Fashion is cyclical, holiday sales are annual, and this year in the US, the two are aligning.
As people look to buy gifts for others and themselves this holiday season, their top online shopping searches for fashion items collectively feel like a flashback to the ’90s, according to a Nov. 30 blog post from Google.
Top search terms this holiday season include Adidas Superstar sneakers, Levi’s jeans, Shinola watches, and bomber jackets, which practically make up a full outfit. There’s also another head-to-toe look that’s also been topping Google’s shopping searches: adult onesies.
Apparently the plush, anatomical sacks have supplanted ugly Christmas sweaters as the ironic, questionable clothing item of the season.
“This year we’re seeing holiday onesies are the new kitsch partywear of choice, as searches for ‘adult onesies’ are trending even faster than searches for ‘ugly Christmas sweater’,” Google says in the blog post. The results are based on search data spanning the period from Oct. 2014 to Oct. 2015.
The popularity of onesies, believe it or not, has been steadily growing. Onepiece, a Norwegian onesie brand that’s reportedly a favorite of Khloe Kardashian, has for its second year opened a pop-up store in Manhattan’s Soho shopping district to capitalize on the holiday onesie rush.
As for the retro items listed, several have also been quietly gathering steam over the previous year. Retro sneakers, for instance, have seen a major resurgence lately. According to research firm NPD Group, sales of classic sneakers are up 27% heading into the holiday, making it the fastest-growing category of athletic footwear. In a press release, Matt Powell, NPD’s sports industry analyst, called it “the most important fashion trend for this holiday season.”
The Adidas Superstar appears to be positioned at the top of the wave, as different audiences have embraced it. Fashion insiders, for instance, have increasingly turned to the “shell toe” as the industry’s favorite sneaker, Adidas’ classic Stan Smith, has become ubiquitous. The shoe has a permanent place in hip-hop sneaker culture after Run-D.M.C’s song, “My Adidas.”
Fashion has also been slowly rediscovering its love of classic Levi’s jeans, which ceded ground over the years to premium denim, and more recently, to the stretchy, workout-inspired comfort of yoga pants. And bomber jackets are everywhere again thanks in large part to some of the biggest names in hip-hop and fashion bringing streetwear back into the spotlight and the runway.
There may be no better illustration of these trends than the ultra-hyped, Paris-based label Vetements. Its reworked Levi’s and oddly proportioned bombers have become a signifier of cool in the fashion world, earning fans like Kanye West. Vetements’ leader, Demna Gvasalia, has recently been appointed as creative director of luxury fashion house Balenciaga.
If Google’s trend analysis is right, maybe Gvasalia’s next design should be an adult onesie.