How best to define a year in style? Here, we look back over a series of illuminating conversations Wallpaper* has had with fashion’s leading figures in 2024 – whether those helming vaunted maisons, or an energetic new vanguard of designers shaping the industry’s future.

There are threads that link these conversations: both Demna and Kim Jones talk about modernising the historic art of haute couture, at Balenciaga and Dior Men respectively, while Nadège Vanhée also talks about her quietly rebellious revolution of Hermès’ womenswear collections. Meanwhile, renegade British designer Martine Rose talks about bringing her disruptive vision to the usually polite Milan Fashion Week. America – perhaps down to its shifting political landscape – is also a thematic thread, explored in conversations with Tory Burch, Willy Chavarria, and a new generation of New York-based designers who consider the future of New York Fashion Week.

Selected by Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss, these wide-ranging fashion interviews tell the intriguing stories behind the designers who’ve shaped 2024.

Nadège Vanhée on a decade of womenswear at Hermès

In the September Style Issue of Wallpaper*, Nadège Vanhée – the artistic director of Hermès’ womenswear collections – opened up about her past ten years at the venerable French Maison. ‘It’s a balance between what I love and what I want to explore – my obsessions, my feelings. What I want to wear, yes, but also pieces that go out of my comfort zone,’ she says of her quietly rebellious design philosophy, which contemplates ideas of female liberation and sensuality. Or in her words: ‘What is the life of a woman today?’

READ: ‘What is the life of a woman?’: Nadège Vanhée on a decade of womenswear at Hermès

The story behind Kim Jones’ first Dior Men couture collection

In June, Kim Jones presented his first couture collection for Dior Men, a virtuosic expression of savoir-faire that drew on the on-stage uniforms of the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (the designer’s uncle, Colin Jones, was a former dancer who photographed Nureyev in 1966 for Time magazine). Speaking to Wallpaper* in Paris a few months later – amid preparations for his S/S 2025 show – Jones said the impetus for the collection was a growing desire from consumers for the unique and precious. ‘People want something that nobody else has,’ he told us.

READ: The story behind Kim Jones’ showstopping first couture collection for Dior Men

Willy Chavarria on rewriting American fashion

Ahead of a standout show at New York Fashion Week in September, Willy Chavarria – one of American fashion’s most distinct new voices – sat down with Ann Binlot to discuss the collection, which was titled ‘América’ and paid homage to immigrants’ contribution to the country’s infrastructure (Chavarria is of Mexican-American descent). ‘The community that I grew up in as a kid had a tremendous influence on not only my aesthetic and my work ethic, but also my view of what the country is that we live in, what it means to be American,’ he said. 'I wanted to shine a light on the people who make this country work.’

READ: How Willy Chavarria is rewriting American fashion

The renaissance of Tory Burch

‘I feel like a new designer,’ Tory Burch told us in the August issue of Wallpaper*, a celebration of creative America. A perennial fixture on the New York design scene – her eponymous label began in 2004 – recent seasons have seen something of a renaissance for Burch, who is flexing her creative muscle with experimental and unexpected collections that have garnered her a whole new generation of fans. ‘The only regret I have is that I didn’t do all of this sooner,’ she says.

READ: Inside the renaissance of Tory Burch

A rare conversation with Jil Sander

The occasion of a new Irma Boom-designed monograph led to a rare conversation with seminal German designer Jil Sander this November, seeing the designer reminisce on a career in fashion that began in 1968. ‘I was surprised by the strong feminine side of my work,’ she told Wallpaper*. ‘Some voices categorised me as a designer for business wear. But I was always interested in changing the general performance of men and women... I looked for a more intellectual sensuality.’

READ: A rare conversation with Jil Sander as she releases a career-spanning monograph

Demna’s thoroughly modern haute couture for Balenciaga

Speaking to Dal Chodha in the March Style Issue of Wallpaper*, Demna opened up about his distinctly contemporary vision for the Balenciaga’s haute couture line – a pitch for the historic medium’s relevancy today. ‘I always knew that couture had this kind of magic to it, of being an experiential way of wearing clothes,’ he said. ‘I just wondered if it would still be like that. The world we live in is so oversaturated with information, colour, visuals. We’ve become numb to the beauty of the world. Why don’t we see the beauty anymore? We need it to survive as a human race.’

