The contents of our shopping carts are ever shifting, but some products have firmly fallen out of fashion as we step into 2026.
Customers across the UK are no longer spending their hard-earned cash on a range of products across fashion, interior design, and beauty.
Jeggings, floating shelves, and charcoal masks are all among the items that are no longer trendy to purchase, according to an annual report on Britain’s shopping habits released by John Lewis.
The retailer examined popular items – as well as what we aren’t buying – and how that informs the way we live.
It also highlighted growing trends, such as the UK falling back in love with butter (both the actual dairy product and the colour that dominated spring and summer), ‘nowstalgia’ and the ‘generational embrace of 1990s music and fashion’.
One of the biggest shifts in fashion is among menswear, with the tightly fitting skinny jean or jegging being shunned for more relaxed silhouettes.
Previously, it was a la mode for men to wear tighter-than-tight trousers that sometimes looked like they could have been sprayed on, but this is no longer the case.
Men’s skinny jeans make up for less than five per cent of John Lewis’ total jeans offering, down from 15 per cent in 2019 – so the retailer has slashed its stock.
Instead, wide-leg and barrel-leg jeans are the modern man’s go-to style as they follow in the footsteps of womenswear – which led the charge towards baggier fits in 2024.
Where beauty is concerned, traditional charcoal or clay masks have been sidelined in favour of hi-tech LED masks and Korean beauty products.
The days of applying all manner of pastes to the skin, waiting for them to dry and then washing them off while getting clay everywhere in the process are fading, with sales plummeting by 28 per cent compared to last year.
Instead, beauty obsessives are turning to sheet masks, which require less clean-up, as well as electrical skincare, the market for which grew by a whopping 525 per cent year on year.
The catalyst for such exponential growth in this area was the launch of Shark’s CryoGlow LED mask in November.
John Lewis also noted a 69 per cent rise in the sales of eye masks, which, when combined with the increasing popularity of super king-sized beds, confirms how the public is prioritising sleep.
As a result, double beds are no longer standard, with sales of double mattresses shrinking by five per cent while sales of king beds rise by 23 per cent and super king beds by 39 per cent.
Jason Wilary-Attew, director of home at John Lewis, explained: ‘People want better sleep, and people are willing to spend more on a king or super king-sized bed and mattress to ensure that.
Beds aren’t the only furniture item seeing a shift. Households are turning away from floating shelves, which were once the top choice for those wanting to showcase books.
Floating shelves were designed to merge into the wall, giving the impression of seamlessness as well as freeing up precious floor space.
However, free-standing statement shelving has overridden floating shelves as the furniture du jour, as homeowners seek new ways to display their favourite things.
It’s not just books that adorn these commanding shelves, but also vases, dishes, glassware and vinyl records as people look to such objects as ways to showcase their personality and taste.
Meanwhile, the way we work is also changing. Shoppers are no longer buying desktop computers, as sales drop by 26 per cent.
A fully-fledged PC was once essential because it possessed the processing power and screen resolution needed for a myriad of big digital projects.
But AI-integrated laptops, which have jumped by a third in sales, have caught up with this demand, and many of them have dramatically improved battery life.
Explaining the move from desktop computers to AI laptops, Steven Woodgate, head of technology at John Lewis, said: ‘With desktop computing, we have seen a gradual decline over the last 18 months or so.
‘With the rise of 16-inch screens with OLED capabilities on laptops, people are seeing these as good enough to work on.’
In the kitchen, just one appliance has seen a fall from grace – the sous vide machine.
About 10 years ago, sous vide machines were all the rage among aspirational home cooks and experimental chefs, who were keen on showing off their culinary prowess as well as their ability to pronounce the term.
Sous vide cooking works by vacuum-sealing ingredients in a pouch and then submerging them in a temperature-controlled water bath that cooks it slowly and evenly, before searing the outsides of the food item to finish it.
But, according to John Lewis, this finicky method of cooking sucked the joy out of entertaining, and demand has dropped off a cliff – so much so that the retailer has stopped stocking the gadget.
Searches for sous vide machines have halved compared to 2024, with home cooks choosing ‘messy generosity over molecular gastronomy’.
