This has been a watershed year in fashion. A quarter of the way through the 21st century, 2025 saw the industry hit refresh: in September alone, 15 designers made their debuts as creative directors of fashion’s major houses, ushering in a bold new era in style (and, as with any such change, prompting passionate – and oftentimes divided – online commentary).

Here, as selected by the Wallpaper* style team, are the 25 fashion moments that defined the zeitgeist in 2025 – from a viral Marty Supreme track jacket and Saint Laurent’s thigh-high wader boots, to big-name buyouts, runway returns and, of course, all those debuts.

Willy Chavarria made his mark in Paris with a powerful duo of shows

In January, CFDA Award-winning designer Willy Chavarria chose to shift his runway show from New York, where he lives and works, to Paris. A striking first show, held at the American Church on Quai d’Orsay, came just a few days after Trump’s inauguration, with Chavarria – whose runway shows have long been a clarion call for the rights of immigrants and the queer community – soundtracking the show with Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon imploring the incoming president to ‘have mercy’ towards marginalised communities. ‘It was so beautiful, and it fell exactly in line with what we were doing,’ he told Wallpaper* of the speech. ‘I wanted to show that everyone is welcome, and to do that in a church seemed like the most pronounced way of showing queer people, trans people, in this environment where they were the saints’. His sophomore Paris show, this summer, was similarly impactful: it opened with 35 kneeling men wearing white T-shirts made in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a reference to those being unlawfully detained by ICE in the United States.

READ: Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion’s old guard’

Faux fur and shearling took over the runway

Not a moment, per se, though the proliferation of faux fur and shearling on the runway – spanning both the men’s and women’s collections – was one of the year’s undeniable style takeaways (so much so, we even spotted it on the spring/summer runways). ‘When worn, it becomes a heady meeting place of signifiers – luxury, wealth, power, but also protection, armour against the elements, an ancient and primal urge to be swaddled in the spoils of the hunt,’ we wrote earlier this year of the renaissance of fur – albeit in imitation fabrics – which seemed to a response to the tumult of contemporary living. Indeed, at Prada, where co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a collection of ‘Raw Glamour’, ‘fur’ coats – constructed from cleverly manipulated shearling – had strange protusions at the collar or were trapped under plastic. ‘We asked ourselves, what is femininity today? It is a constant questioning,’ said Mrs Prada. ‘It is not my job to be political, but when you open a newspaper – oh my God! Our job is to think about what clothes a woman can wear, about what kind of femininity makes sense in this moment.’

READ: Faux fur and shearling dominated the A/W 2025 runways – these pieces capture the material’s ‘raw glamour’

Alessandro Michele entertained with a showstopping haute couture debut for Valentino

Haute couture was always going to be a medium which suited Alessandro Michele, the former Gucci creative director who now heads up Valentino. For his first couture collection for the house – presented this past February – the Italian designer, known for theatrical runway shows and richly imaginative collections, hit new heights, employing the ‘petits mains’ of the Valentino atelier to create a series of showstopping gowns. In a style typical to the deep-thinking designer, they were explained in the book-length collection notes through the language of philosophy and semiotics – Homer, James Joyce and Italo Calvino were all mentioned – with each gown representing a ‘list’ of words and influences (‘[lists] confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe,’ Michele wrote, quoting Umberto Eco). These surreal lists scrolled across the show’s set on a series of ticker-tape screens as the dramatic looks wandered across the stage, a millefeuille of satin, lace and tulle – eclectic, intricate and, as fashion sleuths showed after the show, rooted in the Valentino archive. ‘To attempt to describe each look – and its multitude of elements – would require a pages-long list of its own,’ we wrote at the time. ‘It was best to simply let yourself be entertained.’

READ: Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for Valentino

Martine Rose held her first gallery show – an ode to Bronski Beat’s radical energy

During London Fashion Week in February, Martine Rose hosted her first gallery show at Sadie Coles HQ, revisiting her 2016 film Everything Must Change – a Sharna Osbourne-shot short starring Bronski Beat frontman Jimmy Somerville. ‘Pop charts at the time I was introduced to Jimmy Somerville’s voice were dominated by gay musicians: Erasure, Bronski Beat, Marc Almond,’ Rose told Wallpaper*. ‘Mainstream pop by out and proud gay men making serious, respected pop music – not tokenistic – which can never be replicated. It was a radical time for music, all about individuality, no stylists, all genuine expression.’ It’s a statement that captures the radical, subculture-infused energy of Rose’s own work: later that year, in June, she staged a one-off show in an abandoned west London job centre, adorned for the occasion in boudoir-style ruffled curtains. ‘I was exploring this new shrunken silhouette,’ she said after the show. ‘Everything feels a bit cinched, a bit too tight, slightly awkward, but somehow still sexy, I hope.’ It is this idiosyncratic approach – at once strange, sexy and real – which has made Martine Rose one of London’s defining voices, doing things her own way for close to two decades.

READ: Martine Rose’s first gallery show celebrates the radical queer energy of Bronski Beat

Calvin Klein returned to the runway with a new ‘sexitude’

In February, Calvin Klein hosted its first runway show since the departure of Raf Simons in 2018 (under him, the runway collections went under the moniker Calvin Klein 205W39NYC; now, they are back to being called Calvin Klein Collection). In one of the year’s first notable debuts, it was former The Row designer Veronica Leoni who took the helm, seeking a mood of sensual minimalism she dubbed ‘sexitude’ – a nod to the pulsing undercurrent of eroticism which ran through the brand’s advertising campaigns and collections in the 1990s. ‘When it comes to sexiness, it’s more like an attitude,’ the Italian designer said backstage. ‘You own it in the way you wear the clothes. I think it’s really intimate being sexy – regardless of the silhouette, the amount of skin, it’s about the confidence.’ The collection came with the blessing of Mr Klein himself, who watched on from the front row. ‘He told me he was happy he had found a new coat to buy,’ she said. ‘I’m really proud for him to feel at home again.’

READ: For her Calvin Klein debut, Veronica Leoni stripped it all back

Fendi celebrated its centenary with a blockbuster show in Milan

2025 was a definitive year for Fendi: not only did it mark a century since the fashion house was founded in Rome, but, after the departure of artistic director of womenswear and couture Kim Jones in October 2024, the beginning of its new chapter. As such, in February, Fendi opened the doors to its newly renovated Milanese headquarters for a celebratory runway show, seeing house scion Silvia Venturini Fendi take the reins for the blockbuster spectacle which included a cast of Fendi muses, past and present. The granddaughter of house founders Adele and Edoardo Fendi, Venturini Fendi started at the house in the 1990s under Karl Lagerfeld, and would go on to head up menswear and accessories, though this was just the second time she had also designed the womenswear line (the first was after Lagerfeld’s death in 2019). Talking to Wallpaper*, she said that it was an honour to head up such a definitive show for both her family and the house – but was adamant this was not about living in the past: ‘I tried to avoid any precise reference because, to me, anniversaries are beautiful, but you don’t want it to be a retrospective or nostalgic’. After presenting a second co-ed collecti on in September, she stepped down from the creative role to become ‘honorary president’. Her successor will be former Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri in a much-rumoured move.

READ: Silvia Venturini Fendi on luxury, lineage and looking to the future: ‘If it reminds me of something we’ve already done, we move on’

Prada agreed to purchase Versace for $1.375 billion

The subject of much speculation and rumour after Donatella Versace stepped down from her role as creative director the month prior, in April, it was confirmed that the Prada Group reached an agreement to purchase Versace after the Italian house was put on sale by former owner Capri Holdings earlier in the year. Agreeing to a deal of $1.375 billion for 100 per cent of the company – well below the initial $2 billion asking price – it marked a definitive move from the Prada Group to establish an Italian luxury conglomerate (The Prada Group comprises Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe; in 1999, it purchased controlling stakes in Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, though they were later sold). ‘We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter for a brand with which we share a strong commitment to creativity, craftmanship and heritage,’ said Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group chairman and executive director, at the time (the deal was completed in December). ‘We aim to continue Versace’s legacy, celebrating and re-interpreting its bold and timeless aesthetic; at the same time, we will provide it with a strong platform.’

READ: Donatella Versace is stepping down as creative director

The Met’s Costume Institute explored the figure of the Black Dandy

In a year which was notable for its slew of fashion exhibitions – from the confection-like gowns of ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ at London’s V&A to a Rick Owens retrospective featuring a lifelike sculpture of the designer ‘urinating’ water into a trough below – the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Costume Institute exhibition in May still demands the most attention. This is largely because of the accompanying Met Gala – the starry event heralds the exhibition’s opening – though it is also down to the Costume Institute’s head curator Andrew Bolton’s eye for finding intriguing subject matter in the Met’s extensive archive. This year, he drafted Monica L Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, to help curate the exhibition, which traced the sartorial history of the Black Dandy from the 18th century to the present day. Titled ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, alongside historical garments, it featured the work – or personal wardrobes – of Virgil Abloh, Andre Leon Talley and Grace Wales Bonner, among others, with set design for the arresting exhibition courtesy of artist Torkwase Dyson. ‘I clocked into how people have fashioned themselves as a manipulation of autonomy and ownership in which clothing is a resistance,’ she told Wallpaper* of the design, which riffed on her signature trapezoid sculptures.

