FALL / WINTER 2024 TRENDS
LOVE LETTER TO REAL WOMENS’ CLOSETS
Fashion is so unserious right now. We’ve spent the last few years swinging back and forth on the pendulum of hyper-dopamine and easy dressing to bipolar degrees that no minimalist, Phoebe-Philo-matcha-drinking therapist could ever explain for $300+ an hour. Designers in each city have confessed to feeling almost paralyzed by a push for fantastical relevancy, to the point where it has reverted itself. Instead of translating the world to satisfy an agenda of conversation, it feels more instinctual and pertinent in this moment to reflect on the actual bullsh*t we do each day. FW24 did just that—like, almost too much. The ruthless hustle of modern life is FW24’s strongest meditation. It’s the romanticization of the bodega run, the 9-5, the "fml, I have to go to the post office,” and the “guys, meet you there; I’m dressed v casual, btw.” JW Anderson takes the most prolific stab at narrating this sequence by profiling British surbubia in its most authentic, hurried fashion: running out the door and forgetting to put a shirt on under deliberate outerwear, belts flying off ingeniously tailored trousers, and socks attached to hand-crafted shoes. The idiosyncrasies between “real” and calculated fashion provide a platform to acknowledge the hustle the industry puts into fashion month and the disparity it possesses in application to our actual lives. In a Zeitgeist of such pop-centered fashion, it’s rebellious to deconstruct the narrative and center it on the awkwardness of everydayness. Our daily lives are at the core of reductionism. Something ironic can be said about designers like Connor Ives taking inspiration from “real women," but the sentiment is there: we unknowingly romanticize the f*ck out of nostalgia and boringness (cue Tish Weinstock with Apple headphones). Especially in a downturning economy. The FW24 woman is grabbing what’s in her closet and running out the door, albeit a designer-constructed fur coat on top of a tailored silk camisole, but she still is doing the bare minimum, much like we honestly do each day. She is simple, but direct. Chaotic, but considered. Matthieu Blazy put it best in creating his “monument out of the everyday," a transformative show revealing how even the most inconsequential objects we glaze over day to day and throw on our bodies can possess the magnitude to be, well, beautiful. Unified under this mantra were Eckhaus Latta, Retrofit, Jason Wu, and Balenciaga. A wave of humanism has hit fashion, from runway to editorial, that feels strangely mundane yet strangely more authentic. This has stirred conversation and, most importantly, emotion.
NIPPLES THAT’S IT THAT’S THE TEXT
We literally cannot escape the nipple in FW24, for good measure or not. We’ve freed it entirely. It’s done; she’s out there to a degree where it isn’t even notable anymore. The superlatives of naked dressing have animated themselves through a series of season-to-season chic, skin-bearing prowess that celebrate the study of womanhood and sensuality, normalizing and bringing power to houses that dare to bear it. Unapologetically, the nipple was a trademark of FW24, which has hyper-exaggerated fluidity in fashion and a concealed refinement of what sheer fabric signals in womenswear: power, control, and maturity. Dilara Findikoglu in London produced the most gobsmacking physical performance to translate this, creating a manifesto of complex female authority so many women understand in a society too timid to give disclosure to. This compelling, emotional storytelling was interwoven across the runway as YSL, Susan Fang, Simone Rocha, and Gucci followed in suit, again orchestrating the duality of transparency and protection and perhaps the role we play in categorizing each.
YEAR OF THE GIRL— WOMAN
Femininity is always stereotyped as a “play on power,” and FW24 cemented the truth behind the fact that there is no play happening here; it is power, and the paradigm shift of soft menswear against sophisticated womenswear illustrates the illicit undertone the zeitgeist possesses. 2023 proved to be a year so slyly coded with female valor, i.e., Taylor Swift and Beyonce’s disgustingly sold-out tours, Barbie getting everyone's panties in a bunch, and a newly beefed-up Kristen Stewart, that it’s only fitting we graduate the year of the girl to what she’s been underneath the bows this entire time: a full-grown, smart as f*ck woman. Coquette has been duly rinsed for all its worth and has finally chiseled itself from dainty down to direct female form. Stripped from ethereal cues, we’ve upped the power, upped the sex, and upped sophistication as designers start flexing femininity in its rawest form. Simone Rocha is the woman of women this season, gagging FW24 with an ornate blueprint of the juxtaposition between girlhood and womanhood rendered by the portrayal of a powerful, embellished woman accessorized by lambs (yes, literal lambs), which is symbolic of girlhood. The Simone Rocha runway is girl vs. woman in a funeral procession for naivety. Erdem and Richard Quinn nod to the same, with tulle-contrasting body-con silhouettes in key color Cherry Lacquer and dresses with muscular designs in key colors Iguana and Dark Shadows. We also see the maturity of color in the use of primarily bright, fresh-focused pastels such as Digital Lavender, Pana Cotta, and Glacial Blue on sleek suiting and sculpted pieces. This color play so finely denotes the essence of our girl-to-woman portrait, which nods to femininity but grasps a tough, unwavering attitude.
