Elegant nails used to follow a strict, easy-to-follow code. They were short, square, and painted in colors found naturally in the human body—blush pink, sheer nude, OPI’s iconic Funny Bunny—mirroring the discreet style of European royalty. But in 2025, the definition of nail sophistication has expanded. Now, the length, shape, and color of a manicure are more than just aesthetic choices; they invite questions such as who decides what is elegant and what is in fashion. They are cultural markers and can signal class, age, zeitgeist awareness, and even political affiliation. And what an elegant hand looks like is suddenly a divisive topic.
In November of 2020, The New York Times reported we might be looking at the end of manicures altogether, with women going for bare nails, and shying away from long styles, which according to the C.D.C. could “harbor more dirt and bacteria than short nails, thus potentially contributing to the spread of [COVID] infection.” But a quick scan of hands at Istituto Marangoni Miami (IMM) will show that the prediction didn’t hold.
Unlike the hyper-plumped lips of recent years, which required filler appointments and tingly make-up, long almond-shaped nails are an easier, less invasive commitment—one that is increasingly mainstream. Some Marangoni students make the most complex styles at home. Sabrina Chamorro, 21, works in a lab and can’t afford to have long nails at work, so she will “clip” her impossibly long nails at home whenever she has an event. “I’ll do the craziest colors, pink, blue, but they have to go out the next day.”
Hollywood’s Influence on Nail Aesthetics
Browsing a photography book that was recently donated to the IMM library, I stumbled upon a gorgeous Marlene Dietrich image, all wavy bob, tiny eyebrows, and long oval nails. I mentioned to Carrie Sieh, our librarian, how current her beauty looked; those are Pamela Anderson’s brows today and any influencer you can find on TikTok’s nails. Carrie is a visual artist who works with textiles and is quite the handywoman — there’s no way she could ever wear her nails long, she tells me.
Now, Kate Middleton might have been the reference for elegant hands for the past fifteen years, but for decades, from Dietrich’s 1920s to the sleazy-sexy 1990s, oval-shaped semi-long nails in a deep red were associated with hyper-femininity, self-control, and elegance in the entertainment industry. Women with them were presumed to be extremely glamorous, have staff at home, or at the very least, a lifestyle that didn’t involve scrubbing dishes or fastening little children’s tiny buttons. “It looks like your life is together,” Salomé Gomez Upegui, a fellow writer and IMM faculty member, remarked recently when she noticed my own semi-long, burgundy manicure. I understood what she meant—long nails, much like an all-white wardrobe, suggest a level of insulation from the everyday messiness of life.
Cultural Perceptions: Elegance or Excess?
But the rules of Hollywood don’t always apply to the mainstream, even less to the middle and upper classes in Latin American countries, which are dominantly catholic and somehow conservative. Verónica Espinosa, a Fashion Design student from Colombia, remarks how whenever she travels back home to Bogotá, friends will quiver when they see her moderate-to-long almond-shaped nails. “People [at home] associate this aesthetic with a certain archetype of an American woman, the lady at the cashier with extra long nails, and they cringe at the thought of it.” Espinosa pauses for a second. “My husband is not disgusted by the actual nail, it is the concept of the nail that seems to bother him.”
That pushback is exactly what has kept long nails at the margins of traditional elegance, more easily embraced by subcultures that reject restraint in favor of self-expression. But as beauty norms evolve in the era of TikTok and Hailey Bieber omnipresence, what was once dismissed as excessive is now inching its way into the mainstream.
Miami is a peculiar place to do this sort of analysis, as it is often considered one of the most diverse cities in the United States. In her book, “Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment”, Jillian Hernandez elaborates on that female archetype Veronica refers to and the other things that woman wears aside from her long nails, including tight dresses, an abundance of chains, or large hoop earrings. “Long associated with hyperfeminine, working-class sexuality and tackiness (think Peggy Bundy of the TV show Married with Children), leopard and cheetah prints are patterns embraced by women of color porn performers such as the legendary Vanessa Del Rio and contemporary Black woman artists such as Mickalene Thomas and Wangechi Mutu”, the last two don’t sport long nails themselves, but the subjects of their work do. “Animal prints mark bodies via an aesthetics of excess, and excess is a style that is very much at home here in Miami, an epicenter of conspicuous carnal and material overindulgence.”
