Fashion and smoking can’t take a long break thanks to the power of image, identity and resistance
By Antonia Moser
From Audrey Hepburn’s cigarette holder in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Kate Moss lighting up backstage at Alexander McQueen shows in the 1990s, smoking has long been embedded in fashion’s visual language. It symbolised rebellion, effortlessness and creative nonchalance, an aesthetic shorthand for being cool without trying. Designers like Yves Saint Laurent openly smoked while working, Helmut Newton photographed cigarettes as extensions of the body, and editorial imagery throughout the late 20th century treated smoke as texture, mood and attitude rather than habit.
While public health campaigns and stricter regulations pushed cigarettes out of mainstream advertising over the last decade, fashion never truly let go. Now, in the mid-2020s, smoking isn’t just back on the runway, it’s being re-packaged, aestheticised and sold again.
This isn’t a revival. It’s a resurfacing.
Historically, fashion and smoking have moved in lockstep. Cigarettes were once explicitly designed for style-conscious consumers, with ‘fashion cigarettes’ like Virginia Slims marketed as elegant accessories rather than addictive products. Long, slim silhouettes mirrored the bodies and garments of the era, while advertising framed smoking as empowerment and sophistication. Designers, photographers and editors used smoking to signal glamour, danger and edge — from Guy Bourdin’s provocative imagery to 1990s Calvin Klein campaigns that blurred eroticism and nihilism. Even as smoking declined socially, its symbolic power remained intact. The cigarette never disappeared; it simply retreated into subtext.
Over the past ten years, smoking imagery became quieter in fashion. As brands aligned themselves with wellness, sustainability and inclusivity, overt cigarette imagery faded from campaigns and catwalks. Luxury houses shifted toward clean skin, athletic bodies and healthy aspiration. But recently, the cultural temperature has shifted again. In 2023 and 2024, models were smoking on runways at smaller independent shows. Cigarettes appearing in fashion editorials in magazines like i-D and Dazed, and tobacco-adjacent aesthetics in campaigns — from motel parking lots to late-night diner settings — suggest a renewed comfort with smoking’s visual codes. Even when no cigarette is present, the cues remain: ashtrays, lighters, smoke breaks, stained fingers and that familiar posture.
Why now?
Part of the answer lies in youth culture’s relationship with nostalgia and rebellion. In an era defined by algorithmic sameness, productivity culture and hyper-optimised self-care, smoking reads as transgressive again. It taps into a longing for messiness, imperfection and analogue cool, a reaction against wellness culture’s moral rigidity.
Recent films and television reinforce this shift. Characters who smoke are often framed as complex, creative or emotionally raw, rather than irresponsible. Fashion and pop culture publications have noted how smoking is once again coded as chic, particularly among Gen Z audiences seeking authenticity over aspiration. The appeal isn’t the cigarette itself, but what it represents: refusal, friction and a rejection of polished selfhood. This shift is also visible on social media. TikTok is filled with videos romanticising cigarettes as part of an ‘effortless’ lifestyle, paired with Fashion Week outfits, night buses home, post-club kebabs, or grainy film photography. Cigarettes appear alongside leather jackets, ballet flats and low-rise denim, often shot on disposable cameras or camcorders to heighten the sense of rawness.
Smoking becomes less about the act itself and more about the image it produces. As the CBC reports, this aesthetic framing risks detaching smoking from its real health consequences, making it visually desirable while remaining socially controversial.
Primary research supports this perception. In a London-based survey of 40 fashion-interested smokers aged 18–26, over 80% associated the fashion industry with smoking to some degree. While fashion wasn’t cited as the primary reason for smoking, 37.5% named image or aesthetic motivations, and 32.5% linked smoking to a “creative lifestyle.”
As one respondent explained, “It’s not why I started smoking, but it’s definitely part of how I see myself now – it fits the image around fashion and creativity.” Another added, “In fashion spaces, smoking almost feels like part of the uniform. It’s less judged and more normalised.”
Nearly 80% said smoking had helped them fit into fashion-related social situations, reinforcing its role as a social connector in creative environments. Several respondents described smoking as a way into conversation, particularly at events and nightlife-adjacent spaces. “Smoke breaks are where you actually talk to people,” one participant noted. “That’s where networking happens.”
Importantly, 65% of respondents believed smoking is more accepted within the fashion industry than in other professional environments. This perception was echoed repeatedly in qualitative responses. “I wouldn’t smoke at my part-time job,” one respondent said, “but at fashion events it feels expected.” Another described it more bluntly: “In fashion, it’s seen as aesthetic — not unhealthy.”
This suggests that fashion doesn’t just reflect cultural attitudes toward smoking; it actively shapes and shelters them. As the survey highlights, fashion normalises smoking through both its visual language and its social rituals, even as broader society continues to move away from it.
Yet the tension remains. Medical research continues to warn against the dangers of smoking imagery, particularly its influence on young people (BMJ, 2024). The return of smoking in fashion raises ethical questions: where is the line between cultural expression and harmful romanticisation? Looking towards 2026, smoking’s place in fashion signals a broader cultural shift. Youth culture is embracing contradiction – wellness alongside self-destruction, sustainability next to indulgence. Smoking’s reappearance isn’t about ignorance; it’s about image, identity and resistance.
For fashion and creative industries, this moment is less a trend to exploit and more a signal to interrogate: why does this aesthetic still hold power, and who ultimately pays the price for its cool?
Because in fashion, smoking never disappeared. It just waited until it felt transgressive again.
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Disclaimer: Smoking and nicotine use are dangerous, addictive and can cause serious harm or death.
If you want to quit or need support, visit NHS Smokefree (UK)
