What to make of a year as chaotic and filled to the brim with headlines as this one? Fashion in 2024 certainly took a hit, or two, with the e-commerce and retail landscapes taking a tumble and independent designers struggling to make ends meet through what’s been widely reported as a luxury downturn. There’s a fashion vibe-shift incoming, that’s for sure.
But there was also plenty of joy and inspiration to be found: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo entertained us for months and months before Wicked finally hit the big screen with their inspired and amusing method dressing, while on stage, pop stars from Sabrina Carpenter to Taylor Swift, Tyla to Chappell Roan, vied for best dressed. Charli XCX’s Brat helped quash “quiet luxury” once and for all. And somehow Beyoncé, Bella Hadid, and Pharrell Williams all agreed that this had to be the year of the cowboy.
John Galliano’s truly remarkable Maison Margiela Artisanal show in January set the bar for every fashion show and collection that followed (Spoiler alert: none was able to top it). Much of the fashion action was happening off the runways: Virginie Viard’s exit from Chanel left the industry’s top design job up for grabs, and Dries Van Noten’s replacement still hasn’t been named; meanwhile in New York, the CFDA Awards crowned a new guard of American talents. What to make of 2024? That 2025 will be one hell of a ride.
John Galliano breaks the internet with an exquisite Margiela artisanal show
It wasn’t clear to anyone, except maybe John Galliano himself, that the January 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal show might alter the fashion firmament. It was only several minutes after the exquisitely crafted, immersive experience had begun—perhaps when a corseted Leon Dame took a seat, making direct eye contact with Anna Wintour—did this editor realize that this runway was different. I was lucky enough to be in Paris that week, but almost missed the show to prep for a shoot the next day. Thank the fashion gods I didn’t, but would you believe that my iPhone battery died just as the show was about to start? This is a good opportunity to thank Britt Lloyd, the stranger sitting next to me who let me borrow her phone so that I could capture the moment for posterity.—Mark Guiducci
The year of the pop star—and of the designers who dressed them
A Ludovic de Saint Sernin-wearing Sabrina Carpenter was “working late, ’cause she’s a singer” on her Short n’ Sweet Tour. Billie Eilish was no Bird of a Feather in genderbending Willy Chavarria. Tyla made everyone sweat in archival Gucci by Tom Ford. Dua Lipa was radically optimistic in Courrèges and even more Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Ariana Grande yes, and?-ed her haters and delivered a knockout performance at the Met Gala in Maison Margiela Artisanal. Taylor Swift was a tortured poet (or tortured poets?) in many Vivienne Westwood gowns. Olivia Rodrigo poured her guts out on her Guts World Tour in custom Coach. Chappell Roan was H-O-T T-O G-O in Weiderhoeft at Saturday Night Live. And Charli XCX and Lorde worked it out on the remix, twinning onstage in matching Saint Laurent. It was the year of the female pop star, and our playlists are all the better for it. The real question is, who will we be listening to next year, and what will they be wearing?—José Criales-Unzueta
Usher headlines the Super Bowl
“What you wear matters,” said the ever dapper Usher at a final fitting for his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance. And on the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, he proved it, wearing a Dolce & Gabbana white coat dripping in crystals, which he later swapped for a football uniform covered in, yep, even more crystals. Here’s to Usher proving that male pop stars can do costume changes, too. And a special shout-out to the Dolce tank that showed off his biceps so well.—J.C-U.
Miuccia Prada Covers Vogue
How does a designer score a Vogue cover? It helps if not one, but two of your brands are at or near the top of practically every list ranking the year’s most popular labels, including our own outlining the year’s most-viewed collections on Vogue Runway. And it doesn’t hurt if they’re both bucking the global luxury slowdown trend with consistent—and in the case of Miu Miu, astounding—growth. But what really landed Miuccia Prada on the cover of our March issue? “Miuccia has simply never been more relevant,” wrote Anna Wintour in her editor’s letter, “a designer with the towering stature of a head of state, and the ever-renewing intellect of a star undergraduate.”—J.C-U.
Beyoncé makes a rare New York Fashion Week appearance
It was a Tuesday night at New York Fashion Week, the second-to-last day of collections. Snow had unexpectedly fallen that morning and the vibes were at a low ebb, with editors dropping out of shows they didn’t need to attend. More fool them! An hour or two before Raul Lopez’s Luar show in Bushwick rumors started swirling that Beyoncé would attend. Yes, Beyoncé, people! Dear reader, I made my way to the venue shaking with anticipation, and just as I arrived a guard stopped me and said I needed to wait to get in. A black SUV pulled over and out walked a silver oversized Luar Ana bag, a cowboy hat, and a platinum blonde ponytail. I made my way upstairs, texting my colleagues to rush, and then Solange arrived and sat down next to Christopher John Rogers directly across from me. Just as the lights dimmed and the show was about to start, Beyoncé emerged with her mother Tina Knowles. And that, my friends, is how Raul Lopez won New York Fashion Week.—J.C-U.
