Bella Hadid is back–but she is no longer your Depop muse

We have seen Bella Hadid wear a pair of pedal pushers and a '00s era Ed Hardy T shirt, a Karen Millen blouse and Nike ; a Plein Sud stretch mesh top and rimless sunnies, low slung Von Dutch jeans and J’adore Dior baby tees. Over the past couple of years, unique relationship with clothing – and Depop sellers with names like @princesspeach310 and @electricheartz – has laid the blueprint for what young people on social media consider to be successful dressing: a certain recherché hype girl, torn from the pages of agazine and beamed into an Erewhon in LA.

It was, at times, berserk, which is what made it so brilliant. And while so many of her contemporaries had begun to seek status through brands like and – sartorial shortcuts to being seen as prestigious and having good taste – you got the impression that Bella was not dressing to be taken seriously as a fashion person.

“I dress like a little boy,” she said in 2022. “You couldn’t catch me in a dress willingly at this point in my life.” But since reentering the public eye with a £20 last week, Bella seems to be taking a more measured, mellowed approach to getting dressed. See: the and , the cable knit separates, the and the roll neck sweaters – all of which are sedate, muted, matured even.

And just last night, Bella was photographed with a “mystery man” in cream sweatpants and a knitted cardigan. If I was writing this in August (and not entirely fatigued with girl trend nomenclature), I would interpret this as Bella’s “ ” moment, and probably make a tenuous comparison to this Kaia Gerber look.

But I think this could be unpacked in another direction: that Bella Hadid is a hit maker – capable of going viral with just one outfit – but no longer into all the attention that might inspire. This is Bella’s soft life, soft launched..