Wow, CSS is actually really cool.

That’s not something I would’ve said very quickly in the past.

I always loved using Tailwind and in most situations I would’ve confidently said it’s the better choice for styling your website.

But after last night, my perspective has definitely shifted.

At the Devs.gent meetup at iO where Bramus Van Damme and Brecht De Ruyte shared their insights on modern CSS—and honestly, it was eye-opening.

Bramus walked us through the latest developments around the View Transitions API, showing how just a few lines of code can create impressive page transitions and scroll-driven animations. These can run automatically or be controlled via JavaScript when needed.

Brecht dove into CSS as a state machine, highlighting how powerful it really is. Where for some people CSS is “just margins and colors,” it can handle much more than that. Things that previously required JavaScript — like scroll-based interactions, conditional UI, and dynamic headers.

What really stuck with me is this: having a preferred tool is fine, but staying open to new evolutions is essential.

For me, that means combining the best of both worlds — leveraging the speed and convenience of tools like Tailwind, while embracing more advanced, native CSS capabilities where they shine.

What a meetup. Definitely recommend joining if you want to learn, explore, and maybe even change your perspective.