Is Pink Summer the Most Surprising Color Trend of the Year?

From Barbiecore to Sakura

As the fashion world sheds the austerity of recent seasons and leans into a more tender palette, a question blooms across the runways and city streets alike: Is pink summer the most surprising color trend of the season?

The answer, softly but surely, is yes.

AW25’s runways, those moody spaces where style’s future is displayed, were unexpectedly awash in diaphanous pinks. Louis Vuitton’s show offered a gentle riot of sakura blushes. Dior’s coats came lined in the color of dusk-stained petals. Gucci, never one to shy away from theatricality, softened its edge with pops of powder-pink tailoring. In a season typically given to black and oxblood, to wool and shadow, the prevalence of pink felt like a deliberate rupture.

But perhaps what’s most surprising is not the presence of pink, but the pink we’re seeing: the muted and more adult sister of the Barbiecore moment that dominated 2023. Gone is the bubblegum optimism. What’s arrived is a more restrained and sakura-inspired shade, a tone that seems to shimmer with memory and longing rather than spectacle. It is pink, but pink touched by grayscale.

There’s historical context here. Pink is no stranger to virality: think the electric fuchsia of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino Pink PP, which painted entire collections and campaign backdrops alike. Or the candy-colored surge of Barbie-mania, when Margot Robbie wore blush on blush on blush through red carpet season. But this new chapter, Sakura Pink, is less a scream and more a sigh. It is Japanese springtime distilled, a reference not just to flowers but to ephemerality itself.

The Murakami revival

When Louis Vuitton announced the revival of their iconic Murakami campaign earlier this year, fashion insiders knew it wouldn’t stop at the multicolor monograms. Whispers began about the return of the sakura series, a capsule originally launched during Marc Jacobs’ reign, now reimagined for a generation reared on nostalgia and the slow scroll of curated moodboards. It’s a clever move. Murakami’s cherry blossoms were once playful and saccharine. In 2025, they feel like post-ironic yearning.

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So, how do we style pink summer without falling into pastiche?

Think contrast. The new pink is best worn with discipline. Tailored pieces, slouchy blazers in sakura silk or cropped trousers in dusty rose, carry the hue into a modern context. Layer it with cold neutrals: grey cashmeres, crisp whites, and leather blacks. A pink mohair sweater becomes less soft-focus when paired with a pleated wool skirt in charcoal. A sakura slip dress reads as minimalism, not fantasy, when set against architectural accessories.

The new neutral of the street

Even the street has caught on. In Paris and Tokyo, the most directional dressers have begun to treat pink the way one might treat navy or olive: as a neutral. A pink trench, worn with denim and undone hair. A blush hoodie beneath a sharp overcoat. The look is genderless, effortless, and above all, wearable.

In this way, the rise of pink summer is less a surprise and more a symptom. A sign that we’ve grown tired of irony and returned to sincerity. That fashion, in its cyclical wisdom, knows we sometimes need softness not as decoration, but as armor.

So yes, pink is back. But not as you knew it. And perhaps, not even as you expected to need it.

Photos courtesy Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Gucci, Dior