The Most Memorable Moments from the Autumn/Winter Season of 2022

Dolce & Gabbana took part in the metaverse with a collection that was both real and virtual. The show had avatars dressed in the collection that morphed into real models on stage and strutted down the runway. It was the Italian label’s latest embracing of a new sort of technology, and it’s a brand that’s never been reluctant to try new things on the runway.

Off-White paid tribute to its late and outstanding founder, Virgil Abloh, who sadly passed away last year, on the opening night of Paris Fashion Week, with the support of Naomi Campbell, Serena Williams, Cindy Crawford, and others. The presentation, dubbed ‘Spaceship Earth: an Imaginary Experience,’ began with the designer’s final ready-to-wear collection for the house and culminated with several stunning couture gowns.

“Vincent de Beauvais’ Speculum majus recommends the mirror as an essential knowledge instrument in the 13th century,” said creative director Alessandro Michele of Gucci’s AW22 collection, dubbed “Exquisite Gucci.” “It is, in fact, feasible to achieve a transparent and exact understanding of reality through the mirror.”

“Our cast of Versace Women for AW22 is exciting,” Donatella Versace said of the show. “Girls like Avanti, Anyier and Tilly perfectly represent a Versace with new generation attitude and they champion diversity. They embody the energy running through the collection and the looks built on contrast and tension — like an elastic band pulled tight and about to snap-back with a build-up of energy. That feeling is just irresistible to me. It opens new possibilities and makes things happen.”

Moschino’s autumn/winter 2022 collection was inspired by the archives, notably the 1989 and 1990 collections, in which Franco Moschino used cutlery brooches and hot-and-cold faucet handles as highlights in his ready-to-wear. Scott utilized this as a starting point and then went to the stately estate for extra inspiration.

“A close to home feeling ensued, yet it became complemented by a study bordering on the unusual, if not the Kubrickian: If someone, or something, was tasked with creating the clone of a grand manor today, would baroque picture frames, stately armoires, grandfather clocks and crystal-dripped chandeliers still mark the trappings of a monied dwelling?”

The clean, modern, and sophisticated designs were inspired by “an overriding feeling of elegance,” Lucie and Luke Meier wrote in their exhibit notes.

“Confidence: the voice of a woman with inner strength and conviction. Every garment has the dignity and subtlety of couture, in fabrics and construction, and the vitality of the shifts between our need to glow and connect, the reality of our daily lives and our desire to play and change.”

Matthieu Blazy’s debut collection for Bottega Veneta, which he took over from Daniel Lee in November, was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the season. Blazy used it to answer the question, “What makes Bottega Veneta?”

“Bottega Veneta is in essence pragmatic because it is a leather goods company,” said Blazy. “Because it specialises in bags it is about movement, of going somewhere; there is fundamentally an idea of craft in motion. It is style over fashion in its timelessness. That is part of its quiet power.”

Tod’s AW22 collection was a celebration of Italian elegance. Walter Chiapponi, the creative director, wanted to reinterpret icons of Italian beauty and turn them into modern, flexible objects for everyday use. “This collection’s aesthetic exploration reverberates with Italian heritage, studying Italy’s culture and showcasing history that has always been embedded in Tod’s aim.”

With their collaborative creations, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons continue to delight and amaze, opening and concluding the show with a simple white tank top this season- Supermodel Kaia Gerber and Euphoria sensation Hunter Schafer both wore it.

While recent events in Europe make the phrase ‘optimism’ feel extremely wrong, the autumn winter 2022 presentations are defined by a spirit of ‘looking forward,’ and Armani is at the vanguard of that transition. For Fall/Winter ’22, that meant experimenting with the definition of “glamorous.”

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, an architect, dancer, textile designer, painter, and sculptor, was honored by Max Mara this season as “a creative polymath whose oeuvre was overlooked for decades, and is now rediscovered…a modernist who invested even the most everyday objects with a sense of magic and mystery,” according to the house.

Much of how he’s getting attractive right comes down to the fetish aspect of the collection. In his cage costumes, his Cavalli women appeared to be in command. On the first day of Milan Fashion Week, lingerie attire soon became a major motif. With Puglisi’s tweak to the Zendaya dress, which moves the conceal/reveal game to the front of the torso, it won’t be long until another young celebrity makes a red carpet hit out of it.

