Katseye, HYBE’s new pop group, has swept the nation with their catchy songs. Their songs include “Gabriela” and “Touch and Gnarly”, among others. Along with making music, Katseye has partnered with many brands, such as Coach, Fendi and Pandora, among others.
On August 19, 2025, Katseye had one of their most famous collaborations, GAP. GAP is known for its timeless wardrobe, which includes jeans. Katseye collaborated with GAP to make a commercial in which they danced to Kelis’ hit song, “Milkshake”.
This ad went viral on social media, causing a wave of recreations which included fans from TikTok, Instagram and more. After the wave of recreations died down, a viral TikTok dance to Kelis’ song “Milkshake” came about, which took major inspiration from the dance in GAP’s ad.
Aside from the recreations and dance that ensued, the ad also shows just how versatile GAP’s jeans are. The ad shows Katseye, along with many other people, doing a high-energy dance to Kelis’ song “Milkshake”. The dance shows how GAP’s jeans still allow flexibility while not ripping or splitting a seam.
Matcha. Books. Tote-bags. These types of things have come to mean a lot this year, especially when paired with a certain genre of men. In 2025, the term “performative male” took off as a means of calling out and ridiculing those who were insincerely adopting more feminist and stereotypically progressive aesthetics, usually for the sole purpose of appealing to women.
More and more men this year began trying to be more appealing in this sense, and it eventually gained huge traction on social media. At one point, students at many different colleges and universities gathered together and had “performative male contests” which consisted of wearing baggy clothing, carrying tote bags and drinking things like matcha or chai.
This meme, whilst being entertaining for many, is sometimes taken too far by deeming any typically feminine traits as purely performative, reinforcing negative male gender stereotypes. It does, however, also do an important job of calling out toxic and manipulative behavior in the world in a way that most people can understand and find enjoyment from.
In 2025, many trends encouraged humor or playful expression, however one trend took a different approach by promoting minimalist fashion and a focus on productivity. This trend being the “quarter zips and matcha” trend. While quarter zips and matcha existed before, their sudden rise to popularity caught everyone by surprise. The mix of the two seemingly unrelated things brought new ideas centered around self-care and an effortless lifestyle.
This trend spread quickly on social media platforms. Many found it appealing to participate due to the sophisticated look of a quarter zips but the minimal effort required. Content creators and influencers began to post material encouraging the trend and advertising it as desirable yet attainable, making it gain popularity in just a few days.
Although the trend fell almost as quickly as it rose, it stood out to me as the best of the year solely based on its ability to promote an efficient and intentional lifestyle while introducing more positive aspects to social media’s culture. Rather than encouraging comparison or competition as several trends have a pattern of doing, the “matcha and quarter zips” trend encouraged self-improvement, simplicity, and structure.
The term Y/N is an acronym for “your name”, which was popularized by the late 2000s spike in self-insert fanfiction. Readers would be able to read fictional stories about their favorite artists, characters, or even made-up characters from a second-person point of view and could essentially immerse themselves into the story. I like to think that the Y/N stories are one of the very early forms of “internet escapism”.
This year, the term Y/N has come back in fashion, but not for the comforting disconnect it once offered in fan fiction. Now, it is used for comical relief as people have begun to poke fun at the many flaws of those cheesy, badly written romance fanfics.
The whole trend is centered around making fun of the traditional fanfic setting with a gentle, innocent female main character and her obsessive lover CEO, who gets irrationally angry and possessive over her. Some videos are shot from the point of view of office workers who work at the CEO’s company, being distraught at the relationship between Y/N and the CEO, giving a normal person’s reaction to dramatic book tropes. While others take the role of Y/N themselves, putting on melodramatic acting to portray this “delicate flower”, in need of constant protection. We have even begun to see different occupations getting representation in this trend, with EMTs and Uber drivers sharing their own ‘real life meets fiction’ scenarios.
The Y/N trend has really embraced self-awareness of how ridiculous romance book tropes can really be at times, and nostalgically brought back the joy of reading cheesy romance novels. This trend has truly been such a fun way to culminate the year.
This trend took place in mid 2025 and had the long name “I wonder what the view looks like from up there”. A video would start with a person walking down a road or trail saying, “I wonder what the view looks like from up there,” as they look toward a very tall mountain or building in the distance. Then, it would cut to them at the top staring off into the distance, most with the song Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz.
This trend was great not just because it got views, but it also inspired people to travel and go on adventures. Additionally, it brought attention to hidden treasures and underrated places. I like this trend because you get to see tons of nature that not many people get to see, and it shows how rewarding activities like hiking can be. Some of these videos have around 10 million views and several thousand comments from people sharing their thoughts.
In the end, this trend was one of the best of 2025 because it led people to explore new places and hobbies, created a community of people sharing their thoughts on exploration and views on the trend itself, showcased Mother Nature at its finest, and showed how beautifully the world can be if you put in the work to see it.
Nowadays, everyone dreads hearing the term “6-7.” This infamous saying has left a stain on 2025 as a whole, but it would be criminal to ignore it.
