Romance Is Back, Just Like We Predicted

Five years ago, Evie predicted that women had the power to revive romance in our culture, and it appears that we’ve done just that. From high fashion to popular culture to internet trends, it’s clear that women are reclaiming softness, discretion, and decency.

This is not a superficial aesthetic shift. It signals a deeper return to the inherent dignity of women and the role we play in inspiring not only romance, but human greatness in the hearts of men everywhere.

Rather than lamenting how far removed from romance our world has gotten, we're embracing everything from corsets to courtship. The culture is not just changing; it may actually be healing.

The numbers tell a striking story. Recent analysis of Google search data shows that global searches for the term “romance” have reached a five-year high, with sustained growth since the early 2020s. Interest in romance and romantic symbolism has increased steadily as consumers embrace styles and stories centered on longing, courtship, and deep emotion, observers tracking the data note.

It’s impossible to ignore what's driving it. Nothing could be further from romance than swiping through apps, settling for meaningless hookups, and fumbling through the graceless awkwardness of who's expected to pay for dinner. Nearly eight in ten Americans who use dating apps report emotional and psychological burnout, particularly among young adults who were handed this as a blueprint for love and found it hollow. Meanwhile, financial data confirms what so many feel privately: more than half of Gen Z adults—53 percent of men and 54 percent of women—say they spend $0 on dating each month. A generation has quietly withdrawn from the game entirely.

And who could blame them? When sex is commodified like Uber Eats—fast, frictionless, and utterly forgettable—even the least romantic among us eventually sense that something has been lost. Gen Z is waking up to a truth older generations once took for granted: restraint and waiting don't diminish desire. They make the long-term appeal of sex far more powerful.

Young people are saying this aloud now. There is open, earnest conversation about how much more men strove, built, and became when access wasn't guaranteed; that a man who yearns is a man who earns. Gen Z adults are expressing interest in committed relationships even as they report less frequent dating and sexual contact, pointing to a growing desire for real romance that runs contrary to the prevailing habits of our time.

In 2020, Evie proposed a remedy: that women reclaim their influence as catalysts for timeless romance by owning their femininity, embracing commitment, and making men wait.

In 2020, Evie proposed a remedy: that women reclaim their influence as catalysts for timeless romance by owning their femininity, embracing commitment, and making men wait. In a culture saturated with artificial intimacy, we argued that a woman's standards were not limitations but invitations to men capable of rising to meet them. A downturn in participation wasn't cause for despair. It was an opening.

That opening became a movement.

As sexual activity declined, romantic escapism surged. While not exactly the most historically accurate or prim period drama, Bridgerton, which debuted in 2020, inspired an explosion of interest in classic nineteenth-century silhouettes. It helped popularize the term “Regencycore,” building on earlier fascination with cottagecore aesthetics that emphasized softness, tradition, and old-world charm.

This is not without precedent. In the 1960s, Victorian silhouettes staged a dramatic revival as consumers recoiled from the sterile minimalism of postwar modern design and reached instead for feminine waistlines, lace, silk, and ruffles. The pattern is familiar because the impulse is timeless: when culture becomes too harsh, too mechanical, too stripped of beauty, women lead the return to something more human.

Today's runways are doing the same. The sleek simplicity of recent years is giving way to historical detail, ornamentation, and drama. Bridal fashion is returning to basque and corseted waists that evoke earlier centuries. These are not merely aesthetic choices. Fashion is a language, and what it's saying right now is that this culture is hungry for values, for feminine dignity, for the emotional power of restraint, and for beauty that means something.

The sleek simplicity of recent years is giving way to historical detail, ornamentation, and drama.

No conversation about romantic longing would be complete without acknowledging the enduring hold of Pride & Prejudice, and specifically, the hand flex. The dreamy, mist-covered field. Mr. Darcy expressed devotion without spectacle, captivated not by exposure but by character. The restrained, polite yearning of Regency-era romance is a soothing balm in a culture rubbed raw by commitment-phobia and one-night stands. Restraint makes for the best romance. This is a timeless truth.

History confirms the logic. Men have always been willing to do extraordinary things for the women they desired; not merely because romance is beautiful, but because it is practical. Sex can produce children, and women have always, wisely required some confidence that a partner is capable of protection and provision before offering either. That logic remains intact today, as more women recognize that they can relax into softness only when a man provides real safety and stability. The man who says, “I’ll pick you up at eight,” without needing to be asked, signals that he may one day say, “I’ll take care of it,” for life.

You don't need to marry the first man who picks you up and pays the bill, but every woman should be paying close attention to how a man approaches courtship. His actions reveal whether he's prepared for commitment. A man capable of providing a secure, masculine presence will show it from the very first date; in how he plans, how he leads, and how he honors the boundaries you set.

In the same way that classical fashion reveals the natural curves of the female form without cheapening them, feminine standards reveal a woman's dignity and draw toward her the men most likely to honor it.

Women still possess enormous influence in defining the atmosphere of relationships. They can cultivate romance in their own lives, and apparently, they already are.

When women reclaim their softness, their dignity, and their standards, culture cannot help but follow.

Five years ago, Evie made a prediction. Not a hopeful wish, not a cultural experiment, a prediction, rooted in the conviction that femininity is not a liability but a civilizing force. That when women reclaim their softness, their dignity, and their standards, culture cannot help but follow.

The data agrees. The runways agree. The swelling interest in courtship, corsets, and commitment agrees. Even a generation raised on hookup culture and algorithmic matchmaking is waking up, bleary-eyed and hungry for something real.

This is what happens when women stop settling. When they say no to the transactional and yes to the transcendent. When they make men wait; not as a game, but as a declaration that they are worth waiting for.

Romance was never truly dead. It was dormant, waiting for women to remember their power to call it back to life. And that is precisely what's happening.

The return of romance is not a trend. It's a restoration. And if history is any indication, it's only the beginning.