The return of Circus-core, the trend that juggles with eccentricity

After the ballet-core trend, which brought ballet flats back into fashion and took cover-ups and spats out of the dance studios to flood social networks, another micro-trend seems to be (already) emerging - red. Gone is the clean girl make-up, replaced by pencil-thin eyebrows, coloured cheekbones and a heart-shaped mouth. As for the costume, it looks like something out of a circus act. Bright colours and patterns are combined to infinity. This is a radical departure from previous - and not so previous - micro-trends, which tended to focus on harmonised silhouettes in terms of colour, banishing almost all patterns, with the exception of animal prints. By adopting this trend, we are seeking to stand out from the ordinary, to display a burlesque, spectacular appearance, and by extension to accentuate a marginal, cunt identity. Even if some of its elements are taken up independently, circus imagery is very much present, albeit diluted but scattered here and there, through a motif or a combination of colours. To wear this trend is to thumb one's nose at the traditional sartorial injunctions that are gaining ground. If life is a circus, this trend definitely allows everyone to perform their own act. 

From Vivienne Westwood's Voyage à Cythera collection in 1989, to the extravagant make-up of John Galliano's Christian Dior collection in 2003, designed by the legendary Pat McGrath, to the recent tributes to Moschino and Dior Haute Couture by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the circus has spanned the ages, and each time seems to hold up a distorting mirror to us. Attracted by its saturated aesthetic, the myths that surround it and the many ways it can be staged, fashion is constantly updating its imagery. Close to the Harlequin silhouette, Circus-core mixes tights and other coloured stockings with patterns - mainly checks, polka dots and stripes - and plays with volume by adding collars in unexpected places, particularly around the wrists and ankles, as with Jeffrey Campbell and Madomorpho. These two brands also picked up on other characteristic elements of the circus: the red and white stripes of the big top and the acrobats' leotards, evoked by strangely similar tights. While the pose of the model in the Jeffrey Campbell campaign explicitly evokes contortionists' acts, the Berlin-based brand Madomorpho has opted for a more minimalist aesthetic, in keeping with its DNA. 

On Instagram and TikTok, female content creators are appropriating the circus aesthetic by picking out elements of costume that, when combined, form quite hybrid outfits. A trainer's army jacket, a magician's hat, clown trousers: these pieces come together to create an eclectic, almost theatrical silhouette, where each detail evokes a different act.  Proof that this trend can be embraced in its entirety or in small touches, the star motif can be discreetly applied to a T-shirt, a fingernail or a cheekbone, or on the contrary, cover the entire face for a maximalist effect. Combined with more classic pieces, this circus-inspired wardrobe seems to awaken in us the eccentric spirit of a revisited Zoey Deschanel. Breaking away from the sleek, uncluttered aesthetic that has dominated in recent years - as evidenced by the quiet luxury trend - Circus-core advocates a return to uninhibited individuality. Inspired by stage costumes, this aesthetic celebrates excess as a way of reclaiming one's own image and deliberately blurring the boundaries between the everyday and the extraordinary. It's a trend that loudly asserts the right to imperfection, kitsch and excess - like a joyful parade against fashion that's sometimes too framed and prescriptive. 

Far from wanting to blend in with the crowd, Circus-core claims a dazzling individuality, a sense of spectacle taken to the extreme. In a world where the search for authenticity has paradoxically become the norm, this trend allows people to play with their identity, to sublimate and transform it. Whether through flamboyant looks or more subtle details, Circus-core embodies above all a desire to push back the boundaries, to embrace a deliberately exaggerated aesthetic. On social networks and on catwalks alike, fashion now looks more like a circus ring, where every entrance is a manifesto for self-assertion.