Look outside on any given night in London, Berlin, or New York, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that we are not on the cusp of 2025, but rather 2005. The jeans have gotten really low. The coats have gotten really parka-like. People are wearing skirts over trousers (skousers!) like their lives depend on it. I saw someone the other day in an Alexander McQueen skull scarf dupe! You get the idea. The Noughties trend has tipped from the odd kitsch diamante halter top or ironic Juicy Couture re-wear into a full-on revival—but with iPhones instead of Razrs.
The one thing that’s missing from all this is glaringly obvious. Painfully absent. You already know what I’m talking about: the side fringe, which dominated the 2000s and early 2010s to the extent that a center parting would have immediately singled you out as a freak. Millennials will remember a time when the side part became so extreme, fans began to look as though they’d scraped their entire head of hair to the one side of their head. “Have you got… a comb over?” I remember my mother asking me. “No, mom, it’s a side fringe, everyone’s got one,” I expect I replied.
And then, of course, it disappeared sometime around the mid-2010s in favor of straight-across bangs or middle parts or some wispy, shaggy, mullet-y version of the two. Side fringes became widely maligned; a sign that you were an uncool millennial who had chosen one haircut and then stuck to it. But look, people are wearing skinny jeans again (they were similarly maligned for a time), and leopard print faux fur (very indie sleaze). None of these outfits look right, really, without a side fringe. Which is why I’m calling it: 2025 will be the year of the side fringe.
I’m not just plucking this from nowhere, or consulting my imaginary crystal ball. There have been clues. Rihanna, famously the coolest person on the planet, was spotted earlier in 2024 at the launch of her Fenty Beauty product Soft’lit Naturally Luminous Longwear Foundation with a swept blonde side fringe. Dua Lipa has been teasing a side part all year. Zendaya was also pictured in a side part when she wore that burgundy Louis Vuitton dress. And the side part was all over the autumn/winter 2024 runways (see: Max Mara, Fendi, and Prada). It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world follows suit.
To those of us with longer, more oval-shaped faces, the return of the side fringe will come as a relief (Jennifer Aniston’s iconic slight side part is a good example of how flattering it is). But the side fringe can similarly be used to balance out a rounder face (Kirsten Dunst has rarely deviated from a side fringe, because on her the style looks incredible). Still, just because I’m flirting with the idea of a side fringe in 2025 doesn’t mean I’m about to go full scrape-to-the-side comb over. No, let’s leave that trend exactly where it belongs: in 2005. Actual 2005.
