Now, we’ve entered yet another merch boom. Last year, Oasis raised the bar, collaborating with Adidas on its reunion tour merch and opening pop-up stores in cities weeks ahead of the shows. “Merch is having a moment, and it’s bigger, broader and more culturally potent than ever,” Parisa Parmar, senior creative strategist at entertainment marketing agency Attachment, told Vogue Business last year on the rise of concert merch. “What was once a simple band tee has evolved into a powerful brand extension tool, spanning industries.”
This year, merch won’t be limited to concerts. The Nahmias Marty Supreme jackets closed out 2025 with a bang, evolving into a big, splashy cultural moment that felt more communal than we’ve had in some time, thanks to star Timothée Chalamet’s grassroots, viral marketing efforts. So long as consumer fatigue doesn’t set in too soon, we can expect more brands and films (and concert tours) to take a page out of the Chalamet/A24 playbook and create more merch moments. As superfandom balloons in 2026, there’s opportunity for these moments to help build up the year’s big moments of cultural spectacle.
What goes around comes around
2016 had a distinct look about it: merch as fashion was accessorized with a choker, perhaps a bomber jacket layered on top. Slip dresses and bralettes were styled over little white tees. Off-the-shoulder tops were a summer 2016 favorite. Velvet took over the runways. Hoodies became a staple out of the house (Vetements was, in part, to thank). Some of these trends will, thankfully, remain in 2016, but some are edging toward a comeback — or, at least, planted the seeds for a 2026 iteration.
Chokers dominated on and off the runways. Ralph Lauren, Dior, Ellie Saab, and Alexander Wang all sent models down their fall and spring 2016 runways in variations on the trend, and in the real world, celebrities from Kendall Jenner to Rihanna ensured we spent the year with ribbons tied (or clipped) around our necks.
Kendall Jenner was a fan of the choker trend.
Photo: Andrew Toth/FilmMagic
Pierpaolo Piccioli sent chokers down the runway for his first solo Valentino collection, spring 2017.
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Indigital.tv
The choker trend faded, and we’re back to normal-length necklaces. What is poised to come back in the year ahead, though, are accessories in the vein of the choker: statement and, most importantly, on the body. (Not the bag!) In 2024 and into 2025, bag charms entered the zeitgeist and fast became a handbag staple. In 2025, people took things up a notch, fastening Labubus that, at times, rivalled the size of the bags they were clipped to.
This year, insiders are hoping for more accessorizing on the person. Vogue editors are angling for more brooches and ‘comb-maxxing’ inspired by The Row’s pre-fall collection lookbook, in which models’ hair was fashioned into artsy updos held in place by an array of hair combs. The odds of the latter trending are low (it’s a tough style to master at home), but both predictions address ways to add quirk and personalization to outfits at a moment when people are growing tired of looking the same. Men are expected to lean into this accessorizing, too.
