The Chinese Zodiac works on a 12-year cycle. This year, beginning on Feb 17th, is the Year of the Fire Horse, making the last Year of the Horse in 2014. The fire horse is characterized by passion, fast-paced change, and ambition. The horse is rare, energetic, and volatile in its year.
2014 certainly lived up to the nature of being passionate and energetic. 2014 was heavily characterized by Tumblr girls. Tumblr undoubtedly had its peak in 2014, and was arguably the beginning of what would later be referred to as influencers. The fashion of the time was defined by the Tumblr girls with a blend of Indie Sleaze, hipster, and hyper-feminine aesthetics. The heavy pink filters and the messy Americana aesthetic were in. Just about every girl was shopping at Victoria’s Secret and Pink, while Baby Lips chapsticks were dominating everyone’s pockets.
While Tumblr is no longer the dominating social media platform, the current reigning social media platform, TikTok, has just as much, if not more, influence on the culture and trends of today as Tumblr did in 2014. Current trends today step away from the millennial hipster and messy Indie Sleaze aesthetic, but the hyper-feminine aesthetic has rebranded into the Clean Girl of today. The Clean Girl is defined by the slick back hairstyles, colorful workout sets, and clunky water bottles. The workout sets of today are very reminiscent of the comfy sweats of 2014. While the sweatpants from 2014 had a lot more of the branding from Victoria’s Secret’s Pink, the low-rise foldover sweatpants of today are very reminiscent.
The Americana aesthetic might be having the same resurgence this Year of the Horse. Not only does the horse have its associations with the western America, but popular culture has seen a recent resurgence in cowboy boots, denim on denim, and fringe. 2014’s Americana had the same distressed tees, fringe, and denim shorts that we can see in style today. Although both time periods have similarities in the style of clothing, both aesthetics emerged from two completely different cultural movements. In 2014, the usage of Americana fashion was a statement of teenage freedom, it was wild, youthful and free. In 2026, the rising trend of western fashion is a reaction to a rise in conservative fashion.
Music was a large part of the cultural movement of the 2010s and is still just as culturally relevant today. One musical movement from 2014 was Taylor Swift’s fifth studio album, and official switch from Country music to the Pop scene, 1989. The album was synth-pop and heavily inspired by the music from the late 1980s. The album was titled after her birth year of 1989 and was meant to symbolize her rebirth into the pop scene. At the same time, English-Irish boy band One Direction was going on their Where We Are Tour for the group’s third studio album Midnight Memories. One Direction was at the height of their career at the time. The boy band would later disband in 2016.
This year of the horse, music still has a large impact on the culture. For example, former One Direction member Harry Styles has announced the release of his fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. The album is set to be released on March 6th of this year, with an accompanying global residency that includes 50 shows across seven cities, set to kick off May 16th of this year. The tour received a lot of backlash for the limited number of cities on the tour; many people felt the tour was not inclusive to all fans. Other anticipated albums dropping this year include Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide, RAYE’s This Music May Contain Hope, and The Bleachers’ Everyone for Ten Minutes.
The ice bucket challenge was a popular trend in 2014, meant to raise global public awareness and funds for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Participants were nominated by friends and family to dump a bucket of ice water over themselves within 24 hours of the nomination. The challenge had over 17 million participants worldwide and raised over $115 million for research and patient care. The ice bucket challenge dramatically raised public awareness of the disease. The ice bucket challenge had a recent resurgence in the summer of 2025 with the #SpeakYourMIND Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge remained the same, but the cause shifted from ALS to Mental Health and Suicide Awareness. The shift in cause received minor backlash but was overall taken very well.
Sophia Fontana is a Sophomore Journalism major and Theater Arts minor who reminds readers of the cyclical nature of trends. She can be reached at sfontana@ithaca.edu