Pinterest has spent years positioning itself as an early-warning system for what young consumers will want next. The platform began as a digital pinboard for saving and sharing ideas in fashion, home décor, and nearly every other category of personal taste. It now packages that data into an annual forecast that marketers watch closely.
In December 2025, Pinterest released Pinterest Predicts 2026, its yearly look at the trends it expects to break out over the next 12 months. The report draws on billions of searches and saves, measuring how search interest changed between September 2024 and August 2025. The company says 88% of its predictions over the past six years have come true.
This year’s report flagged 21 trends spanning fashion, beauty, home, food, and travel. They include Brooched, which predicted that boomer and millennial men would start accessorizing with heirloom brooches and vintage pins, and Funhaus, a bet on vintage circus-inspired home décor. Another is Gimme Gummy, a craving for squishy, jelly-like textures in everything from candy to phone cases.
With the year nearly over, how are those predictions holding up?
Brooches went from Pinterest boards to the runway
Brooches look like one of Pinterest’s clearest wins. In its original report, Pinterest pointed to searches for “brooch for men suit” rising 90% and “heirloom jewelry” up 45%, according to National Jeweler. Interest has kept building since then. Pinterest Trends data shows the search term “brooch outfit ideas” climbing steadily since June and peaking at an interest score of 92 out of 100 in early October. The search term “brooches handmade fabric” reached 87 earlier this month. On Google, searches for “brooch” hit a peak score of 100 in February 2026, according to Google Trends.
Designers caught on, too. Brooches were one of the standout jewelry stories of the fall/winter 2026 runways, according to British Vogue. They appeared at Giorgio Armani’s show in Milan, where they nodded to the star signs of the late designer and his niece and successor, Silvana Armani. They also showed up at Ralph Lauren and Tory Burch in New York.
Funhaus is one of the report’s quirkier calls. Pinterest said searches for “circus interior” rose 130% over its measurement period. It also reported a 70% rise in “vintage circus aesthetic” and a 50% jump in “circus nursery,” and predicted that boomers and millennials would lead the trend, Axios reported.
The trend has since found at least one famous convert. Actor Richard E. Grant is known for Withnail and I, his Oscar-nominated turn in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and, more recently, Saltburn. He recently posted an Instagram photo of a dinner party at his home with guests including Helena Bonham Carter and Christine Baranski. The setting was a dining room decked out in oversized circus masks, bunting, garlands, and colorful lights, Ideal Home reported.
Pinterest trends matter to brands
Pinterest’s forecasts carry weight with marketers because so much of its audience is young and ready to shop. Pinterest says Gen Z is driving 67% of its 2026 trends, and the company has made that generation central to its strategy. CEO Bill Ready told Fortune last year how a decision that tanked the stock helped make the platform a Gen Z winner. Gen Z’s global spending power is projected to reach $12 trillion by 2030, according to a 2024 NielsenIQ and World Data Lab report.
What’s popular online increasingly shapes what ends up on store shelves, as brands race to meet the demand that viral aesthetics create.
Perhaps the defining example is the “clean girl” aesthetic of slicked-back hair, glowy skin, and minimal makeup. Hailey Bieber helped popularize the look around the time she launched her skincare brand Rhode in June 2022. Rhode quickly became Gen Z’s go-to minimalist beauty brand. In May 2025, e.l.f. Beauty agreed to acquire it in a deal worth up to $1 billion. Rhode had brought in $212 million in net sales in the 12 months before the deal, and e.l.f.’s chief executive framed the purchase as a bet on Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Bows became a retail playbook
The bow and ribbon motifs that have spread across consumer categories since 2024 offer another case study, and another Pinterest call. The company’s Predicts 2024 report, released in December 2023, forecast a “Bow Stacking” trend after searches for “bow outfit” rose 190%, FashionUnited reported. The trend got another boost in mid-2024, when the third season of Netflix’s Bridgerton fueled a wave of Regency-inspired fashion on TikTok, including ribbons, bows, lace, and braids.
By August 2024, Pinterest’s fall trend report showed searches for “bow nail designs” up 2,220% and “crochet bow bag” up 975%.
Retailers moved to cash in. Pacsun worked with Pinterest to analyze search and pin data. In July 2024 it launched its “Better in Baggy” back-to-school campaign, which included an expanded line of embellished denim featuring bows, rhinestones, leopard print, and patches, Retail TouchPoints reported. Its bet on the broader baggy trend paid off. Baggy and loose-fit styles grew from about 8% of Pacsun’s denim sales to 80% in a single year, according to Glossy.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com