It has long been suspected that a tectonic shift is taking place in consumer and cultural behavior. Now it is a measurable reality. Right at the beginning of the current zeitgeist analysis by the German Fashion Institute (DMI) for spring/summer 2027, which has the motto “Return to Innocence”, DMI boss Carl Tillessen makes it clear that the move away from digitalization is no longer a feeling, but a statistical fact.
“People are turning away from excessive use of social media,” he explains, pointing to a development that has characterized the past year. For the first time since the surveys began, social media use has declined. In German-speaking countries, the proportion of users falls from 84 to 80 percent, and the daily length of stay is reduced by a total of one hour. In the group of 40 to 49 year olds, which is particularly relevant for the fashion industry, it is almost 6.5 hours less per week.
And that has a noticeable impact, because while the past few years have been characterized by digital overstimulation, fashion – and people – are now experiencing an equally clear countermovement. They return to the analogue, to the tactile, to the natural and in doing so search for nothing less than their own innocence.
Reality Renaissance
The move away from permanent digital presence is leading to a renaissance of real, sensory experiences. Suddenly the internet’s imagery once again shows people lying on the grass, sitting on the ground, playing with materials or leafing through books. Scenes that seem almost archaic in a time otherwise dominated by displays. This return to reality has direct consequences for fashion. Clothing and accessories are no longer just consumed visually, but rather presented as multi-sensory experiences.
“We have a pent-up need for multisensory experiences,” says Tillessen, “not just through the sense of smell and hearing, but through the sense of touch, in order to feel ourselves and our environment again and to establish real connections with others.” Brands like Bottega Veneta showcase hands that feel tissue, and Moncler’s “Warmer Together” campaign shows that touch now has not only aesthetic quality, but social relevance as a unifying element in a polarized world.
The past fashion weeks of the SS26 season clearly showed that fabrics, textures and details should specifically appeal to the senses. Feathers and fringes create joy, bags act as tactile statements that draw attention to the feel and material quality. The reporting also takes up this impulse. Close-up photos of garments in the showroom make it possible to digitally recreate the experience of testing and feeling.
Tillessen observes that this represents a conscious countermove to the online experience, which has prioritized viral moments over tangible experiences in recent years. “The people who can physically experience and touch the collections now see this as a privilege,” says the trend researcher from the Cologne Institute.
The return to reality leads directly to a new, almost pragmatic down-to-earth attitude. “Down to Earth” Tillessen describes this impulse. This is an aesthetic of unspectacular moments, far from any romanticization. Walks, bike rides and quiet nature experiences that previously hardly served as fashionable narratives are now at the center of a visual culture that longs for relief. Designers and brands take up this longing in a decidedly calm visual language. Luxury brands are giving flowers instead of ostentatious gifts, scented candles smell of tomato leaves, garden shears are becoming silent symbols of the new realism.
Inextricably linked to this is the renaissance of nostalgia, which Tillessen interprets as a psychological refuge in times of crisis. The nostalgia that shapes fashion now is not a vintage transfiguration, but rather an intimate, almost fragile culture of remembrance. Miu Miu takes up smock aprons that are reminiscent of grandmothers, Ami plays with Vichy checks, and Fendi opens its fashion show with the designer’s grandchildren and makes family part of the brand. Young designers like Mynerva Skytta or labels like Jacquemus consciously work with blurry, grainy images that are reminiscent of old photo albums, and even luxury brands like The Row forego perfection and choose retro images for their campaigns and lookbooks.
Should fashion take a slice of bread?
Against this background, a motif takes on unexpected symbolic power: grain, straw, flour and bread. They suddenly appear everywhere in shows, campaigns and editorials.
What initially seems like an aesthetic stylistic device turns out to be cultural coding. Grain stands for purity, stability and trust, for something that can be touched, understood and grasped. Jacquemus stages cornfields and the grinding of flour, Mathieu Blazy decorates his Chanel debut with golden ears of wheat, and models like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid are accompanied through wheat fields by US Vogue.
Tillessen makes it clear that this symbol is more than just aesthetics. In recent years, alliances, friendships and long-held relationships have been destroyed – from international partnerships to established companies. Those who were previously considered reliable created distrust through division, disinformation and abuse of power.
This is exactly where the trend researcher’s analysis of the so-called “trust issues” comes in, because people’s loss of trust is deep, says Tillessen. Tech giants, political institutions and brands that once represented stability have lost credibility. Even luxury fashion brands such as Max Mara, Dior and Loro Piana were not spared from scandals.
In such a crisis of trust, consumers are faced with the historical experience that everything has to be questioned. In this context, bread and grain signal exactly what is missing in the digital and political world: transparency, honesty and tangible purity. They become a symbol of what people can once again perceive as safe, comprehensible and reliable. “Against the background of the deep crisis of trust, the most important signal that brands and products can currently send seems to be: We are the good guys, you can trust us.”
The desire for purity is also manifested in “Pure”, a movement that Tillessen describes as an aesthetic and ethical attitude. Invitation cards are again made of natural paper, bags are reminiscent of lunch bags, fabrics remain raw, open and unbleached, catwalks resemble sand or stone surfaces, models walk barefoot or in natural leather. Root brushes or visible nettle substances appear in shop windows. Everything communicates the same message: genuine, genuine, trustworthy.
In the end it becomes clear that SS27 does not represent new silhouettes or surfaces, but rather a fundamental moral reorientation. It’s about a return to sensuality, authenticity and trust, a noticeable closeness to reality and a new truthfulness. “Return to Innocence” does not mean falling back into naivety, but rather developing a new truthfulness – and perhaps that is exactly the quality that fashion needs most right now.