READ: Balenciaga’s Demna on creating thoroughly modern haute couture

Martine Rose on bringing her disruptive vision to Milan

‘You have to do what you believe in,’ renegade British designer Martine Rose told Joe Bobowicz as she brought her disruptive, subculture-infused vision to Milan Fashion Week (in a particularly enjoyable contrast, it took place just after Prada and a few hundred yards away). Cue plastic noses, trailing wigs, and influences from kink, clubland and street culture: ‘I trust that people will come with me, that people are curious enough,’ she said.

READ: Martine Rose on her disruptive Milan Fashion Week debut

Molly Goddard on creating a community of brides

‘It was really something that I resisted for a while. Partly, it was because people often chose to wear pieces from our ready-to-wear collections and that felt enough,’ said Molly Goddard of her foray into bridal wear, which has been adopted by a community of brides seeking something more unexpected for their nuptials. Sharing her tips on how to approach bridal attire – ‘my main tip is not to suddenly become a totally different person’ – we also catch up with three Molly Goddard brides on wearing the designer for their big day.

READ: Molly Goddard on creating a community of contemporary brides

New York’s next generation designers weigh in on the future of fashion week

‘Beneath the glamorous surface, a new generation of independent designers have been increasingly vocal about how difficult it is to not only launch, but maintain, a successful brand in New York City,’ wrote Nicole DeMarco her introduction to a series of interviews with the city’s rising talent, ahead of the September edition of New York Fashion Week. Talking to the designers behind Diotima, Willy Chavarria, Collina Strada, Meruert Tolegen, Theophilio and Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen, she asked: what is the future of New York Fashion Week? And: can you still ‘make it’ in New York City?

READ: What is the future of New York Fashion Week? The city’s independent designers weigh in

Jony Ive on collaborating with Moncler

‘If you’re a proper designer, you can design many different forms,’ said Jony Ive about a foray into fashion, a collaboration between LoveFrom – Ive’s design agency – and outerwear behemoth Moncler. Catching up with Laura May Todd in Milan, Ive unpacks the unique collaboration, a shape-shifting, modular collection five years in the making. ‘I love the rigour of this kind of research,’ says Ive.

READ: Jony Ive unpacks his modular LoveFrom, Moncler outerwear collection

London Fashion Week A/W 2024 heralded the 40th anniversary of the event that, despite earlier iterations, was inaugurated in the early 1980s by British PR maven Lynne Franks (Franks was said to be the inspiration behind Absolutely Fabulous’ Edina Monsoon). Since then, the week has held its unique balance of rising stars – perhaps best represented by fashion incubator Fashion East – and the city’s blockbuster names, from Vivienne Westwood to Burberry (and even featured an appearance from Queen Elizabeth II, who attended a Richard Quinn show in 2018). 

This latest edition continued the week’s legacy, beginning on Friday evening with a return to London Fashion Week from historic British house Dunhill after four years (it heralds the arrival of new creative director Simon Holloway). Elsewhere, the two biggest draws were JW Anderson – its eponymous designer Jonathan Anderson first rose to prominence at Fashion East in the 2010s – and Burberry, where Daniel Lee showed his third runway show for the historic British label in Victoria Park on Monday evening. Rounding out the schedule was a mix of the week’s stalwarts, including Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Erdem and Ahluwalia, alongside a raft of next-generation talent, from KNWLS, Aaron Esh and Conner Ives to the Central Saint Martins MA fashion show.

Here, reported from the shows, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss rounds up the best of London Fashion Week A/W 2024.

The best of London Fashion Week A/W 2024

Burberry

It was a return to the great outdoors for Daniel Lee’s third runway collection for Burberry, shown yesterday evening in a vast tent erected in east London’s Victoria Park (on the floor were woodchips, while guests sat on enormous fleece cushions). It has been a thematic link that has run through his opening triptych, initially inspired by tents and outdoor-wear from the late-19th and early-20th centuries that he found in the British house’s archive. ‘Burberry’s heritage of the outdoors continues to inspire me,’ said the Yorkshire-born designer in a series of quotes issued after the show. ‘[This season], I wanted this collection to feel warm and protective.’

