Clothes set the scene, but accessories tell the truth. You can borrow an outfit’s whole silhouette from a mannequin; the bag you carry and the shoes you actually walk in are where your real taste leaks out. And 2023 has been the most fun year for accessories since I started this blog.
Here’s what actually dominated, what’s worth your money as we head into the holidays, and where I’d politely pass.
The Big Bag Is Back, Thank Goodness
Pour one out for the micro-bag. After years of purses that couldn’t hold a lipstick and a metro card simultaneously, 2023 swung gloriously oversized. The East-West shape, long and low like a baguette that hit the gym, became the silhouette of the year. The Row’s Margaux turned into the quiet luxury grail, Prada’s big totes were everywhere at fashion month, and Bottega Veneta’s slouchy intrecciato carryalls made structured bags look uptight.
The trend reports at Lyst tracked roomy totes and hobos climbing all year while tiny novelty bags slid off the charts. I cannot overstate my joy. As someone who carries a sketchbook, two pencil cases, and emergency snacks, fashion finally caught up with my life.
If you buy one bag this season, buy it big, slouchy, and in a color you’d paint a wall.
Mesh Ballet Flats: The Shoe of the Year
I fought this one. I lost. Alaïa’s sheer mesh flats, dotted with crystals, became the single most copied shoe of 2023, and the broader ballet flat revival turned every shoe brand’s lookbook into a Degas painting. The new versions are sharper than their 2008 ancestors: pointed toes, mesh and satin fabrications, ribbons that crisscross like pointe shoes.
What makes them work is contrast. Wear them with wide-leg trousers, slouchy denim, or a maxi skirt and they look deliberate. Wear them with skinny jeans and you’ve time-traveled, and not in a chic way. Vogue has chronicled the balletcore wave all year, and I’d bet on the flats outliving the leg warmers.
Red Shoes, Specifically
If 2023 accessories had an official color, it’s red. Sabato De Sarno’s Gucci debut painted September in deep Ancora burgundy, and suddenly a red shoe became the fastest way to look current. Cherry Mary Janes, tomato slingbacks, oxblood boots. The beauty of the red shoe trend is that it asks nothing else of you. Jeans, white tee, scarlet flats: done. You look like you tried exactly the right amount.
The Rosette: A Flower Is Not Optional
My illustrator heart wins this round. The oversized fabric rosette, pinned at the collarbone or stitched to a choker, went from Sandy Liang signature to full-blown phenomenon this year. It’s the rare statement piece that costs almost nothing to try: vintage brooch, ribbon choker, or a DIY satin flower if you’re handy.
Why did it hit so hard? Because after all that quiet luxury beige, people were starving for whimsy. A giant flower at your throat is the accessory equivalent of a love letter. Romantic, slightly absurd, completely committed.
Sambas and the Low-Profile Sneaker Takeover
The Adidas Samba conquered 2023 so thoroughly that spotting one stopped being noteworthy by July. Wales Bonner’s collaborations made the silhouette collectible, Bella Hadid made it paparazzi-proof, and the rest of us made it a uniform. The flat, slim profile suits this year’s baggy trousers and long skirts far better than chunky dad sneakers ever could.
The smart money says the terrace sneaker category, Sambas, Gazelles, and their cousins, keeps running into 2024. Even GQ spent the year documenting the Samba’s chokehold on, well, everyone. Buy the colorway nobody else has, that’s the only rule left.
Sculptural Silver Jewelry
Gold had a long reign, but 2023 tipped the scales back toward silver, and specifically toward chunky, sculptural, slightly molten shapes. Think bold cuffs, blobby door-knocker earrings, twisted metal chokers. The look pairs perfectly with the year’s liquid-metallic clothing trend, and it photographs beautifully against bare skin and simple knits.
My styling advice: one sculptural piece per outfit, worn like punctuation. Two reads as armor. Three reads as a craft fair.
Bows on Everything, Everywhere
The coquette aesthetic crested this fall, and bows escaped from gift wrap into hair, onto heels, around handbag straps. Sandy Liang again, plus Simone Rocha’s romantic runway influence trickling down to every accessories wall in the mall. A black ribbon tied in your hair is free, takes ten seconds, and instantly tags your outfit as 2023. Will it look dated by 2025? Probably. Wear it now anyway. Trends are allowed to be temporary; that’s the whole point of trends.
What I’d Skip
Honesty corner. The novelty clutch shaped like an object (a fish, a flower, a dinner roll) is hilarious exactly once per party. The visible-logo belt revival keeps threatening a comeback; let it threaten. And those enormous shield sunglasses look incredible on editors at fashion week and like a welding accident on the rest of us. Buy the big bag instead.
How to Wear Statement Pieces Without Looking Like a Trend Report
One rule, learned from years of drawing well-dressed strangers: a statement accessory needs silence around it. The women who looked best this year wore the rosette with a plain black dress, the red shoes with faded denim, the sculptural cuff with a grey turtleneck. The piece dominates because nothing competes with it.
So as you write your holiday wishlist, pick the one accessory from this list that made you feel something, and build quiet outfits around it. Statement pieces are like exclamation points. One per sentence, and suddenly people hear you.