Happy Fashion Month to everyone who celebrates it! The first of the four major women’s fashion weeks kicks off in New York on Friday, with a month-long program full of shows, spectacle and drama. It’s too early to tell which trends will trickle down and secretly influence what we buy or borrow, or the way we dress and adjust our outfits. Here’s what we know so far – and what to look out for.
The big debuts
After a year of reshuffling that would make Rishi Sunak blush, we’ll see the most highly anticipated debut collections from the new creative directors helming some of fashion’s biggest brands, including Seán McGirr’s vision for Alexander McQueen. The Irish designer, who was named Sarah Burton’s successor last September – inadvertently sparking conversations about fashion’s diversity problem – will present his first collection in Paris on March 2. McGirr started his career in fashion as a stylist before taking on design roles at Dries van Noten, Burberry and Uniqlo. Most recently he worked at JW Anderson. So far, he and Kering, the brand’s parent company, have remained coy about his vision for the British fashion house, but given his background he should have an interesting take on how to create a high-fashion moment with commercial appeal. Will he put a new spin on McQueen’s iconic skull motif? Watch this space.
In Milan, all eyes will be on former Bottega Veneta designer Matteo Tamburini, who took over from Walter Chiapponi at Tod’s in December. Could he create the Tod’s equivalent of the cult Jodie bag? Chiapponi will also make his debut with Blumarine. The Italian brand has leaned heavily on the Y2K revival, but Chiapponi is expected to bring more sophistication.
French luxury house Chloé teases Chemena Kamali’s new vision. After cleaning up its Instagram feed, it has started releasing a series of portraits featuring former brand ambassadors like Jerry Hall alongside new names including Rwandan model Ornella Umutoni. Photographed by David Sims in Paris against Haussman-style buildings and the Eiffel Tower, each portrait features a new Chloé logo, which Kamali says was inspired by exploring the archives of Karl Lagerfeld’s time at the fashion house in the 1970s .
The comebacks
After a year-long hiatus, Tommy Hilfiger, the powerhouse whose denim-focused and preppy collections always draw a star-studded crowd, is back with a joint men’s and women’s wear show in Manhattan. A$AP Rocky, the new creative director of Puma’s F1 fashion division, appeared in a campaign for the relaunch of his Mostro sneakers. Will he and his partner Rihanna turn the Puma show into a date night? Thom Browne, the American designer best known for his signature gray shorts and for finding stardom in the TV series The Bear – via the white chef’s coat that Carmy gifts to Sydney hours before the restaurant’s opening – is also making a comeback at New York Fashion Week. a few seasons in Paris. The CFDA chairman closes the week on February 14. “Yes, Chef!” with Bear stars Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White in the front row.
Off-White, the cult fashion brand founded by Virgil Abloh in 2013, is back on the Paris agenda after presenting its previous two collections in Milan. The mixed show, called Black by Popular Demand, will be the third under the creative direction of Ibrahim Kamara.
Street style bait
Every fashion week, a viral accessory appears on the well-paved sidewalks outside the shows. Last season, the crazy big red boots from MSCHF were catnip for the street style photographers. So what should they expect this season? It looks like those MSCHF boots walked in such a way that Rick Owens’ inflatable boots could run or – at least stagger. The giant boots inflate like a pair of kid’s bracelets, but as one TikTok user noted, “All’s well until you have to take out the tire repair kit.” Expect professional fashion stunt dresser Tommy Cash, who once wore a front row duvet, to don it – no doubt with a flat tire in hand for maximum attention.
Meanwhile, Alaia’s fishnet shoes with a gold jewel the size of a gobstopper are already heating up to replace the crystal-encrusted mesh Mary Janes seen on the feet of every influencer last season. JW Anderson’s lemon bag is likely to reduce demand for his pigeon wallet, while the frog version is also clamoring for attention. Louis Vuitton’s £2.4k paper sandwich bag from Pharrell’s debut collection for the French house has sold out on the brand’s website and is fetching more than £6,000 on resale sites – always a sign of a cult accessory. And someone will undoubtedly show up in Apple’s Vision Pro glasses. Clips of people testing out the headsets on the streets of New York have already spawned hundreds of memes, so it’s inevitable that they will gain traction in the fashion world.
The new front row
From Loewe’s lineup of famous ex-boyfriends, including Joe Alwyn, Zayn Malik and Andrew Garfield, to Lewis Hamilton at Dior, Jake Gyllenhaal at Prada and K-pop band Riize at Louis Vuitton, the seating at January’s men’s fashion shows is a surprise. who in popular culture. Then came the couture shows in Paris, where Kylie Jenner and her six-year-old daughter Stormi visited Valentino, while Gwyneth Paltrow went to Armani. So we can expect the womenswear program to be just as exciting, if not more so, as celebrities continue to catch up on stalled brand deals and endorsements following the Hollywood strikes.
Although British Vogue’s Edward Enninful will officially step down from his title as editor-in-chief in March, he is still expected to remain in the spotlight. Or should those be chairs? In January, Enninful hinted he had no intention of stepping away from the spotlight by accompanying Julia Roberts to the Jacquemus show on the Côte d’Azur.
You can also expect to see many four-legged stars. Last year, Tika the Iggy, an Italian greyhound with more than 2 million followers, watched the Coperni show in a green tulle ball gown while Demi Moore took her teacup chihuahua to Versace. The three-year-old has since become a breakout star on the Capote press tour, while Claudia Schiffer’s cat posed for photographers at the Argylle premiere in London. Could a cat sneak down the catwalk in the fall/winter of 2024?
To read the full version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – sign up to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.