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2016 Fashion Trends: What People Wore and How to Wear It Now

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2016 Fashion Trends: What People Wore and How to Wear It Now
Street style at New York Fashion Week, September 2016: a lace-trimmed satin camisole under a white double-breasted blazer, with hoop earrings. Photo: Peter T from Brooklyn, NY, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

The defining 2016 fashion trends were off-the-shoulder tops, chokers, bomber jackets, ripped jeans, slip dresses and velvet, plus a dusty shade nicknamed millennial pink and retro sneakers such as the Adidas Superstar. Each one appears in records made that year, from Google search data and a retail analytics firm to fashion editors writing at the time. Each trend below comes with the evidence from 2016 itself and a way to wear it today.

The table gives one row per trend, with who recorded it at the time and when. Search figures come from Google’s Fashion Trends 2016 report, which compared US and UK searches through May 2016. Most retail figures come from EDITED, a retail analytics company, as reported by Refinery29 at the end of December 2016; the sneaker ranking comes from NPD and the Gucci sales figure from Glossy.

Trend The 2016 evidence (who documented it, and when) How to wear it now
Off-the-shoulder and cold-shoulder tops Searches for off-the-shoulder styles in May 2016 ran 347% above December 2015 levels in the US and 261% above them in the UK, and Google’s 2016 report labeled it a “rising star”. Refinery29, reporting EDITED’s retail analysis in December 2016, called off-the-shoulder dresses “the most popular womenswear trend of 2016.” One off-shoulder knit with tailored trousers, not a matching set.
Chokers W Magazine (December 23, 2016) judged the choker the most widespread trend of the year. Vice (September 2016) traced it to runway shows by Dior (Spring 2016) and Alexander Wang (Fall 2016). A thin choker layered with one or two longer chains.
Bomber jackets In Google’s data, April 2016 searches rose 612% on the year before in the US and 297% in the UK. EDITED put bombers at number one for a second straight year (Refinery29, December 2016). A cropped bomber over a slip dress or a plain knit dress.
Ripped jeans Google’s 2016 report placed ripped jeans among its “Sustained Risers,” with steady growth over several years, and they topped its UK list of bottoms. Keep the jeans slim and go loose on top with a roomy blazer or a thick sweater.
Slip dresses Refinery29 (June 2016) linked the slip to Spring 2016 shows at Céline, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. Who What Wear’s Saks trend report (August 2016) called it the season’s “It dress”. Over a T-shirt or a knit, as Refinery29 suggested in 2016.
Velvet A W Magazine gallery (March 2016) billed velvet as “the most popular fabric of Fall 2016” on the runways. Who What Wear (August 2016) saw velvet suits and dresses from Prada to Valentino. Start with one velvet piece, such as ankle boots; a full velvet suit is the bold version.
Millennial pink Véronique Hyland called the shade millennial pink in The Cut on August 2, 2016. The Ringer (November 2016) followed it into an Everlane and Opening Ceremony clothing line released that October. One muted pink piece, a knit or a bag, against gray, navy or camel.
Rose Quartz and Serenity Pantone picked two colors for 2016, a first: Rose Quartz (13-1520) and Serenity (15-3919). ABC7 reported the choice on December 4, 2015. Wear the pale pink and pale blue together, or either one with denim.
Athleisure Merriam-Webster added “athleisure” to its unabridged dictionary in April 2016 (Christian Science Monitor). Reading Google’s data in August 2016, Hypebeast found “sweatshirt” searches up more than 500% year on year. A sweatshirt over a collared shirt, or track pants under a wool coat.
Retro sneakers Sneaker buyers moved from performance shoes to casual ones in 2016, and Quartz (December 23, 2016) gave Adidas classics a share of the credit: the Superstar, Stan Smith and Samba. NPD data later ranked the Superstar first in US dollar sales for 2016 (Quartz, April 2017). Clean white low-tops with jeans, a slip dress or a suit.
Logos and 1990s sportswear The Guardian (April 2016) called the £185 Vetements DHL T-shirt “the biggest fashion story of 2016 so far.” Gosha Rubchinskiy showed collaborations with Kappa, Fila and Sergio Tacchini at Pitti Uomo in June 2016 (TheIndustry.fashion). One logo or track piece per outfit, kept with plain basics.
Gucci-led maximalism Gucci’s sales grew 17% in the third quarter under creative director Alessandro Michele (Glossy, October 2016). Gucci’s resort collection was The Cut’s example (August 2016) of a “maximal, ruffled” mood replacing years of minimalism. Add one embroidered or ruffled piece to an otherwise plain outfit.
Rompers and jumpsuits Google’s 2016 report found the romper led its “ready-to-go” category by US search volume, while the jumpsuit led in the UK. EDITED also listed jumpsuits among 2016’s trends. A plain jumpsuit with sneakers by day and heels at night.

