The Power Hip Is Fashion’s Latest Obession–Here’s Why

The “power hip” is a thing now. Yes, really. Fashion and its trends don’t just determine what will set the standard in terms of cut, color, or material in the coming months. Often, we can also observe how certain body parts come to the forefront—only to reappear as focal points decades or even centuries later. The waist, for example, was cinched particularly tightly and emphasized in the 1940s and ’50s. In the Swinging Sixties, the miniskirt finally bared the legs. The ’80s were defined by broad, dominant shoulders.

In the 1990s, Tom Ford, during his tenure at Gucci, made the buttocks the center of attention with the help of a visibly flashing thong, while the Y2K trends of the 2000s targeted the midsection and declared crop tops socially acceptable. And most recently, the entire body took center stage with sheer “naked” dresses. Sometimes it was about sexual liberation, sometimes about reclaiming power, and sometimes about self-determination. This visual zoom-in on a specific area of the body was therefore never entirely arbitrary or random.

The return of hips on runways and red carpets

So what’s next? In a strikingly large number of Fall/Winter 2026/27 presentations, the focus was, of all things, on the hips. Especially in Milan and Paris, hips were deliberately made the center of attention and staged in ways that were sometimes more dramatic, sometimes less so. Take Alaïa, for example, where strategically placed pleats at hip level on a yellow bustier dress automatically drew the eyes toward the body’s center. The design, with its Basque waist, was unmistakably reminiscent of the dress silhouettes from the Rococo and Victorian eras—an aesthetic that is reaching its peak again this year.

A stylistically similar nod was also evident in Chanel’s runway collection, albeit with a slightly more understated touch, featuring curved, piped details along the hips. At Dior, opulent volume played a central role, which was particularly evident in the fashion house’s signature “Bar Jackets,” whose sweeping peplum cuts clearly accentuated the hip area. A play on proportions was also evident at Erdem, where the lines became significantly more voluminous toward the hips, resembling extremely exaggerated hourglass silhouettes.

For some fashion houses, the reference to fashion history was absolutely unmistakable, as was the case with Saint Laurent. For the current collection, Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello presented a floor-length black lace dress with a pannier skirt insert. A fusion of Baroque and party-girl style that actress Zoë Kravitz apparently liked so much that she wore the dress to this year’s Met Gala.