Happy fashion month to all that celebrate! On Friday, the first of the big four womenswear fashion weeks kicks off in New York, hitting play on a month-long schedule of shows, spectacle and drama. Which trends will trickle down and start to surreptitiously influence what we buy or borrow or the way we tuck and tweak our outfits is too soon to say. Here’s what we do know so far – and what to look out for.
The big debuts
After a year of reshuffling that would make Rishi Sunak blush, we will see the most keenly 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 as Sarah Burton’s successor last September – inadvertently kicking off conversations about fashion’s problem with diversity – will present his first collection in Paris on 2 March. McGirr started his career in fashion as a stylist before taking up 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 shtum 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 the 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, meanwhile, will also make his debut at Blumarine. The Italian brand has leaned heavily into the Y2K revival, but it’s expected Chiapponi will instil more sophistication.
French luxury house Chloé has been teasing Chemena Kamali’s new vision. Having wiped its Instagram feed clean, it has begun to release a series of portraits featuring past brand ambassadors such as Jerry Hall alongside new names, including the Rwandan model Ornella Umutoni. Shot 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 from Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure of 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 menswear and womenswear show to be held in Manhattan. A$AP Rocky, the new creative director of Puma’s F1 fashion division, popped up in a campaign for the relaunch of its Mostro trainers. Will he and his partner Rihanna make the Puma show a date night? Thom Browne, the American designer best known for his signature grey shorts and for bagging a star spot on TV series The Bear – via the white chef coat that Carmy gifts Sydney hours before the restaurant opens – is also having a New York fashion week comeback after a couple of seasons in Paris. The CFDA chairman will close out the week on 14 February. “Yes, chef!” to Bear stars Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White on the front row.
Off-White, the cult fashion brand founded by Virgil Abloh in 2013 is back on the Paris schedule after presenting its previous two collections in Milan. Its co-ed show, dubbed 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 from the well-papped pavements outside the shows. Last season, MSCHF’s bonkers big red boots were catnip to the street style photographers. So what should they expect to be snapping this season? It appears those MSCHF boots walked so that Rick Owens’ blow-up boots could run or – at least totter. The gargantuan boots can be inflated like a pair of children’s armbands but, as one TikTok user pointed out: “All good till you need to pull out the puncture repair kit.” Expect the professional fashion stunt dresser Tommy Cash, who once wore a duvet on the front row, to don them – no doubt with a puncture kit in hand for maximum attention.
Meanwhile, Alaia’s fishnet flats with a gobstopper-sized gold jewel are already heating up to replace its crystal encrusted mesh Mary Janes, as seen on the feet of every influencer last season. JW Anderson’s lemon bag looks likely to sour demand for its pigeon purse, while its frog iteration is also hopping for attention. Louis Vuitton’s £2.4k paper-esque sandwich bag from Pharrell’s debut collection for the French house is sold out on the brand’s website, and fetching more than £6,000 on resale sites – always a sign of a cult accessory. And no doubt someone will pop up in Apple’s Vision Pro goggles. Clips of people testing out the headsets on the streets of New York have already spawned hundreds of memes, so it is inevitable that they will gain traction in the fashion world.
The new front row
From Loewe’s line-up of famous ex-boyfriends including Joe Alwyn, Zayn Malik and Andrew Garfield to Lewis Hamilton at Dior, Jake Gyllenhaal at Prada and the K-pop band Riize at Louis Vuitton, the seating plans at January’s menswear shows are a who’s who in popular culture. Then came the couture shows in Paris, which saw Kylie Jenner and her six-year-old daughter, Stormi, hit up Valentino, while Gwyneth Paltrow headed to Armani. So we can expect the womenswear schedule to be just as starry if not starrier, as celebrities continue to catch up on stalled brand deals and endorsements following the Hollywood strikes.
Though British Vogue’s Edward Enninful will have officially stepped down from his editor-in-chief title by March, he’s expected to still keep his seat on the frow. Or should that be seats. In January, Enninful hinted he had no plans to step out of the spotlight, accompanying Julia Roberts to the Jacquemus show on the Côte d’Azur.
You can also expect to see plenty of 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 ballgown while Demi Moore brought 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 autumn/winter 2024 be when a cat prowls the catwalk?
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