SHANE WATSON reveals the hidden messages of the most iconic looks of 2025
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Clothes as we know can be fun or functional and in certain situations, especially when the women wearing them are in the public spotlight.
Clothes as we know can be fun or functional and in certain situations, especially when the women wearing them are in the public spotlight, they can deliver a powerful message - 2025 was a big year for fashion semaphoring. Here are the 11 outfits that spoke the loudest.
Lauren Sanchez's wedding dress
The Venice wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez was expected to be the longest and most lavish anyone could remember, but the big question was:
What does the woman marrying the third richest man in the world wear on her wedding day?
A lot, is the answer, including Schiaparelli couture and vintage Alexander McQueen, but for the actual ceremony Sanchez surprised celebrity and fashion watchers alike by going for an elegant Dolce & Gabbana mermaid gown overlaid with a layer of fine lace, with not so much as a bare wrist or an inch of throat on show.
Sanchez whose signature look is glove tight, cinched and hoisted with maximum cleavage on show was, on this occasion, saying: ‘You don’t know me and I can do it all. Underestimate me at your peril.’
Sanchez surprised celebrity and fashion watchers alike by going for an elegant Dolce & Gabbana mermaid gown overlaid with a layer of fine lace
2. Double Victoria Beckham
When David collected his knighthood Victoria Beckham wore Victoria Beckham (what else?) and Sir David wore Victoria Beckham, too - a three-piece morning suit in British wool mohair made to measure by his missus especially for the occasion.
This was Victoria’s first venture into menswear and it worked well (although did David look a tad sprucer in his Dior Homme morning coat at Harry and Meghan’s wedding?).
Lady Beckham’s own dress was her signature Bela style, with a flattering twisted front, in midnight blue, the colour she likes to wear when black is not an option. No mistaking the message of this double Beckham hit. We’ve made it... and we’ve done it together.
Lady Beckham’s own dress was her signature Bela style, with a flattering twisted front, in midnight blue, the colour she likes to wear when black is not an option
3. Melania Trump's mac
The greatest of clothes messengers - she once wore a parka with the words ‘I really don’t care do U?’ graffiti-ed on the back - was on tip top signalling form this year.
Highlights included the very wide, stiff brimmed ‘Don’t You Dare Try to Kiss Me’ hat she wore for Trump’s inauguration ceremony. (In the event he did successfully duck under for a quick peck, but it was like watching someone kiss a porcupine - so, mission accomplished.)
But our favourite example was that arch villain’s floor-sweeping Burberry mac she wore as she stepped off Air Force One on to UK soil at the start of Trump’s historic second state visit in September.
This was one of those items of clothing that only the one per cent who used to be models can wear (Melania is 5ft 11in); a solid belted rain mac with a limo hem it said: ‘I’m the First Lady of the United States and if I have to come to the rainy UK, a super bad-ass mac is what I’m wearing.’
Melania's arch villain floor-sweeping Burberry mac she wore as she stepped off Air Force One on to UK soil at the start of Trump’s historic second state visit in September was also a highlight
4. Claudia Winkleman's Traitors wardrobe
It feels like every year is Claudia Winkleman’s year, but in the autumn she announced she was leaving Strictly (cue much conjecture about what the future holds) and then The Celebrity Traitors was a colossal hit, at least in part thanks to the character she’s created to present the show.
Traitors Claudia has a deadpan delivery and a dramatic signature look - a mixture of ‘soft goth’, tweed and tartan, long coats and capes, thick sweaters worn over skinny leggings or tulle skirts, chunky soled boots, and fingerless gloves - that’s spawned a brand new genre known as Traitors Style.
Apparently accidentally, Winkleman has established a look as recognisable as punk, as British as the Spice Girls and, surprisingly, all ages friendly.
The message from her many Traitors outfits is: ‘Let’s play at being someone different and get outside our comfort zones.’
We’re wondering: Will Strictly ever be quite the same? And as of now… What will Claudia wear next?
Traitors Claudia has a deadpan delivery and a dramatic signature look - a mixture of ‘soft goth’, tweed and tartan, long coats and capes, thick sweaters worn over skinny leggings or tulle skirts, chunky soled boots, and fingerless gloves
5. Meghan Duchess of Sussex's Paris Fashion Week look
During the spring/summer 2026 ready-to-wear collections in Paris, Meghan made an unexpected appearance on the front row at Balenciaga, dressed head-to-toe in oversized white trousers, shirt and shawl by the fashion house’s new designer Pierpaolo Piccioli.
Then she was the cover star of Harper’s Bazaar’s December issue, this time wearing Dior, deliberately underdone make-up and plain scraped back hair, telegraphing at top volume not - as we would have expected - Meghan Duchess of Sussex Living her Best Life, but Woman Taking Fashion Very Seriously (and preparing for her next role).