How did people dress in 2016?

Fashion writers in 2016 tied much of the year’s look to a 1990s revival and to sportswear worn as everyday clothing. When The Independent looked back in January 2026, it called an off-the-shoulder top worn with a choker “a ubiquitous image of 2016.”

Off-the-shoulder tops and chokers

Google’s report filed the off-the-shoulder style under “rising stars,” a group it warned might not last because the growth was so recent and sudden. Among what Google called “free-spirited” pieces, the off-shoulder top drew more searches than anything else in both countries, and the cold shoulder top made the same list. ASOS alone carried nearly 700 of the dresses, by EDITED’s count, and the average price dipped to $67, down from $69.99. Google’s rising stars also included bodysuits and bralettes.

The choker rode in alongside it. Barneys New York executive Jennifer Sunwoo told W Magazine that the store’s choker sales spiked once off-the-shoulder looks arrived and “women were looking to accessorize this new neckline.” Google’s data showed the same link, with people searching for the two together. In W’s telling, the push came from Rihanna and Beyoncé: a big pink choker in Rihanna’s “Work” video, and three stacked at once on Beyoncé in “Formation.” Vice reported that a $375 Fallon Monarch choker sold out right after Rihanna was seen in it, while W found copies at Forever 21 for $3. The piece has a long history: W noted that women in 18th- and 19th-century Europe wore chokers to signal wealth, the same period that produced Regency era fashion.

Bomber jackets

Google’s “military chic” group had the bomber at its head. Among the ten most searched colors, pink grew fastest; satin and silk were the fastest-growing fabrics; and searchers in both countries paired the word “embroidered” with bomber more often than “camo”. Gigi Hadid’s name began turning up beside the bomber in US searches in December 2015, but Kanye West remained the celebrity most searched with it. The women’s versions did better than the men’s in EDITED’s data, with a larger share of styles selling out before any markdown.

Ripped jeans

Google’s report treated ripped jeans as a safe bet, a style whose searches had grown steadily for years rather than spiking once. Biker pants sat in the same group. Hypebeast, reading the same data for menswear, noted rising searches for black ripped jeans too. The Independent’s 2026 look back counted skinny jeans among the year’s defining pieces, typically topped in 2016 by a crop top or a bandeau.

Slip dresses and velvet

Refinery29 described a Spring 2016 runway season in which lingerie moved into daywear. On those runways the slip came both ways: grungy satin layered under a biker jacket at Saint Laurent, lace-edged silk at Céline. Refinery29 named Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as fans of the look. For fall, velvet took over. W’s March gallery listed Balmain, Givenchy, Dries Van Noten, Stella McCartney and Vetements among the Paris shows that used it. The Saks report from Who What Wear picked out mustard, forest green and deep purple, and suggested merging the two trends in a velvet slip dress.

Millennial pink, Rose Quartz and Serenity

In December 2015, Pantone named two shades as its 2016 Color of the Year: Rose Quartz, a soft pink, and Serenity, a pale blue. No year since the annual pick began in 2000 had been given two colors, ABC7 noted, and Pantone linked the pair to what it called a “gender blur” in fashion.

By summer a related, dustier pink was everywhere. The Cut’s Véronique Hyland called it millennial pink that August, pointing to the same salmon tone in branding for Acne, the Wing and Glossier, on a Kinfolk cover and in Thinx advertising. She described it as “pink without the sugary prettiness.” The Ringer followed the shade back to Apple’s rose gold iPhone of September 2015 and forward into Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky” video.

Athleisure and retro sneakers

Merriam-Webster’s April 2016 update defined athleisure as clothing “designed for both exercising and casual use.” Sneakers carried the trend into retail data: of the 331,000 new pairs EDITED counted online in 2016, more than 240,000 were listed in categories other than athletics. Quartz judged Adidas the coolest label in fashion that year, pointing to its classic Stan Smith, Samba and Superstar models and to new releases such as the NMD and the Yeezy line made with Kanye West. Market researcher NPD later found that the Superstar had the highest US dollar sales of any sneaker in 2016, ending more than a decade in which a Nike shoe held the top spot.

