From ComplexCon: Fashion trends to watch for in 2025
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for Complex
ComplexCon is where streetwear tastemakers come to test run next year's trends among some of the brightest minds in fashion, art and music.
Why it matters: "I like to think of ComplexCon as this generation's World's Fair," Complex CEO Aaron Levant tells Axios.
- "We literally build the coolest shopping mall you've ever seen for two days."
The vibe: This year's iteration welcomed 60,000 attendees during its two-day affair in Las Vegas earlier this month. We asked vendors from across the country what fashion trends are on the horizon.
Vintage
"I think sustainability is everything and vintage fashion obviously plays a big part in that. Clothes that have lasted for a long time are cool for a reason, and last a long time for a reason," says Ned Haan, owner of Neddie Vintage.
- "Vintage fashion in itself, is becoming more and more popular than it has ever has been," Glenric Betty, general manager of Locker Room Charlotte, tells Axios.
Early 2000s fashion
I felt like I was in elementary school again as I saw a lot of people wearing camouflage cargo pants, baggy T-shirts, jean shorts, shiny studded belts, trucker hats and basketball jerseys worn backward.
Context: The backwards jerseys were an homage to rapper Playboi Carti who performed on the first day of the convention.
Worthy of your time: The early oughts are also being romanticized in movies like "Time Cut," which is about a girl who travels to 2003 to save her older sister from being killed.
Evolving women's streetwear
Atlanta-born fashion designer Ashley Ciriaco and Esther Wallace, creative director of The Playa Society, want to see streetwear become more inclusive.
- "We can expand streetwear into being more feminine...it doesn't always have to be just wearing baggy clothes and hoodies," Ciriaco tells Axios.
- I don't feel like storytelling [in sportswear] has been brought to life on the women's side. I want to see women at the forefront of those stories," said Wallace.
Unique pieces
Joey Khamis of Indianapolis-based footwear store Khamis Studio says fresh concepts like MSCHF's big red boots and backward shoes are trends that should continue.
- "I think stuff like that is hilarious and amazing," says Khamis.
The bottom line: Everyone I spoke to championed individuality. Wear what you want in 2025 and beyond.
- "I think the worst trend is people not letting people do them," said Haan.
