Fast forward to autumn/winter: what we’ll be wearing next season
Grazia’s fashion director Rebecca Lowthorpe reports from the front row on what we’ll all want to wear next season
if you want to know what the new trends are this autumn/winter – what you should be thinking about buying now these collections are dropping in-store, or how to re-style what’s already in your wardrobe – you need to know who’s most influential now. Because these days, more than ever, it’s not the mass collective but the individuals who push the needle that have the most impact on where fashion is heading. Look to them, the designer A-list – the most watched and most copied – and all becomes clear. So who are fashion’s greatest visionaries now? And what have they got in store for you?
THE TASTEMAKERS
If I were to predict the one show that will have most impact on affordable high-street brands, I’d put my money on Celine by Hedi Slimane. He is the tastemaker known for going his own way, no matter what. Swiping aside the controversy of his Celine debut (skinny clothes shown on skinny youths that didn’t exactly go down well with a newly woke industry), his second collection (which would have saved an awful lot of bother if it had been his first) was an instant hit. He served up deep nostalgia of the 1970s kind in the form of ultra-bourgeois bow-neck blouses, smart checked jackets and culottes – that’s right, culottes, the key new trouser-skirt of the season, which in turn make his knee-high boots the footwear must-have of the season. Literally, it’s impossible to wear culottes without a long, heeled boot. Everything about his elegant uniforms – all 59 of them – rammed home the season’s overarching message – that ELEGANCE is the new, everyday thing.
If ‘elegance’ sounds a tad quaint, look to JW Anderson at both his eponymous label and Loewe, where he is creative director and chief pioneer of elegance in its most modern form. Think voluminous sleeved coats, super-wide strides, the chunkiest of belted sweaters and kid-in-a-candy-store accessories – meaning you will want those thick-chain necklaces, the new puzzle bag
and may even slick down and Marcel-wave your hair. Far from the only designer banging the drum for elegance, his was the most elevated, grown up and chic.
As for that other tastemaker, Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton – he’s the leader of Paris’s new establishment and fearless in his approach to the new. His show, which always ends the catwalk season, frequently speeds off in a new direction and launches a new look. This time, he left us grappling with the nouveaux bohemian
– a mishmash of floral quilting, liquorice leathers, shiny ra-ra skirts, terrific tailoring and leather skull caps. Bohemia is big news – that pick’n’mix of rich fabrics, using pieces that look both vintage and new, are aimed squarely at the individualist who likes fashion with a capital F. You know who you are.
WOMEN FOR WOMEN
What if you’re not a trend thrill-seeker, but looking for that special investment piece from a brand that stands for something more long-lasting than just fashion-now clothes? See Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior – forever using her platform to talk about women through clothes. Hers are deeply wearable in the form of bold checks (another huge trend), full skirts (tick) and bucket hats (trust me, you’ll want one). As for the ultimate status symbol brand that manages to queue up the trends while remaining ultimately timeless, see the late, great Karl Lagerfeld’s last collection for Chanel, made in collaboration with his successor, Virginie Viard. Together, they put window-pane checked swagger suits and major coats, plus winter whites, all back on the menu. If any collection is an heirloom investment (with the highest resale value), this is surely it. Or head to Prada, where Mama Miuccia’s fearless approach to wonky femininity continues to make headlines. This time, she convinced us of the power of black, as well as satin and stomping boots – all three are a thing this season. Her finger never not on the pulse, she has just reissued her ’90s Prada nylon – now made from sustainable yarn – a move that has sealed the brand’s status at the forefront of fashion’s biggest issue. Also, chapeaux off to Clare Waight Keller, who vaults into the visionary fashion league, having transformed Givenchy in her own image – that of an independent, working, travelling mother who makes graphically tailored suits and coats entirely accessible – plus her multi-pleat, Japanese floral-print dresses in vibrant shades are some of the season’s most irresistible. And let’s not forget Victoria Beckham, the woman who has become adept at anticipating the trends of the moment that work best in front of the camera – that’s an ultra-lean silhouette, full of high-impact colour, impeccable tailoring and precision dresses, on top of headlining peep-toe, second-skin boots.
BRAND BUILDING
And what if you’re a big brand devotee of the trailblazing variety? You love a cool trainer and a logoed sweatshirt, but you’ll only buy it from a brand making edgy waves
on the runway. Then you follow Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga – now making a play for uber-elegance. Or you head to Gucci and marvel at Alessandro Michele’s imagination for eclecticism, that mixing and mashing of sportswear with superspecial decorative pieces – and most likely walk away with a pair of classic Gucci snaffle loafers or a bag with all the trimmings. And for those of you feeling sexy – with the body to match? There is but one designer providing ultra-french sexiness: Anthony Vaccarello for YSL, who vibes on the original Yves Saint Laurent through the lens of Helmut Newton and produces iconic French silhouettes – pin-thin tailoring, micro sparkling cocktail dresses, vast-shouldered coats, sky-high heels.
It’s not for the faint-hearted.
SHEER ARTISTRY
Skipping up to the A-league is relative newcomer Molly Goddard. She may have a tiny burgeoning business compared to the megabrands here, but her powerful party pieces – namely outsized tulle dresses with shirred bodices in high-impact colour, as seen on our favourite hit-woman Villanelle in Killing Eve – has not only given her epic exposure and seen her copied by designers and the high street, but cemented her status as go-to party dresser of the coolest kind.
For all these designers, the sheer artistry of making clothes is paramount, but even in this A-league, there is one who is peerless in the ready-to-wear market. Sarah Burton at Alexander Mcqueen is a storyteller who, through painstaking research, makes breathtaking fashion. This season she notched up another seminal collection with sharp inky tailoring, so jaw-droppingly complex it might spiral around the body or burst into full-bloom. Did I mention that dressing up is most definitely back on the agenda? Her scarlet ballgown resembling a giant rose sums up fashion’s fantasy moment: dressing up at any opportunity to transform yourself in these uncertain times? Absolutely. Because this is the age of elegance.
Turn the page for the hottest trends
Dressing up is back on the agenda. burton’s ballgown sums up fashion’s fantasy moment