We’ve had the actress, the duchess, the honey and the jam, and now we’re pretty certain there’s a stealth wealth capsule fashion collection brewing. Her outfits said: ‘Next I’m coming after Phoebe Philo. Call me Sussex.’
Meghan made an unexpected appearance on the front row at Balenciaga, dressed head-to-toe in oversized white trousers, shirt and shawl by the fashion house’s new designer Pierpaolo Piccioli
6. The Princess of Wales's 'don't look at me' wardrobe
Back in February, Kensington Palace announced the princess’s desire that people focus not on her clothes but on her work.
She wanted a reset after her cancer diagnosis - less clothes- horse moments, more causes closest to her heart.
But guess what? Kate looks too good in clothes to just blend in and although a lot of what she’s worn over the past year has been relatively unremarkable in the absence of designer highlights there’s been endless excitement about her new bronde highlighted hair.
The message from Kate this year: ‘I’m not playing the fashion plate game, but I’m still looking fabulous.’
Kate looks too good in clothes to just blend in and although a lot of what she’s worn over the past year has been relatively unremarkable in the absence of designer highlights there’s been endless excitement about her new bronde highlighted hair
7. Nicola Peltz Beckham's (second) wedding dress
Another big wedding took place - the second for Nicola Peltz Beckham and the eldest of the Beckham children, Brooklyn.
Just why the couple felt the need to renew their vows after a wedding only three years ago rumoured to have cost at least $3 million (£2.2 million) was a mystery until it became clear that none of Brooklyn’s family were invited.
This event was all about resetting the clock to zero, as if there was only one family in the young couple’s lives.
The wedding dress was the one Nicola’s mother wore on her wedding day and the message was clear as a bell: ‘This is all the family we want and need from here on.’
It was generally agreed to be the most brutal confirmation that Brooklyn is officially estranged from his family... until he was a no show when his father received his longed-for knighthood in November.
The wedding dress was the one Nicola’s mother wore on her wedding day and the message was clear as a bell: ‘This is all the family we want and need from here on’
8. Taylor Swift's proposal dress
No actual proof yet as to what was the most googled outfit of 2025, but at a wild guess, we’d say Taylor Swift’s proposal dress.
Her boyfriend, American football star Travis Kelce was responsible for staging the surprise, but nothing happens by chance in Tay Tay world.
So, on the day, she was wearing a Ralph Lauren striped halterneck dress with a ruched bodice - as sweet as Sandy in Grease, as All American aspirational as... Ralph Lauren, and a rare gold and diamond Cartier watch.
‘Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married’ is how Swift announced her engagement to the world, a relatable American dream come true, and that was precisely the message of her outfit.
Taylor Swift was wearing a Ralph Lauren striped halterneck dress with a ruched bodice on the day of the proposal
9. Giorgia Meloni's trouser suits
Apart from turning every male politician who crosses her path into a gibbering, hand kissing wreck, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni demonstrated that you can be small and female and hold your own in an all-male line up, if you wear a well cut, pale trouser suit.
Rachel Reeves may have been signalling to us in her many different shades of trouser suit during the course of the year, but we gave up trying to read her message.
Meloni’s on the other hand was crystal clear: ‘I am one of you, but also I am not.’
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni demonstrated that you can be small and female and hold your own in an all-male line up, if you wear a well cut, pale trouser suit
10. The blue horizon crew's space suits
The exact purpose of an all-women crew, paid for by Jeff Bezos and led by his then-fiancée Lauren Sanchez, flying to the edge of space and back for 11 minutes, was never quite established, but it did achieve something: irritating everyone, a lot.
Why those women? Why did Katy Perry kiss the ground when they’d been up there for only 11 minutes? And the big one: What did the first all-women crew in 60 years think they were doing wearing those sexy, tight fitting space suits?
These suits said: ‘Don’t you wish your girlfriend was a hot space cadet like me?’
One giant step back for space travel - and womankind.
These suits said: ‘Don’t you wish your girlfriend was a hot space cadet like me’
11. Angela Rayner's wardrobe
Angela Rayner beefed up her look considerably towards the middle of the year, possibly, we now see, in an effort to distract from her property tax affairs.
As her position started to look uncertain she was stepping out of her ministerial car wearing bright trouser suits with white framed sunglasses and looking increasingly like a woman in search of a celebrity garden party.
Even so, the outfit for which she’ll be remembered is the green camouflage, hot-pink-lined Dryrobe she was photographed in, sipping a large glass of rose, on the beachfront near her newly purchased seaside flat in Hove.
Dryrobes are the Marmite of summer cover ups and in certain circumstances they seem to say: ‘My other (third) house is an £800,000 seaside apartment.’
This one telegraphed a message that did not serve her well when it became clear she had underpaid stamp duty.
The outfit for which Angela Rayner will be remembered is the green camouflage, hot-pink-lined Dryrobe she was photographed in, sipping a large glass of rose