Saint Laurent
In a 2000 interview, when asked who his dream Yves Saint Laurent woman was, the late designer replied: “The Yves Saint Laurent woman, it’s me.” And so for S/S25, presented on a catwalk painted the same shade of Yves Klein blue as YSL’s Marrakech abode, Anthony Vaccarello magnificently translated the founder’s sartorial signatures into slouched blazers, wide-legged trousers, oversized leather aviator jackets, completed with shirts, ties and thick-framed glasses. For evening wear, Vaccarello matched YSL’s discerning eye for colour with brilliant tiered chiffon skirts, blouses, and brocade jackets, inspired by the late designer’s muse, Loulou de Falaise.
Read Alexander Fury’s review of the collection here.
Dior
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s cast of female avatars continues to grow: this season, the Dior woman was an athlete, seaming strength and agility with femininity. Overtly embodied through the performance of Italian artist and professional archer Sagg Napoli, who shot arrows down the middle of the runway during the show (within a glass cabinet for the guest’s safety), bold athleticism was also present in the sharp, gliding lines of the suiting, skin-tight body ensembles layered with mesh and, of course, the evening gowns inspired by Greek Peplos dresses.
Read Alexander Fury’s review of the collection here.
The Row
The undoubted queens of ‘quiet luxury,’ S/S25 saw The Row let go of their polished composure in lieu of a refreshing rawness. From the opening look of T-shirts layered over slouched trousers, it was clear that there was an unkempt everydayness to the collection. A grey cocktail dress looked as though a swathe of fabric had been perfectly pinned around the body, scrunched organza was layered over raw-edged shirts, and an oversized coat slouched lazily around the body. That’s not to say The Row have lost their touch – to create such ease of silhouette requires an absolute mastery of textile and cut.
Loewe
From the ring sent with the invitation to the all-white circular set, it seemed Johnathan Anderson’s 10th-anniversary collection for Loewe was to be a full-circle moment. But the clue to the show’s theme was perhaps in the Tracey Emin bronze of a perched bird, placed in the centre of the space: for the designer took flight from convention yet again, subverting classicism, trompe l’oeil, and couture craftsmanship. The collection featured ‘museum merch’ T-shirts of composers and artists made from feathers, floral hoop dresses without corsetry, and flipped-hem leather jackets, all paired with sneakers and flats. There was a wonderful ease and a certain flightiness here as Anderson continues to soar to new heights.
Read Alexander Fury’s review of the collection here.
Rick Owens
To counter the exclusivity of last year’s shows presented within his home, Rick Owens cast students and faculty of Parisian design schools for his S/S25 show. “The advantage of that is we get all of these body types to think about, and this is a great exercise for our company,” Owens said. Titled Hollywood, the show followed Owens’ journey from Porterville to joining Hollywood Boulevard’s “weirdos and freaks.” Models walked to Wagner’s Liebestod in tribes, wearing fishtailed skirts à la 1930s Hollywood, airy chiffon dresses, and unravelling knitwear. “I felt like to combat barbarism, I had to introduce as much dignity and civilization as I could .… We should just go as rapturous as we can.”
Read Alexander Fury’s review of the collection here.
All-In
Last year, All-In’s fictional muse Allina had her 15 minutes of fame within a dusty club below the Tour de Montparnasse; this year, their new character, Tess McGill from Mike Nichols’ film Working Girl, took us to an office in the Tour’s soaring heights. This narrative collection was about the real versus projected self, the before-and-after, often explored within the same look (garment-in-point: a T-shirt strapped on, rather than worn). The designers again proved their knack for unorthodox layering, especially through the cutting-edge denim ensembles (a jacket was formed from three sliced together) created through their collaboration with Guess USA.
Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto loves contradiction: of technique, of textile, of convention. For S/S25, he presented a collection that was both childlike – ribbons of fabric were tied and knotted here, there, and everywhere – and sage in its construction. The dresses in the opening ‘black’ series had the impression of being deconstructed, then pieced back together in silhouettes that so magically defied the materiality of the textiles used. The closing ‘red’ dresses again contradicted the opening chaos: calming in their streamlined cut.
