2025 was a year in fashion unlike any other

Fashion loves a cycle, with trends, people and gossip constantly on an accelerated hamster wheel, and 2025 didn’t disappoint. We called it at the start of the year, actually. On the catwalk, 16 (!) brands saw new designers step in, while talk of numerous impending debuts ensured that 2025 felt like a fashion’s very own Super Bowl.

There were high points: the 20^th anniversary of Telfar and Lyas’ watch parties, which brought back the intimacy and excitement of watching fashion shows with pals. The huge anticipation of Louise Trotter’s Bottega Veneta was every bit deserved.

Vibram’s ubiquitous and divisive toe shoes were everywhere, 2010s bandage dresses broke through (again) and that’s barely scratching the surface. Low points included the roll-back on plus size models on the catwalk, further emphasising fashion’s unhealthy obsession with thinness. More moments living rent-free in our heads long after the last Eurostar left the station on the final day of PFW: Miu Miu’s aprons and Duran Lantink’s no-holds-barred Jean Paul Gaultier debut. After a round-up to remind you of what happened in fashion in 2025? Well, look no further.

In October, Vogue Business published its Size Inclusivity Report, and it’s fair to say the findings were depressing. For SS26, 97.1 per cent of models were ​“straight” sized (US 0 – 4, UK 4 – 8), with 2 per cent mid-size (US 6 – 12, UK 12 – 16) and the rest (a teeny tiny 0.9 per cent) plus size (US 14+, UK 18+).

This is a turnaround from 10 or so years ago, when models like Precious Lee, Jill Kortleve and Ashley Graham walked in shows (Graham was one of the highest earning models in 2017). The rise of weight loss drugs has no doubt contributed to these stats, a trend that implicitly tells us thin is in. Still, there are models who are continuing to push back on that – see (always) Paloma Elsesser, but also names like Evdokia Labropoulou, who has modelled for Marc Jacobs’ Heaven, and Felicity Hayward, a model and activist keen to hold the fashion industry to account. Let’s hope that carries on in 2026.

Louise Trotter was announced as Bottega Veneta​’s new creative director this time last year, but she waited until October for her first proper show. She didn’t keep us waiting all that time, though. Instead, she breadcrumbed what was to come with ambassadors Vicky Krieps and Jacob Elordi hitting the step-and-repeat in full new Bottega at Venice Film Festival. Matthieu Blazy’s wildly anticipated Chanel debut had a similar treatment — with Ayo Edebiri wearing a custom Chanel suit, a move that no doubt had fashion analysts speculating on what it might mean for that first collection.

The red carpet wasn’t the only way to give a sneak peek. JW Anderson, ahead of his first show for Dior in June, gave some clues as to what we could expect with an unusual invitation: a plate with china eggs on it. An initial head scratcher, but as Anderson explained to journalist Loic Prigent, this relates to a Lucien Freud painting of eggs made for the Duchess of Devonshire. ​“It reminded me of that and I was like ​‘ok, eggs, the starting of something’… and it’s very French ultimately.” Eccentric, a bit highbrow and très français? It perfectly set the scene for Anderson’s Dior.

Not quite a spoiler, but a down-the-road announcement which received unanimous industry praise? Grace Wales Bonner’s appointment as the new creative director for Hermès Men’s Ready-to-Wear – a position she won’t begin for another year. Roll on January 2027.

Much like football management, there is always some hire and fire chatter in high fashion. But SS26, shown in October 2025, was unprecedented, with 16 designers rebooting 15 brands. The big guns – Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Anderson at Dior – got the headlines but there were some other interesting moments too. See: Duran Lantink’s debut for Jean-Paul Gaultier, with very real-looking ​“naked” bodysuits and Dario Vitale helming Versace for one season only, not to mention Glenn Martens’ crumpled foil-like creations and metal-mouthed models at Margiela. The best news? There are still more firsts to come. Demna’s first Gucci collection proper will arrive in February, as will Diotima’s Rachel Scott debut at Proenza Schouler. And we still have questions. Where will Olivier Rousteing and Dario Vitale land? Who will take over at Versace? (rumour has it it’ll be Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier.) 2026 has the answers.

If designers are often pitted against each other, it’s heartening to see there’s a support network behind the scenes. Raf Simons is not only a great designer with a lovely haircut, he’s a good friend, too: the Prada co-creative director was spotted in the audience watching the first Chanel show by his friend – and mentee – Matthieu Blazy, like a proud dad. Simons also had time for his other mentee Pieter Mulier, who went straight in for a hug with Raf after his bow post-Alaïa show. I’m not crying, you’re crying etc.

The most surprising jean moment was watched by 127.7m people: when Kendrick Lamar wore Celine bootcuts for the Super Bowl halftime show, paired with a Martine Rose leather jacket, Air DTs Max 96s and backwards cap. No wonder searches for bootcut jeans spiked 5000 per cent on google in the days after. Meanwhile, maybe thanks to a combo of an indie sleaze revival, the rise of those aforementioned weight loss drugs and brands like Aaron Esh and Celine, the skinny jean is well and truly back, with Depop reporting searches for the style up 106 per cent in the first three months of the year. See the punters at Post Party captured by Hedi Slimane in this autumn’s FACE for inspo.

The editor-in-chief of US Vogue announced this year that she would be ​“stepping away” from the job of putting the magazine together – a post she has held for 37 years. But Wintour’s hardly the type to be swapping work for gardening and looking after the grandkids. Instead, she’ll continue her other big cheese roles as global editorial director and chief content officer at Condé Nast. As for US Vogue, Chloe Malle has taken over as head of editorial content, with her first print issue expected next year. She’s got quite the ship to steady. Wintour’s last cover, shot by Annie Leibovitz and featuring Timothée Chalamet, didn’t go down particularly well…

People love to talk about how Miuccia Prada is a feminist, so they were confused to see aprons – something that could be interpreted as a symbol of the oppression of women stuck in the kitchen – on the Miu Miu SS26 catwalk. As the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman wrote: ​“perhaps because aprons themselves still represent both economic inequality and the rise of the tradwife movement, [they make] uneasy subjects for very expensive fashion.” It wasn’t the only sighting of the kitchen staple: gossamer-thin overalls that were apron-adjacent on the brain at Prada, too. Whatever will they repurpose next?

There’s been a lot of bad news stories in the world of independent fashion this year – SSENSE’s potential bankruptcy being one of them. So the fact that Telfar celebrated 20 years in 2025 is enough to bring a smile to the face of even the biggest fashion cynic. Founded by Telfar Clemens in New York in 2005, the label gained real superstar status thanks to 2014’s shopping bag, a design so popular it’s been dubbed ​“the Bushwick Birkin”. Here’s to another 20 years.

Those without tickets are having the best time at fashion week. At least, that was the case in Paris in October, at Lyas’ La Watch Party – an event which saw fashion fans turn up at a bar in Paris to watch Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior show. The same happened in September for Dilara Findikoglu’s London Fashion Week show, and again in December, when the content creator invited people to watch the Chanel show in New York. The twist? Models, including Alex Consani and Mona Tougaard, came along post-show. Expect Lyas’ culture-binding platform to storm 2026. Pass the popcorn.