How you wear a winter scarf is being read as a sign of age

The New York Times reported on Jan. 29, 2026, that the way people wear winter scarves has become a marker of age, with social media debates casting some scarf styles as youthful and others as old. On social platforms and in commentary, certain techniques have been labeled: folding a scarf in half and pulling the loose ends through the folded end is called “old,” wrapping a scarf once and pulling both ends through the front is described as “youthful,” and wrapping it twice and pulling one end through is again read as “old.” Pulling a scarf over the head like a babushka is presented as youthful.

Erika Veurink, 30, the writer of the Long Live newsletter, said her usual look—one end over the chest and the other down the back—read to her as “65-year-old man,” jokingly, and she contrasted casual-looking scarves with styles that feel “buttoned up” or “precious.” The design of scarves has also been implicated.

The once-popular infinity scarf is now widely viewed as a way to look old, a point Ms. Veurink made when she said, “it’s impossible to make an infinity scarf look relaxed and chill.” Triangle scarves, which break from traditional rectangles, have proliferated online and in stores; brands such as Jacquemus, Zara and COS have offered them, and COS’s triangle scarf has “sold out more than once,” according to the brand’s design director, Karin Gustafsson.

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