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Surprise: The Bow Trend Isn’t Really a Trend at All

Writer's picture: MelMel

Updated: Jan 22

I stop at a trendy apparel and jewelry store in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. Immediately, I’m enveloped in a pink, disco ball-glittery, ultra-feminine aesthetic. I’ve been here before, another location, but I don’t see them too often. It’s been a weird weekend. I’m cold and feeling not-myself, so what better way for a 20-something, fashion-loving, chronically-online woman to get a pick me up than… buying something? You know, as a treat?

As I’m browsing, I gravitate towards the sweatshirts and crewnecks. As mentioned, I’m cold, and my tank top and jeans aren’t cutting it. I’m sifting through, and one catches my eye (because it’s blue). There’s a bow on the front. Not a physical, tied in a neat knot bow, but a bow is printed on the front of this crewneck. And it’s cute.

I can’t remember the first time I saw a bow on an adult woman as a stylistic choice in a modern outfit. But I can call to memory hundreds of pictures of women in bows now – from casual sweater-and-jeans looks to uber-feminine, cottagecore dresses. At first, as with my approach to many fashion trends, I was reluctant. I wasn’t sure if it made sense for me, my wardrobe, who I was as a person. But around 2021, they became undeniable, and continued to be a main point in fashion even three years later.

As much as I grew to love it, to embrace the femininity and girlhood that bows stood for, I didn’t understand why it had lasted against other trends. After all, thanks in large part to TikTok, trends and aesthetics like “light academia,” “cottagecore” to more niche ones like “Office Siren” and “Coastal Grandma” have been going in and out of the mainstream at much quicker paces than they once did.

There had to be a reason that bows continue to stick around for so long. And spoiler alert: it’s because they’re not only not a new trend, I would go so far to say that as a whole, they’re not really a trend at all.

How Women Style Bows Today

When I began on my quest to get to the bottom of bows, there were two extremely clear pictures that came to mind. One: hair bows in “academia”-style outfits; think plaid, sweaters, The Secret History, and dimly-lit libraries. And two: Isabella Ricci’s entire fashion identity.

If you’re not well-wedged into the corners of social media that include fashion, personal style, and fantastic creators like Ricci, I’d say you’re missing out. Without even pulling her feed up on my phone, I can paint you a picture: pastels, beautiful, dramatic dresses, florals, shabby-chic vibes, and, of course, bows.

The New York-based, 26-year-old content creator is the blueprint for chic, soft, feminine style. She didn’t hop on bows when they started trending; for her, it’s a lifelong love for something that is much more than a pretty ribbon.

Before she was 89k-follower @isa.bella.ricci, her personal account was @bellabows. She’s been creating content since she was 15 or 16, but didn’t start seriously posting fashion content until she was 19, pursuing a degree in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I made my debut in the fashion corner of Instagram in late 2018, she’s been a consistent, genuine presence in feminine style.

When bows trickled down to the mainstream as a fashion trend in 2021, mainly through TikTok, the algorithm brought more people to her. When I started thinking about bows as more than just a trend, I knew I needed to talk to her about it.

Often compared to the mustache trend of the 2010s, the trend features bows on everything – hair bows, bow graphics on clothing and accessories, as home décor, and everything in between. Ricci finds that this comparison to the mustache trend is silly – “bows are timeless,” she says. Historically speaking, she’s right. Even so, akin to mustaches, slap a bow on something, and 16-30 year old girls and women will love it. So what happens if, like the mustache trend of the 2010s, bows become cringe? Or is it only a matter of time? Time, funny enough, says no.

An Exploration Into the Girlhood We’re ‘Reclaiming’

The bows you see now on Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, and the like are anything from bow clips to cheap ribbons tied around anything imaginable. #bows has 6 million posts on Instagram. Nearly 300 thousand people have posted videos on TikTok about bows - and these are just the people who still use hashtags. The "bows on everything" trend took bows out of hair and put them on the most obscure objects: a croissant, a card reader, a lamp. Bows can be physical bows, yes, but they’re also a motif that represent a lot of different things.