Jones was inspired by Delfina Delettrez, who walked into the Roman offices wearing a printed shirt from her mother’s closet, and dug into the house’s archives to uncover spring/summer 1986, which was a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld’s enthusiasm for the aesthetic movement. “These are collections that, despite their origins in the past, feel quite current.”Jones reinterpreted and matched 1986’s geometric designs and sartorial styling with autumn/winter 2000’s lightness. Jones describes the collection as “a wardrobe developed for every facet of a woman’s life, for every generation.” “And it all started with Delfina,” says the narrator.

How can you rewrite design codes that have been in place for decades? Alberta Ferretti set this goal for herself roughly four years ago. The goddess costumes she was known for were replaced with collections based on everyday wardrobe basics. The casualization of style, as well as Ferretti’s newfound conviction that women can’t survive on chiffon alone, drove her revised vision.

The inspirations for the collection span decades. The eighties cool-girl aesthetic of micro-skirts and matching tiny tops contrasts with the noughties cool-girl style of the jacket, which is a distinctively eighties blend of mint and pink. Diesel’s look is versatile, as evidenced by a wide range of coats. Another incredibly distressed denim coat takes on a supersized form, while the denim trench (drench?) is a show-stopper. There are more traditional styles, such as a basic camel coat, but it’s the theatrical pieces, such as a stunning pink ruffled coat, that make an impression.

Several jacquard dresses and coats with ripped-to-tatters cuffs and hems to produce a fringing effect were featured in the collection, which had a subterranean edge — well, underground for the buttoned-up world of Erdem. A nearly totally sheer lace gown was coupled with studded elbow-length black gloves and a glittery boa, and a black bustier was worn over demure maxi gowns. Cabaret’s Sally Bowles was all over it.

Christopher Kane was tremendously sexy this season, as he always is. However, as is customary, it was the brand’s hallmark category of inventive and thought-provoking sensuality that became a trademark. Kane’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection was an intriguing exercise in intellectual seduction, drawing inspiration from the process of sexual selection in the animal world, when males adjust their colors and actions to entice female mates. As a result, the concert was as visually appealing as it was conceptually challenging, with subversive underton

Richard Quinn’s autumn/winter ’22 collection, dubbed “a love letter to silhouette and craft,” emphasized the designer’s couture sensibilities, with exquisite fabrications, meticulous embroidery, and elevated shapes that he’s become known for. The show notes noted, “Structured volumes create a fashion armour, surrounding the person in beauty and color.”

Supriya Lele is a young leader in the fashion industry who is remapping the feminine form. She was one of the first to suggest that revealing the top of a hip or a slice of lower belly was something that women could wish to do in terms of fashion. Her female-gaze proposal was spot-on: revealing parts of their anatomy that their moms would never have dared is now a commonplace occurrence.

Supriya Lele was inspired by the mood of a free-spirited motorcycling girl for autumn/winter 2022. “Speeding into the new season with a tough, confident femininity, that riffs on Lele’s signature Nineties and Noughties-inflected silhouettes, a sophisticated interpretation of sportswear and boldly-hued, body-celebrating sensuality.”

16Arlington offered an emotional and passionate tribute to the late Federica “Kikka” Cavenati, the London label’s co-founder, who died tragically late last year. Before her unexpected death, both designers (herself and her collaborator Marco Capaldo) worked on a collection called ‘Tears.’

Capaldo transformed the smatterings of Swarovski crystals left by his tears into something magical: delicate smatterings that appeared to saturate the borders of blazers and dramatic floor-length gowns. These were applied boldly in some cases, providing contrasting pops of pastel on deep brown skirts and rusty treated leathers; in others, they were gently blended in to offer a suggestive shimmer; in others, they were applied more boldly, providing contrasting pops of pastel on deep brown skirts and rusty treated leathers. He also used tear-shaped beading on shirts and belts, which made a pleasant rustle as they traveled down the runway, and dampened the brand’s distinctive ostrich-feather trims to create a fascinating wet-look impression.