Logos, Vetements and 1990s sportswear

The Paris label Vetements, led by Demna Gvasalia, sent a DHL T-shirt down its runway on October 1, 2015. Priced at £185, it reached shops in January 2016 and was gone from most of them by mid-April, by which time even DHL’s chairman, Ken Allen, had been photographed wearing one. For The Guardian, the shirt was proof that logos were back after roughly a decade out of favor. Old sportswear names followed: at Pitti Uomo in June, Gosha Rubchinskiy showed sweatshirts and tracksuits made with Fila, Kappa and Sergio Tacchini. In late December, nss magazine called the vintage sportswear revival “maybe one of the most popular” trends of 2016, with Champion hoodies and Kappa track pants back in circulation.

Gucci and the swing to maximalism

Alessandro Michele had led Gucci’s design since January 2015, and 2016 was the year it showed in the numbers. Gucci had not posted double-digit growth since 2012; that changed in 2016’s third quarter, when its sales climbed 17%, according to Glossy. In its year-end review, Quartz grouped Gucci and Vetements among the labels that dominated 2016.

How to dress like it’s 2016: the 2026 throwback

To dress like it’s 2016 today, take one or two of the year’s signature pieces and wear them with current shapes; the formulas at the end of this section show how. Ten years on, 2016 became a social media trend of its own. “2026 is the new 2016” turned into a caption in the first weeks of January 2026, as people dug out their own photos from a decade earlier; NBC News traced the phrase through Know Your Meme in a January 19 report. NPR’s All Things Considered covered the trend on January 16, and The Cut noted on January 15 that Hailey Bieber was among those posting. NBC News found the same details recurring in the photos: Coachella-style boho outfits, chokers and aviator glasses. Its picture of a typical 2016 night out was jeans and a crop top, with a flannel shirt knotted at the waist. Not everyone joined in: The Cut ran its piece under the headline “Who Would Want to Relive This?”

The clothes came back too. Celebrity stylist Oriona Robb’s advice in The Independent on January 14 was to rework each piece for now rather than copy old outfits, in a story that listed skinny jeans, statement earrings and chokers among the returning pieces. Rihanna’s version, covered by Marie Claire on January 16, put a short Miu Miu bomber over a Saint Laurent slip in orange satin, worn to A$AP Rocky’s album party in New York the day before. The outfit formulas below draw on Robb’s advice and that look:

  • The festival look, updated: an off-shoulder knit, straight tailored trousers and a thin choker with a longer chain or two hanging below it.
  • Skinny jeans with weight on top: slim ripped denim, a roomy blazer or cable sweater, and white Adidas low-tops.
  • A cap with polish: a baseball cap worn with a structured wool coat and a leather bag, so it looks chosen, not borrowed from the gym.

Frequently asked questions

What was the fashion in 2016?

Off-the-shoulder tops, chokers, bomber jackets, ripped jeans, slip dresses and velvet defined 2016, along with millennial pink, athleisure and retro Adidas sneakers. Google search data and the retail analysts at EDITED both ranked bombers and off-the-shoulder styles near the top.

What was the biggest fashion trend of 2016?

Bomber jackets and off-the-shoulder styles had the strongest numbers. Google put the bomber at the head of its military chic theme, EDITED’s retail data had bombers at number one for a second year, and Refinery29, reporting that data, called off-the-shoulder dresses the year’s most popular womenswear trend.

What was the color of 2016?

Pantone chose two colors for 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity, the first time it named a pair. The other pink of 2016 was dustier: The Cut called it millennial pink in August of that year, and brands from Glossier to Acne used it.

How do you dress like it’s 2016?

Pick one or two signature pieces, such as a choker, an off-the-shoulder top or a bomber jacket, and wear them with current shapes instead of a full 2016 outfit. For a recent example, Rihanna wore a cropped bomber over a satin slip dress in January 2026, two 2016 staples in one outfit.

Why is 2016 fashion coming back in 2026?

A January 2026 social media trend, captioned “2026 is the new 2016,” had people sharing photos from a decade earlier, and NBC News found many of them describing the year as “colorful” and “carefree.” The Independent read the nostalgia as a longing for how the internet felt in 2016 rather than for its politics, and saw skinny jeans, chokers and big statement earrings returning as a result.

Sources

Lead photo: Street style at New York Fashion Week, September 2016: a lace-trimmed satin camisole under a white double-breasted blazer, with hoop earrings. Photo: Peter T from Brooklyn, NY, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

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Speculative Chic Editors

The Speculative Chic editors publish and update the guides on this site. Each guide is researched and checked against the sources it lists.

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Photo credits: Tdorante10, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Colorado001, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Samsung Belgium, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Brian Wong, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Ryan Johnson, City of North Charleston, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Carol M. Highsmith, public domain, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped); Missvain, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).