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Pointless handbags and portentous brooches: the year in fashion The Guardian
By LIZZIE KNIGHT
LONDON (AP) —
Innovative fashion designers are turning to such things as horseradish and nettles to make sustainable clothing and accessories to the delight of a growing number of buyers.
While more consumers are paying closer attention to how the production of goods impacts the environment, old habits die hard. A buy-and-toss mentality persists despite a boost from celebrities helping to drive the upcycle and vintage movements.
Actress Maggie Q, who created an activewear line from recycled fabrics, is among activists who see plenty of room for improvement. She says she feels "sick about fast fashion.''
"You hear people say, 'Well, it was cheap and you need to wear it once, you throw it away,'" she said.
The British design duo behind Vin + Omi, a brand worn by Michelle Obama, Beyonce and Lady Gaga, is forever on the hunt for creative solutions to sustainability. They sourced latex from Malaysia, for example. However, they found the conditions for plantation workers appalling and bought the operation.
At their studios in the Cotswolds, in the heart of the English countryside, they grow a range of crops and plants for textile development, including chestnuts and horseradish. Their latest collection features garments made from nettles, alpaca fleece and recycled plastic from paint tubes. English designer Zoe Corsellis keeps the carbon footprint of her garments low by manufacturing them in London, with fabrics sourced in the U.K. and Germany. She makes them from wood pulp, sea waste and peace silk, considered more humane to silk worms than traditional production processes. A wood pulp gown feels like jersey to the touch.
Belgian designer Sebastiaan de Neubourg is recycling plastic bottles, car dashboards and refrigerators for sunglasses for his brand, W.R.YUMA. Plastic waste is collected and shredded to make 3D printer filament. Transparent frames are made from soda bottles, white ones from refrigerators and black ones from car dashboards.
“Waste, I believe, is design failure," he said. Fee Gilfeather, sustainability expert at the nonprofit Oxfam, said there's hope on a larger scale.
"The textile industry is getting close to working out how to do fiber-to-fiber recycling," she said. “So what that means is that when you take a garment that's no longer needed, you can break it down into the fibers and turn that back into a raw material to make clothing.”
More celebrities are also playing a role, with some turning to vintage.
Amal Clooney, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Kim Kardashian West have been wearing more vintage pieces and re-wearing outfits, something unheard of among many celebrities. Billie Eilish recently wore a custom upcycled outfit from Burberry to the American Music Awards.
“I'm trying to like waste less resources,” the teenage singer said.
Singer Paloma Faith is an old hand at vintage.
“I've been wearing - and obsessive about - vintage clothing for my whole life and I feel like it's really an important thing to recycle and re-use, not just because the ideas in my view were better from the past, but also because we can't just keep contributing to the landfill, and we have to take a bit or more responsibility,” she said.
For more than a decade, designer Stella McCartney has been in the sustainability fight. Her latest collection was her most sustainable yet, using organic cotton, recycled polyester, sustainable viscose and traceable wool.
“It's really important to me that you shouldn't notice that what I do is more ethical than other houses,” she said. "You should just love it and want it and then the desirability means it comes into your life, and it means that other businesses have to change.”
Brands that have heavily used fur in the past have reconsidered. Burberry, Gucci and Versace are among high-end houses opting for faux fur. Many others, including Chanel and Victoria Beckham, will no longer use exotic animal skins.
Burberry destroyed millions of dollars' worth of clothes and accessories every year to prevent the products being sold cheaply. It stopped in 2018, but the practice is still widespread in the industry. Greenpeace described it as the "dirty secret" of fashion.
The rate of change needs to quicken, Gilfeather said, cautioning that carbon emissions from the textile industry are forecast to increase by 60% come 2050.
Fast-fashion industry leaders including Inditex, which owns Zara and H&M, have launched clothing take-back schemes aimed at recycling old items. But recycling, upcycling and a zero waste approach is a relatively small sideline in the global industry.
"There are ways which large companies are helping consumers to recycle, but we know that there's a long way for others to go and to really sort of properly make a difference," Gilfeather said.
Vin, from Vin + Omi, said consumers must take more responsibility.
“What we should be doing is aiming for quality, aiming for origins of textiles, aiming for a real sort of look at each individual fashion company and saying, `'They're a viable business. I will buy from them.'"
Campy throwback references to childhood nostalgia were one of the byproducts of an upbeat spring season. Cartoons inspired by Hello Kitty, “Jurassic Park” and Mickey Mouse popped up on runway and non-runway brands alike, such as Lanvin, Kith, Iceberg and United Colors of Benetton.