By now, about four years into this, people like me who love fashion are used to seeing bows everywhere on women regardless of their age. But why are these accessories, usually reserved for babies, young girls, and preteens (see: Jojo Siwa, well, before her rebrand) migrating in audience?

“Children, especially little girls and babies, have always worn bows,” says Martha Hollander, Poet and Art Historian who teaches Fashion History courses at Hofstra University. These bows are to distinguish the baby’s gender: a declaration of girlhood. And surprisingly, this “declaration of girlhood” isn’t too far off from what they’re signaling now.

They’ve become a symbol of sorts, embracing femininity and the idea of girlhood - which to be fair, is really not more than an idea.

“During periods of great stress and upheaval – like right now in this country with further threats to women, one of the first things you do is retreat into the past,” says Hollander. It’s human nature to revert back to what’s comfortable, but Hollander notes that especially in the case of bows, it’s not as simple as an idealized past. “This form of nostalgia [is] a sort of general concept that the past was better, which maybe usually not. The past is a myth and the better past that people want never existed, which is a whole political thing as well.” Hollander cites the current political climate of the United States of America, especially post-Roe v Wade’s overturning.

Plenty of articles have talked about how bows are helping women “reclaim girlhood” – part of the longevity of the trend can be directed back to this. And it makes sense, looking back on popular trends of the 2010s: the Girlboss, Athleisure – all things that strip away fluff and frill for a simpler, more masculine silhouette.

Bows Weren’t Always a “Girl” Thing

History repeats itself - heard that one before, but how weird is it when it happens right under your nose? The popularization of a more girlie, dress-and-skirt, bow-centric wardrobe comes directly after these sleek, no-nonsense styles of the 2010s were inescapable, is really just another version of the Great Masculine Renunciation.

Before the late 18th century, men were lavishly dressed, donning bows in many forms as well as loud patterns and colors. Gone were heeled shoes, breeches, complicated wigs, fine fabrics, embroidery, lace cuffs – this massive shift in fashion represented a change in men’s roles. Post-revolution, men’s ideas of themselves and masculinity changed, became more streamlined. Far fewer people were in palaces, and this shift to a more urban and working lifestyle, many of which required men working, also shifted men’s clothing to be simpler.

Women were left to be the ones who expressed themselves through clothing. After all, part of this, for quite a while, was trying to woo a husband. Bows made their way solely to woman and children. Specifically young girls, but also young boys – see the young boy’s sailor suits. And, as Hollander mentioned, bows helped distinguish a baby’s gender.

Are we having a second sort of Masculine Renunciation? No, but sort of, at all times. Fashion is a direct reflection of our times, and a pretty one at that.

The idea of reclaiming girlhood comes from all of these things: political stress, desire to return to the past (childhood, a simpler time), taking something that’s long been a feminine symbol and making it modern, adult. The idea of growing up often means letting go of things associated with childhood – color, excess, fluff – bows fall into this category. Even a few years ago, seeing a young woman wear bows wouldn’t immediately warrant the terms “chic,” or “stylish” – rather “childish,” “immature.” No longer.

Around 2021, femininity and high-femme fashion began to rise in popularity. Girlboss and athleisure, rejections of classic femininity, fell out. The white-knuckled rejection of traditional “girlie” things began to move into an embrace, partially because the rights of women are so continuously threatened.

These things take time, fashion trickles down. When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I was 18, and the girls in my choir class and I cried the whole period. This was a huge hit to the women’s rights movement, and many were taken aback about what this means for the future of women, reproductive rights among those. In 2024, those fears have only worsened; Roe v. Wade has since been overturned, and access to abortion has been limited throughout the country to varying degrees.