This season, Priya Ahluwalia was all about Bollywood and Nollywood, with a collection inspired by the rich imagery and dramatic narratives of classic Indian and Nigerian storytelling, drawing on the designer’s cross-continental upbringing. “Bollywood to Nollywood is Ahluwalia’s love letter to the films that shaped her adolescence, elevating them to a gleaming pedestal for all to enjoy,” says the author.

David Koma was inspired by football and rugby, two of Britain’s favorite sports, for the autumn/winter 2022 collection. The designer (who was born in Tbilisi and raised in Saint Petersburg) was granted British citizenship this year after 20 years in London, which prompted him to think on British dressing culture.

Michael Halpern has become synonymous with partywear in London, and his world is glitzier and more fun than ever following the pandemic. The autumn/winter 2022 collection, which debuted in Brixton, was all about looking back on the previous two years.

He put more modest suggestions into his running order throughout the collection as realistic—and maybe accessible—alternatives to the grandeur. Cream scuba gowns with gold bauble adornments or draped white crinkled chiffon dresses that culminated in a nymph-like bridal gown with a veil and a crystal crown were the result of a reduction procedure. It would be a good move for Halpern to enter the bridal gown industry.

Nensi Dojaka has become one of the most fascinating names on the London Fashion Week roster since receiving the LVMH Prize and the BFC Foundation Award in 2021 – and she did not disappoint for AW22. Dojaka embraced tailoring and leather, and will no likely remain a red-carpet fixture for years to come, sending her now characteristic lingerie-inspired outfits down the runway on the likes of Paloma Elesser and a pregnant Maggie Maurer (who revealed her bump for the first time when she concluded the show).

Molly Goddard’s autumn collection is “inspired on Portobello and Camden market in the late Eighties and Nineties,” she explains. “When we were kids, our mother’s best friend was a big part of the Portobello social scene, and the collection is inspired by her. From what I recall, she looked like a mix of Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jones, with large bleached blonde hair with a flower in it, red lipstick, a Fifties dress with an army jacket and shoes… The general aesthetic is diverse, as in “this is what I discovered down the market.” This collection and the things in it have a familiarity to them, with each garment having a simple design yet being transformed into something exceptional.”

The collection was inspired by historical festivities; we liked the splendour and grandeur of the 1930s, and this has a strong representation in the pieces – said co-founder Orlagh McCloskey of the ‘The Golden Age’ collection. “A vintage scarf we found in Portobello inspired the print, and the Rixo vintage vibe is exhibited in the diverse silhouettes included in each narrative in the collection.”

Harris Reed’s ’60 Years A Queen’ collection, which opened the AW22 exhibitions in London, was inspired by Sir Herbert Maxwell’s 1897 book of the same name about Queen Victoria’s reign. “This isn’t so much a direct interpretation of the British monarchy’s sartorial preferences as it is a look at how the club-kid scene has long borrowed, loaned, and built upon the regal wardrobe — whether through ruffled necklines, masks, and takes on ceremonial crowns, or through evocative Elizabethan-era painted faces. The film 60 Years A Queen is a queer take on kings and… kweens.”

Simone Rocha was inspired by ‘The Children of Lir,’ an Irish story about a group of children who are transformed into swans for 900 years and travel across three lakes, but die when they return to human form. “There are two sons and two girls in the family. A somber lament. Crushed taffeta wings and a look at what’s beneath the outerwear. Quilted blankets and bloodlines. Blue velvet, bitter sequins”

Michael Kors’ collection included a head-to-toe monochromatic, whether in a calm neutral or an explosive jolt of coral, yellow, or scorching pink; suiting in classic menswear materials and forms; and athletically inclined eveningwear are all key elements of MK’s major impression. The short lengths he displayed here are year-round wearable thanks to a pair of over-the-knee suede stocking boots. A statement piece of outerwear, on the other hand, is a must-have.

Marilyn Monroe was the inspiration for his clutch coats. Kors’ beach towels were made of double-face cashmere or faux fur, and they looked like a million bucks. Underneath those clutch coats, racerback shifts or one-sleeve dresses in clinging sequined jersey were a significant erogenous zone. Restaurant dates and nights out at the theater are clearly on Kors’ mind.

Catherine Holstein’s current collection includes everything from sequins and silk slips to corseted gowns, and the ever-so-cool Khaite customer will be embracing a bit more glamour next season. However, this was offset by exaggerated tailoring, saggy leather two-pieces, and the most stunning statement jackets.

