skirt with fine bows. Rei Kawakubo protege Kei Ninomiya has lately been crafting bondage-style tops out of heavy-duty black rope; and Bella Hadid-approved label Kiko Kostadinov ’s bow-embellished boots and trainers have become a cult favourite. “Perhaps something new can be created for
Women through pairing unconventional styles together,” say the brand’s womenswear designers, twins Deanna and Laura Fanning. On jewellery, bows are being juxtaposed with something edgier. In the work of Irish-Australian jewellery maker Leo Costelloe , fluid bows hang from hardcore chains to “create a discourse about wider themes like femininity, gender and sexuality. As a queer person,” he says, “a lot of the work stems from self-reflection, and the bows challenge a perception of strength as something physical and the idea that presenting submissively makes you weak.” View image in fullscreen Reassessing cliches of femininity … the Prada show at Milan fashion week. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
British designer Katie Roberts-Wood , whose clothes embrace bows and ruffles, also links femininity to strength. “Although a lot of the symbols of feminine dressing historically represent women being disregarded, oppressed, and viewed and valued only as pretty objects and little else, I think this can be turned on its head in a modern fashion context. I like to think of these symbols being repurposed for our own means, and self-expression, where the wearer’s gender is not relevant,” she says. “Society at large may view this kind of dressing as silly or frivolous and inconsequential, but for those with the inclination to harness it, there is something magical, freeing and even delightfully subversive about dressing this way.” But there is a conversation to be had around the bow’s recent popularity swelling with the rise of coquette-core – a flirty and delicately feminine aesthetic centred on frills, lace, miniskirts, corsets, and, of course, bows – that emerged in 2021. Related subtrends such as balletcore, Barbiecore and regency-core have drawn criticism for hypersexualising innocence and encouraging women to dress for the male gaze. View image in fullscreen Political clout … Margaret Thatcher in a pussy bow blouse, circa 1980. Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images For some, bows have become a symbol of trad wives and patriarchal oppression: a way of self-infantilising that comes at a terrible time as conservatism and hate speech are growing among young men, gender pay gaps still exist and many women have been stripped of their reproductive rights. Fashion writer Rian Phin explains on X: “Bows and ribbons are symbolic of 2023 being the year of the girl-(useless thing) when it should’ve been the year of girl-feminism,” she said. It’s not the first time ribbons have caused controversy. When they emerged as a fashion statement during the rococo period in the 18th century, they were decried for being a symbol of exorbitant wealth. Isabella Moritz , the exhibition designer behind Untying the Bow , now on show at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s museum in
New York City, explains that “because ribbons were woven one at a time for a very, very long time, they became these markers of status and consumption”. It wasn’t until the invention of the power loom during the Industrial Revolution that ribbons became cheap to manufacture, finding their way into popular consciousness in the Victorian era. Moritz draws a parallel to what is happening today: the accessibility of bows and ribbons from local craft stores has meant they are an easy trend to tap into – something she thinks might have contributed to their dominance. By the 1980s, “the idea of the strong and powerful bow emerged at a time when women, who usually wore a single large bow, were positioning themselves to be more visible in politics and the workplace,” says Moritz. The pussy bow blouse became the feminine equivalent of the male suit and tie, since adopted by everyone from Margaret Thatcher to
Michelle Obama and
Melania Trump. Perhaps it is some of that political clout that is adding to their potency today. But it doesn’t always have to be all that deep. Bows can just be bows – fun and pretty and silly. In fact, Wade thinks that in 2024, “the girlification of everything has kind of become this absurdist, post-ironic, inside joke”.