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Fit to be tied: why are bows absolutely everywhere in 2024?

Saccharine or subversive, satirical or self-infantilising? This symbol of girlhood has been on a journey, from the industrial revolution to TikTok

By the end of last year it wasn’t just chips – everything from ice cubes to gherkins, toilet rolls, golden retrievers and a bottle of antidepressants were being prettified, neatly packaged with a single bow and posted on TikTok, where, in some cases, they would rack up millions of views. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images“They portray a kinderwhore-derived grunge aesthetic or a super pretty Simone Rocha or Ryan Lo princess, or even an elegant grownup sexiness, depending how you wear them,” says LA-based stylist Mimi Wade, who references directors and artists such as Sofia Coppola and Petra Collins as her inspiration. Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty ImagesFor some, bows have become a symbol of trad wives and patriarchal oppression: a way of self-infantilising that comes at a terrible time as conservatism and hate speech are growing among young men, gender pay gaps still exist and many women have been stripped of their reproductive rights.

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