Nails as an Accessory: The Intersection of Fashion and Self-Expression
For Nina Talpe, a 21-year-old fashion design student from Belgium, having clean, manicured nails is a key part of self-care: “It’s important to put energy back into you; when you have your nails done, you feel like you can conquer the world”. Her hands are lean, and she is wearing a long, burgundy look in an almond shape. She says she gravitates more toward timeless classic styles now, or the “clean girl aesthetic”. She used to be more experimental, with intricate designs and long square nails, but it was time-consuming, taking up three hours at a time in the salon.
Nina takes a lot from her paternal grandmother, who is “very French” and always pushes her to keep a manicured look. If it were up to her, Nina’s nails would be shorter and in a pale shade, but as long as they are done, she is ok.
The rise of gels, powder manicures, and TikTok nail artists has made extravagant nails more accessible, even for those who do manual work, like Sabrina, the student from Argentina who works in a lab. And for many, they aren’t just about vanity—they’re a creative outlet.
Emilia Mourier, or Mimi, as she likes to go by, is a mixed-media artist and a fashion design student in her second year. She is wickedly talented and has a very clear aesthetic: lots of black, piercings, and metal appliqués; her binder matches her designs, her iPhone case, her jewelry, and of course, her nails. “I see it as another medium”, she tells me in the sixth-floor atelier on a Wednesday morning. She does her nails herself, too. This time, they are long, almond-shaped, with a black base and silver embellishments that resemble spikes. A couple makes a cross shape.
“For me, accessorizing is a huge part of fashion,” Mimi adds. “I started making jewelry about two years ago, and nails naturally followed”. Unlike Nina, Mimi doesn’t care much for elegance; she gravitates toward edge, but they both see nails closer to accessories than makeup.
The Gender Politics of Nails
There’s no evidence connecting political views to nail-shape preferences, but personal style choices can be shaped by cultural and regional influences that may align with broader ideologies. Square nails, sharp and deliberate, give off a certain polished boldness—structured, traditional, a little severe. Oval nails, on the other hand, feel softer and more natural, the kind of shape that suggests ease rather than precision.
It got me thinking: If I had to guess, what would Melania Trump’s nails look like? And Kamala Harris’? A tiny sample, sure, but my theory started to hold some weight as soon as those Google image searches came up. However, personal style is shaped by many factors beyond politics, making any correlation, as fun as it can be, more anecdotal than definitive.
Most students at Marangoni agreed that long square nails are more difficult to maintain than long, almond-shaped ones. There must be something about the curve that is more forgiving. Trent Unidad, a 22-year-old fashion design student in his second year, has the most unique of all the nail styles in the atelier: bare, ultra-long square-shaped nails, no varnish.
“I used to be a nail-biter”, Trent tells me, but in his hand-drawn designs, everyone had their nails painted black, so he transitioned to a short black nail for a while back in 2023. His dad is in the military, and his mom is an at-home nail technician. He thinks his exploration may stem from a mix of wanting to challenge traditional gender codes and an admiration for English and Japanese culture. That day, he is wearing a slim, but not tight, white t-shirt, nicely tailored black pants, and black cowboy boots with a chunky heel. His hair is dark and long. It’s giving English samurai.
Trent points out that people assume that if you are a guy and paint your nails, you must be gay. But if you don’t, yet keep them intentionally long, very long, people are just disgusted. It’s a bit of a double whammy what he does, he challenges the challengers and everyone else.
If nails are a political statement, they are also a site of reinvention. Nina, Mimi, and Trent have all nailed their current personal style in the last two years, and their nails are an important part of it. And although long nails have become more mainstream, in many contexts, they remain a quiet act of defiance.
As for me? I swing back and forth. I’ll cultivate perfect, oval-shaped nails for weeks, only to impulsively cut them down to the skin one afternoon, enjoying the sudden agility of my fingertips. I can’t scratch an itch, but I can take my credit card out of my wallet in nanoseconds. It takes a while to adjust my eyes to the sudden shortness of my hands. A fresh start, until the next shift in mood hits.
—Sofía Agostini is the Director of Brand Partnerships at Istituto Marangoni Miami and an independent writer whose work has appeared in Vogue US, Vogue México & Latinoamérica, Paper Magazine, and Vanity Fair Spain, among others. An IMM alumna, she has taught Research Methods in the Master’s in Fashion and Luxury Brand Management program, as well as Fashion Criticism and Digital Writing in the Fashion Styling program.
She wrote this piece with burgundy, oval-shaped nails.