READ: Torkwase Dyson’s set design for ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ at The Met meditates on ownership, charisma and histories

Saint Laurent’s viral knee-high boots heralded menswear’s dark, sensual mood

At Cannes film festival, while promoting queer ‘dom-com’ Pillion – a film which explores a dom/sub relationship between a shy parking attendant and a biker – Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård donned a thigh-high leather wader boot by Anthony Vaccarrello for Saint Laurent. Shown at the house’s runway show earlier that year, it became one of the viral accessories of the year, worn by everyone from Pedro Pascal to Marc Jacobs, and ubiquitous in magazine spreads. Inspired by an imagined meeting between two men who designed the aesthetic of the 1980s – Yves Saint Laurent and Robert Mapplethorpe – the collection captured a mood of dangerous sensuality which ran throughout the season, from Prada’s patchworked leathers to Maximilian Davis’s S/S 2026 Ferragamo collection, inspired by the languid sensuality of Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Vaccarello dubbed it a ‘menacing, seductive elegance’ – classic menswear with an inflection of kink.

READ: Inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe, Saint Laurent’s surprise menswear show captured ‘a menacing, seductive elegance’

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake channelled la dolce vita in Florence

It would prove one of the most memorable show locations of the year: unfolding against a painterly Florentine sky at sunset, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake staged its S/S 2026 show at Medicea della Petraia, a former Medici residence on Monte Morello in the rolling Tuscan countryside. A guest of Pitti Uomo menswear fair, the Issey Miyake offshoot used the occasion to introduce a new roving format of runway show: eschewing its usual place on the Paris Fashion Week schedule (its position has been taken by IM Men, another brand in the Issey Miyake family), it will show in a series of locations around the world in the coming seasons. As such, collections will draw inspiration from local landscapes: here, it was done via an evocative use of colour, utilising hues sourced through trips the design team had taken around Italy (from ’Cinque Terre Yellow’ to ‘Zucchini Flower Orange’). The result was a collection which fused Italian charm with Homme Plissé’s pioneering fabrications: played out in the villa’s winding, maze-like gardens, it was impossible not to be seduced.

READ: With an ode to Italy, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake brings its brand of fashion magic to Florence’s Pitti Uomo

Rick Owens spread the love with a Paris retrospective

‘I’m surprised I got so far,’ Rick Owens told Wallpaper* in a wide-ranging conversation to mark the opening of ‘Temple of Love’, a career-spanning retrospective at Paris’ Palais Galliera. A celebration of the American designer’s singular approach – one laced with both subversion and wit – the exhibition took attendees on a trip from his early years on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1990s (a recreation of his Los Angeles bedroom of the time appears in the exhibition) towards his blockbuster spectacles at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo (indeed, in June, an opening party took place just after his S/S 2026 menswear show, with guests simply having to cross the road from one institution to another). ‘Michèle [Lamy, Owens’ wife] kept telling me, ‘You gotta stop calling it a retrospective!’ She doesn't like the finality – I'm leaning into it,’ he said. ‘A retrospective implies a decline, it makes you think about legacy and mortality and ageing, and how long do you stay relevant, and how important is that? I don't have the answers to any of those things, but I am thinking about them and addressing them publicly.’

READ: ‘I’m surprised that I got this far’: Rick Owens on his bombastic Paris retrospective, ‘Temple of Love’

Jonathan Anderson rebooted his brand – and debuted at Dior

It was a busy June for Jonathan Anderson. Alongside his much-anticipated debut show at Dior – a menswear offering for S/S 2026 presented at Paris’ Hôtel National des Invalides, which astutely reworked formal dress codes – the Northern Irish designer also revealed a rebooted vision for his eponymous, London-based label JW Anderson, which propelled him to renown after it was established in 2008. Doing away with the label’s usual seasonal runway shows, the new vision centres on the idea of the shop: in Paris, during haute couture week, he constructed a simulacrum of a new store concept by architects Sanchez Benton which included not only a fashion collection (a greatest hits of sorts, seeing signature pieces imbued with a greater commitment to craft) but a curation of intriguing objects and curiosities, from ceramics and vintage gardening tools to furniture, art, even honey. 'I like change. I have wanted to change things around for two years now, and finally I feel at one with who I am today and what the brand means,’ he told Wallpaper*. ‘It’s things that I either want to wear or want to live with.’

READ: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut: ‘bringing joy to the art of dressing’

Craig Green returned to the runway – and to Paris

After just over a decade in business, Craig Green remains one of British fashion’s definitive voices – a singular creative force whose imaginative collections transform humble menswear archetypes (workwear, uniforms, biker jackets) through imaginative construction and unusual fabrications, oftentimes evoking sculpture. This year, he made his return to Paris Fashion Week, having shown a year prior in his London studio, and elsewhere via lookbook (Green is one of a handful of designers who seem to be flourishing outside of the typical fashion calendar). The show was one of our highlights of the year: a poetic, free-thinking collection inspired by The Beatles, psychedelics and 1960s bed sheets – albeit in his typically inventive style. ‘Creativity how everything moves forward,’ Green told us in the October 2025 ‘Long View’ issue of Wallpaper*, in which we documented the process behind the collection. ‘You need creative thought for things to progress, and for new things to happen. You have to have the freedom to make mistakes, to create work and not live in fear.’

READ: ‘You have to be fearless’: inside the free-thinking world of Craig Green

Glenn Martens unveiled his vision for Maison Margiela

The task was unenviable: as the new creative director of Maison Margiela, Belgian designer Glenn Martens would not only have to follow the house’s namesake – arguably the most influential designer of recent times – but also John Galliano, his predecessor, whose final collection, which conjured a troupe of contorted dolls on the drizzly moonlit banks of the Seine, was a true fashion epic. But Martens, who comes with a pedigree of his own after zeitgeist-defining stints at Y/Project and Diesel, was more than up for a challenge. His own creatures were sheathed in masks (a nod to a Margiela hallmark, that of anonymity) and appeared pulled through the the walls of history – quite literally, with a melange of jacquards, Renaissance motifs and embossed leather (inspired by 16th-century Flemish wallpaper), evoking the faded grandeur of abandoned stately homes (indeed, the show set was a series of ‘palatial interiors’ printed on crumpled and crased paper). We called it a ‘thrilling’ debut, a task of ‘reinvention and reconstruction – a precarious balance of what to take and what to leave behind’.

READ: Glenn Martens’ thrilling Maison Margiela debut was a balancing act between past, present and future

Fashion East celebrated a ‘rowdy and raw’ 25 years of nurturing emerging talent

In September, Fashion East’s S/S 2026 runway show doubled as a celebration: 2025 marked 25 years of the Brick Lane-based talent incubator, which was founded by Lulu Kennedy to help forge the careers of London’s rising stars. The roll call of names which have passed through its doors is proof of its success: Jonathan Anderson, Martine Rose, Kim Jones, Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner are all alumni of the unique scheme, which has long encapsulated London’s unique brand of young talent – defiantly creative, ‘rowdy and raw’ (as Kennedy herself described in a letter distributed to guests at the show). Taking place at the ICA, this season’s show – comprising collections by Nuba, Jacek Gleba and Mayhew – doubled as a Nike-sponsored exhibition tracing Fashion East’s impressive quarter century through its memorable clothing and ephemera, from Green’s ‘broken-fence’ chestplates to a leopard-print cake by Mowalola. Later in the year, in December, Kennedy and her creative partner Raphaelle Moore collected a Special Recognition Award at the 2025 Fashion Awards. ‘We’re proud to have created a unique space where designers have both the freedom to create fearlessly, and a family unit to uplift them,’ they said.

September’s fashion week saw almost too many debuts to count

2025 was fashion’s big reshuffle, seeing an unprecedented number of designers making their debuts at fashion’s biggest houses – from Dior to Chanel, Gucci to Celine. It was September fashion month, though, that was a true changing of the guard moment, with over 15 designers presenting their first collections as newly installed creative leads. These spanned an energetic and playful debut from Nicholas Aburn at Area in New York (the former Balenciaga designer riffed on the figure of the party girl in irreverent style), Simone Bellotti’s masterful first outing at Jil Sander, which saw him astutely explore ideas of modernity and lightness (staged in the brand’s white-walled Milan headquarters, it was a true clean slate momet), or Pierpaolo Piccioli’s typically heartfelt first collection for Balenciaga (an appearance from the Duchess of Sussex ensured column inches).

