Real, as opposed to fantastical, fashion is the unifying message of the new season. Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy said he was “interested in making a monument out of the everyday,” which is essentially autumn/winter 2024’s motto. Broadly speaking, the focus is less on silhouette (though there were shoulders of Claude Montana–ish proportions) than on materials and tactility. Taken altogether the combination of heritage tweeds and herringbones with plaids and Aran and argyle knits conjures an English country weekend. Building on this outdoorsy – but decidedly not gorpcore – theme are a preponderance of ski sweaters representing perhaps a nostalgia for snow, which climate change has rendered increasingly rare in some parts of the world. Outerwear in shearling, faux furs, feathers and yarn provides more than warmth. These often voluminous touch-me pieces do the work for you, whether you’re going for glam by way of Diana Ross or Carrie Bradshaw or leaning into the haute bohème vibe rekindled at Chloé.
While designers are more focused on daywear and mix-and-match separates (“reality,” in fashion speak), that doesn’t mean they’re engaged with the world’s grim reality. Copious amounts of red wine-coloured garments take the edge off. Wars are raging, populism is growing and momentous elections are looming at home and abroad, but luxury’s response is mostly to apply the rules of disengagement. Rather than get political, fashion is choosing to offer succour in the form of protective garments that embrace, or even swaddle, the wearer. Henry Zankov, who called his collection Hold Me Closer, said, “I wanted that sensation of being hugged, of having someone to be in your clothes with you.” Building on that sense of safekeeping and creating a bridge with nature are novel takes on camouflage, perhaps inspired by Pharrell Williams’s so-called damoflage for Louis Vuitton. High collars also allow for anonymity.
Tinsel trimmings, shown for day and night, allow for more extroverted expression. In the absence of take-me-to-the-moon gowns, the reedition of Le Smoking – the ne plus ultra of masculine occasionwear until it was popularised for women by Yves Saint Laurent in the late ’60s – adds a Gatsby-like air to evening dressing. While Dolce & Gabbana composed an ode to this archetype, others are taking it apart, using the satin-lapel jacket or the cummerbund as a way to play against formality or gender stereotypes. Significantly more pointed is the way designers played with pinstripes and neck ties in an attempt to dismantle ideas of capitalism and power. It seems that fashion isn’t letting go of the Working Girl references Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello introduced in his autumn/winter 2023 ready-to-wear collection – even if the designer has, at least for women. (Interestingly, Patrick Bateman, the well-dressed psychopath antihero of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel, is one of Vaccarello’s references for the house’s autumn/winter 2024 men’s line.)
Autumn/winter 2024 is not only a season of cushioning blows; a number of designers got really physical, applying a torque-like force to create garments that stretch, twist and spiral around the body. Others are searching for ways to find beauty or make some order in chaos. That’s the case at Balenciaga, where Demna stated it is not perfection but its opposite: “the imperfection, the failure or the miss” that “makes us human now” and “differentiates us from machines.” This idea of off-ness is expressed in ways ranging from gentle (backward collars) to more extreme deconstructions.
Counterintuitively, one of the ways that designers are undermining the idea of an algorithmically flattened culture is through garments that embrace the idea of flatness physically through construction, splicing (see Undercover), or suspension (see Balenciaga and Victoria Beckham). In doing so, they continue in the tradition of Martin Margiela, who once told Vogue: “When I recut clothes, old or new, it’s to transform them, not destroy them.” This idea of building up from and expanding on what exists is one that fashion needs to embrace.
Thought neck ties were a thing of the past? Think again. Designers played with symbols of corporate power – ties among them – as a commentary on late-stage capitalism and the dismantling of symbols of power in a now lost world of work.
Country-house weekends – but not of the Saltburn variety – are trending. Tweeds, herringbones and argyles conjure Brideshead Revisited’s Sebastian Flyte, Jeeves and Wooster, the Mitford sisters and the relaxed royal style of Balmoral.
Extravagant collars will be to 2024 what big sleeves were to 2023. Backward button-downs are also making the rounds.
Did Pharrell Williams’s Louis Vuitton so-called damoflage spark a trend? Designers are connecting to nature with expressionistic takes on the traditional camouflage pattern. Just don’t expect to hide in plain sight in these head turners.
Apple’s Vision Pro may be making spatial computing a reality, but fashion is embracing the two-dimensionality of flatness with spliced garments, the use of wire and paper doll-like tabs. The effect is to create a space between the body and the garment that is unexpected and exciting to the eye.
Come autumn, you’re going to go wild for voluminous, pettable outerwear made of faux fur, feathers, fabric, shearling or yarn.
Snuggly and stylish, ski sweaters go from the slope to the street.
Anchoring the silhouette in a tactile season is the bold shoulder, which often borrows something from the shape Claude Montana pioneered in the bigger-is-better ’80s. Straight, sloped or rounded, big shoulders command space and convey authority.
A little sparkle can go a long way, and in a season of softness, glittery tinsel really stands out.
Suiting up is the new dressing up for evening. The spirits of Marlene Dietrich and Yves Saint Laurent live on in all of the season’s Le Smokings.
Duvet-inspired dressing brings that cozy, stay-in-bed-all-day feeling with you wherever you go.
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