Why Is Fashion Stuck In the Middle Ages?
Our exhaustive, all-consuming omniculture ensures that nearly every single decade of the past century coexists as a contemporary fashion trend. 2010s running shoes, early-'00s Von Dutch caps, ‘90s baggy jeans, '80s prep-wear, ‘70s flared jeans… need I go on? Fashion’s thirst for nostalgia knows no bounds.
But what if it went really far back? Like, all the way back to the Middle Ages?
Yes, a growing sect of fashion brands are going medieval.
And it all goes quite hard — literally, because this stuff is made of metal, but also figuratively.
As anyone who's studied history knows, including several avant designers, shiny silver armor simply simply looks cool. As early as 1966, Paco Rabanne sent shockwaves through Paris with chainmail dresses, a motif later evolved by Thierry Mugler (robot armor), Vivienne Westwood (plate mail rings), and John Galliano (protective couture).
These were all isolated flings with knight-wear mostly contained to high-end womenswear. But today's un-antiquating armor has a more wide-spanning appeal.
As with so many trends, you could argue that the modern Middle Ages movement begins with Balenciaga.
The now Demna-free luxury label's Fall 2021 collection abruptly combined metal armor with the clothes of the everyman, with ripped jeans revealing metal leggings and a selfie-taking model model dressed casually save for armored gloves.
Since Fall 2021 was a digital fashion show (remember those?) that tied in with a browser-based "video game," Balenciaga's armor could've just been a styling choice made to heighten the disparity between the real and imagined, actual armor and clothes as protection.
Nope! Balenciaga actually sold its knight drip, admittedly more as art pieces than casualwear. But they nevertheless hearkened back to the metal trousers created for Balenciaga in 2007 by former creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, the difference being that whereas Ghesquière reinterpreted medieval gear as wearable statement pieces, Demna went literal.
Like the prior armor examples, Balenciaga's metallurgical dabblings were a blip on the greater fashion radar. But that was 2021. Now, it's 2025 and medieval fashion is for everyone.
In one of the first big PR stunts of the Fall/Winter 2025 season, Burberry invited a knight to sit front-row at its February runway show.
Yes, an Arthurian knight clad in head-to-toe armor.
There, Sir Burberry sat alongside A-list guests like Jodie Turner-Smith, Nicholas Hault, and Orlando Bloom, having already starred in the seasonal campaign alongside Naomi Campbell.
Sure, Burberry's armor was more costume than ready-to-wear, but its minor virality was indicative something in the air. There's already abundant metallic silvers happening across both the runways and the approachable fashion and footwear front.
And on that front, things are looking particularly chivalrous.
Earlier this year, Slam Jam and Umbro earned minor virality among the footy set when they created a football shirt out of chainmail, for instance, creating a metal top that lived somewhere between being a vintage England jersey and primitive body armor.
Chainmail also appeared in the SS25 lookbook for London menswear label Heresy, while Lil Yachty-approved streetwear line Systemic styled a model with armored gloves.
These medieval-inspired moments just keep popping up in my Instagram feed. One day, there's Stüssy's knight graphic tee and the next, metal mules from shoemaker KITOWARES.
And just when you think it's all isolated to fashion, here comes Google.
A recent Google Pixel phone ads focuses on a model posing in silver armor-like clothes for no discernible reason.
I mean, when a trillion-dollar tech company decides metal armor is a cool, quirky styling choice, there's something serious going on.
But you can put your finger on the causes of these kinds of trends, an overt vibe shift that makes jeans suddenly skinny again or people start dressing in outdoor gear.
However, in this case, I’m at a loss.
The only thing I can say with any certainty is that all this medieval armor looks aesthetically cool. It's one of those universally agreed-upon things, like the NASA logo is stylish and Miuccia Prada is a genius.
And maybe that's all there is to say. Why overintellectualize? Armor just looks cool.