Elsewhere, notable debuts included Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe and Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier. And, while these debuts were largely lauded – particularly by critics – fiercer debates broke out online in the depths of Instagram comment sections. ‘I have read some really heinous comments about the work of many designers in these last few days,’ wrote Perfect magazine’s Edward Buchanan, former design director of Bottega Veneta, in a much-shared post. ‘It is not always perfect, and it is not always what you personally imagined it to be. You don’t have to like everything… but why not celebrate and talk about what you love?’

Though in Paris, it was Chanel and Dior which commanded the most attention

There were two debuts, though, which commanded the most attention: Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut for Dior (he had previously shown his first menswear collection in June) and Matthieu Blazy’s opening act for Chanel. Shrugging off the weight of expectation, both collections provided an astute and contemporary viewpoint on the future of two of fashion’s most storied houses – Anderson through a fearless ‘recoding’ of the house’s archive in his idosyncratic style (we said it was a collection of ‘bravery, vision and instinct’), Blazy through a collection of unbridled freedom and optimism (a twirling Awar Odhiang in a gown of kaleidoscopic feathers, the model who memorably closed the show, encapsulated the ‘triumphant’ mood). After Chanel, which marked the end of fashion month, we said that after all of the debuts, it finally felt like a ‘weight had been lifted’. ‘There will be no more anticipation or speculation, no more guessing games or gossip. The designers are in place, and a new chapter of fashion has begun – from there, the hard work begins.’

While Demna marked his Gucci debut with a Demi Moore-starring film

In what proved an astute move, the Georgian designer Demna – previously of Balenciaga – got ahead of the season’s other debuts by presenting his first collection as creative director of Gucci on the first day of Milan Fashion Week, allowing him a moment in which he dominated the narrative (and, of course, social media). Revealed first through a lookbook of Gucci ‘archetypes’, rewritten in his typically irreverent and subversive style (he called it a ‘bold, sexy new chapter’ for the house), it was followed up by a Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn-directed short, premiered at Milan’s Palazzo Mezzanotte. Titled The Tiger, it starred Demi Moore as the fictional ’head of Gucci international and chairman of California’ whose world begins to unravel at a family gathering. Even cleverer? Demna will get another ‘debut’ in 2026 when he holds his first runway for the house during Milan Fashion Week, in February.

READ: Gucci reveals its ‘bold, unapologetically sexy’ new era under Demna

The fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani

In early September, the fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani, an arbiter of Italian style who founded his eponymous house half a century ago, in 1975. One of fashion’s great success stories, Mr Armani began the label using funds made from selling his old Volkswagen Beetle; on his death, he left behind a multi-billion dollar empire spanning not only fashion but homeware, hotels, restaurants, fragrances and cosmetics. To mark his death, after a private funeral held earlier in the month, well-wishers gathered at Milan Fashion Week in September for his final Giorgio Armani show. Originally intended to celebrate 50 years in business, it took place at Brera’s Pinacoteca di Brera, where an accompanying exhibition unfolded in the galleries above. As ever, the S/S 2026 collection – modelled on a cast of Armani models past and present and watched on by muses Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton and Cate Blanchett – encapsulated Mr Armani’s brand of soft elegance, culminating with model Agnes Zogla in a glimmering gown adorned with his face. Afterwards, guests milled the galleries, where the designer’s work took its fitting place amid the great Italian masters – from Bellini to Raphael.

READ: In Milan, the fashion world gathers to say goodbye to Giorgio Armani at his final show

A Virgil Abloh exhibition celebrated his landmark legacy

Just over four years since his death, American designer Virgil Abloh leaves behind a towering legacy – one which was celebrated this September in Paris with the opening of an exhibition at the Grand Palais. Open for just a few days (cue a sold out booking system and snaking queues around the block), the exhibition opened the doors to his prolific archive of objects, clothing, ephemera, furniture and art, displayed across sprawling tables and shelves as if stepping into his headquarters. Indeed, one senses the polymathic designer – who made history as the first Black creative director of Louis Vuitton – would enjoy the exhibition’s approach, which eshewed the behind-glass formality of the traditional museum (only self-restraint stopped you from picking up the objects on display). Titled ‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’, the idea is for it to go on display around the world. ‘This is a true celebration of Virgil's vision and ethos,’ said the late designer’s wife, Shannon Abloh. ‘This offers an invitation to the world to engage and to build upon his ideas.’

READ: Inside the Paris exhibition cataloguing Virgil Abloh’s extraordinary archive

Grace Wales Bonner is appointed at Hermès

In late October, Hermès announced the appointment of Grace Wales Bonner as the house’s head of menswear, replacing Véronique Nichanian who made the choice to step down from the role after a record-breaking 37-year tenure (the longest of any working creative director at a fashion house). It felt long overdue for the British designer. An LVMH Prize-winning designer whose deeply felt collections for her eponymous label Wales Bonner – exploring themes of Black masculinity, migration and luxury – have consistently won plaudits for rich storytelling and meticulous craftsmanship, leading many to question why she hadn’t been chosen for a creative director role sooner (she had been rumoured for roles at both Louis Vuitton and Givenchy which went to Pharrell Williams and Sarah Burton respectively). On social media, there was a rare positive consensus on the decision: in her own post, the designer, who was born in South London to a British mother and Jamaican father, expressed her ‘deep honour’ at being chosen for the role. ‘It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers,’ she wrote.

READ: Lauded British designer Grace Wales Bonner is the new head of menswear at Hermès

1980s ‘architect of glamour’ Antony Price returned to the runway

The fashion critic Alexander Fury – who is an avid collector of his work – has called Antony Price, a British fashion designer who came to prominence in the 1980s, as ‘criminally underrated’. Best known for creating the visual universe of Roxy Music, and staging similarly dramatic runway shows in the decade, the ‘architect of glamour’ made a welcome runway return in November, courtesy of a one-off salon show with London-based label 16Arlington. Staged in the latter’s east London studio, the high-profile cast – from Lily Allen to Adwoa Aboah – prowled the runway in the high-voltage creations, puffing on cigarettes before posing for photographer Felix Cooper. ‘I personally felt Antony never really received his flowers,’ Capaldo told Wallpaper*. ‘To have been able to witness such a legend at work has probably been one of the most incredible and pivotal moments in my career. It's been really magical.’ Sadly, it was announced that Price passed away at the age of 80 on 17 December 2025.

READ: ‘Architect of glamour’ Antony Price makes a high-voltage return to the runway with 16Arlington

Dario Vitale said goodbye to Versace

It was to be one of fashion’s shortest tenures – just a few short months after his debut, in December, it was announced that Italian designer Dario Vitale would be exiting Versace. The former design director of Miu Miu, and the successor to Donatella Versace, the news came as some surprise: Vitale’s debut show at Milan Fashion Week, though divisive, had won over critics and was already being worn by celebrities (Olivia Dean wore custom Versace for a recent SNL appearance, while Addison Rae was also an early adopter). We said that Vitale had ‘stripped back conceptions and ushered in an energetic new vision: sexually charged and ‘reckless’, one that harkened back to the dress codes of Gianni Versace without nostalgia.’ On social media, the announcement came with some disappointment at the way in which designers are given so little time to make their mark: ‘There’s a disturbing pattern across the fashion industry: giant companies, plucking creative directors, placing them on a pedestal, parading them as the future, and then discarding them just as quickly,’ wrote casting director Anita Bitton in a much-shared Instagram post.

In Vienna, there was a chance to see Helmut Lang’s fashion archive for the first time

Though he exited the industry 20 years ago, Helmut Lang’s influence on fashion remains palpable. A definitive figure of the 1990s, he proposed a vision of sensually-charged minimalism and utility which continues to define the way that we dress today. He also changed the way we consume fashion, too: his memorable New York runway shows stripped back the artifice of the 1980s and its elevated runway, drafting friends to walk alongside supermodels, while stripped-back campaigns were captured by a young Juergen Teller. This revolutionary spirit is celebrated in ‘Séance de Travail 1986-2005’, an exhibition which opened in December at MAK in Vienna, which marks the first time Helmut Lang’s fashion archive is on show to the public – from memorable garments to archival film, ephemera, even recreations of elements from his equally definitive stores (Lang donated his archive to the institution in 2011). ‘Looking at Helmut Lang’s store architecture, it became obvious: his stores were all about directing the gaze. This is also what exhibitions need to do, but here it was essential. A photo wouldn’t suffice; you have to experience it,’ curator Marlies Wirth told Wallpaper* of the exhibition, which is designed to immerse you in the Lang universe – all the way down to the floor, which features a seating plan from a runway show.