Comme des Garçons
Last season, Rei Kawakubo was forthrightly, and rightly, angry. Now, she is somewhat tempered. “With the state of the world as it is, the future as uncertain as it is, if you put air and transparency into the mix of things, there could be the possibility of hope,” she explained via Adrian Joffe. But from the opening looks of three white, structured ensembles it was clear that this hope was actionable. Even when looks took a turn for the dark – like the seemingly blood-splattered textiles and furious red jacquards – the white headpieces and final lofty cloud-like compositions cut any sense of doom with palpable possibility.
Louis Vuitton
On a runway built from Louis Vuitton trunks, Nicolas Ghesquière took us back to the Renaissance, a period he knows well from a childhood spent in the château-studded Loire Valley. There were puffed sleeves, tweed cinched jackets, breeches, peplum-hemmed dresses and jackets – yet all without the structure and volume typical of that era. Ghesquière set himself the challenge of interpreting these sartorial archetypes with fluidity and suppleness. With several pieces featuring paintings by French artist Laurent Grasso, the collection read like a tapestry, rich in technique and colour – and fit for one of the châteaus of his childhood.
Chanel
This season, Chanel finally returned to its beloved stage within the Grand Palais. As the giant birdcage in the centre of the space suggested, the collection from the studio team had a distinctly avian feel: tweed jackets were collared with tulle ruffles and feathers, organza was layered as capes or as whole ensembles, and ostrich-feathered evening dresses seemed to float in their lightness. To close the show, Riley Keough sang a flighty rendition of Prince’s When Doves Cry from a swinging perch within the birdcage.
Miu Miu
With Hilary Swank, former AnOther Magazine cover star Willem Dafoe, and Little Simz all walking the runway, it seems that the Miu Miu girl knows she is the unrefuted “it” girl of the moment. But like Mrs. Prada herself, the Miu Miu girl never rests on her laurels and this season tackled the question of “truth and its representation.” Staged in a makeshift print press (churning out a newspaper named The Truthless Times) designed by artist Goshka Macuga, the show was an amalgamation of house favourites – layered briefs, snug cardigans, school-boy blazers – with new smocks, bloomers, floral embroidered skirts. As Lotta Volkova’s unique styling suggests, the truth perhaps lies in individuality – hard to come by in our algorithm-fed world.
Kiko Kostadinov
As Australians living abroad, Laura and Deanna Fanning are well-accustomed to flying and the existential questions that arise when one is suspended in time and space during long-haul transit. Travel, and its liminality, was fittingly the setting for S/S25, where the sisters developed four fictional characters as vehicles to explore questions of identity. From the collector of memories to the warrior battling to take up space, each were outfitted in looks showcasing the designers’ unparalleled hand for cut and appetite for colour.
Valentino
The most anticipated debut of S/S25, Alessandro Michele lived up to the sky-high expectations for his first collection at Valentino. If the show was quintessentially Michele in its maximalism, Valentino – with its history of ruffles, bows and extravagant trimmings – only feeds his appetite for lavish adornment. The collection read as a first survey of the houses’ archives – there were doll references from the 60s, polka dots from the 70s, tiers and ruffles from the 80s – all with a modern, fluid twist. At a time when quiet luxury rules supreme, it’s invigorating to see designers so fully push each aspect of garment and accessory.
Read Alexander Fury’s review of the collection here.
Balenciaga
The stage for Demna’s S/S25 collection was a larger-than-life dining table, an explicit throwback to his childhood when he would stage fashion shows with cardboard cut-outs in his grandmother’s kitchen. The rest of the show was anything but child’s play. His sexiest collection to date, the show opened with lingerie-clad models (albeit wearing skin-toned bodysuits underneath) followed by dresses with exposed bums. There were, of course, his signatures – broad-shouldered coats and low-slung denim – but as Demna attested, speaking after the show, “Fashion needs to get messed up … it needs not to be based on fear.”