United Colors of Benetton by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s organic cotton shirt and Coach 1941’s leather skirt. Tuleste headband. Chris Miggels/WWD
Iceberg’s cotton and polyester top and polyester skirt. Asos hairclip; Converse shoes. Chris Miggels/WWD
Designer shake-ups, iconic runway moments and eyebrow-raising controversy.
These are just some of the biggest fashion news stories that made headlines in the 2010s, igniting major change in the industry and producing memorable moments that have stuck in the cultural lexicon to this day.
The decade saw the loss of a number of the industry’s most acclaimed and adored designers, including Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta, Kate Spade and Karl Lagerfeld, to name a few.
Seemingly every major designer house experienced significant change throughout the decade, from fashion designers like Raf Simons, Hedi Slimane and Stefano Pilati hopping between brands to logo redesigns at Celine and Saint Laurent.
As the decade is now coming to a close, WWD looks back at the biggest fashion news during the 2010s, broken down for each year.
2010: Alexander McQueen’s Shocking Death, New York Fashion Week’s Big Move
Alexander McQueen in 2003. Richard Young/Shutterstock
The fashion world was in shock over the sad news of Alexander McQueen’s suicide at the age of 40. McQueen was one of the most acclaimed fashion designers of his generation, gaining international recognition after his highly controversial Highland Rape collection in 1995. He was later succeeded by his head of women’s wear, Sarah Burton.
Perhaps one of the most controversial fashion looks of the decade, Lady Gaga made headlines at the MTV Video Music Awards where she wore a Franc Fernandez-designed dress made out of raw meat. Gaga later explained that her infamous “meat dress” was meant as a protest to the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
Another notable headline from 2010 was the announcement that New York Fashion Week would be moving locations from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center. Bryant Park served as the home for the semi-annual event since 1993.
2011: John Galliano Out at Dior, Roitfeld’s Move, @CondeElevator Buzz
John Galliano at the Dior spring 2011 show. Joseph Kerlakian/Shutterstock
John Galliano’s ousting at Dior was one of the biggest fashion news stories of the year. His firing was a result of a viral video of Galliano speweing anti-Semitic and racist remarks. Galliano had been with Dior since 1996.
Christophe Decarnin also left his design post at Balmain after five years with the brand. Decarnin was known for heating up the French brand with his sharp-shouldered jackets, destroyed T-shirts and embellished minidresses. He was succeeded by 26-year-old Olivier Rousteing, who remains today at Balmain.
In media news, Carine Roitfeld announced she was leaving her post as editor in chief of Vogue Paris, a position she had held since 2001. The following year she launched her biannual magazine, CR Fashion Book.
The most viral story to come out of the year was the creation of the anonymous Twitter account, @CondeElevator. The short-lived account documented absurd snippets overhead in the elevator at Condé Nast’s former 4 Times Square office to the disdain of Condé editors and executives. It was later revealed that former GQ editor, Lauren Bans, was behind the account.
2012: Changing of the Guard
Raf Simons, Nicolas Ghesquière, Jil Sander and Hedi Slimane.
Designers made moves in 2012, with a number of design houses experiencing changes in creative direction. Raf Simons began his three-year stint at Dior in April, Nicolas Ghesquière left Balenciaga after 15 years, Jil Sander returned to her namesake brand for the third time since its creation and Stefano Pilati left Yves Saint Laurent after eight years, later joining Ermenegildo Zegna as head of design for four years.
Most notably, Hedi Slimane returned to Yves Saint Laurent as creative director 12 years after he left the design house for Dior Homme. Slimane stayed at the company for four years, changing its name to Saint Laurent.
2013: Marc Jacobs Leaves Louis Vuitton, Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar Moment
Marc Jacobs at the Louis Vuitton spring 2014 show. David Fisher/Shutterstock
The year was marked by the departure of Marc Jacobs as the creative director of Louis Vuitton after 16 years at the brand. Jacobs left the brand to focus on his own namesake fashion label.
Perhaps one of the most memorable Oscar moments of the decade, Jennifer Lawrence threw social media into a frenzy when she tripped and fell on her custom Dior couture gown as she accepted her award for best actress.
Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Academy Awards. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
The fashion world also lost Vittorio Missoni, who died in a plane crash in 2013. A search for the Italian chief executive officer — whose parents founded the design house in 1953 — started in January of that year when the small aircraft he was traveling in went missing. The plane was later found in June by the oceanographic ship Deep Sea in the waters near Venezuela.