READ: Inside Helmut Lang’s fashion archive in Vienna, which still defines how we dress today

Marty Supreme birthed the year’s viral garment – thanks to Timothée Chalamet

The Marty Supreme press tour has already come with some memorable sartorial moments – the film’s star Timothée Chalamet and girlfiend Kylie Jenner in matching orange Chrome Hearts for one – though it was more humble track jacket which went viral in December (the Josh Safdie-directed film is out on Christmas Day in the United States). The nylon windbreaker, created by the film’s production company A24 alongside California-based label Nahmias, was part of a merch drop for the film – adorned with ‘Marty Supreme’ and three gold stars, Chalamet has barely taken it off since. Pop-ups in New York and London have seen queues around the block to lay their hands on the $250 jacket – with resale sites selling the garment for up to for up to £4,366 (that’s over 20 times its original price). It speaks not only to A24’s marketing prowess, but also to the rise of movie merch – at the end of 2024, Mary Cleary explored its rise for Wallpaper*. ‘How it will continue to play out is yet to be seen, but one thing is almost certain: movie merch will continue to take over fashion,’ she wrote – and was right.

‘Looking at Helmut Lang’s store architecture, it became obvious: his stores were all about directing the gaze. This is also what exhibitions need to do, but here it was essential. A photo wouldn’t suffice; you have to experience it,’ says Marlies Wirth, curator of ‘Helmut Lang: Séance de Travail 1986-2005’, the first retrospective of the Austrian designer’s oeuvre, now open at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).

It is a statement that encapsulates the extraordinary precision and intelligence behind Helmut Lang, who shaped the look of modern fashion in the 1990s with his cool, razor-sharp minimalism and continues to influence today (he is one of contemporary fashion’s most oft-referenced designers, alongside Martin Margiela). In MAK, every detail of the space has been choreographed to immerse visitors in his world: even the floor itself maps the layout and name tags of front-row guests – from Isabella Blow to Edward Enninful – of a runway show, or ‘Séance de Travail’, as Lang liked to call them.

‘Here is another European designer who literally brought the water to the well… of course I had an out-of-body experience at a Helmut Lang show,’ says the late Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley in an archival interview, discussing Lang’s A/W 2002 collection, that plays in one exhibition room. Another is filled with screens showing rare runway footage, backstage fittings, and further interviews, including with Lang himself. It is clear from the display that identity, for him, was a gradient: a man could wear a transparent shirt; a woman could wear sharply tailored, clean-cut, menswear-inspired jackets. There is an almost architectural discipline to the work: lean, aerodynamic lines run throughout, and silhouettes feel sliced in a single decisive gesture.

‘He didn’t formally study fashion,’ Wirth continues. ‘He grew up in the countryside; his grandfather was a shoemaker. He was exposed early on to workwear and utility wear, and said in interviews that he was fascinated by how things make sense when you understand their purpose. If a shoe looks a certain way because it needs to function, you understand the logic.’

This is clear from some of the garments in the archive, like the ‘Astro Biker Jacket’ from the A/W 1999 collection, which combines elements of classic motorcycle gear with references to astronautics and aeronautical engineering. Its metallic finish feels almost extraterrestrial, while concealed straps and a foldaway harness – meant to be worn on the back when the jacket isn’t being worn – give it Lang’s signature mix of futurism and functionality. Alongside his practical designs, he drew on images, such as Robert Mapplethorpe’s stark, coded photography – a perennial reference. Even his branding was memorably minimal: in two vitrines in the exhibition are objects from his famous late 1990s campaigns, which saw New York cabs emblazoned with ‘Helmut Lang’, no clothes on show. The brand spoke for itself.

But Lang’s minimalism was anything but muted. From lacquered eel skin to sheer, cut-out mesh tops, his mostly monochrome lines were punctuated with flashes of texture and fluorescent colour. Strips of leather became dresses on the body; light-wash jeans bore splashes of white paint; while stingray skirts paired with diaphanous tops, and latex-lace dresses, balanced fetish and fragility. Even bursts of cerulean or citron interrupted his mostly monochrome palette. Though some of these garments are displayed in the exhibition as physical objects, they are largely captured through runway film, ephemera and campaigns.

Instead, Lang’s conviction that clothing and space are inseparable provides the throughline of the exhibition. Sections of his Paris and New York flagships are recreated as sculptural environments, with sleek black cube dividers by Richard Gluckman sitting alongside Jenny Holzer LED texts (Lang undertook numerous collaborations with artists during his career in fashion; since exiting his label, he is now an artist himself). ‘How do I communicate to visitors how special these stores were? Not just because they sometimes casually housed incredible artworks, including Louise Bourgeois’ metal spider sculptures, but because their architecture made you look a certain way,’ Wirth says, speaking about the exhibition design.

‘It was clear there needed to be a section devoted to backstage,’ she continues. ‘And backstage not only in the literal sense, with footage from the Paris shows, but as a lens on work-in-progress and process.’ Life-size video installations allow visitors to experience the original ‘Séance de Travail’ presentations with their original soundtracks, while lookbooks, Polaroids and fittings also feature. ‘From 1993, his collaboration with Juergen Teller brought new intensity. Immediacy, fragility, and fragmentary perspectives replaced the externally constructed visual aesthetic typical of fashion photography and gave backstage photography increased public visibility.’

Lang and Teller established a new model of visual communication that not only reshaped the image culture of the 1990s but has become a defining component of contemporary fashion and advertising photography. Fashion commentator Simon Doonan famously observed that Lang ‘casts his shows like a Fassbinder movie’. Cinematic and precise, the runways often mixed Viennese friends, like photographer Elfie Semotan, with models who defined 1990s minimalism: Stella Tennant, Amber Valletta, and even Kate Moss, at the height of her fame, appeared for a look. Among the vitrines displaying Lang’s archive are staff notes, including one from December 2004 that reads: ‘Sent Bill Murray, who seems to be getting quite a bit of press lately, some clothes for the cover of Time magazine. Maybe he has decided to get a publicist.’

Collaborations punctuate the exhibition, underscoring Lang’s interdisciplinary practice. Holzer’s LED and scent installations, his close friendship and work with Bourgeois, and Mapplethorpe’s disciplined lens converge with Lang’s preoccupations of materiality, memory, and surface, creating a networked practice where fashion, art, and architecture intersect. The exhibition’s title, ‘Séance de Travail’, embodies Lang’s philosophy: creation is iterative, continuous, and interconnected.

The exhibition also makes one thing clear: today’s designers rarely enjoy such autonomy. Making certain choices, including to show in New York instead of Paris and structuring a collection around concept rather than commerce, are nearly impossible today. Yet Lang’s precision, tension and spatial intelligence continue to inspire young creators, offering fertile ground for thinking critically about clothes. Even details like his carefully curated soundtracks, including classical music fused with synth-pop and folk, speak to a holistic approach. The exhibition captures a designer who is quiet, precise, uncompromising – a blueprint for creative autonomy, and proof that one person, a small team, and a singular vision can still change the way the world sees fashion.

It feels particularly charged that the first retrospective of Lang’s oeuvre opens not in Paris, London, or New York, but in Vienna, the city where he was raised and where he first began reimagining what clothes could be. MAK holds the only official public archive of his work, a 10,000-piece compendium he donated in 2011. Bringing it into public view now feels like both a revelation and a return. In an era saturated with spectacle, ‘Séance de Travail’ reminds us why Helmut Lang’s radical understatement endures.

‘Helmut Lang: Séance de Travail 1986-2005’, is now open at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), until 3 May 2025.

mak.at

New York Fashion Week A/W 2024 heralded the start of fashion month, which sees subsequent stopovers in London, Milan and Paris in the coming weeks. It was an energetic opening act: Peter Do’s sophomore collection for Helmut Lang began proceedings with a collection which mused on the dichotomy between armour and adornment, while Willy Chavarria – selected as part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 last year – rounded out the opening day with a collection which cemented him as one of the city’s most intriguing talents. 

Meanwhile, Paris-based Ludovic de Saint Sernin made his New York Fashion Week debut with an ode to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, while buzzy shows from Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Thom Browne and Tory Burch were among the season’s biggest hitters. 

Here, reported from the shows, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss and contributing editor Tilly Macalister-Smith select the best of New York Fashion Week A/W 2024. 

The best of New York Fashion Week A/W 2024 

Thom Browne

Though Thom Browne’s latest show took place on Valentine’s Day – the holiday nodded to in the enormous heart-shaped box of flowers the designer grasped for his post-show bow – the inspiration for the collection itself was altogether darker, with Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting 1845 poem The Raven providing the season’s starting point. The poem tells the story of a man who after the death of his lover is visited by a talking raven, provoking a slow descent into madness; here, an altered version – with nods to Chesterfield puffers and silk moiré – was narrated by The Gilded Age actress Carrie Coon. 

It made for fertile ground for the theatrical Browne, whose towering cast of characters had a gleefully creepy air, their ruffled hair shaped into enormous sculptural plaits or adorned with delicate black mourning veils. The palette was largely black and white, like a series of plays on the tweed blazer – whether checkered, or deconstructed and patchworked – or white coats over which a flock of black ravens were appliquéd. Ravens also appeared across the dramatic closing look, which comprised an enormous gold brocade cape, removed at the end of the show like a ‘beguiling golden bug’, as the notes described. Watching over it all was a tree-like figure clad in a 30-foot-high version of the brand’s Chesterfield puffer – another dramatic flourish from the designer, who can always be relied upon to put on a show. JM

Gabriela Hearst

The dreamlike paintings of artist Leonora Carrington fueled Gabriela Hearst’s imagination this season. But, rather than lay claim to the artist as a source of inspiration, Hearst instead spotlighted a series of women through which she had learned about Carrington, from art historian and author Katy Hessel to journalist Jackie Wullschläger and writer Joanna Moorhead.  ’Teaching us empathy and about how others live; and to dream up a better world for all,’ said Hessel of the surrealist artist.

