July 21, 2026·Aesthetic Study
Scale Model
Mermaidcore returns as high fashion, pricing nostalgia at $1,580 a scale.
Mermaidcore comes in and out like the tides, and this summer it washed up at Chanel. Matthieu Blazy’s first Cruise show landed in Biarritz with clam-shell invites, models in beaded starfish and CC-branded bathing caps, and gowns finished in orange-and-aquamarine scales. In 2016 this was gloriously tacky Tumblr fodder — Katy Perry and Sky Ferreira in seafoam hair, holographic Topshop. A decade before that, it was kids’ TV: H2O: Just Add Water premiered on July 7, 2006, just over twenty years ago, turning three Gold Coast teens into mermaids for 250 million viewers across 120 countries. Aquamarine hit theaters the same year, with talking starfish earrings and a teenage Emma Roberts.
The millennials who watched moon pools after school have luxury budgets now, and the Gen Z crowd that made Aquamarine a cult film (Chappell Roan called her “Casual” video “Aquamarine but like, gay”) is who the campaigns are aimed at. Disney ordered an Aquamarine sequel pilot this June. Of course, the Pucci version runs $1,580 — a fair bit more than a Blockbuster rental and a pack of butterfly clips.
- Twenty years of Phoebe Tonkin
- Why a middling 2006 mermaid movie became a Gen Z cult classic
- Mermaidcore, all grown up: how to wear the siren trend now
