The Nora Ephron Effect

By: Lily Dougherty, Staff Writer Edited by: Grace Stecher

Every fall, Nora Ephron’s films return to screens and streaming queues, bringing romance, warmth, and timeless style. From Meg Ryan’s effortless sweaters to rainy New York streets, these 90’s classics inspire nostalgia and shape how we dress, live, and romanticize the season.

Every year as soon as the calendar hits September 22nd, we feel the first crisp breeze, the first leaf falls, and we collectively queue up the films of Nora Ephron. When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle are fall classics as essential as the return of pumpkin spice and the hunt for the perfect oversized scarf. Meg Ryan’s cable knit sweaters, leather boots, and wool coats that drape just-so are the unofficial moodboard for fall fashion—so much so that Glamour recently declared “Meg Ryan Fall” to be TikTok’s favorite autumn aesthetic. Something about fall belongs to Nora Ephron.

These films do more than bring us cozy plotlines—they provide a sort of autumnal fashion gospel that we can’t help but look to every year. We turn to these 90’s classics not just for how we want fall to feel, but also how we want to look while living it. Our perfectly curated Pinterest boards are covered in Meg Ryan’s effortless outfits that are as iconic as Central Park in October. Year after year we return to Ephron’s world to long for the feeling we get from these films and try to capture this magic for ourselves. The Nora Ephron effect is a style compass we return to, reminding us that fall fashion is less about chasing trends and more about chasing a feeling—romance, comfort, and a touch of cinematic charm.

“The wardrobe of Ephron’s characters feels as lived-in as the relationships,” writes Ilana Kaplan at InStyle. “There is an endlessly timeless appeal to the looks Ephron touted in her films—so much so that they’ve become annual internet fodder.”

And they have. Each September, the internet quietly transforms into a digital love letter to Nora Ephron. TikToks tagged #MegRyanFall rack up millions of views and Instagram grids fill with stills of Meg Ryan in oversized knits, brown blazers, and that iconic newsboy cap. It’s as though the collective consciousness decides, once again, to trade sundresses for tweed skirts and iced coffee for hot tea.

There’s something deeply comforting about this ritual. When we rewatch When Harry Met Sally for the hundredth time, we’re not only revisiting the love story, we’re revisiting who we were the first time we watched it. We remember sitting on the couch with our moms, or curled up with our grandmothers, quoting the lines before they’re even said. Nostalgia, in this case, is a season as well as a feeling. 

Sarah Griffiths, age 23, remembers watching You’ve Got Mail every autumn growing up. “The movies are romantic in every sense,” she says. “Not just in the love story way, but in how they make you see life. The clothes, the city, the weather, all of it feels a little more meaningful.” For Sarah, dressing like Meg Ryan’s characters now is an act of self-recognition. “They were so effortlessly cool—a little awkward, a little whimsical, but totally themselves,” she says. “Getting to dress like them now feels nostalgic but also symbolic. It’s like claiming my own adulthood in this romantic, cinematic way.”

It’s not just Sarah. Every fall, women across generations gravitate toward the same silhouettes: soft turtlenecks, structured blazers, wool trousers, loafers, and scarves. They’re not trying to be trendy. They’re chasing a mood that just so happens to always be in style. Ephron’s characters never dressed for the male gaze or to be overtly fashionable. They dressed to feel like themselves, to walk through the city with effortless confidence and curiosity.

83-year-old Kip Orloff feels the same way. “Watching these films with my daughter, and now seeing my granddaughter watch them, it feels like passing down a little ritual—a way of welcoming fall, of celebrating beauty in ordinary women and ordinary lives,” she says. “The girls today even borrow my sweaters and scarves from back then. It makes me so happy. It’s just yummy, every time.” 

This is why Ephron’s influence endures. That “yummy” feeling comes from Meg Ryan’s characters looking like they could step out of a scene and into your favorite coffee shop today. Her style is timeless. That timelessness also carries a kind of emotional permission to slow down, to find romance in the ordinary. Sarah describes it perfectly: “It’s about romanticizing your own life,” she says. “You’re living in a story. You’re letting yourself believe that small, simple things can be part of your bigger story.” 

The Nora Ephron effect, then, is less about the clothes themselves and more about the world they create—a world of warm lighting, stacks of books, rainy days, and serendipitous encounters. It’s a reminder that fashion can be about more than appearance. It can be about identity, memory, and longing.

Even brands are taking note. J.Crew’s recent fall campaign, with its layered neutrals and chunky sweaters, feels straight out of You’ve Got Mail with references to the understated silhouettes—pieces that suggest comfort and intelligence rather than excess. The look has gone from niche internet aesthetic to a universal fall language: timeless, practical, and romantic.

But what’s most fascinating about this revival is that it’s not about irony or costume. It’s about yearning and the wish to live in a world that feels a little softer. Maybe that’s why, decades later, these films still have us under their spell. We return to them not only to watch love stories unfold, but to remember how it feels to hope for one. We return to them to remind ourselves that fall, like love, is fleeting and that maybe the point isn’t to hold onto it, but to savor it while it lasts.

At its heart, the Nora Ephron effect is about seeing life the way her characters do: with a sense of humor, a bit of chaos, and an unwavering belief that something good might be waiting just around the corner.

© 2025 by FETCH COLLECTIVE