There’s something especially seductive about Hearst’s clothes during a winter season, with the richness and decadence of enveloping shearlings and sweeping gowns worn with riding boots. And then you remember – it’s Hearst, so it can’t be shearling, and you find that it’s actually shredded post-consumer recycled cashmere from Italian cashmere jumpers. (Hearst has made the seasonal commitment to deliver a document capturing the origin and composition of all the fabrics in the show, along with her show notes). For this collection, it stated that the clothes were constructed of 100 per cent natural fibres. These included fine cashmere corduroy (the first time anyone has produced this fabric), liquid silk velvet woven on historical French velvet looms only operated by one mill in Lyon, and a printed wool gauze based on flowers Hearst had found on vacation. TMS

Michael Kors

Michael Kors titled his A/W 2024 collection ‘Timeless’, reflecting the American designer’s ongoing desire to refine the building blocks of a woman’s wardrobe over pursuing fleeting trends. Taking place at the former Barneys New York space in Chelsea – a longtime pillar of American fashion, before it shuttered in 2020 – the designer said it was a collection which doubled down on the foundations of the eponymous label (something several New York designers seem to be doing this season). ‘One of my hallmarks has always been fashion that stands the test of time,’ he elaborated. 

So here was a collection of elegance and polish, one which spanned the gamut of garments which make up a woman’s wardrobe: nipped-waist double-breasted tailoring, leather jackets with soft shearling collars, pointed pumps, and even a hoodie. Flourishes of New York glamour, meanwhile, came in sequin adorned cardigans and lacy slip dresses, or the expansive fluffy overcoats in shades Kors described as ‘dusty makeup shades’, inspired by insouciant 1930s glamour. ‘When we talk about what’s timeless and what endures – it’s quality, it’s simplicity, it’s sophistication,’ said Kors. ’It’s clothes that make you feel confident and powerful.’ JM

Tory Burch

Tory Burch ended Monday evening’s proceedings with an evening-time takeover of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. Erecting a silver runway along one of the building’s ornate walkways, Burch said that this season she wanted to explore silhouette and proportion in new ways, a continuation of the recent gear-shift for the designer which has seen her embrace a more freewheeling, experimental approach to her eponymous label. ‘Internally there was a lot of discussion around the concept of being ”on brand” and that wasn’t interesting to me because it inhibits creativity. So, over the last five years, I’ve smashed that concept,’ she recently told Wallpaper*. 

So there was an intriguing strangeness to this season’s collection, whereby bonded, heat-sealed garments – like a series of tweed-like dresses and overcoats which opened the show – had an architectural silhouette though through their construction (which Burch noted started from the inside out) were surprisingly light and fluid in movement. Textural richness, meanwhile, came in fronds of tassels or twisting ruffles which curled around the hem of delicate diaphanous mini dresses, or sleeker hair-on-hide dipped outerwear. Other garments had a more sensual air, like the semi-sheer skirt worn by Emily Ratajkowski – its surface gently decorated with a shimmering degradé motif – combined in the show with a faux croc bodysuit and the brand’s vertiginous new ‘Pierced’ pump (a style complete with a sweeping abstract metal adornment which will no doubt be ubiquitous come next season). ‘We were thinking about making the everyday sublime,’ concluded Burch. JM

Coach

Presented in the regal James B. Duke House on New York’s Upper East Side – long synonymous with the city’s blue-blooded elite – Stuart Vevers presented a collection which clashed American classicism (epitomised in the show notes by John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette) with the ‘unvarnished’ eclecticism and spontaneity of the city’s streets. Ruffled debutante dresses in taffeta and tuxedo blazers were crumpled, as if their wearer had been up all night, paired with heavy worn-in leather boots as models stomped through the building’s downstairs salons. In their hands or slung over the shoulder, heaps of bags and accessories, including tourist charms of the Statue of Liberty and the city’s symbolic apple, as well as Yankee caps, perhaps New York’s most enduring accessory.

Elsewhere, Vevers offered a highly desirable wardrobe of pieces primed for the demands of city life; among them, elongated, gently oversized trench coats, shearling and tasselled leather jackets, and more playful sweaters adorned with bows and ducks. It made for one of the designer’s strongest outings at the American mega-brand for some time, and a decisive return to its New York origins, where the brand was founded in 1941. ‘We’re based in New York and embracing it – fashion escapism is not our style,’ said Vevers, who noted the collection originally began with thinking about New York love stories, like those by writer Nora Ephron. ‘[Her] tension between something romantic and picturesque and something very real and spontaneous is unique to New York, I think. And it captures the mood of the collection.’ JM

Zankov

‘Seduction and gusto!’ exclaimed Henry Zankov of the mood of his A/W 2024 collection at his presentation on Monday morning, as models and fans swirled around the designer in the Chelsea space. ‘Strong saturated colors with strong energy for evening,’ he expanded. ’That’s how the seduction happens.’ In his first outing since winning runner up at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in October 2023, Zankov’s presentation was ratcheted up a notch. The street outside the skylight-studded gallery was lined with black suburbans (a tell-tale sign of a ‘moment’), while inside, teams of PRs with headsets ushered guests to the light-flooded atrium. Alongside brand hallmarks such as his perforated knits and intarsias, the clothes took on a new dimension: subtly engaging colour mixing, a wealth of texture, and some new categories. The tufted hand-worked ‘pom pom’ knits; the feathery shredded alpaca tomato-orange dress and scarf; and the mouline hand knit crew-neck were all asking to be stroked. A red deconstructed jumper, meanwhile, appeared to have been repurposed – but effortlessly – so that the model's head popped out of an arm hole while its sleeves were knotted at the hip. Scarves were a focal point: a moss green cashmere coat had one built into its neckline, a device he used again on a chartreuse fine gauge knit. TMS

Ulla Johnson

A soft-on-the-senses welcome: sandy deep pile carpet and soaring terracotta curtains absorbed the chatter as guests arrived for Ulla Johnson’s show on Sunday morning. In the hushed, soothing space, a towering sculpture by Mississippi-born artist Andrew Ondrejcak made in collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Abby Cheney appeared as if a delicate filigree ring had been blown up into new giant proportions. 

Raven Leilani, author of Luster, which enjoyed much buzz following its 2020 publication, wrote in the show notes: ’In adornment, there is also fantasy… making something beautiful requires something of you.’ Indeed, the hand of the artisans with whom Johnson has built years-long partnerships with all over the world were front and centre in the sequin and bead embroideries that came to life as a black dress and pencil skirt, as well as the use of crochet. Fluidity, romance, movement – Johnson’s handwriting – was ever present, but this season, punctuated by a vibrant violet spongy wool (particularly mouthwatering layered under a chartreuse trench), while her sellout quilted coat appeared in moss green with golden brocade print. Cleverly, tailoring (notably a pantsuit in a textured pinstripe) and denim (a dramatically waisted jean jacket won here) spoke the same feminine vernacular. An unexpected entry came in the form of leather pants, which might be the most desirable we’ve seen in some time. TMS

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

In the days prior to his first show at New York Fashion Week (previous seasons have seen the Belgian designer show in Paris, where remains based) Ludovic de Saint Sernin teased a collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. In particular, the American photographer’s flower photographs, with De Saint Sernin finding inspiration in Mapplethorpe’s description of these sensually charged works that ‘beauty and the devil are the same thing’. Such a juxtaposition provided the collection’s impetus, seeing Mapplethorpe’s delicate stamens and blooms adorn sheer handkerchief tops and skirts which exposed the body beneath, or slinky, contouring chainmail dresses. Meanwhile, more provocative frissons of kink, inspired by Mapplethorpe’s portraiture and patronage of queer BDSM bars like The Mineshaft, came in lace-up leather underwear and trousers, the latter sliced down the back to reveal the models’ behinds (his riff on the Alexander McQueen bumster trouser). Other eyelet-studded pieces, a longtime signature of the designer, adorned harness-style tops and underwear, as well as dresses which wrapped and twisted around the body like a series of stacked leather belts. After the models stomped around for their finale walk, it was De Saint Sernin’s own turn to take a spin around the runway. Backdropped by the twinkling lights of the city beyond, he looked more than at home – as for whether he’s becoming a permanent fixture, watch this space. JM

