How ‘ins and outs’ are defining the look of 2025
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Resolutions are so last year. Instead, the latest fashion trends, life goals and dating rules are playing out on the battleground of viral listicles. Plus: your wardrobe dilemmas solved. Repeating outfits: in. People pleasing: out. Paying with cash: in. Photo dumps: out. A quick trawl through social media and it is evident that for 2025, traditional new year resolution lists are out and “ins and outs” lists are, er, in.
![[Chloe Mac Donnell]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/11/07/Chloe_Mac_Donnell_Next_Gen.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
These listicles do exactly what their title suggests, demarcating everything from specific items of clothing to wider food trends and dating rules into two opposing grids. On TikTok the hashtag “ins and outs” has quickly acquired more than 44,000 posts. Unlike new year resolutions, which tend to be specific goals, “ins and outs” act as a barometer of cool.
![[People with finer tastes will seek independent designers and makers to differentiate themselves’, predicts The Love List. Here, textile artist Celia Pym.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8af2f13ba8b60ed2ad93cada80f1cca759fde04c/0_1860_3678_2207/master/3678.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
So why are they spamming our timelines? Liza Walter-Nelson, chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology, says part of their appeal is they don’t require much effort to pull together. “They could be a fun and engaging way to share personal goals or societal critiques, or they could be entirely performative for likes and attention grabbing,” she says. In short: “They are an easy win.”.
![[Camille Charrière is championing hard conversations and library cards, but done with drunk texting and airplane meals.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4f385952e541d516baea7fb6d528bb0a8b8d09b7/0_515_3458_2075/master/3458.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Some lists appear as screenshots taken from the user’s iPhone Notes app, which create a sense of intimacy. Others are carefully placed over an inspirational image or video. The fashion influencer Camille Charrière’s in list includes visibly worn clothes, hard conversations, library cards and dancefloor snogging, while her out section spans it-bags, drunk texting and airplane meals. Meanwhile, the Substack writer Jess Graves is championing paywalls, pavlova and the colour purple (“especially lavender”) on her newsletter The Love List, while Vogue has declared themed weddings, photo booths and buttonhole flowers as over. The brat mood of 2024 is showing no signs of quiet quitting, with dancing and cigarettes appearing on scores of lists, while references to chatGPT and billionaires on out lists hint at a wider mood among millennials and gen Z.