HEALING MY INNER CHILD
Writing a thematic synopsis on something as physical as the tangibility of what’s been on the runway seems like a cop-out, but in FW24, it’s notable enough to be a story. Much like the duvet dressing run of 2021, hyper textures backed by intricate weight filtering into shape have felt like a torque-filled slap to the face on the runway this season, allowing an avenue for comfort and being low-key extra in a weird world. The element of coziness is key here, creating a safe space for the inner child to revel in the tactile, sweet side of fashion. Stella McCartney, Ferragamo, and Bottega Veneta, three big names for a mouth, do just that by superimposing extra-large texture, volume, and thought onto what we would call our everyday essentials. Faux fur and shaggy layers contrasted with considered, elegant shapes on foundations of classic outerwear and knitwear from Serafini, Blumarine, and Philosophy di Lorenzo. This juxtaposition of contemplated, statuesque shape paired with flamboyant texture in key color Cherry Tomato provides agency for FW24 while retaining reflection on the mundane human experience. Think of it as the opposite of naked dressing under the same umbrella of protectionism—it’s just another avenue to animate human uncertainty in hyperbole.
IF THERE’S NO CRAFTING OF CLASSICS I’M NOT GOING
Is there space for revolutionist design in a world where the vibes are kinda off? FW24 doesn’t see it. Instead, the prototype is pushed forward in an effort to reconfigure classical signaling and reproduce items with more dynamic layers. Proenza Schouler, Schiaparelli, and Helmut Lang are masterful at this, being able to take something as imitable as the suit and construct it with next-level tailoring. The thoughtfulness behind the dismantling of standard cues becomes emotive as designers like Sinead O’Dwyer create space for a sexy, subverted 9-5, and Burberry gets cheeky with fur and zippers protruding out of traditional outerwear and check trousers. Classics are inverted to bring to perspective what we’ve defined them with in the first place. In FW24, the limelight for this was the necktie, a previous signal that suggests conformism and entrapment. Prada’s commentary on the runway has reinvigorated a discussion on a dead symbol and prompts us to consider timelessness—is it what we make it or what it has made us? A boundary we constantly need to push.
I’M NOT THE SAME HOUSE CODE I WAS A YEAR AGO
There’s an importance to the introspective mediation of retelling classics, especially in the mirroring of a house’s own traditional coding. FW24 gave off an overwhelmingly paired back vibe that has admittedly felt monotonous and played out to its dying breath in a “quiet luxury” society. This season’s core, historic return designers committed to a new bit that, surprisingly, is strong—find the clarity between the ease of repetition and the challenge of change. Big name houses all possess “hero” pieces, the ones you would recognize anywhere, i.e., the Burberry scarf, Chanel boy bag, or Gucci loafer. FW24 does an expert job of taking these house codes, paying dues to the history that it’s owed, and moving it forward. Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, and Helmut Lang all subscribed to reconstructing timeless classics with urban appeal, with Burberry proposing an ode to the headscarf, Tommy repurposing tweed tailoring, and Peter Do’s eye on the 90’s archive. At Miss Dior, the moodboard consisted of A-line skirts, tight waists, and Dior-coded maxi silhouettes, but on the runway, these shapes were translated to a more liberal, looser contextualization. There was a resilient return to roots paired with nods to house values that objectively shouldn’t feel innovative, but is. Likewise, Chloe made a debut with new creative director Chemena Kamali that didn’t feel at all new but instead felt timely in grasping the essence of who the Chloe woman is foundationally. FW24 holds an aura of intuition and understatement that’s heralding a clever, reverent type of vogue.