Area

A surreal outing from New York-based label Area saw designer Piotrek Panszczyk adorn gowns with hundreds of ‘googly eyes’ – the cartoonish spinning eyeballs which adorn greeting cards and craft tables. Across the collection, they appeared in miniature or oversized iterations, sprouting over skirts or reimagined in leather and shiny silver studs (they also seemed to transform a Dalmatian-style print, which covered monastic hooded gowns and baggy shirting). Panszczyk noted inspiration from both the surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as Pop Art, as inspiration points – the latter evoked in colourful cartoonish flowers, studded with Area’s signature crystal adornment. Indeed, crystals – with which the brand is synonymous – were here blown up in size, creating enormous necklaces or tasselled skirts which could be heard clattering as the model walked. If these more outré pieces might only be reserved for red carpets and music videos, crystal-studded jeans and slinky Area-branded tank tops will no doubt have a wider appeal, particularly with the announcement that the brand will be teaming up with Amazon’s luxury fashion division to sell its collections going forward. JM

Khaite

A succinct personal statement from Catherine Holstein, typed on a postcard, greeted guests as they were seated for the show on Sunday evening at Chelsea Piers: generational legacy, and the ebb and flow of memory, has been preoccupying the designer. In contrast to the intimate welcome was the show’s set, a cavernous black interior, stretching into the darkness with a roped off oil-slick floor. New York has come to expect exceptional high gloss from this schedule fixture: lighting, set design (thanks to her husband, the architect Griffen Franzen, also responsible for the Wooster Street flagship), music by Jean Michel Derain, styling by Vanessa Traina, and general show mastery care of Prodject, who handle bringing events to life for the likes of Chanel and Prada, not forgetting the Met Gala. It’s a powerhouse team and the impact is always impressive. As to the clothes? On the one hand, the sharpness fans have come to know and covet: supple leather jackets with right-angle shoulders, a cropped boxy military peacoat, the just-the-right-amount-of-stiff tuxedo jacket. Even fox-fur chubby coats managed to retain perpendicular proportions and defined lapels. Then, on the other hand, lightness, fluidity and volume: duchess satin paper bag waists, a leather cocoon coat (wait for the price tag on that one) and – perhaps most impressive – the levity achieved in the gravity-defying silk gazar tops and skirts, which appeared to softly ripple away from the body. Evening looks, meanwhile, had a disheveled insouciance, which came through in the crinkled silk slips and gowns with sleeves formed from swathes of featherweight silk chiffon. TMS

Eckhaus Latta

In lieu of traditional collection notes, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta have always offered a more abstract evocation of the season’s mood – here, they described the collection as ‘remembering America as though you’re standing on an orange milk crate hearing it crack under the weight of you thinking: “what will happen next?”’ Against the backdrop of floor-to-ceiling windows which looked out onto the New York City skyline, and a live soundtrack by Los Angeles-based musician Loren Kramar, including renditions of Lou Reed, Lana Del Rey and Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, the collection itself seemed to muse on what American dressing, and being an American designer, means today (discussions this fashion week have centred on the particular challenges of showing on the New York schedule as a young designer, in part led by Carly Mark of Puppets + Puppets who has declared she will no longer show her collections in New York). In practice, like at Proenza Schouler, this meant a shift towards minimalism for the designers – or, at least, as stripped back as the brand’s undone aesthetic allows – honing in on the Eckhaus Latta codes with new clarity. Particularly strong were a series of surprisingly sharp shearling overcoats which opened the show (in a clash of textures, they were worn over featherweight sheer jersey tops), while shaggy ribbed knits will no doubt have real-world appeal. A mood of dishevelled glamour, meanwhile – a reflection, perhaps, of the show’s doomed America soundtrack – was struck in spaghetti-strapped silk slip dresses sliced away into streamers at the hem, or the iridescent fabric which was gently ruched and layered over mini dresses for the collection’s closing looks. JM 

Proenza Schouler

It was a stripped-back outing for Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Proenza Schouler this season, a mood in part decided the evening before the show (the designers noted backstage that a series of more embellished and embroidered garments had for the time being been shelved). The pair explained the shift towards reduction as part of an ongoing desire to eschew the search for ephemeral trends which defined their early collections towards a more rigorous consideration of exactly who the Proenza Schouler woman is – evolution, rather than revolution. So there was sharply cut tailoring and enveloping overcoats which recalled 1990s minimalism, diaphanous dresses which looped seductively around the body (in part recalling the silhouettes of the previous season), while a series of blanket-like knits – sliced away into frayed cut-outs – provided the show’s closing looks. ‘It’s about beauty and enveloping layers, and comfort and soulfulness. It’s about protecting yourself in softness, beauty, luxury and sensuality,’ said Fernandez backstage of the collection. With it, the designers cemented themselves as one of New York Fashion Week’s most consistent talents, and arguably still the week’s biggest draw for travelling editors. ‘We want to be making clothes that don't feel throwaway, that you're going to own for a long time,’ concluded McCollough. ‘We think that's how people dress these days.’ JM

Tommy Hilfiger

Could Tommy Hilfiger have chosen a more poignant location for his aptly named ’New York Moment’ show than Grand Central Station’s Oyster Bar? Unlikely. Outside the show, in the station’s famed cavernous cream marble atrium, onlookers jostled to catch a glimpse of their favourite TikTok celebs as well as Sofia Richie Grainge, Damson Idris, Sonam Kapoor, Junho Lee and Jon Batiste, who gave a finale performance that had the whole room on its feet. Inside, a surprisingly intimate affair came to life at ‘The Tommy’, a secret saloon bar serving martinis and champagne, where editors gathered around cocktail tables and Questlove played a soundtrack inspired by New York’s five boroughs. Since its inception, Hilfiger has always closely connected his brand identity to youth culture, in particular music, and this evening was no different. A slouchy, youthful, insouciant energy pervaded. And in case there were any doubt remaining as to the brand’s legacy, the clothes were a lesson in ‘classic American cool’ – its raison d'être. 

Essentials of the American wardrobe were revisited with new freshness and relevancy, such as a black and white rugby shirt with generously proportioned sleeves. Chinos were cut to be roomy, hands slunk into pockets. Shirting layered under long line cardigans and trench coats felt effortless and relatable. A pleated skirt that fell below the knee, worn with block-heeled boots, read as a fashion silhouette that would translate into the real world. The shearling motorcycle jacket and oversized tweedy puffa will no doubt be popping up on wishlists. The show itself also marked a shift away from the see-now, buy-now approach, in order to adhere to the fashion week schedule – a move deemed necessary to accommodate the elevation of its clothing production which, with various Italian-sourced fabrics and more complex production, appropriately require a little more time. TMS

Willy Chavarria

Willy Chavarria’s shows have a kind of inexplicable magic which has made him one of New York Fashion Week’s most intriguing talents (the American designer was selected as part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 last year). In part, it is because he has played the long game – his career comprised design roles at American mega brands like Ralph Lauren before starting his eponymous label – allowing him to forge Willy Chavarria the brand at a moment he was confident in his hand and design codes, which largely centre on the multiplicity of the New York street (where he now calls home) alongside his Mexican-American upbringing in Fresno, California. And, having shown for several seasons, it is paying off: the designer won the 2023 Menswear Designer of the Year at the CFDA awards and has become a red carpet fixture (Billie Eilish is a particular fan), while his collection will soon be stocked in Barney’s and Saks. It lent proceedings a buzzy, celebratory air, backdropped by rows of church candles and religious ephemera which have long been a reference point for the designer. Chavarria’s hallmarks continued to be honed – notably a voluminous silhouette, which at once recalls baggy streetwear and the abundance of traditional couture – though freshness was struck in new fabrications (like houndstooth wool used across leaner trousers and a highly desirable elongated overcoat) and mood of refinement, seeing sweaters slung elegantly around the neck or some brilliant tuxedo- style tailoring, dramatically pitched at the lapel. JM

Helmut Lang

‘Protection versus projection,’ said Peter Do of his sophomore collection for Helmut Lang, which opened New York Fashion Week on Friday afternoon. ‘The way we protect ourselves is the way we define: armour or adornment?’ The designer continued this message via the printed collection notes, written in the same all-caps logotype Lang utilised in his own campaigns. So there were shirts and trousers which appeared crafted from bubble wrap – a suggestion of both protection and sensuality, exposing the inner workings of the garment, like pockets and zips beneath – while other knits rose up to engulf the face and body against the elements. A crescent-shaped bag, meanwhile, looked as though it was made for the model to rest her head on for comfort, like an aeroplane pillow, alongside technical vests which recalled the ‘bulletproof’ vests which appeared in Lang’s archival collections. As for the impetus behind the collection, Do said it emerged from a continuing observation of New York dress codes; the rigours of living in the city require both a need for protection and exhibition in the clothes people wear. ‘In a world of chaos, a system of dressing,’ the designer concluded of the collection, which though astutely mined hallmarks of the Helmut Lang archive, felt sometimes missing the unique frisson of sensuality and subversion which defined the brand’s seminal 1990s collections – a balance better struck by Do in his collections for his eponymous brand, which he will show later this month, on February 27, in Paris. JM

Stay tuned for more from New York Fashion Week A/W 2024

‘When I got this job, I was thinking back to the first luxurious experience I had,‘ says Peter Do backstage after his debut as creative director of Helmut Lang (yesterday afternoon, 8 September 2023), amid throngs of fans, family and friends (including Ocean Vuong – poet, friend and collaborator, who wrote the script that scored the collection) at New York Fashion Week S/S 2024. 