Soundtracked by a collage of Amy Winehouse clips and music – Lee said backstage that he was inspired by her tenacious desire to write about her life, in her own way – the collection doubled down on Burberry’s synonymy with outerwear, seeing a funnel-neck moleskin version of the trench coat, abbreviated parkas and puffers, and hefty shearlings appear throughout. The mood of textural richness was inspired, Lee said, by British and Irish wool and fabric (also used across long pleated skirts, zip-front trousers, and myriad enveloping, homespun knitwear). ‘[It’s] functional – these pieces are made for the outdoors,’ he said. The line-up of models, including Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson, Lily Cole, Naomi Campbell and Edie Campbell, recalled the 2010s, when Burberry was at cultural ubiquity. 

Backstage, after the show, Lee noted the trickiness of designing for a brand that is made to appeal to huge swathes of people: from royalty to football fans. With this collection – which was full of seductive propositions for real-world wintertime dressing – Lee made his strongest push yet. ‘I have to have a point of view,’ he said. ‘You can’t just make a simple trench coat forever.’

Aaron Esh

A brilliant winter collection from rising London-based designer Aaron Esh, inspired by the dress codes of his inner circle, closed out Sunday evening in an intimate show at east London’s Sarabande (Esh recently became part of the foundation, which was set up by Lee McQueen and offers studio spaces to emerging artists and designers). Building on his runway debut in September 2023, staged at Tate Modern against views of the London skyline, the designer once again noted the influence of his native city and its ‘rhizomatic’ streets. ‘It’s the clothes that I see when I’m at a house party; or the clothes someone would wear to do an off-licence run – big shades, ripped jeans, a blouse thrown over her shoulder,’ he told Wallpaper’s Hannah Tindle at the time.

It lends his work a kind of dishevelled sensuality, where slinky bias-cut dresses, smeared eyeliner, sunglasses, caps and hoodies meet intriguing tailoring, like a wide-lapelled tuxedo cut with a poker-straight hem (later, it evolved into an expansive overcoat), or the pinched hooded tailored jackets that the models grasped closed with their hands. Esh says that he hopes the ease of his clothing belies the craft and construction behind them, something that felt achieved here: his models looked as if wandering home from evenings out, or perhaps the morning after. Skinny jeans, meanwhile, heralded the return of a silhouette introduced by Hedi Slimane in the 2000s while at Dior Homme – the French designer’s singular, subculture-infused approach no doubt an influence on Esh’s growing oeuvre. 

JW Anderson

Nosy neighbours, M&S knickers, horse riding trophies – after the show, Jonathan Anderson laid out the nostalgic inspiration points for his A/W 2024 collection, presented this season at Marylebone’s Seymour Leisure Centre in a shift from The Roundhouse. ‘It was something twisted, in terms of the woman next door,’ he said, a mood elaborated in the press release as ‘a grotesque everydayness, in grotesque distortions and proportions’. So there were knit dresses with enormous stitches, trails of blown-up haberdashery adornments, layers of everyday ribbed underwear and vests, house slippers, and brassy grey curly wigs. In its strange banality it was surprisingly affronting, a further demonstration of Anderson’s ability to traverse the seductive and the ugly (the designer is perhaps only equalled by Miuccia Prada in his ability to strike this dichotomy so successfully season on season). 

Other pieces were designed to recall interiors, like a series of twisted dresses which evoked curtains and curtain ties, looping elegantly around the model’s bodies (their evolution into a version in pearl made for a convincing proposition for a contemporary wedding gown). Outerwear recalled British heritage styles, here blown up in size and slightly dishevelled, pulled up at the sleeve to reveal the lining beneath, while everyday staples like the striped sweater and sweatpant shorts appeared throughout. Anderson elaborated backstage that it was in part a consideration of Britain, a strange refraction of the country’s past – at once nostalgic and subverted, likening it to the slew of recent songs that have risen up the charts years after they have been released. 

‘Young people are discovering nostalgia,’ he said. ‘And then they glorify [things from the past], and it becomes a kind of future thinking in a didactic way. They’re like mixing things that my parents know, that we all know, and reconfiguring them. It makes nostalgia not such a scary thing.’

Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha described her A/W 2024 collection as the closing chapter of a triptych of works which began with last season’s ‘Dress Rehearsal’ – capturing the anticipation and fraughtness of the evening before a wedding – and continued with the designer’s haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier shown in Paris last month, which was titled ‘The Procession’ and looked towards the nuptials themselves. Presented in medieval church St Bartholomew-the-Great in Smithfield, the conclusion was titled ‘The Wake’, with Rocha beginning the collection by looking towards the mourning attire of Queen Victoria after the death of her husband Prince Albert (famously, she would mourn the loss for over four decades of her life). It made for fertile ground for the Irish designer, whose collections have long had a swelling undercurrent of darkness despite the beauty of their execution. Here, pelts of faux fur sat on the shoulders of delicate, near-transparent tailoring, while corsets – adorned with shimmering crystal embellishment under the chest – seemed a continuation of her collaboration with Gaultier. Unexpected accessories came in the shape of soft-toy lambs carried in the models’ arms, a nod to the mythical animals which serve as church guardians, while mourning blacks were reimagined in tie-hem anoraks, worn with faux-fur stoles adorned with crystals. ‘This was the final piece of the triptych, because I was working on these collections at the same time,’ explained Rocha backstage. ‘I’ve been looking at a lot of preserved garments, a lot of archives, and I really wanted to take that and place it today.’

Molly Goddard

A vast mural by London Group artist Ivon Hitchens provided the colourful backdrop for Molly Goddard’s latest collection, staged at the main hall of Cecil Sharp House, the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in north London. The collection itself reflected the work’s freewheeling composition – Hitchens took three years to complete the 1954 mural, which depicts a mass of abstract figures dancing in a mythical woodland – with Goddard noting that this season she once again began the collection with an ‘experimental fitting’. In these, the designer takes vintage pieces, samples from her archive and toiles and begins to combine them as a starting point for the collection (she also noted inspiration from her eBay watch list, which with two young children is currently comprised of colourful baby and toddler wear). Here, it led her to a consideration of form – ‘shapes on top of shapes; garments combining – pulling in, pushing out, smushing’ – in part inspired by the haute couture silhouettes of Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior, though relaxed with elasticated and tie fastenings for the everyday. Meanwhile, a continuing exploration of tulle – this season, Goddard described their construction as ‘blobs’, tightly ruffled shapes which provided dramatic silhouettes across skirts, shirts and dresses – met slouchy sweaters, cowboy jackets and polka-dot tops and bustiers in a collection of refreshing levity. 

Roksanda

Earlier this week, Zendaya wore a Roksanda look to Dennis Villenvenue’s Dune: Part Two London premiere: a plum-hued suit, jacket nipped in at the waist with exaggerated shoulders and loose-cut trousers, layered with a knee-length skirt. It turned out this was a sneak preview of the A/W 2024 collection presented yesterday, against the backdrop of the Tate Britain. (The suit opened the show with Law Roach, the actor’s stylist, watching on from the front row).

This season Ilinčić said she had been inspired by Le Corbusier, one of the Serbian-born designer’s ‘heroes’, and that she had recently spent time at the architect’s tiny holiday cabin, Cabanon de Le Corbusier. It was constructed in 1951 and located in Cap Martin, a coastal commune in the South of France. The interiors, and most notably the murals in the entrance hall, were subsequently referenced in the tapestries swathing around the body and trailing dramatically along the runway. Melton wool, a fabric ‘used in interiors and homes, places that provide refuge and comfort’, formed the opening suit and additional tailored pieces, where boucle, fil coupé jacquard, and a smattering of faux fur also lent themselves to the embrace of soft furnishings.

Roksanda is renowned for her considered use of colour, and of course, A/W 2024 was no different. The show notes reeled off a descriptive list of shades, reminiscent of the names that one might find on tins of expensive emulsion: Chartreuse-Verse, Canvas, Dark Flamant, Grey-Melange, Bleu-Cair, Pale-Lime, Light Hibiscus, Antique Rose, Peche-Clair. There were also sportier nods to windbreakers and wellingtons (footwear was produced in collaboration with Fit Flop), with the closing looks of the show taking the form of huge taffeta dresses that appeared almost tent-like, as though held up with a framework of poles. They conjured the idea of spending a windswept day along the coast, before returning to the warmth of a lavishly decorated home. Hannah Tindle

16Arlington

Writer and curator Charlie Fox’s 2019 exhibition My Head is a Haunted House, presented at Sadie Coles gallery, provided the starting point for Marco Capaldi’s A/W 2024 collection for 16Arlington. At the time, the group show was described by Fox as an attempt to recall ’the hallucinogenic memory’ of a childhood obsessed with werewolves, bats and monsters; here, Capaldi gave the monstrous a more elegant twist, seeing his sharp, streamlined vision for the brand enlivened with flourishes of strangeness, like swathes of shaggy faux fur or the clattering tinsel looks which closed the show. A pair of diaphanous white dresses, meanwhile, seemed to conjure Frankenstein’s bride, while shirts and sweaters tied around the neck in lieu of scarves suggested a mash-up of parts. ‘It’s not about Halloween – it’s about human nature,’ Capaldo said. ‘Hence the title of the show, I’m Not Sorry, It’s Human Nature, borrowed, of course, from Madonna. Those who go against conventions are often ostracised, but there’s so much strength and power and beauty in rejecting norms. These are the people I design for.’

