Happy fashion month to everyone celebrating! On Friday, the first of four major womenswear fashion weeks kicks off in New York, featuring a month-long schedule of shows, spectacles and drama. It’s too early to tell which trends will trickle down and start surreptitiously influencing the things we buy or borrow or the way we roll our clothes. Here’s what we know so far and what we need to pay attention to.
great firsts
After a year of reshuffling that would make Rishi Sunak blush, we’re set to see the much-anticipated first collections from new creative directors helming some of fashion’s biggest brands, including Seán McGirr’s vision for Alexander McQueen. The Irish designer, who was named Sarah Burton’s successor last September and unwittingly started discussions about fashion’s diversity problem, will present her first collection in Paris on March 2. McGirr began his fashion career as a stylist before taking on design roles at Dries van Noten, Burberry and Uniqlo. She last worked at JW Anderson. So far he and the brand’s parent company, Kering, have remained mum about his vision for the British fashion house, but given his background, he should have an interesting perspective on how to create a high fashion moment with commercial appeal. Will it take McQueen’s iconic skull motif in a new direction? Watch this space.
In Milan, all eyes will be on former Bottega Veneta designer Matteo Tamburini, who took over from Walter Chiapponi at Tod’s in December. Could he create the equivalent of Tod’s cult Jodie bag? Meanwhile, Chiapponi will also make her debut at Blumarine. The Italian brand has leaned heavily on the Y2K revival, but Chiapponi is expected to add further sophistication.
French luxury homeowner Chloé is teasing Chemena Kamali’s new vision. Cleaning up its Instagram feed, the company began posting a series of portraits featuring past brand ambassadors like Jerry Hall, as well as new names like Rwandan model Ornella Umutoni. The portraits, shot by David Sims in front of Haussman-style buildings and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, each feature a new Chloé logo. Kamali says she was inspired by researching archives from Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure at the fashion house in the 1970s.
flashbacks
The giant Tommy Hilfiger, which always attracts a star-studded crowd with its denim-focused and flashy collections, returns after a year’s break with a joint men’s and women’s clothing fashion show to be held in Manhattan. A$AP Rocky, the new creative director of Puma’s F1 fashion division, has been revealed in a campaign for the relaunch of Mostro trainers. Will he and partner Rihanna make the Puma show a date night? American designer Thom Browne, known for his stardom in the TV series The Bear, is also returning to New York fashion week with his signature gray shorts and the white chef jacket that Carmy gifted Sydney hours before the restaurant opened. Several seasons in Paris. The CFDA president will close the week on February 14. “Yes Chief!” To Bear stars Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White in the front row.
Off-White, the cult fashion brand founded by Virgil Abloh in 2013, is returning to its Paris program after introducing its previous two collections in Milan. The hybrid show, called Black By Popular Demand, will be the third show under the creative direction of Ibrahim Kamara.
street style bait
Every fashion week, a viral accessory emerges from the beautifully paved sidewalks outside the shows. Last season, MSCHF’s crazy big red boots were catnip for street style photographers. So what should they expect to catch this season? Apparently these MSCHF boots walked so Rick Owens’ inflatable boots could run, or at least stumble. The giant boots can be inflated like a pair of kids’ armbands, but as one TikTok user noted: “Everything’s fine until you have to break out the tire repair kit.” Expect professional fashion stuntman Tommy Cash, who once wore a duvet in the front row, to wear these clothes; no doubt with a drilling kit in hand for maximum caution.
Meanwhile, Alaia’s gobstopper-sized gold-bejeweled fishnet pumps, as seen on every influencer’s feet last season, are already warming up to replace crystal-encrusted mesh Mary Janes. While JW Anderson’s lemon bag seems to reduce the demand for the dove bag, the frog version is also attracting attention. Louis Vuitton’s £2.4k paper-like sandwich bag from Pharrell’s first collection for the French house has sold out on the brand’s website and is selling for more than £6,000 on resale sites – always the mark of a cult accessory. And no doubt one will show up in Apple’s Vision Pro glasses. Clips of people testing headphones on the streets of New York have already spawned hundreds of memes, so they’re bound to attract attention in the fashion world.
new front row
From Loewe’s roster of famous ex-boyfriends including Joe Alwyn, Zayn Malik and Andrew Garfield to Lewis Hamilton at Dior, Jake Gyllenhaal at Prada and K-pop band Riize at Louis Vuitton, January’s men’s month Seating plans at clothing shows are based on exact identity. who in popular culture. Then came the couture fashion shows in Paris, where Kylie Jenner and her six-year-old daughter Stormi went to Valentino, and Gwyneth Paltrow went to Armani. So we can expect the women’s clothing program to be just as stellar, if not starrier, as celebrities continue to pursue brand deals and endorsements that stalled in the wake of the Hollywood strikes.
Although British Vogue’s Edward Enninful will officially step down as editor-in-chief until March, he is still expected to ignore his seat. Or should there be seats? In January, Enninful accompanied Julia Roberts to the Jacquemus show on the Côte d’Azur, hinting that he had no plans to step out of the spotlight.
You can also expect to see lots of four-legged stars. Last year, Italian greyhound Tika Iggy, who has more than 2 million followers, watched the Coperni fashion show in a green tulle ball gown, while Demi Moore brought her teacup chihuahua to Versace. The three-year-old has since become a breakout star on the Capote press tour; Claudia Schiffer’s cat posed for photographers at the Argylle premiere in London. Could autumn/winter 2024 be the time when a cat prowls the catwalk?
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