‘Growing up on a farm in Vietnam and going to Philadelphia with my mom owning a car… the luxury to be able to get in the car and have the freedom to go where you want was something that everyone was taking for granted, something that I felt was truly luxurious. I want Helmut Lang to be that vehicle of freedom for people, in the same way I discovered with cars,’ he says nostalgically of joyful teenage road trips.

Inside Peter Do‘s debut for Helmut Lang

Do is talking about a democratic luxury rooted in emotional stability and personal autonomy. It's something that feels out of reach for many, or is taken for granted by others. Vuong describes the joy of a road trip where the car is ‘a room but also a portal allowing us to escape this world into another without leaving our bodies’.

A diagonal panel cut into suit jackets felt partially like it had been driven over, while also recalling a beauty pageant sash. Sourced vintage seat belts were turned into luminous trims. A crisp shirt worn backwards, as if in reverse, was printed with Vuong’s words. Elsewhere, there was a denim workwear overall, a knit dress embellished with pearl polka dots and slashed elbows, while slinky, slippery silk jersey kick flare pants pooled over heavy-soled boots.

In the way that Helmut Lang’s clothes of the 1990s were responding to the excess of the 1980s, Do says his own collection is responding to a present-day cacophony. ‘I feel there is a lot of noise right now, the industry is a bit complicated. I want Helmut to just make sense. I want the pricing to make sense. I want to speak to more than just fashion people. I want people like my mom to be able to go to the store and buy a beautiful dress that lasts a lifetime, a suit that doesn't cost a mortgage.’

Is there a shared commonality between the original Lang loyalist and the new brand? ’Absolutely, for sure,’ he says. There is no doubt a parallel between the audience Lang was designing for in the late 1990s – creative youth looking for clothes that made sense to them as they matured into the world – and the Gen Zs that turned out in support of Do today. He thinks in practical terms: ‘There’s a system of dressing that we worked on, and every season we evolve it. Not starting from scratch every season but building upon what came before.’

Creating this ‘system of dressing’ surpassed in importance a deep exploration of the Lang archives. While there is unquestionably synonymy between Do’s own line and what he just showed for Lang, it was less referential of the Austrian designer than you might anticipate. ‘The archive is massive, it would take me days to dig through it,’ he says.

He is concurrently working on his own Peter Do label, too. ‘I haven't slept for a while,’ he laughs. He's recently moved ‘P.D.’ from the New York Fashion Week schedule to show in Paris, and he plans to keep the label ‘intentional, sensitive, and a reflection of where I am now with my life. I started my brand six years ago when I was 26. I’m now 32, I have a different way of living, I’ve found my voice, you will see the two brands will be very different.’

The show culminated in a flurry of activity as the multiplicity of models emerged for an encore, walking at speed in all directions. Do had even brought back some of the original Lang models from the 1990s, some that have since drifted out of the industry, to walk again for him.

‘With the new Helmut Lang, I really just want to dress New York,’ he says. ‘And not just Manhattan – Queens, Brooklyn. I want to showcase the versatile, energetic, chaotic way that people live in New York City. I want to introduce the brand to a new generation of people.’

helmutlang.com

In 2005, minimalist pioneer Helmut Lang quit fashion. Evolving his creative practice, he began – from his bases in New York and Long Island – to make experimental 2D and 3D artworks. Five years later, when a fire at Lang's Manhattan studio destroyed nearly 9000 archive pieces, he began incorporating shredded elements of his own work into totemic and figurative sculptures smothered in sticky resin, tar, gold leaf or glossy white paint. Lang's decision to regenerate pieces of his own fashion history into raw materials for a new body of work, raised questions regarding the relevance of heritage, longevity and creative evolution. In today's fashion industry, his approach chimes with questions around how to reuse deadstock materials, rendered unfashionable at a season's end.

Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello has long found inspiration in Lang’s approach to design, from his pared-back aesthetics to his then-pioneering decision to unite the art and fashion worlds, resulting in collaborations with Louise Bourgeois and Jenny Holzer. As part of Vaccarello's consideration of reuse and regeneration, the creative director has invited Lang to create a series of pillar-like sculptures constructed from compacted Saint Laurent items, including clothing prototypes and unfinished items of jewellery.

The result is a stack of totemic structures, formed from shredded Saint Laurent items which have been mixed with a pigmented resin and molded in aluminium. The artworks will be displayed at the maison’s Rive Droite store in Paris, an imaginative outpost which opened last autumn as a concept space, housing a curation of collaborative products and artworks, including Everlast boxing gear and African sculptures from Galerie Lucas Ratton. 

The artworks are a symbol of transformation and regeneration, with Vaccarello not only relinquishing elements of his own archive, but also putting their visual power in the hands of another artist. Vaccarello found fascination with Lang’s early artistic collaborations, and here he has pioneered another.

INFORMATION
www.ysl.com

It makes sense that ‘SHOW OFF: Austrian Fashion Design’ is huge in scale. It is, after all, the first ever major exhibition of Austrian fashion. Hence, enormous, visually ambitious, displays show the work of 66 designers, 34 photographers, and 250 fashion objects. It’s not just a numbers game, though. Curators Ulrike Tschabitzer-Handler and Andreas Bergbaur balance size and audio and visual spectacle with historical sensitivity as they carefully guide the viewer through five themed spaces about the social and cultural factors shaping Austrian fashion since the 1970s, from fashion education, distribution, and publications to the garments themselves.

Upon entering, the viewer is confronted by talking heads, a video installation showing projections of interviews with agents, stylists, journalists, and managers about Vienna’s fashion scene. This, logically, leads to a look at the fashion department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (‘die Angewandte’). Since the 1980s, guest professors like Karl Lagerfeld, Jil Sander, Raf Simon, and Vivien Westwood have informed the work of young Austrian designers. This information is blasted at you from either side as you walk a runway framed by two huge LCD screens by projection artists Lumine showing output from the school over the years.

SHOW OFF’s centrepiece is a huge scaffolding-like sculpture designed by architect Gregor Eichinger containing 40 years of clothing, shoes, bags, and jewellery from designers including Helmut Lang, Rudi Gernreich, Andreas Kronthaler, and newcomers like Kenneth Ize. It allows a 360-degree-view, accessible by stairs from several levels. Most importantly, since the Austrian state does not have a permanent fashion collection, the viewer has the unique chance to get close to garments without them being stuck behind glass like traditional museum pieces.

The exhibition ends with two neon-lit glass cases containing examples of fashion publications about or from Austria, including issues of Wallpaper* and i-D from the late 1990s and locally important magazines like Wiener, Take, and INDIE. This not only places Austrian fashion design in the wider context of style shifts in graphic design, photography, and typography, but shows that, though the Alpine republic isn’t the first place you think of when it comes to contemporary fashion, it is more than a museum for classic styles from the past.

INFORMATION

‘SHOW OFF: Austrian Fashion Design’, MAK (Museum of Applied Arts), until 12 July. mak.at

ADDRESS

Museum of Applied Arts
Stubenring 5, 1010 Wien
Austria

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Mood board: Few brands can lay claim to the cool, New York credentials that are synonymous with Helmut Lang. Representative of the 1990s zeitgeist, the label has unwaveringly tried to recapture the same magic it wielded more than 20 years before. In the last couple of years, Helmut Lang has tapped the expertise of ‘editors in residence', which has resulted in wide-ranging interpretations of what Helmut Lang means today. In contrast to the label's last runway showing for Spring/Summer 2018, which saw Hood by Air's Shayne Oliver infuse clothing with a streetwear aesthetic, this latest collection pays homage to the 1990s minimalism that Lang pioneered. Creative directors Mark Thomas and Thomas Cawson created a precise wardrobe of urban essentials primed for city life.

Scene setting: Staged in an empty retail space on a ground floor in Chelsea, showgoers were given a hip welcome with bottles of beer and cartons of water ready on hand. A screen, emblazoned with the label's iconic logo in red, later projected live feed of the runway presentation, giving everyone in the audience a 360 degree look at the collection.

Best in show: Tailoring took a renewed focus this season with inspirations drawn from the suiting of artist Joseph Beuys. Crafted in materials like grey wool flannel, lava melton wool, polished black leather and double-face white viscose, these new renditions possessed a captivating vigour that teased the eye.

Scene setting: One of the most anticipated shows of the season, Shayne Oliver’s take on the Helmut Lang brand was primed to ruffle some feathers. Oliver, who put his label Hood By Air on hold for the sake of the collaboration, chose to present his collection within the recently defunct Pearl River Mart. Bordering Soho and Chinatown, the venue’s dual nature was an appropriate precursor for the presentation to come. 

