This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi, international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.
On this week’s episode, our first of the year, we’re taking a look forward at the biggest questions, trends and stories that we expect to cover in 2026. We broke the discussion up into a few big questions:
- What will people shop for?
- How will they shop?
- How much will they actually spend?
Here are a few highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.
What will people shop for?
Manoff: “What is fashion in 2026? We’ve seen a lot of blanding in fashion, a lot of recycling. Obviously, designer brands are recycling the same designers, who are bringing their signature aesthetics. We saw this with Demna at Gucci. And we’re seeing short-lived creative directors who barely even make a mark. Brands need these designers to drive big sales out of the gate, and to do that, the collection needs to resonate with existing customers. Retention is always easier than acquisition, and that means playing it very safe.”
Parisi: “The re-releasing of existing products from the 1980s, when the original product is readily available on resale sites, is another common phenomenon. There’s a lot of sameness, a lot of recycling of looks from earlier decades. Brands are always saying how important it is to be original and daring, and yet I don’t see that happening. I wonder if there’s a big disconnect between what the creative people want to do and what the business people are willing to green-light and fund.”
How are they shopping?
Zwieglinska: “2025 has been the year that brought a lot of changes in how people shop. Search has completely moved around, whether that’s brand discovery through new platforms or the way AI has changed how people experience shopping. Price comparison has become easier, customers are more discerning, and they can shop across many different networks and get those price comparisons. We’ve seen the launches of Google’s AI search mode over the last couple of months. We’ve had new platforms like Julie Bornstein’s Daydream and also Phia.”
Manoff: “Resale is also a major force. A lot of the fashion people I know, they’re buying things new, they’re selling them on resale and that’s funding their next purchase. It’s like a rotating closet. And these resale platforms have gotten so smart. It used to be so overwhelming and hard to find things and now, some using AI, have much better ways to sort and they’re easy to navigate. Even things like image search which can show you similar products have gotten really good.”
How much are they actually going to shop?
Parisi: “My question is: How much will people even shop at all? The biggest factor is that we have a very precarious economic situation. Around 90% of the GDP in the U.S. in the first half of 2025 was propped up by AI. It seems like a bubble that is very likely to burst soon, and when it does, that K-shaped economy will fall apart. And even the consumer on the higher end of the K will be affected.”
Zwieglinska: “I’m not quite as big of an AI skeptic, but I do think if there is an AI bubble collapse, it will ripple out to affect everyone. We’ve already seen so many companies lay off so many workers this year. What does that mean for the worker economy? If there’s a huge reduction in the workforce across the fashion industry, there could be an implosion at the level of service, and it will affect the whole industry.”
Parisi: “Companies may want to replace their workers with AI, but they can’t replace their customers with AI. Who will buy their clothes if nobody has a job?”
