Is fashion finally moving (back) offline?

Being on the internet these days may feel desultory, especially if your digital existence peaked in its 2010s golden age. Within the bounds of Tumblr html and Retrica filters, where fashion sentiments were disseminated by print media, or otherwise by Tavi Gevinson and the WordPress army she ensued, everything seemed a lot simpler – and, goes without saying, more fun. Nowadays, platforms such as our sanctuary-Instagram have been getting algorithmically hijacked into a relentless (and AI-addled…) display of trends, losing momentum along the murky, insipid track – just as our previously-venerated fashion icons are becoming more and more digi-skeptical.
While this is not a critique to the state of originality in our age, it certainly directs to the deeply online format that got to define our epoch, which for the time being is artfully crumbling. In the era that’s seen it all, is it safe to assume the only way of reigniting a sense of novelty is reverting back to a very basic, fun-centered, and non-brainrot state? If we’re going to be wearing Miu Miu or tabi flats this summer (or those five finger Vibram shoes everyone seems to have moved toward instead), we might as well feel some grass through them, rather than just posting them to our stories.
If you’ve been feeling estranged from the internet and its previously granted inspiration, you’re not alone. Here’s a tedious selection of our favorite brands that, through one means or another, are slowly headstarting our immersion back into good ol’ reality (because no matter how perplexing the ongoing shifts appear, we might as well confront them in impeccable style).

Writing Life – Miu Miu’s inaugural Literary Club
Where are the thinkers? We might have an answer to FKA Twigs’ famous enquiry – they were all at Circolo Filologico in Milan earlier this year, where Miu Miu was hosting their sumptuous literary celebration. Mrs. Miuccia Prada, a fashion spearhead of both pre-internet and chronically online decades, is one of the first in our list to have evinced an offline harbour to anchor Gen-Z favorite Miu Miu in. Titled “Writing Life”, the Miu Miu Literary Club hopped off the social media wagon earlier this year in an attempt to heighten literary works such as those of Sibilla Aleramo and Alba De Céspedes, and further beckon the fashionable crowd into critical engagement with the contemporary discourse. Of course, literacy does not automatically exclude splendour: the panel talks came naturally with a daze of sophistication, mid-length pleated skirt, and Miu-Miu monogram buttoned-up sweaters.

Lucila Safdie’s Film Club
While it’s too early in her career to call Lucila Safdie a veteran of any kind, she sure is one of the most loyal virtuosos to channel niche female-directed cinematography through design. This aspect of her brand is laid bare already through her sultry, silken imagery, and even more so through the silhouettes and styling that make us feel like we’re looking at Catherine Deneuve in Belle du Jour, or Kirsten Dunst in one of her many cheeky Coppola roles. Given the setting, the Letterboxd-proud designer took one of the most intuitive approaches of upping her brand oeuvre: a film club! You may have seen it all over Instagram already, as she invites her fans (warranted Criterion Collection adepts) to Genesis Cinema over lipstick-tainted Chateau Marmont post-its. If you have perchance missed it so far, we’re sure you can catch up to the next edition. And given that the last two titles were Agnès Varda’s “Cléo from 5 to 7” and Barbara Loden’s cult-classic “Wanda”, we’re sure Safdie is coddling something for the tastebuds of the most avid consumers of hyperfemininity around the world (or at least London).

Ablondi’s conferences
Last month, CSM-alumna Arianna Ablondi took her brand on a nostalgia dive way past our noughties point of reference – namely, all the way to the 70s, when Milanese second-wave feminists formed Il Collettivo di via Cherubini 8, congregating and digesting the zeitgeist through conferences. “In Her Words” is Ablondi’s acknowledgment of our own times and the dire need to go back to listening to each other in a substantial, off-screen way – which is exactly what she conveyed through her community-based talks and lecture series. Unmissed was the wine from a women-run natural vineyard (we’re talking about Italy, after all), galvanising the mood for the reads and discussions on the controversial state of cosmetic surgery and its insidious infiltration in our modern-day dialogue. 

The resurgence of the pop-up
There’s a certain allure in the mystery of a physical pop-up store, announced minimally on Instagram through a date, a location, and a few stories of people attesting it is indeed happening. Paloma Wool were recently on a stretch run with their pop-ups in London and Paris up until this past weekend, while all we ever get through phone screens is glimpses of the esteemed club of people wearing gauzy garments and cheering the brand. Miista, our trusted shoe advisors, seem to operate on the same schedule of periodic sample sales in the city (for the ones on the lookout, that is). Same goes for our fave Kiko Kostadinov, who would sporadically post about a sample sale in London, LA, or Tokyo, and then never unearth the mystery for the crowd lurking online. Maybe fun is indeed waiting outside…
P.S. If you’re not in Paris, LA, or London, back in Amsterdam our Glamcult Store has been launching our brands through physical in-store parties; Poster Girl, Nii Hai and Null Space are few of the ones that can attest. And while our pictures do the fun justice, you should be expecting the next one and join us for the real, non-pixelated deal. 

Print is not dead!
Try talking to the majority of people about physical media in 2025 and they would most likely have an abrasive reaction to it… but in all honesty, we never lost hope in one of the most fun and enduring practices – and we’re not alone, nor defeated! One of our favourite print-aficionados is Climax Books, Isabella Burley’s curatorial project traversing London and New York, whose careful selection of rare, archived and singular books and magazines have us in a chokehold. Paris’ OFR is a classic and one of the city’s longlasting fashion magazine doyens – a brief jaunt inside will provide you with enough of the fashion capital’s unwavering spirit… And in Glamcult’s own city, Amsterdam’s Athenaeum is probably the most joyous shopping experience, given their overpowering selection of  assorted titles in everything spanning fashion, design, cooking, and any conceivable micro-interest you’d have (our latest issue, Anima, undoubtedly waiting for you on their shelves ).
Wherever you may be situated, there sure is someone with an unerring belief in the power of print, of the non-digital bounds, and of palpable contact – and in the current internet paradigm shift, you might need to find them and turn them into your new sanctum.