It makes sense for people – mainly, but not limited to women in this case – to want to try to control what they can. In this case, having opinions like, for example, pro-life stances, while also wearing a dress, is an act of rebellion. While it may seem incredibly simple when broken down like this, femininity in fashion – like bows – is rooted in history and politics just as well as it’s rooted in girlhood and adolescence.

The Rise and Eventual Fall of Bows as We Know Them

Things are going to change, that’s one thing we can always be sure of. Bows may not be exactly what they are now, but they’ve been around for nearly as long as clothing has, in some form, even as simple as just tying different components of clothing together.

So bows, in themselves, aren’t really a trend. Bows as they appear now, in the 2020’s, are a trend. In the 2040’s, maybe they’ll look different. It’s likely that they will.

Creators like Ricci and brands like Selkie, Simone Rocha, and Sandy Liang have definitely gotten more attention since this variation of the bow has become mainstream and taken over social media. But again, the people who are benefiting from this aren’t ones who hop on trends – they’re ones who’ve been committed to certain ideas and aesthetics for years.

“The frustration is definitely more with content creators that try to profit off of it in whatever way that looks, whether it’s promoting Amazon bows or just wearing it with an outfit that doesn’t really make sense,” Ricci says. There are unfortunately always going to be people who profit off of whatever’s trending, and Ricci says that the downside to her growth due to this trend over the past few years has also been people using trends like bows – ones she genuinely connects to and feels inspired by – being used and discarded in order to grow or make money.

In the world of fashion content creation, it’s often hard to discern from someone’s genuine love for a style versus wearing it because it’s what’s currently trending. “Some people will post whatever they know will do well,” Ricci says. And of course, trends will do well because they’re…well, trending.

“The amount of random things that have bows on them now…it’s literally everywhere,” Ricci says. “Some of these things are cute and appealing because they have bows. But then, I’m also thinking, is it actually cute, or is it just because there’s a bow on it?”

And because of the nature that is a trend, it spreads everywhere. When you search “bows” on Etsy, the results are, essentially, endless. On Pinterest, the search for bows comes up with ribbon bows in a young woman’s hair, posters, clip art, crocheted bows woven into woman’s braids, golden bow earrings, and bow trinket dishes. It’s over 20 before I even see a single children’s bow.

The Lasting Appeal of the Bow

What initially piqued my curiosity about this was the longevity of bows. I was surprised to find that years later, they’re still popular, whether plateauing or gaining in popularity, it depends on who you ask.

Typically, trends last about a year, and some can be tied to seasons. Florals, for example, for spring – groundbreaking. Some trend analysts say that fashion trends come back every 20 years, other say that the fashion trend cycle has sped up to as few as three years.

Fast fashion is heavily to blame; getting on-trend clothing and accessories has become easier and cheaper. Near identical dupes of expensive designer items, like the $395 GANNI flats that every it-girl must own, can be bought at reduced prices anywhere from well-known brands like Steve Madden ($119) to Amazon brands like Mingkaigo for $28.50. Bows are even easier, more accessible: tying a ribbon onto your bag, your jeans, is considered instantly trendy, and it can cost as little as $1.

Bows 4Ever

“There were bows in the early 2010s – it was just a different shape. People just forget these things,” Ricci says. “I think every decade honestly has a bow trend that always looks slightly different, and bows can be anywhere.”

In its current form, the trend itself will eventually die out, as trends do. Creators like Ricci and brands like Simon Rocha will feel less trendy to mainstream consumers, leaving behind only those whom the style genuinely resonates with. And maybe that’s not a bad thing.

 Bows are so deeply rooted in history that they’re not really going anywhere, they’ll just look different the next time they’re popularized. They’re part political, part nostalgic, part hyper-feminine, and anything that you want them to be. In any and all of their forms, bows are apparel, accessories, motifs, and anything else you want them to be.

I didn’t end up buying the bow-printed sweater in that boutique despite being cold, but now I know a little too much about a piece of ribbon – one that I’ll never be able to look at the same way again

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©2025 by Melanie Haid

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