It all began in Skrilla’s song “Doot Doot (6-7)”, a rap song released in 2024. In later interviews, Skrilla states that he had no exact meaning behind the lyrics “6-7.” Great, so it started as gibberish. The nonsensical lyrics eventually gained traction through edits by basketball players. These edits were mainly of LaMelo Ball, whose height is exactly 6 ‘7. A then up-and-coming prospect basketball player, Taylen “TK” Kinney, started to capitalize on the trend by mentioning 6-7 in every interview. He was later deemed “Mr. 6-7” and committed to the University of Kansas.
Like the virus it is, the 6-7 trend spread out of the basketball community and into mainstream conversation. This was through the short video made by the “6-7 Kid,” named Maverick Trevillain, who is credited with furthering the meme. Soon, children started yelling 6-7 in a drawn-out form, as we have all heard today.
Why is this the best trend of 2025? Easy. It displays how social media and music are still heavily impactful on our culture, especially affecting young people. While everyone dreads it, 6-7 is a meme you simply can’t escape.
Aura Farming is a hilarious trend that makes you feel like the main character. Aura Farming consists of actions aimed to make oneself appear cool or looked up upon. Most who Aura Farm typically do it in a joking manner, but also some not, though whichever way one chooses to farm it never fails to provide confidence and feel like they are the king of the world.
Onlookers of Aura Farming individuals often feel entertained either with a comedic or mesmerizing tone, granting the Aura Farmer their aimed-for praise and admiration. Examples of Aura Farming can be one standing on top of a building, looking down at everything like Batman, or just simply having the quality of authority and dopeness. Due to the amusing style of the tendency and the feeling like one is the owner of everything, Aura Farming is definitely one of the best trends of 2025 to witness and participate in.
If you’ve been in public in 2025, it’s likely you saw someone with a bag charm, phone charm or another similar decorative toy. Many of these toys came from blind boxes, a trending purchase this year.
Brands like Pop Mart and Smoko have become popular for their fun and unique blind boxes. Popular lines like Smiski, Sonny Angel and Labubu have flown off the shelves. Video games, television shows, and even content creators have picked up on the trend and made their own line of collectables.
While the resulting toys are nice to have, one of the biggest draw-ins of blind boxes is the aspect of surprise. You don’t get to know what variant of the toy you are going to get. Having rare mystery options and speculating on what you might get makes the experience all the more fun. Purchasing a blind box and unboxing it with friends has been a unique and special trend that many have enjoyed this year.
Over the past two years, Dubai chocolate has taken the stands as one of the most popular desserts to try as it has drastically spread around the world. Dubai chocolate is generally a chocolate bar that has pistachio cream filling and crispy kataifi pastry. This dessert was inspired by the Middle Eastern dessert called Knafeh. Knafeh is built with layers of pastry, cheese or cream and attar, which is sugar syrup. It comes from the shop called Fix Dessert Chocolatier, created by Sarah Hamouda in Dubai. Many people around the world have found various ways to eat this dessert with interesting ways in mind.
A popular way to eat Dubai Chocolate was to put strawberries, chocolate, pistachio cream, and crispy kataifi pastry together. A lot of people around the world have found it to be an amazing treat to have. Another way to eat this dessert is in the form of a pizookie, which is a cookie cake, with the theme of Dubai chocolate.
Interestingly, as a result of the Dubai Chocolate trend, demand for pistachios was so high, especially in making this dessert, that there were worldwide shortages, leading to price increases to buy the chocolate bar.
This dessert is definitely unique and not your normal sweet treat to have, but it definitely does not disappoint. I like how people are creating different types of desserts through Dubai chocolate; it is so interesting to see how people interpret it.
Starting in Disney theme parks, the popular scents we now know as Disney-inspired fragrances took root in 1986, using sensory devices often referred to as “Smellitizers”. The devices are small, hidden devices around Disney parks that furnish pressured air, creating nostalgic smells that everybody loves.
The whole purpose of Disney-inspired scents, like the Smellitizers and the Bath and Body Works Disney Princess and Disney Villain collections, is to create a sentimental feeling that reminds people of nonexistent places that Disney makes feel real. The goal with these fragrances is to create an emotional attachment to the setting, as well as enhance the memories created and the stories told with it. Since these scents created such a nostalgic feeling, Disney decided to share the magic with the world. In 2018, Disney officially paired with Scentsy to create these nostalgic at-home fragrances. In June of 2021, Scentsy became the “Official Home Fragrance of Walt Disney World Resort”, with a current total of 65 Disney themed products across the board.
Beginning in 1986 as a secret ventilation system to a now popular fragrance that is available at the nearest Target, Disney-inspired fragrances have really come a long way, considering they were once a mystery kept within the gates of Disney parks. Walt Disney started this trend in the 1980’s because he wanted to amplify the tellings of his stories within the parks. These days, we can find some of our favorite scents in local stores, and we can thank Walt Disney for that. Disney has created special moments in time for decades, from the creation of Mickey Mouse to major live-action remakes and adaptations of Disney princess movies. Disney has always provided some sort of comfort to people around the world. These fragrances aren’t just scents in a bottle; they’re pieces of home and comfort that you’d never imagine. This is why Disney-inspired fragrances are the best trend of 2025.