Dunhill

For its first runway show since 2020 – and the first collection from newly installed creative director Simon Holloway – Dunhill chose the Duveen Wing of the National Portrait Gallery, a series of rooms inaugurated by King George V and Queen Mary in 1933. The historic venue hinted a return to classicism for the British brand (itself in its 130th year), a mood also captured in show’s the layout, which with its low-lit individual tables, gin martinis and dainty plates of cucumber and caviar sandwiches nodded towards traditional salon-style fashion presentations of the early 20th century.  

’This collection celebrates our origins and subsequent evolution into a unique British luxury house,’ explained Holloway of the A/W 2024 collection, which sought to capture Dunhill’s rich tailoring heritage and tradition of dressing figures from stage and screen (earlier in the week, the brand hosted a star-studded pre-BAFTA party, a hint towards this new direction). So the collection itself ran the gamut of what Holloway called the ‘finer things in life’ – whether motor racing (recalled in the suede field jacket worn by model Kit Butler, or the leather driving gloves throughout), jaunts to the great outdoors (gabardine chinos, blazers in heritage checks and cord, aran-stitch cashmere sweaters) or a swathe of evening wear, including an elegant ivory riff on the tuxedo with matching bowtie and overcoat (worn here with a sneaker).

‘[These are the things] we have always done best,’ concluded Holloway of the collection, which felt like something of a palette cleanser for his tenure ahead. ‘I hope we have re-captured that spirit, one that is at once refined and international,’

Fashion East

There was an interesting synchronicity to this season’s Fashion East designers Olly Shinder and Johanna Parv – the latter in her third and final season at the talent incubator – who both provided their own distinct riffs on the nine-to-five wardrobe. Shinder, who last season presented a debut collection of pieces inspired by the sporty, sleazy nightlife uniforms of Berlin and London, where the designer splits his time. Soundtracked once again by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, here Shinder turned his attention towards the corporate uniform, which was ‘queered... displaced, subverted and refined’. So there was a take on ’middle managerial’ shirting, which appeared to have been grasped at the collar and sliced down the back, while other pieces continued Shinder’s more familiar exploration of workwear, with clean-lined functional sets with PVC at the sleeves and over the trousers, as if models were about to deal with hazardous materials (indeed, Shinder likened his studio this season to a lab). Completing the lineup were pieces primed for the dance floor: slick, semi-shirted latex bodysuits, or abbreviated mini shorts in black and silver. Judging by buzz, he already has an audience for these clothes.

Parv, meanwhile, is a designer who looks towards the functionality of sportswear through toggle and adjustable fastenings, and technical fabrics, attempting to replicate them across the full gamut of a woman’s wardrobe. This season, a polished collection continued this approach with what she said was inspired by the ‘topography of the city’, and the demands of urban life. The mood was darker, and more sensual than previously – the skirt suit was sliced open at the front and shoulders – while zip-up mini dresses were featherweight in their fabrication. As ever, a series of clever accessories accompanied in the form of leather bumbags and handbags with an adjustable nylon strap, evocative of those found on a backpack. It will be interesting to see what Parv does next.

‘Slowly something is mounting, some more desire and excitement,' Miuccia Prada said in her A/W 2021 post-show discussion with collaborator Raf Simons, and it's certainly true that there was an enthusiastic undercurrent running through many of the beauty looks in the A/W 2021 shows.

The season's helmet haircuts, body paint, face stickers, crayola colour palettes, goth extremism and other inventive takes on beauty, suggested a readiness to get playful, to experiment. Skincare and wellness dominated the conversation last year, but this season hints that there is ‘desire and excitement' around the return to a bolder makeup.

Below, we share some of the most memorable looks from the season to inspire your own cosmetic creativity.