“The power of this pandemic drew parallels to the upheaval and reformation of society seen during the Industrial Revolution,” the brand said of its inspiration for the new season. “This autumn/winter 2022 collection sartorially animates the stark class divide during this period where working classes laboured to develop new manufacturing processes and environments that seemingly benefited only the elite.”

Stuart Vevers’ latest Coach collection was inspired by the suburbs, or “a love letter to somewhere in America,” as he put it. There was lots of leather, shearling, and graffiti prints, all paired together in surprising ways, in this collection dedicated to small-town style.”My collections are generally inspired by a mood, and the feeling for fall was love,” he explained.

“For our autumn/winter collection we found inspiration in the stars,” creative director Nicky Zimmermann said. “There’s always been something so fun and intriguing to me about pop astrology and the idea that our personalities are influenced by our birth signs. We worked with artist Anita Inverarity on twelve key prints that represent each sign of the zodiac and have incorporated these across a variety of looks across the collection. We wanted it all to feel really eclectic with a sense of fun. We picked up the symbols and icons of the zodiac in our detailing and finishes and there’s a conscious clash of fabric textures in each look. It’s a collection that’s high on finer details. Maybe that’s a bit of the Virgo in me coming through!”

Wes Gordon’s autumn/winter 2022 collection, which featured a sequence of beautiful gowns in bright, often unexpected color combinations and graphic florals, with an emphasis on statement-making silhouettes, gave some bold splashes of color to a grey day in New York.

Proenza Schouler’s AW22 collection, which was highlighted by fluid tailoring and an effortless, almost sporty take on workwear, was shown at The Brant Foundation in NYC by designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez.

With an almost totally blue collection, Christian Siriano brought some significant color to New York Fashion Week. Meanwhile, his catwalk was dominated by super-shiny patent leather and latex, which complemented his ‘Victorian Matrix’ motif. Coco Rocha and Karen Elson were among the models who walked the runway.

“We are grounded in the notion that great design starts with intuition and emotion and then layered with logic and functionality,” described Amy Smilovic of Tibi’s latest collection. “Taming the extremes into pieces that manage to be utterly wearable and speak to our style and who we are. Balanced, but with opinion.”

Professor Emanuele Lugli (who teaches art history at Stanford University and writes about the history of painting, gender, politics, and science) highlighted our changing relationship with androgyny in his show notes, which Gabriela Hearst quoted in her exhibit notes.

“Today, sexual and gender labels are no longer seen as natural, and their politics have been rejected. Young people especially explore androgyny to access the vital power and truthfulness to which androgyny can gain access. They rediscover cultures and voices for which androgyny was not just a feature of the past but has been, and still is, embodied in the everyday…Fashion is thus rediscovered as a privileged field of inquiry precisely because often it is the very practice that reiterates sexual and gender binaries.”

“I wanted the collection to not only evoke the intrepid and adventurous spirit of sailors and world travellers, but also the mystery and darkness of the oceans depths, populated with mermaids and mythological creatures,” Joseph Altuzzara said of AW22, dressing the likes of Gigi Hadid in his mermaid-inspired sparkles.

The most talked-about aspect of the LaQuan Smith show was who the designer chose as his opening model: actress Julia Fox, who had just confirmed the breakup of her highly publicized relationship with Kanye West the day before. Her first outfit set the tone for the remainder of the collection: bold, skin-baring styles designed to stand out in a crowd.

Jason Wu, who always puts on one of the most beautiful shows during New York Fashion Week, did not disappoint for AW22 with a ladylike collection of ballgowns and dresses. The collection was an ode to American couture craftsmanship, Wu noted in his show notes, and was inspired by graphic, hand-drawn fashion images from the 1950s.

Brandon Maxwell, whose supermodel-filled catwalk presentation, as always, delivered on the glitz, is another favorite on the New York Fashion Week agenda. But, as he teamed his classic ballgowns with oversized knitwear and dressed up some jeans, the outfits felt more wearable than ever, making them feel quite adaptable.

It was a deeply personal collection, dedicated to and inspired by his Alzheimer’s-affected grandmother.