In an effort to remember more about trends, past favourites and cultural memories, I attempted to keep track of monthly favourites throughout the year and asked my friends to weigh in. On top of that, I did some general research and compiled this list. Probably missing a lot. This was harder to do than I expected, but hopefully it will be something worth looking back on!

P.S. This will likely be edited going into 2026 for formatting, links, and to add anything missing. 

Best of 2025

Movies 

• Sentimental Value
• One Battle After Another
• Sinners
• Paddington in Peru
• Frankenstein
• Superman
• Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
• Bugonia
• Weapons
• Marty Supreme
• No Other Choice
• Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery
• It Was Just An Accident 
• F1
• The Voice of Hind Rajab
• Hamnet
• The Secret Agent 

TV Shows

• The Rehearsal (Season 2)
• The Studio
• Heated Rivalry
• Severance (Season 2)
• Love Island USA (Season 7)
• Pluribus
• I Love LA
• Wayward
• The Girlfriend
  
• The Pitt
• Adolescence
  

Songs

• Everyone Falls Asleep in Their Own Time - Sophia Stel
• Times Like These - Addison Rae
• Sign of The Times - Daniel Caeser
• Trinidad - Geese
• Braces - Fakemink
• High Fashion - Addison Rae
• Fame is a Gun - Addison Rae
• Stateside - Pink Panthress
• Kacey Lola - Fakemink
• Love Takes Miles - Cameron Winter
• Husbands - Geese
• Yamaha - Dijon
• Playing Classics - Water From Your Eyes
• Phantom - Esdeekid
• Abracadabra - Lady Gaga
• Los Angeles - Big Thief
• Folded - Kehlani
• Daisies - Justin Bieber
• Shake It To The Max - MOLIY

Albums

• Getting Killed - Geese
• Addison - Addison Rae
• Riviera - The Hellp
• Thank You For Almost Everything - Headache
• Fancy That - Pink Panthress
• Mayhem - Lady Gaga
• Debi Tirar Mas Fotos - Bad Bunny
• Music - Playboi Carti 
• Headlights - Alex G
• Bleeds - Wednesday
• Swag - Justin Bieber
• The Art of Loving - Olivia Dean
• Komplet - Sahati
• Baby - Dijon

Current Active Artist

• Peezy
• Geese
• Esdeekid
• Addison Rae
• Blood Orange
• Charli XCX
• Macy Rodman
• Fakemink
• Snow Strippers

Concert

• Bar Italia
• LCD Soundsystem
• Blood Orange
• Oasis
• Lorde
• Remy Bond
• Neil Young
• David Byrne
• Lady Gaga 9/11 Mayhem Ball
• Vegyn at Community Wines

Content Creators

• Levi & William

Best Trends

• Neon colours
• Aluminum foil embossing
• Skinny jeans
• Buttons and classic patterns reinvented (polka dots, gingham, tartan, stripes)
• Old combat boots
  
• Athleisure
• Corp core
• Lowrise everything
• Baggy jeans
• "Looove how accessories are in now everyone has fun trinkets on their clothes and everything"
  
• Hopecore
• Polo/collared tops
• Music notes
• Sailor core
• Studs
• Junk journals and leather journal covers (louise carmen)
• Prize ribbons
• DIY projects in general
• Pink iPhone 16

Worst Trends

• Labubus ("Does Labubu count here I hate their greedy eyes and unhealthy overbites")
• Leather pants
• Preformative Havaianas
• "I can be convinced of anything I think"
• Jncos
• Rave fur boots
• Crowns & tiaras
• Skinny jeans
• Performative indie sleeze

Pop Culture Recaps

Cultural Events

• Mamdani Elected
• Tentative Epstein files release
• Jays going to game 7 of the World Series
• Charli XCX's wedding
• Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl and Drake's beef
  
• Plane crashes seemingly going up, Trump blames DEI, and the rehearsal season 2
• Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad
• The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 3)
• Love Island USA (Season 7)
• Louvre getting robbed
• Labubus and Pop Mart blind boxes
• Matcha world shortage due to its popularity
• Death of Pope Francis 
• Oasis reunion world tour

Memes

• 67
• Charlie Kirk AI face
• Baby with motion
• Coldplay concert scandal
• Kevin Gates
• Madam Morrible flip it around Wicked Witch
• There was a healing
• We are Charlie Kirk
• Timothée Chalamet is Esdeekid 
  • His feature on 4 Raws
• What is happening on the set of Wicked 
• Nothing beats a Jet2Holiday
• I can't have a kid feeling
• Justin Bieber standing on business
• Erika Kirk press tour 

Other Chatter

• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Challengers original score Oscar snub
• David Lynch, Jane Goodall and Rob Riener passing away 
• Emilia Perez somehow getting 13 Oscar nominations before Karla Sofia Gascon's racist tweets were found
• Katy Perry going to space and dating Justin Trudeau
  
• Taylor Swift's engagement to Travis Kelce and buying her masters
• Is having a boyfriend embarrassing? 
• Benito Skinner and Terrance O'Connor break up
• Kim Kardashian Skims bush g-string
• Nervous anticipation for the Devil Wears Prada 2 Movie and its wardrobe 
  
• Marty Supreme's insane press tour and must be massive marketing budget
• Duran Lantink's controversial debut for Jean Paul Gaultier
• Jonathan Anderson joins Dior
• Blake Livley, Justin Baldoni lawsuit and Bee Better's coverage

General Favourites

Not all 2025 specific, but things that were loved and discovered this year.