Burberry 

One of the chief inspirations for Riccardo Tisci’s latest Burberry collection was the Arts and Crafts movement of early 19th century Britain, which saw artists like William Morris rebel against the rise of industrially produced goods in favour of handmade craft with wildlife motifs.
 
To translate this aesthetic into cosmetics, Burberry’s Global Beauty Director, Isamaya Ffrench, built on the hyper-minimalist makeup of last year’s show, maintaining the same high-polish skin and no-makeup makeup, but this time faces were scattered with delicate silver stars and face crystals. 

To complement the look, hair artist Jawara Wauchope created a series of military-style buzzcuts and gelled back styles so severe they looked almost as if they were painted on. 

Molly Goddard 

There’s always been a certain playfulness to Molly Goddard’s work, and that sensibility was complemented this season by Luke Hersheson’s whimsical hair, and colourful makeup by Miranda Joyce. Bundles of candy-floss hair were accompanied by crescent moons of neon-pink blush around the eyes and bright red lips.

The effect is like an artistic take on a child’s first experiments with their mother’s makeup cabinet. Hair blow-dried to the max and makeup applied freely and experimentally, without following any rules about where it should go. Its one of the many looks this season that suggests extravagant makeup and hair will be on-trend come autumn 2021.

Ahluwalia

The spraypainted prints of Priya Ahluwalia’s A/W 21 collection were reflected in the airbrushed steaks of colour that adorned models faces. London-based makeup artist Bari Khalique accented cheekbones, brow lines, and chins with strokes of iridescent blue for a painterly take on cosmetic colour application. 

Simone Rocha

Some of the most memorable hair looks of the season came courtesy of hairstylist Cyndia Harvey at Simone Rocha. Rocha was inspired the naivety of adolescence for this collection and Harvey’s long rows of plaits harked back to the uniform hairstyle of many school girls.

Yet, the formation of those braids into gravity-defining sculptures added an edginess to the delicacy, in a nod to Rocha’s signature blend of fragility and ferocity. That mixture was echoed in Lauren Parsons’ makeup, which features sweet, peachy lips and brown eyes that added a suggestion of sleepless nights. Ama Quashie nail art, featuring delicate flowers on a clear base, was a particularly delightful detail. 

Prada 

Within the first few seconds of Prada’s A/W 2021 digital show, the camera turns and follows the model through the OMA-designed set, showcasing her helmet of slicked-back hair. The extravagant minimalism of the look is the perfect foil for the exuberant textures, patterns, and colours that characterised Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ latest collection. While Pat McGrath's clean, barely perceptible makeup added an element of understatement. 

Salvatore Ferragamo 

The beginning of Paul Andrew’s A/W 2021 collection for Salvatore Ferragamo started off with beauty not all that different from the looks in many other shows this season – minimalist makeup paired with slicked-back hair. Yet, as the sci-fi inspired show film, continues shimmers of something different appears.

A model emerges from the white-lit tunnel, a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with splotches of silver paint around her lips, the same appears again, until by the end of the show, models emerged almost entirely covered in silver body paint that complemented a matching silver trench or a revealing chainmail gown.

Yohji Yamamoto

Spooky is probably the best word for describing the hair and makeup in Yohji Yamamoto’s latest A/W 2021 collection. The show’s mixture of 19th-century structures and contemporary streetwear influence was reflected in beauty looks which walked the line between Romantic-era ghoul and modern-day punk.

Long black mains were crimped and flipped into Edward Scissorhands-style disarray, bouffant hair-dos are deflated and tinged with streaks of grey, shorter updos were styled into elaborate braids or gelled upwards and dyed blue, red, and black.

The gothy-punk hairstyles were accompanied by exaggeratedly pale skin and blanched lips for a corpse-like pallor.

Christian Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri called her latest collection for Christian Dior ‘Disturbing Beauty' and it's true that there was a certain element of creepiness to the beauty looks Peter Philips and Guido Palau constructed for the show.

Philips' created a black smoky eye that was dark around the eye's corners and more lightly shaded across the crease for a withdrawn, eerie effect. Palau's hair emphasised the drama with a severe middle part or curtain of glossy bangs.

Dries Van Noten

It’s near impossible not to catch sight of the slightly smeared, vinyl lips in Dries Van Noten’s dance-filled A/W 2021 film. Ranging from rosy pink to brick red and deep berry, the punchy lips were emphasised by slicked back hair, minimal eye makeup, and the occasional bleached eyebrow.

