5 Prints to Retire by 2025

So, before you freak out about seeing leopard print being left behind in 2025, take a deep breath. For starters, leopard print is the epitome of the timeless sophistication fashion trend and isn’t really going anywhere for good. But between the mob wife aesthetic of 2024 and other fads that have leaned heavily on leopard print, its latest moment has been exhausted and it’s time to move on. At least for now. “It’s a classic, for sure, but it’s reached a ubiquity dangerously close to basic,” accessories editor Madison Rexroat tells Elle. “For that reason alone, I’ll be opting for other animal prints… like zebra at Schiaparelli or snakeskin at Dries van Noten.”

While camo print has the habit of coming in and out of fashion, even experiencing a bit of a renaissance in 2024, it’s officially out for now and going forward. A lot of that has to do with the fact that boho chic, which was a previously outdated trend, is back with a vengeance (yet again) — and camo is literally the furthest you can get from any level of the free-spirited look. “For 2025, boho chic makes a polished comeback, moving beyond last season’s rugged vintage vibe,” trend predictor Noémie Voyer tells Marie Claire. “This year emphasizes romantic, feminine silhouettes that feel effortless yet intentional.” It’s with that in mind, that you should shelf any camo pieces you might have and, instead, embrace the boho energy that’s here stay for a bit.

If you’re still wearing Aztec prints — and let’s hope you’re not — or hanging on to a plethora of Aztec print pieces in the hopes that it will come back into fashion, you need to surrender the fantasy and let those things go now. There’s a reason the pattern hasn’t been around much since the 2010s and it has everything to do with cultural appropriation.

“There is a constant need in American society to homogenize culture. The reality is there are so many rich perspectives and views of what is traditional even within one community that is extremely diverse,” Navajo blogger and museum professional Jaclyn M. Roessel tells Refinery 29. “Appropriated fashion does not recognize the value of diversity and how by embracing blanket terms of ‘Navajo’ or ‘Aztec,’ they are erasing communities of people who are still part of modern society.” While you have every right to love these types of tribal patterns, you also need to understand how deeply insensitive it is to wear them. We owe it to all Indigenous people to back off and let them celebrate their heritage in their own designs.

While wearing chevron isn’t going to insult anyone, unless they have taste of course, it’s definitely a pattern that has no future. While there was a hot minute in 2022 when Olivia Wilde and Amal Clooney tried to make chevron happen with the same fervor that Gretchen Wieners tried to make “fetch” a thing, it just wasn’t meant to be. 

Chevron’s modern heyday started in the early 1960s and lasted well into the 1970s, with a quick revival in the early 2000s. That’s where the story should end because row after row of zigzagging is simply never a good look on anyone. Should you find yourself in the mood to relive the past with the Y2K fashion trend revival, do yourself and everyone around you a favor and leave the chevron in the darkest corner of your closet and never look back.

If you had a few extra hundred bucks to drop on a scarf back in the early 2000s and considered yourself both edgy and fashionable, there’s a good chance you bought the iconic Alexander McQueen skull scarf. Everyone who was anyone had the accessory and it remained a staple of the cool crowd for nearly a decade. However, according to Vogue, the skull print is one of nine fashion trends that we need to let go of in 2025 and beyond.

While there was a brief muttering of it possibly making a comeback in 2023 and Timothée Chalamet rocked the relic one night in January of this year, it’s over. In fact, of all the prints that will immediately date your entire look, the McQueen skulls should be at the top of the list. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should ditch it. In another 10 years or so, it will reach “vintage” status, like all iconic pieces eventually do, so you’ll want it for sure then.