Demure is dead: Long live this season’s bold and beautiful aesthetic

Two close friends got married recently, and the dress code for the day’s celebrations was ‘bold and beautiful.’

To say the guests obliged would be a colossal understatement: the hours flew by in a kaleidoscopic blur of tears and laughter, clutched hearts and thrown shapes - with no room on the artist’s palette for anything other than the most arresting shades.

It was a beautiful occasion in every sense - the saturation dial on the whole thing whirring like the disco balls did over the dance floor - and a powerful reminder of the joy there is to be found in maximalism.

A timely one, too - because we’ve spent far too much time recently with temperance ruling the zeitgeist. Summer 2024 started with ‘brat’ - unabashed self-expression in unapologetically outdated fonts and livid, acidic greens - but eventually metamorphosed into ‘demure’.

Being mindful and cutesy, and never, ever too much was flavour of the month - and the word ruled the algorithms, however ironically it was being used.

But, at last, the trend’s race is run - and right in time for a year which will change the women’s game forever.

Demure is dead: Long live a 2024/25 season which promises to be more daring, demanding, and dazzling than anything we’ve seen before.

Where to begin? Let’s start domestically - and with the best league in the world. Premiership Women’s Rugby is just weeks away, and bristling more enticingly than ever with global talents - as would-be World Cuppers swarm English shores.

Emma Orr has arrived, and Liv McGoverne is back. Clàudia Peña will bring as much sparkle as Krissy Scurfield promises dynamite, and we’ve been gifted a second Feaunati.

Jacoby, Callender, Kelter, and Maude have returned to a landscape suddenly shimmering with Canadian superstars, and Harlequins have so many Olympians amongst their backline options they could probably single-handedly fill one of those opening ceremony barges.

With all that pace, and a new head coach, might the Londoners return to the league’s top table at last? How about those Lightning signings? Can Trailfinders push on after a magnificent debut? And might Chiefs finally catch that bouquet?

How have Bears regrouped after losing a final we all thought - for thirty thrilling minutes - they were going to win? Most importantly: can anyone derail Sean Lynn’s pink and white juggernaut, and conquer the big top at Queensholm?

It’s a concertinaed season this year - an all-out sprint from October through to March - and promises to be anything but demure.

After an Olympic Games which gifted us more narrative swerves than the entire Season Four of ‘Emily in Paris’, it’ll be fascinating to see how SVNS rides the wave of those historic, sold-out sessions at the Stade.

The theme of ‘opportunity’ courses through the sport, in fact: the USA with their increased funding, China restored to core status, and Great Britain with alchemist Giselle Mather at the helm.

Canada and the Black Ferns are programmes with substantial collaboration between 7s and 15s, so how they balance that in a World Cup year will be intriguing - and we’ll all be scanning the game’s tyros for the next Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Tyla King, Sharni Smale, and Naya Tapper…

Perhaps most compelling of all are Australia - who cruised into to one of the world’s most romantic cities in sensational form - only to have their hearts shattered. How will those wounds look as they emerge in Dubai, hunting a fifth straight title in the desert?

WXV has burbled into view (I’d say ‘roared’, but the launch doesn’t feel any harder than last year’s soft serve), when we’ll see some fabulous rugby - but how meaningful any of it is depends on what nations are willing to reveal.

Some will clutch cards to their chests - and use the competition to trial faces, combinations, and tactics - whilst others will go for broke, and hurl hands onto the table in a bid for that all-important momentum. Expect to raise an eyebrow or two, but don’t read into things too much.

Before we know it - it’ll be Six Nations time, when we’ll get yet more answers. Might France finally put together a full 80? Where on Earth are Italy? Behind the scenes - are Wales building or crumbling? Are Ireland ready for the big time? Can Scotland just keep getting better?

There’s no England question there, because there’s quite literally only one thing we want to know about the Red Roses in 2025…

Can they do it?

‘It’ equals Everest equals lifting the trophy at Allianz Stadium on September 27th: snapping a decade-long streak of being all-conquering until the biggest game of the cycle, and anointing themselves irrefutable queens of the rugby world.

It’s their ultimate, desperately coveted goal, and they’ve - rightly - made no secret of that: you can’t be demure in pursuit of greatness.

Come to think of it, the entire World Cup promises audacity: to be unmissable and inimitable. 2025 is not about mindful wallflowers, but roses and ferns - thistles, blossoms, and maples.

For the first time ever, 16 teams will collide with the greatest prize of all on the line, and locations scattered like confetti across the length and breadth of the country.

We don’t yet know all the competing nations, but we do know there’ll be debutants - and wonder if we just might see megastars like the Levi sisters or Charlotte Caslick dipping twinkling toes into XVs waters.

Ilona Maher fancies a go - and you’d not put it past her to scorch from Olympic rostrum to Sports Illustrated cover to dance floor to England’s green and pleasant pitches.

All this and scarcely a mention of the Black Ferns. The reigning champions were well beaten at the weekend, but they’ll both rust bust and garner critical experience between now and the World Cup - a competition at which they are consummate peakers - and the talent on display in TW2 was undeniable.

That said, my Bold and Beautiful prediction for 2025 is that Canada reach the final - so perhaps we’ll deviate from the usual offering at the One Match to Rule Them All…

Let’s hope the BBC are gutsy with their coverage in the UK - and fight for both front channel space and innovative programming.

Their perennial pitch-side plinths feel terribly demure, but the in-game interviews they strove to include on Saturday were nifty - so perhaps we can dare dream of imaginative broadcasts, to go with the record-annihilating crowds we’re already discussing as a fait accompli.

Therein, by the way, is your chance for some demure-bashing. Buy your tickets as soon as they go on sale. Snap them up, and tell your friends. Tell them to tell their friends, while you’re at it - and as you grab your soapbox and your spotlight. Actively contribute to the movement.

There’s so much we’ve not touched on - and storylines, positive and otherwise, will emerge as the season goes on - but how about that for starters?

All roads lead to the moment champions are named in 53 weeks’ time - beneath ticker tape, the eyes of millions, and the tumbling shards of the latest torpedoed glass ceiling - but the whole romp’s going to be marvellous, and a million miles from ‘reserved’.

Let’s be mindful - absolutely. Let’s savour this, and question things, and whip up a glorious, geeky frenzy around what’s going to be a season for the ages.

But screw ‘demure’. ‘Demure’ has had its day. Crank up the bass and the saturation - and don’t dilute a thing. This year’s going to be full fat, throttle, noise, steam, and throated. Long live women’s rugby’s bold and beautiful 2025.