Toronto Restaurant/Cafe/Bar

• Carbonic
• Sin and Redemption
• Wynona
• General Public
• Odd Seoul
• Chickfila
• Ideal
• Agenda
• Fall Bright Tavern
• Sondr
• Lunch Lady (New in 2025)
• Forno Cultura 
• Bar Vendetta
• Pho Tien
• Royal BBQ
• Wanas Shawarma
• Bar Pompette
• Jamil's (New in 2025)
• Farside
• Duke's Refresher trivia (but it shut down this year)
• Noonans
• Tommy's Wine Bar
• Gatekeeping a few.....

Recipes & Food 

• Carbone Spicy Vodka Rigatoni
• NYT Miso Salmon Bowl
• Oven-baked feta cheese pasta
  
• Pumpkin cream cheese muffins
• Lasagna or mac and cheese
• Steak and mashed potatoes
• Breadcrumbs (yes on mac and cheese too)
• Clam linguine 
• Spanish chickpea soup
• Koobideh 
• Cucumbers
• Rotisserie chicken, potatoes and veggies
• Tacos
• Hot dog
• Bar Vendetta - the garlic bread
• Bloomers - the sprinkle donut
• Malta bake shop - pastizzi
• Pho
• Oysters
• Cheese boards
• Lasagna soup

Scents

• Sea Salt Spray
• Ariana Grande Cloud lol
• Glossier Doux
• Byredo Rose
• Diptyque Lilyphea
• Jean Paul Gaultier La Belle
• Valentino Born in Roma
• Prada Paradox
• Nest Madagascar Vanilla 
• Eau de sexie (aftershave)

General Media

TV Shows

• Girls
• The OC
• Columbo
• Sopranos
• Broad City
• Better Call Saul
• Breaking Bad
• Smallville
• "I love skins its my favourite all-time show its literally the best show I've ever watched, it never gets boring and I can rewatch it over and over."

Movies

• Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
• Tokyo Godfathers
• The Long Goodbye
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Chungking Express
  
• After Hours
• The Worst Person In The World
• Office Space
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
• Risky Business 
• The Birdcage
• To Die For

Music

• Joan Baez
• Cat Power
• Leonard Cohen
• Molly Nillson
• Michael Jackson
• Sade - Love Deluxe
• Pavement
• Elliot Smith
• Old Drake
• LCD Soundsystem
• Labi Siffre
• Tangerine Dream

Books

• Jane Jacobs - Life and Death of Great American Cities
• Sartre - Nausea
• John Steinbeck - East of Eden
• Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
• "I’ve been reading Kitchen Confidential again cause it’s really interesting since I work in FOH."
• The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell (+ Revenge of the Tipping Point)

More

• Nymphet Alumni Podcast
• Cold Pod Podcast

Best Brands (of anything)

• Brandy Melville
• Chloe
• "Mymummadeit I can’t stop shopping help me"
• "Any local brands selling to a small following"
• Vintage Prada
• Lauren Ashley
• Gravity Pope branded shoes
• Cop Copine
  
• Jeremy Scott
• Marc Jacobs
• Chloe

Fondest Memories

• "Watching Friendship with my 82yo grandmother in an empty theatre"
• "Lisbon they had Festas de Lisboa (Popular Saint Festival) which takes place in june. It’s a month long festival with big street parties."

Random Everything Else

• Green and pink colour combo
• Bikeshare
• Scarves
• Catan
• Organika electrolytes
• My friends
• "Honourable mention to Luigi Mangione, Tyler James Robinson, Cynthia Erivo, and Kylie Jenner. I love u guys. Also honourable mention TAMS by tam"
• Small friend groups at a dead bar on a weekday
• Burning incense and the smell of santal
• I really love Korean skin care <3 and skin care in general
• Nerds gummy clusters
• "I am obsessed with space mollys this year. There like figurines also Korean skin care but thats always been my thing"
• My scanner
• Pandora charm bracelets
• Filet crochet
• Fur that looks like human hair
• Owalas

Thank you to everyone who contributed anonymously or by name <3 

Tam, Olivia, Dana, Stefan, Yasmin, Bird, Maeve, Isa, Ewan