4 Ways Fashion Girls Are Making This Basic Summer Trend Feel Like *New Thing*

Mother nature may move on a seasonal-by-season clock, but fashion does not. It takes mere weeks, if not less, for a fashion trend to grow in popularity, only to rot out of favor even faster. One could say that following this rapid cycle has led many picky fashion people (myself included) to become jaded. When you’ve been following trends for years, nothing ever really feels new. And in some ways, nothing in fashion really is because it’s constantly drawing inspiration from the past. Still, even with that intellectual awareness, it’s not uncommon for a fashion person to feel overcome with indifference to “dated clothing.” There’s no more prime example of this than florals. 

You don’t have to work in fashion to know how fraught the perception around floral prints is because it’s permeated pop culture. Simply look to film characters like Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada, who mocks them blithely as proof. While she’s undoubtedly a fictional persona, it’s not an exaggeration to assume many fashion people have found florals unexciting for some time—that is, until now. With the release of spring/summer 2023 collections, we saw florals outgrow their formerly “basic” iterations and take on a new form.

No longer have the sentiments of apathy to floral clothing dominated the conversation. Instead, we’ve seen florals surge in popularity among the fashion set. But how exactly have florals turned from cliché to cool? In search of that answer, I spent hours scouring runway collections and Instagram to narrow down four ways florals in every form are being styled by the fashion set right now. Plus, I shopped out the most stylish botanical-inspired pieces on the market. Consider this your guidebook on how to wear florals in a way that feels fresher than newly cut grass.