Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Ralph Lauren are back on top — and K-pop is driving youth culture’s obsession

Fashion’s obsession with the future has quietly given way to an obsession with the past. Across luxury runways, resale platforms, and viral TikTok posts, the biggest winners of the moment are not new labels — but historic ones. Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood and Gianni Versace, once thought to have culturally peaked in the mid 2000s, are now enjoying revivals driven by a generation that was not even born at their first peak. At the heart of the comeback lies a single, powerful impulse: Gen Z is dressing for stability in an unstable world.

The Comfort of the Familiar: Why Old Labels Feel New Again

In the age of algorithm-driven micro-trends — “-cores” combust and fizzle within weeks — there is a growing backlash against fashion’s own volatility. When everything is trending, nothing feels trendy. So don’t blame consumers for retreating to what feels safe: navy blazers, silk scarves, corsetry, gold hardware, and always with the logos that are unambiguous in meaning.

This return to familiar fashion labels mirrors broader anxieties such as social disorientation, inflation, geopolitical conflict and the rapid reshaping of everything by AI, what cultural theorists call a “crisis of continuity” — a feeling that the future is unstable and the present is unmoored. Dressing “classically” becomes an anchor.

The most radical fashion shift of 2025 is not what is new — but what has returned. Across luxury runways, resale platforms and TikTok’s ever-churning culture machine, the gravitational pull of heritage is unmistakable. Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood and Gianni Versace — fashion anchors in more stable and optimistic times — zip with renewed momentum through Gen Z minds and wardrobes.

Further fuelling this revival is the global rise of Asian pop culture: the cult afterlife of the Japanese anime Nana reigniting Vivienne Westwood, Asian stars like James and Martin of Cortis elevating Ralph Lauren’s preppy codes, K-pop’s Hyunjin from Stray Kids and C-pop idol Ding Yuxi catapulting Versace back into youth obsession. These are not nostalgic comebacks — they feel urgent rather than archival.

Ralph Lauren: The Old Money Aesthetic

No brand has benefited more from Gen Z’s new obsession with “old money” than Ralph Lauren. Across social media, the visual language of cable-knit sweaters over oxford shirts, navy blazers with brass buttons, riding boots, linen trousers, and tennis whites are dominant. The fantasy is inherited wealth, Ivy League campuses, summers in the Hamptons — a world where money is quiet and taste is assumed.

On Instagram alone, #OldMoney has close to one million posts, while #OldMoneyAesthetic exceeds 360,000. Vintage Ralph Lauren campaign photographs by Bruce Weber circulate endlessly, alongside images of JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley. It is an instantly recognisable style. What Gen Z calls “old money” is in fact a revival of “Preppy” — a 1950s American aesthetic built on prep schools, rowing clubs and East Coast elites, offering a dream of stability.

In a digital economy dominated by tech billionaires in black T-shirts, the polished restraint of Ralph Lauren feels like a rejection of new tech money. In a culture flooded with speed and disruption, that utopian Old Rich stillness feels like a safe haven. Even pop culture is reinforcing the renaissance — Thai-Chinese pop star James Zhao from the K-pop group Cortis appearing in a Ralph Lauren striped navy blue and white pullover in the group’s viral debut documentary — have further  reignited youthful life on the brand’s enduring appeal. 

Vivienne Westwood: Punk, Politics and Anime

Vivienne Westwood represents rebellion — and its revival is driven not by quiet luxury, but by the very modern convergence of social media, youth subculture, and anime fandom. The most powerful catalyst has been the brand’s collaboration with “Nana”, the cult Japanese manga and anime series that is a girlish take on love, heartbreak, and rock-star fashion in Tokyo.

The Nana x Vivienne Westwood connection has become one of the most influential fashion cross-pollinations of the decade. The special Fall capsule collection by Vivienne Westwood celebrated the series’ 25th anniversary rediscovered the manga’s heavy influence by the late Westwood’s punk aesthetic, using many of her collection pieces to define the characters’ styles, including Westwood’s orb necklaces, tartan skirts, pinstripes and corsetry. Gen Z has responded with near-religious enthusiasm. On resale platforms, Westwood orb necklaces now retail for several times their original price.

What makes Westwood’s revival unique is that it is not driven by nostalgia for a time of economic stability — but nostalgia for cultural resistance. Westwood was about disruption: punk in the 1970s, anti-Thatcher rebellion in the 1980s, climate activism in the 2000s and onwards. Her clothes were always ideological accessories. Today, with young consumers becoming increasingly politicised around climate change, labour rights and consumer exploitation, Westwood’s archive feels newly militant. The label offers a language of protest. The brand’s DNA — safety pins, anarchist slogans, exaggerated tailoring — aligns with Gen Z’s appetite for noisy dissent. 

Versace: Maximalism, and the new Asian Celebrity 

Gianni Versace has always thrived on pop spectacle, and in 2025, that spectacle is being amplified by K-pop and C-pop idols.

One of the most powerful drivers of Versace’s current resurgence is Hyunjin of Stray Kids (global ambassador since 2023), and Chinese actor Ding Yuxi who was appointed global ambassador in 2025.  Their repeated appearances in Versace, Hyunjin especially (Donatella Versace affectionately refers to him as the Versace Prince), looks have introduced the brand to a vast new global audience. In social media, celebrity endorsement no longer trickles down — it explodes. A single Hyunjin appearance at the latest Versace show generated millions of impressions within hours.

This matters because Versace has always been built on iconography: Medusa heads, gold chains, baroque prints, body-positive silhouettes. In the hyper-visual economy of TikTok and actor fandoms, these elements translate perfectly. They are instantly clickable, highly shareable, and emotionally charged.

With the brand undergoing corporate restructuring and leadership changes, it is being strategically repositioned as the maximalist alternative to minimalism: when “quiet luxury” dominates one half of the market, there is equal appetite for its opposite.

What makes Gen Z embrace Versace now — when millennials once dismissed it as excessive — is the collapse of irony. Versace offers power through glamour. Young consumers no longer need to justify glamour. They simply want it – now.

The return of Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood and Versace is not merely a matter of fashion trends: It is ideological. They reveal the paradox that defines contemporary fashion: in an age obsessed with disruption, the most radical move is to return to fashion with meaning. These revivals are not about going backwards. They are about surging forward — in identity, optimism and emotional truth.

Why These Three Labels, Why Now?

Superficially, Lauren, Westwood and Versace could not be more different. One is patrician, one revolutionary, one hedonistic. Yet their revivals are driven by the same deeper cultural forces.

Backlash Against Hyper-Trends

The rapid cycling of aesthetics — “coquette,” “blokecore,” “cowboy,” “mob wife” — has resulted in trend exhaustion. Returning to heritage brands is a way to opt out of algorithmic chaos.

Rejection of Tech-Bro Wealth Signifiers

Muted tailoring, rebellious couture and flamboyant glamour all function as alternatives to Silicon Valley’s uniform of hoodies and black tees.

Desire for Emotional World-Building

Ralph Lauren constructs aristocratic fantasy. Westwood constructs political rebellion. Versace constructs erotic power. Each look offers a comprehensive emotional universe, not just a fit.