Chemena Kamali debuts at Chloé, ushers in the return of boho
Fate is what you make it, but Chemena Kamali’s Chloé takeover really does feel meant to be. Young Chemena’s interest in fashion was sparked by her fellow German Karl Lagerfeld, who spent 25 years of his career at Chloé. Over the course of her own career, she’s built a vintage collection that includes upwards of 600 blouses, a Chloé specialty. And then there’s the fact that she worked at the Gaby Aghion-founded, Richemont-owned maison not once, but twice, first under Phoebe Philo, then under Clare Waight Keller, before accepting the creative director role in late 2023. None of that would matter, of course, if Kamali didn’t have a feel for Chloé, but that she most certainly does, as evidenced by her utterly winning fall 2024 debut and equally strong spring 2025 follow-up, with their effulgence of romantic ruffles, delicate laces, and highly wantable jeans. Oh, and she also cuts a very presidential pantsuit—more on that later. —Nicole Phelps
The Row bans cellphones, the people go wild—on their cellphones
One of the most hilarious fashion kerfuffles of the year was when Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen of The Row banned phones from their resort 2025 show in March. Guests were provided with a notebook and a pencil instead and the models were shot on film, delaying the delivery of images by nearly a week. The internet went crazy overanalyzing the implications: Is this gatekeeping? Are the Olsens trying to make their shows even more exclusive? Why not let people engage with the collection online and, effectively, give it good press? The online sturm und drang about the absence of pictures meant that the show became one of The Row’s most talked-about ever. In fact, it caused such a stir they invoked the same no-social-media rule all over again six months later in September. One way to make people talk? Tell them they’re not allowed to.—J.C-U.
A little bit country: Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, and Bella Hadid christen the year of the cowboy
Beyoncé sings “This ain’t Texas…” in Cowboy Carter, the country installment of her trilogy project that began with last year’s disco house knockout Renaissance. Except that, maybe this is Texas after all. Beyoncé wasn’t the only one to lean into the American West vernacular in 2024: Pharrell Williams explored the Black cowboy with his fall 2024 menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. Bad Bunny rode a horse onstage at his “Most Wanted” Tour. And Bella Hadid decamped to the Lone Star State and became a cowgirl. Howdy, partners.—J.C-U.
Jonathan Anderson enters his costume designer era
Where does he find the time? Not only did Jonathan Anderson launch eight new collections this year across Loewe and JW Anderson (and that’s without even mentioning his Uniqlo and On collabs), he somehow also costumed two—yes, two—films for his buddy, director Luca Guadagnino. First, there was Challengers in the spring, which married the studied technical practicalities of the characters’ tennis outfits with playful touches (think: those viral “I Told Ya” T-shirts) to instantly desirable effect, prompting a revival of the tennis-core trend that has cropped up sporadically on the runways over the past few years. (Zendaya’s killer looks during the press tour—many of which came courtesy of Anderson himself—certainly helped on that front, too.) But it’s his second outing as a costume designer for Guadagnino’s Queer that is, in my eyes, an even more impressive feat: Echoing the richly atmospheric world conjured by the film’s production designer of Mexico City’s seedy queer underground in the 1950s, Anderson meticulously sourced items of clothing from that period to outfit his stars Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, even down to their underwear. If the sheer short-sleeve shirt worn by Starkey in one sequence towards the end of the film doesn’t inspire you to head straight to eBay and hunt for a similar style, then we clearly weren’t watching the same movie.—Liam Hess
Two for one: Zendaya doubles-down on fashion at the Met Gala
On the first Monday in May, Met Gala co-chair Zendaya wore not one, but two John Galliano looks. The first was a newly created Maison Margiela fantasia, but the second (initially a surprise to Galliano, himself) was a spring 1996 Givenchy couture creation, the very dress that Veronica Webb wore on the runway almost 30 years ago, and which Galliano said he hadn’t laid eyes on since. Perhaps the best part of this vintage moment was that Zendaya actually acquired the dress for her own archives—a fact worth mentioning in the era of the celebrity-borrowed-fashion business complex.—M.G.
Anthony Vaccarello and his silver screen affair