Paired with free-flowing choreography and a Massive Attack soundtrack, the bold cosmetics of this collection offered some much-needed inspiration for the evenings of party makeup that, hopefully, aren’t too far away.

Mood board: Goddard has firmly set the pulse for what ebuillent, creative women are wearing across the globe, and for A/W 2020 her inspiration came in the form of a Nineties photograph of her toddler self and her father shot for Japanese street fashion magazine Fruits on Portobello Market. Thrifting sensibilities bear parallels with Goddard’s irreverent mix and match aesthetic, which for A/W 2020 saw her signature voluminous designs in acid hued tulle and camouflage taffeta layered with Fair Isle knit cardigans, puckered knitwear and beanies with jolly taffeta bows. ‘It’s how me and the people I work with and hang out with wear clothes,’ Goddard said backstage. Goddard’s family is integral to her ever-evolving label (her mother Sarah Edwards works on its show sets, and her sister Alice styles her collection), and for A/W 2020 she attributed the punky creepers and mohair jumpers featured in offering to ‘what my mum and dad used to wear.’

Scene setting: Goddard’s girls aren’t fussy with their frou frou; they know how to have fun. Cue the brand’s A/W 2020 catwalk set up at Central Hall Westminster, which was lined with elegant dining tables stocked with baskets of bread and white wine. It formed the perfect set up for energy sapped fashion editors entering the venue through the rain and wind of Storm Denis.

Finishing touches: Goddard has been deftly adding to her offering season after season, and for A/W 2020, she showcased menswear for the first time. Checked suits in icky shades, paired with striped knits and cardigans had Portabello Market punch. ‘I always want to expand’ she added backstage. It’s an ever-enjoyable evolution.

Mood board: Alongside a flair for flouncy shapes and subversively sugary shades, fabrication and technique, including painstaking hand smocking, has always been essential to Molly Goddard’s design output. The mille feuille-like layers of her tulle dresses have the power to float and bob weightlessly down the runway like clouds. A dress in her last A/W 2019 collection was formed from 90m of tulle. Goddard spent six months working on new forms of cutting and construction for her S/S 2020 show, ensuring that the hyperbolic pieces in her collection – from puffball pastel yellow frilled tulle skirts to transparent peach melba toned ruffled dresses – stayed supported without internal tricks. Silhouettes were ruched and ruffled, puffed and layered, secured with ribbon ties and smattered with whimsical floral prints and imagined in bold corals, cobalt, peach and lime.

Scene setting: The lightness of the collection was reflected in the show’s light filled, expansive venue. It was held inside Marylebone’s Seymour Leisure Centre, a space with an enormous sports hall boasting a window lined elliptical ceiling. It is built on the same site as the first version of a public swimming pool in England.

Finishing touches: Goddard’s brand is only four years old, and in recent season’s she’s been gently dipping her toe into the accessories category. For S/S 2020 she added a series of studded leather shoulder bags to her repertoire, bright leather boots and dainty summer sandals with a single ankle strap

Scene setting: London-based Molly Goddard is known for her imaginative show sets, and this season was no exception. In the midst of a stark white room lined with benches and angular spotlights, stood two large cooking stations, baring bottles of red wine, working stoves and various bowls of delicious foodstuffs. As the sound of Snake Face’s gutsy Throwing Muses played, models casually sauntered down the runway, before stopping at their kitchen of choice to pour themselves a glass of wine, nibble on a carrot or simply have a chat with one of their taffeta-clad comrades.

Mood board: ‘Goddard’s woman doesn’t get FOMO. In fact, she isn't too sure what it stands for’: teased the accompanying press notes. ‘Through multiple silhouettes she remains the same – straight-forward, uninhibited and comfortably over-dressed.’ This defiant clarion call echoed through the line-up of double-layered taffeta dresses, psychedelic tights and day-to-night skirts in brightly-coloured mesh or a warped gingham pattern that resembled one of Bridget Riley’s op-art prints.

Best in show: Of all the fanciful dresses, there were two that stood out a mile. A gold drawstring dress with ruffled contours, and an outlandish neon orange mesh number, which seemingly floated around its wearer like a cloud. Not forgetting the diverse model casting by Alice Goddard (Molly's sister and long-term collaborator), which felt as empowering as the clothes themselves. It's little wonder Goddard achieved a generous round of applause.