The comeback of paper: fashion, pop culture and pen pals in 2026
From pop culture…
In the new shoot by photographer and art director Szilveszter Makò for Who What Wear, the protagonist Elle Fanning poses alongside a series of paper props as if she herself were part of a collage. Far removed from the endless white-background fashion campaigns that have dominated the past two years, the editorial best expresses the artistic direction toward which so many new talents are turning. After all, we are in the age of AI, and to highlight one’s human qualities it is better to move as far away as possible from computerized settings.
…to fashion
Other examples showing how fashion and pop culture in general are rediscovering an appreciation for paper come from Miu Miu, which for the campaign dedicated to the Miutine fragrance turned ambassador Emma Corrin into a secretary at work among piles of paperwork, typewriter in hand. Or from Cato, a young British artist who is gaining success thanks to collages celebrating Black culture also through the use of well-known pop culture faces, and from Sandy Liang, who for SS26 printed paper origami tutorials on skirts and shirts.
And content too
@slugdealerrr paper clay tutorial! start by shredding or cutting your paper up into little tiny pieces, scissors work great for smaller batches. you can use any paper you’d like (cardboard, cereal boxes, egg cartons, newspaper, etc) and place into a heat tolerant container next, pour boiling water over the the paper so it’s fully submerged. Let sit for 24 hours minimum, the longer it sits the easier it is to blend. For cardboard/thicker paper I’d recommend letting it sit for 48 hours + scoop into a blender and blend until the paper is frothy/mostly broken down. It’s okay if there’s chunks. If your blender is struggling, add more water. The more water, the easier the mixture is to blend strain the paper pulp through cheesecloth or a strainer, and squeeze as much water out as humanly possible. This part is important. you’ll want the mixture to feel dry and crumbly before moving on to the next step once crumbly, mix in a splash of vinegar and some salt to help preserve the paper clay and reduce the chances of anything weird happening during the dry time. next put on gloves and add equal parts school glue, and joint compound. I don’t measure anything out. Since the mixture is dry and crumbly, we add in glue and joint conmpound until the mixture becomes sticky and workable. joint compound is the most expensive ingredient; if you’re working on a budget you can skip the joint compound and just use glue. It still dries pretty strong. The joint compound feels important if you’re working on a larger scale project or want your piece to dry indestructible. if you don’t have a mixer you can mix by hand (with gloves!) And there you have it, paper clay! You can store it in an air tight container for up to a week. paper clay dry times vary depending on how thick you lay the clay on. I allow up to a week for my pieces to dry fully. Have fun! #paperclay #scuplture Pássaros na Floresta – Vozes da Natureza
Paper is also receiving attention online. On TikTok, stationery has a section all its own: some content creators make ASMR videos in which they fill their journals with stickers and postcards, others create true custom planners with leather covers and studs, while others still have fun building enormous structures with papier-mâché.
According to data from Pinterest, the artistic inspiration platform beloved by Gen Z – which represents 42% of its user base – many hobbies from the past are set to come back into fashion in 2026, including the use of paper. The new Pinterest Predicts report states that letters will begin to exert their charm on younger generations over the coming year: in recent months, the app has recorded an increase in searches for cute stamps (105%), pen pals (35%), handwritten letters (45%), and gifts sent via traditional mail (snail mail, 110%).
2026 is about finding new friends, even pen pals
If in 2025 we learned how to converse with AI and to lose ourselves in slop content, now the general trend is to return to talking to real people and to making room for originality. Mail clubs, born around the world to counter digital isolation and build communities even across long distances, represent a fitting response to this need. Dazed reports that the American PerchPost, a subscription service that sends an envelope full of printed paper every month, has grown from 25 subscribers at its launch in January 2025 to over 1,600 today, while in the past 12 months searches for pen pal websites have seen an 80% increase. In short, it really does seem that 2026 has begun under the banner of paper: now all that remains for the younger generations is to relearn how to write in cursive.
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