Mood board: While the Helmut Lang name may be synonymous with 90s minimalism, Oliver’s provocative, gender-fluid aesthetic showed few signs of being watered down. Mixing up Lang’s model muses from the 90s with a diverse range of street cast personalities on the runway, Oliver sent out broken down iterations of Lang mainstays such as tailoring, leather and unisex dressing, and amped them up with the fetishistic panache he is known for. Cut-out bra panels, leather belts and buckles, and bondage straps of all shapes and sizes reflected both Oliver and Lang’s take on sexuality, and brought an electric charge to the garments.

Finishing touches: The same attitude permeated accessories too. Leather bra-shaped bags, ranging from handbag to holdall size, Perspex briefcases, newsprint totes emblazoned with Helmut Lang branding and manilla-folder like clutches, were recognisable yet abstracted enough to pack a serious design statement. If next season is too long to wait, a re-edition of 15 unisex Helmut Lang pieces, which were originally created between 1997 and 2005, is now available.

Something strange is happening at Sammlung Friedrichshof’s galleries in Vienna and Zurndorf. Step inside and you’ll find the space already occupied by some monochrome monsters, towering, imposing figures clad with shreds and scraps of fabrics, coated in thick, gloopy resin.

These beguiling, 12ft high, yeti-like creations are the latest works of artist and former fashion designer Helmut Lang, part of an exhibition of sculptures and wall reliefs — ‘Various Conditions’ — for which he has plundered his own archives, scrap metal yards and industrial wastelands for materials. Plucked from abandonment, Lang’s materials rise, phoenix-like, into this series of semi-forms in black and white, their intriguing surfaces made up of layers of intricate, anthropomorphic texture. With their corresponding relief panels hanging on the wall, it’s as if the sculptures have emerged from the canvases. 

One of the artist’s aim with the exhibition was to explore the dualism of black and white — hence, the galleries are divided by the two colours (white at Zurndorf, black at Stadtraum). It is a simple but effective visual trick that triggers a deeper questioning about the psychological resonance of colour. It is the matter that makes up these works that really dominates here, though.

Lang says that he likes to work with materials that have ‘a certain history, elements with irreplaceable presence and with scars and memories of a former purpose’, which explains the curious atmosphere the artworks create, each with their own distinctive character. Since quitting fashion for art in 2005, Lang has been consistently fascinated with mass manufactured material, transforming it into something that looks organic and alien at the same time — not unlike his signature clothing designs.

The 61-year-old aligns his approach in these works with that of the avant-garde Viennese Actionists of the 1960s — the sexy, taboo-breaking performance artists — who used blood, urine, entrails and milk instead of paint to defy the borders of conventional art and confront the ugly truths about the world.

INFORMATION

‘Various Conditions’ is on view until 19 November. For more information, visit the Sammlung Friedrichshof website

ADDRESS

Römerstrasse 3
2424 Zurndorf

Schleifmühlgasse 6
1040 Vienna

Helmut Lang still has an affinity for material, despite leaving fashion for art over a decade ago. For his current exhibition, 'Burry', on view at Dallas Contemporary until 21 August, the artist discovered a pile of sheepskin that he had lying around after purchasing it on a Manhattan sidewalk, from an organic farm in upstate New York. His curiosity started to draw him back to it: 'The material forced itself to be somehow used and I started to experiment with different ideas, not worrying about the outcome,' Lang explains via email.

Lang stretched the various sizes of the material out on to wooden surfaces, stapling them to the formations, 'to give it a movement it would not have had naturally'. He then coated the pieces with a layer of tar to add a coarse texture to each. The pieces took on lives of their own, becoming, what Peter Doroshenko – exhibition curator and Dallas Contemporary director – referred to as a 'second skin'.

'I think that was always something he dealt with on a one to one when he was in the fashion industry – creating second skin,' explains Doroshenko. 'This second skin we can’t wear.'

After making the pieces, Lang left most with just the tar coating, covering the rest in either gold leaf, silver leaf or a glossy white paint, that resulted in a primordial display of various shapes. Some of the works lean against the walls of the gallery, while others dangle from the ceiling. Others are scattered about on the floor; two black sculptures surrounded by a rectangular frame appear as black pools.

'For the planes, I wanted to achieve a strong, nearly archaic surface, presented as a leaning sculpture on the intersection of painting and sculpture,' the artist explains. 'They became, on one point, a take on mythology and related implications, and evoked often spiritual feelings when I showed them in my studio. That was not my original intention, but that naturally became what the sculptures and the exhibition are radiating.'

INFORMATION

’Helmut Lang: Burry’ is on view at Dallas Contemporary until 21 August. For more information, visit the Dallas Contemporary website

Photography courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York

ADDRESS

Dallas Contemporary
161 Glass Street
Dallas
Texas 75207

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At a time of year when most New York stores entice passersby with promises of deep discounts, Barneys is eschewing ‘sale’ signs in favour of resin chairs in a concrete bunker, 3-D movies that flicker through a grid of mirrored triangles, and an ode to a turquoise tutu.

Nothing displayed in the department store’s windows (until 15 July) is available for purchase, as these five installations - created by design studio M/M Paris, photographer Juergen Teller; artist Helmut Lang, poet Patrizia Cavalli, and filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari - are the latest additions to Destefashioncollection, an offshoot of art collector Dakis Joannou’s Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art.

‘I’ve had this curiosity about [the connection between] art and fashion since the early 1980s, when Artforum put an Issey Miyake dress on its cover,’ says Joannou. ‘Back then it was shocking to see the image of a fashion piece in an art magazine.’ He hatched his own collaborative initiative a couple of decades later, over dinner in Greece with Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M Paris.

The trio developed a project to appoint one artist curator per year to chose five fashion pieces, interpret those pieces visually or verbally, and explain the choices in writing. The resulting ‘capsule collection’ would then be acquired by the foundation.

M/M inaugurated Destefashioncollection in 2007 by immortalising picks such as a Comme des Garçons bunny-eared hat and injection-molded Balenciaga heels in drawings, a medium described by the pair as ‘forgotten in the fashion industry’. In the years that followed, five more curators put their own creative spin on everything from a Hermès Birkin bag to American Apparel leggings, and Joannou decided it was time for an exhibition. His friend Dennis Freedman, creative director of Barneys, had just the venue: the store’s Madison Avenue-facing windows.

‘We went to every curator and asked them to make site-specific installations for our windows based on the fashion pieces they had selected,’ says Freedman, who spent a year masterminding the presentation of the new and often highly complex works. They include Lang’s replicas of five front-row seats from his final fashion show and Cavalli’s spoken and computer-printed musing on Viktor & Rolf’s frothy ‘Vestito da Distacco’ (‘detachment dress’).

Among the most visually arresting installations is that of Teller, whose 2000 portrait of Yves Saint Laurent—with a mad-scientist gleam in his eyes—has been enlarged to billboard proportions and pasted onto white cladding that suggests a high-fashion construction site. M/M opted for primary colours that evoke both Mondrian and Memphis to stage a game of accessories peek-a-boo, with moving panels that reveal and conceal, while Tsingari’s haunting black-and-white film, featuring a cast that includes actress Clémence Poésy, has been installed behind a lattice that affords a 3-D effect. Meanwhile, 2011 curator Charles Ray sat out this project, as he imagined his selected fashion items as ‘invisible clothes’ (translation: naked photos).

The windows were unveiled Tuesday night at a store party, where German artist John Bock, assisted by a team of seamstresses, put on a performance that involved cutting and collaging clothing. As for the future of Destefashioncollection, Joannou is eager to stage an expanded exhibition, but for now, he’s enjoying the debut. ‘Barneys, New York City, five windows - what more do you want?’ he asks, with a laugh, before returning to matters sartorial. ‘The whole thing just fits like a glove.’

Helmut Lang's cast-resin replica of five front-row seats from his final fashion collection are installed in a concrete room in the window of Barneys, replicating the artist's own basement, where the piece has been stored. Flat-panel plaques on the floor display the fashion items the artist selected as highlights of 2009

Poet Patrizia Cavalli presents 'Vestito da Distacco' ('Detachment Dress'), her ode to a frothy dress from Viktor & Rolf's spring 2010 collection, in three forms: text posted on the rear wall, a spoken word performance that plays through speakers positioned outside the window, and a computer printer that emits, word by word, the verses of her tribute to 'a big rich dense crinkly / soft hut / of angelical turquoise'

Poet Patrizia Cavalli presents 'Vestito da Distacco' ('Detachment Dress'), her ode to a frothy dress from Viktor & Rolf's spring 2010 collection, in three forms: text posted on the rear wall, a spoken word performance that plays through speakers positioned outside the window, and a computer printer that emits, word by word, the verses of her tribute to 'a big rich dense crinkly / soft hut / of angelical turquoise'

ADDRESS

Barneys
660 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065
United States

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