Is the ‘Harry Potter’ Renaissance Upon Us?

While an announcement about a Harry Potter film reboot seems inevitable at some point (please let J.K. Rowling cast it, please), the decades-old Potter franchise is still moving the cultural needle. The Potter aesthetic is primed to invade couture, and the wave, like a well-rendered “expecto patronum” charm, is impossible to stop.

A Vans line featuring Hogwarts house imagery is imminent. The Potter parks at Universal Studios are thriving. An Instagram account called Gryffindior posits Potter characters as fashion icons, has nearly 100k followers. While I wouldn’t claim that the mall chain Hot Topic is the pulse of cool in 2019, Hot Topic been moving licensed, quasi-edgy Potter merch for a decade. Hot Topic was right about metal shirts, for the record. 

For millennials, the Potter universe is a commonality we’ve projected our personalities ourselves onto. As prep staples like rugby shirts and polos find room in recent high profile collections, the Potter world's prep-but-goth aesthetic is due for a moment in fashion—the Potterssaince, so to speak.

While most prep styles hem around a certain set of colors—white, navy blue, brown—the color palette of the Hogwarts houses, in a phrase, is much sicker. Gold and maroon, reptilian green and silver, black and yellow and purple and bronze.

While the cyclical prep style renaissance is an ongoing comment on class, Potter’s comment on class feels more contemporary. In a fashion landscape where a next level fit depends on having a discernible look, if a bit on-the-nose—Potter colors make for an easy, individuality-asserting statement, almost like if you stamped your astrological sign on every piece of clothing you own. But way more magical, obviously.

All of this could very well be part of a larger corporate master plan, one that keeps Potter’s narrative relevant until the next film or video game installments. But whether it’s something small, like a Potter novel holding a prominent headboard spot on Molly's bed in Booksmart, or something much bigger like a major sneaker collaboration, Harry Potter is one of our generation's shared languages. Everyone has the chance to fashion his or her own statement. 

Will your boss be wearing Slytherin dress robes to the Christmas party, just to flex? Probably not. But hey, the robe-in-public is a look some style innovators have rocked recently. Ill-fitting, maximalist silhouettes have been en vogue for a while.

Can the full-blown Potterssaince really be that far behind?