Summer 2026 gave us plenty worth carrying forward, but it also pushed a handful of already-questionable trends to breaking point. Some have simply become too ubiquitous. Others were never particularly convincing to begin with. And a select few will almost certainly have us looking back at photographs in 10 years’ time and wincing with delayed-onset embarrassment.
So, as the swim shorts get packed away and proper jackets start making their way back into rotation, consider this an opportunity for a wardrobe reset. From ironic facial hair to increasingly deranged footwear combinations, these are the summer trends we’d be quite happy to see the back of as we move into 2026's third act.
Mullets
Humanity already conducted the mullet experiment once, spent several decades laughing at the photographic evidence, then inexplicably decided it was time for another pop.
Yes, there are people who can pull one off. There are also people who can make a fedora look good, but that doesn’t mean we should start encouraging them. The modern mullet’s trajectory feels increasingly familiar: ironic adoption, genuine popularity, total saturation and, eventually, mass embarrassment.
We’re somewhere between stages three and four. Get out while you still can.
Nonsensical juxtaposition
There’s nothing wrong with creating a bit of tension in an outfit. In fact, some of the best-dressed men do it brilliantly. Think tailoring with a battered old baseball cap and canvas sneakers, workwear with derby shoes, or a technical jacket skillfully matched with some wide-leg dress pants.
But somewhere along the way, juxtaposition became a competitive sport. Cowboy boots with sweatpants? Tiny nylon running shorts with polished loafers? These are pieces that seem to have been selected specifically because they have absolutely no business being worn together.
In certain corners of menswear, this has become the ultimate IYKYK flex. Unfortunately, the remaining 99.9% of the population doesn’t know, and will simply assume you haven't got a clue what you're doing.
White socks and loafers
Mid-century Italian men smoking cigarettes outside cafés can make this look good. If that's not you, it might be time to revaluate. Yes, there’s historical precedent for wearing white socks with loafers, and under the right circumstances it can still look good.
The problem is what happened next. This is one of those summer trends that became so popular that it stopped feeling like a clever styling flourish and started looking like a uniform – particularly when paired with shorts, where the effect can veer dangerously close to “hee-hee” territory.
Performative moustaches
If you’ve been blessed with the facial-hair genetics of Tom Selleck, congratulations. Grow a moustache. Hell, grow two if you can figure out how to do that.
For everyone else, it might be time for some introspection. The wispy, deliberately ironic moustache has enjoyed a surprisingly long run, but its trend lifecycle is now complete. Grow one if it works for you, but it should ideally be something your face naturally lends itself to, rather than something grown specifically to demonstrate that you know where the nearest natural-wine bar is.
Extreme-crop T-shirts
A slightly cropped jacket or tee can be a useful thing. Worn with higher-waisted trousers, it changes the proportions of an outfit, makes the legs look longer and provides an antidote to the hideous longline tees of menswear’s darker days.
Obviously, we’re not advocating a complete return to T-shirts that finish somewhere around the kneecaps. We’re merely asking for restraint.
Because the crop has been creeping steadily north, and at some point we crossed the line between “interesting silhouette” and “your washing machine appears to be broken”. Keep the boxiness. Keep the higher hem. Just make sure the thing still resembles a T-shirt.
Y2Kmaxxing
Nostalgia has always powered fashion, but the current obsession with the 2000s has reached the point where seemingly anything can be rehabilitated provided someone wore it between the release of The Matrix and the first Arctic Monkeys album.
Wraparound sunglasses, bootcut jeans, trucker hats, enormous belts, tiny tops, questionable graphics – artefacts we spent years collectively agreeing were terrible have somehow been promoted to archival treasures.
The particularly amusing thing about Y2Kmaxxing is that we already know how this ends. We have thousands of photographs from the first time around. It aged badly then, and a lot of it is going to age badly again. Enjoy the historical reenactment while it lasts.
Flip-flops
In one of the most widespread summer trends of late, Big Fashion has been pulling out all the stops to convince us that flip-flops are now sophisticated. An influencer you follow wears them with expensive trousers on a holiday in Marseille. A luxury label makes a £500 pair. You start seeing Havianas popping up in boutiques as opposed to beachfront souvenir shops. Suddenly we’re supposed to pretend that the rules have changed.
They haven’t.
Flip-flops remain excellent footwear for beaches, swimming pools, hotel breakfasts on hot holidays and walking approximately 14 metres from a sun lounger to a bar. Beyond that, there is almost always a better shoe available.
Summer is over. Put some proper shoes on.
