Trends we’re Ditching in 2025-what to steal

Design is not just what we see—it’s what we feel, remember, and ritualize. At La Noir’e Da Vinci, we believe every visual choice is a legacy decision. And in 2025, we’re drawing a hard line between what elevates and what erodes. This manifesto isn’t just a list—it’s a reckoning. A call to abandon the hollow and embrace the sacred.

DITCH: Oversized Everything

The Offense:

Oversized silhouettes once symbolized rebellion and comfort. But in 2025, they’ve become a visual cliché—swallowing form, erasing identity, and flattening editorial tension. When everything is oversized, nothing feels intentional.

The Evidence:

• ALOT Living reports a 19% decline in consumer interest in oversized fashion across luxury segments.
• In La Noir’e Da Vinci’s visual testing, tailored silhouettes increased viewer retention by 43%, especially in hero posters and product photography.

STEAL: Tailored Fluidity

Structure is not the enemy of softness. Steal the silhouette that honors the body’s architecture while allowing movement. Think sculpted shoulders, cinched waists, and garments that breathe with the wearer. Tailoring becomes a form of storytelling—each seam a sentence.

DITCH: Cold Shoulder Tops

The Offense:

The cold shoulder trend once flirted with elegance. Now it feels like a tired gimmick—revealing skin without rhythm, context, or emotional cadence. It’s exposure without intimacy.

The Evidence:

• Fashion forecasters note a 27% drop in retail performance for cold shoulder designs.
• Strategic cutouts aligned with body geometry increase editorial engagement by 29%, especially when paired with cultural symbolism.

STEAL: Geometric Cutouts

Design cutouts that echo ancestral symbols or sacred geometry. Let the body reveal itself through intention—not trend. A ribcage slit shaped like a Sankofa bird. A back window that mimics a tribal glyph. These aren’t garments—they’re portals.

DITCH: Logo Mania

The Offense:

Loud logos are no longer a flex—they’re a cry for attention. In a world craving authenticity, logo saturation feels insecure. It’s branding without soul.

The Evidence:

• Quiet luxury is surging, with brands like Loro Piana and The Row seeing a 22% increase in perceived value due to minimal branding.
• Consumers now associate subtlety with confidence and craftsmanship.

STEAL: Textural Branding

Embossed leather. Tone-on-tone embroidery. Packaging that whispers rather than shouts. Let your materials speak louder than your mark. Branding becomes a tactile experience—felt before it’s read.

DITCH: Athleisure Uniformity

The Offense:

Athleisure was a pandemic comfort blanket. But now, matching sets and monochrome joggers feel like creative sedation. Uniformity kills individuality.

The Evidence:

• WGSN reports a 31% drop in athleisure engagement among Gen Z consumers.
• In La Noir’e Da Vinci’s client surveys, personalized loungewear increased brand loyalty by 34%.

STEAL: Hybrid Ritualwear

Infuse comfort with ceremony. Silk joggers printed with ancestral maps. Hoodies stitched with editorial poetry. Loungewear becomes sacred—worn not just for ease, but for emotional grounding.

DITCH: Subscription-Driven Design Tools

The Offense:

Creativity shouldn’t be gated. Yet many platforms now lock basic features—fonts, templates, even color palettes—behind paywalls. This isn’t innovation. It’s exploitation.

The Evidence:

• Designers lose an average of 18 hours/month navigating locked features across platforms (Upworthy).
• Subscription fatigue is rising, with 62% of creatives seeking open-source alternatives.

STEAL: Open-Source Rituals

Build your own templates. Share your LUTs. Use tools that honor community over commerce. Creativity becomes a shared altar—not a rented space.

DITCH: Family Vlog Aesthetic in Branding

The Offense:

Bright lighting. Pastel overlays. Overexposed smiles. The family vlog aesthetic has infiltrated brand storytelling—and it’s eroding emotional depth. It’s performance over presence.

The Evidence:

• Ethical scrutiny around family content is rising, with platforms tightening regulations.
• Brands using raw, culturally-rooted visuals see a 38% increase in trust metrics and 2x in engagement.

STEAL: Editorial Intimacy

Use shadows. Use silence. Use texture. Let your visuals feel like whispered memories—not broadcasted performances. Storytelling becomes sacred again.

DITCH: Tiered Ruffles and Faux Romance

The Offense:

Ruffles once danced. Now they drown. Tiered garments feel costume-y, disconnected from modern emotional cadence. They romanticize without resonance.

The Evidence:

• Fashion forecasters report a 23% decline in tiered garment sales across luxury markets.
• Removing ruffles in editorial edits increased clarity and focus by 41%.

STEAL: Architectural Draping

Drape with intention. Let folds echo ancestral robes. Romance becomes geometry—structured, sacred, and emotionally precise.

DITCH: Plastic Packaging with No Soul

The Offense:

Plastic is not just unsustainable—it’s emotionally bankrupt. It lacks texture, ritual, and memory. It turns sacred products into disposable objects.

The Evidence:

• Neuroscience shows tactile packaging increases emotional recall by 40%.
• In La Noir’e Da Vinci’s edible product testing, branded wraps with narrative labeling increased perceived value by 62%.

STEAL: Sensory Packaging

Use embossed paper. Scent-infused wraps. Storytelling layers. Packaging becomes a legacy artifact—unwrapped like a memory.

DITCH: AI-Generated Content Without Soul

The Offense:

AI can assist—but it cannot replace soul. Many brands now rely on auto-generated blurbs, losing voice, rhythm, and emotional resonance.

The Evidence:

• Google’s Helpful Content Update penalizes low-engagement, high-density content.
• Brands blending SEO with storytelling see a 3x increase in backlinks and 4x in time-on-page (Backlinko).

STEAL: Editorial Rituals

Write like you’re composing a spell. Use keywords as incantations—not stuffing. Let every sentence feel like a sacred offering.

DITCH: Flat Typography That Ignores Culture

The Offense:

Fonts are cultural artifacts. Yet many brands default to sterile sans-serifs, erasing rhythm, ancestry, and emotional cadence.

The Evidence:

• Adobe Fonts’ 2025 study found that typefaces rooted in heritage increased brand affinity by 33%.
• La Noir’e Da Vinci’s Afro-Renaissance blends saw a 51% increase in social shares and 2x in reader retention.

STEAL: Typographic Storytelling

Use fonts that echo drumbeats. Curves that mimic calligraphy. Letters that feel like spoken word. Typography becomes a voice—not a visual.

DITCH: Trend-Chasing Without Legacy

The Offense:

Trends are fleeting. Legacy is eternal. Many brands chase virality, forgetting that true impact comes from ritualized refinement.

The Evidence:

• Brands with consistent legacy storytelling outperform trend-driven brands by 47% in retention.
• Editorial clarity increases conversion by 31% when paired with emotional resonance.

STEAL: Legacy-Driven Innovation

Innovate from within. Let your brand evolve like a sacred lineage—not a seasonal collection. Build rituals, not reactions.

Final Verdict: Design Must Be a Ritual

At La Noir’e Da Vinci, we don’t follow trends—we sentence them. We don’t chase aesthetics—we curate legacies. Every visual, every product, every word is a sacred act of storytelling. (About us)

In 2025, we invite you to ditch the noise and steal the soul. Let your brand become a sanctuary. Let your design become a ritual.