Trend Watch: What’s Behind the Resurgence of the Butterfly

The butterfly has arguably become fashion’s most in-demand motif, appearing everywhere from runways and red carpets to ready-to-wear. As a symbol of transformation and freedom, the butterfly trend points to a broadly felt desire amongst consumers to break free—to undergo a metamorphosis of sorts.

“Over the past year-and-a-half, we’ve all been ‘cocooning,’ literally and figuratively,” Valerie Jacobs, Chief Growth Officer and LPK’s head futurist, tells Vogue Magazine. “We want to reemerge and take flight.”

Jacobs, who specializes in helping brands anticipate change and become Future Fluent, also notes that this isn’t the first we’ve seen of this trend, nor will it be the last: “Y2K posed a similar sense of existential threat as Covid-19, so it’s interesting to see the paralleled prominence of the butterfly in these two periods,” she says. “Y2K wasn’t just the start of a new day, new year, or new decade. It was the start of a new century. Once we turned that page, we saw the butterfly in the highest echelons of fashion.”