2014: Fashion World in Mourning, Rihanna Hits Icon Status, Kendall Jenner’s Runway Debut
Oscar de la Renta and L’Wren Scott.
The fashion industry mourned the loss of two designers in 2014: Oscar de la Renta, who died at the age of 82 in October after a long battle with cancer, and 49-year-old L’Wren Scott, who died in an apparent suicide.
In lighter news, 2014 also produced one of the most iconic fashion looks of the decade: Rihanna’s barely there Swarovski crystal dress at the CFDA Awards, where she accepted the Fashion Icon award.
Rihanna at the 2014 CFDA Fashion Awards. Broadimage/Shutterstock
Reality TV star Kendall Jenner also made her modeling debut, walking the Marc Jacobs fall 2014 runway.
John Galliano made his controversial return to fashion after being ousted from Dior three years prior. The fashion designer was appointed as the new creative director of Maison Martin Margiela.
2015: Changes at Dior, Lanvin and Balenciaga, The Return of Derek Zoolander
Alber Elbaz, Alexander Wang and Alessandro Michele.
A changing of the guard at major fashion houses happened in 2015, with Raf Simons leaving Dior after three and a half years, Alber Elbaz departing Lanvin after 14 years at the helm of the brand and Alexander Wang leaving Balenciaga after three years.
The year also had two newsworthy runway moments, including Rick Owens’ NSFW fall 2015 men’s show where strategic cutouts had male models exposing themselves to the crowd and at Valentino’s fall 2015 show, where the brand enlisted Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson to assume their “Zoolander” male model characters and close out the show.
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson at the Valentino fall 2015 show. Christophe Ena/AP/Shutterstock
Other notable headlines from 2015 include American Apparel filing for bankruptcy, Coach Inc. acquiring Stuart Weitzman for $547 million and Gucci tapping Alessandro Michele as creative director.
2016: Yeezy’s Disastrous Runway Show, See-Now-Buy-Now Runway Shows Take Hold
Yeezy Season 4 show.
The runway had its own fair share of memorable moments in 2016, namely Kanye West’s disastrous Yeezy Season 4 show where the rapper essentially held guests captive in the scorching heat on New York’s Roosevelt Island, which led to multiple models collapsing on the runway. The show ultimately received scathing reviews.
The biggest change to come from the fashion industry was major designers adopting the “See-Now, Buy-Now” model. The likes of Tom Ford, Tommy Hilfiger, Burberry and Ralph Lauren, among others, shifted their runway model to satisfy the growing consumer demand for immediate consumption.
The year also saw the losses of two major figures in the industry: New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham in June and Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani in December.
Bill Cunningham and Franca Sozzani
Valentino also experienced a major change when co-creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri left the design house to join Dior as its seventh couturier. Pierpaolo Piccioli was then named as the sole creative director of Valentino.
Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane announced his departure from the brand in 2016. He was replaced by Anthony Vaccarello, who shuttered his namesake brand in order to focus on Saint Laurent.
2017: Nineties Supermodels Back on the Runway, Tectonic Media Shifts
Helena Christensen, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Donatella Versace, Claudia Schiffer and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on the Versace for spring-summer 2018. Swan Gallet/WWD/REX/Shutterstock
The 2017 runway had one of its most memorable moments of the decade at the Versace spring 2018 show where Donatella Versace reunited the biggest Nineties supermodels — Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen — to pay tribute to her brother Gianni on the 20th anniversary of his death.
The year was also marked by huge changes in the magazine industry, namely Graydon Carter leaving his editor in chief post at Vanity Fair after 25 years, Cindi Leive exiting Glamour after 16 years and Robbie Myers leaving Elle Magazine after 17 years all in September. Teen Vogue and Nylon Magazine also revealed they would cease print operations that year. In other media news, Edward Enninful took the reins at British Vogue, succeeding editor in chief Alexandra Shulman.
Halima Aden walks the Philipp Plein fall 2018 show. WWD/Shutterstock
Halima Aden also became the first hijab-wearing model to walk the New York Fashion Week runway and get signed by IMG Models. Cindy Crawford’s look-alike daughter Kaia Gerber, for another, also made her runway debut at the Calvin Klein spring 2018 collection.
Other fashion headlines in 2017 include Givenchy hiring its first female designer, Clare Waight Keller in March, Michael Kors Holdings acquiring Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion in July and the death of legendary fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa in November.
2018: #MeToo Movement, Designer Shuffling, Saying Farewell
America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone and Billie Jean King at the Golden Globes in 2018. Chelsea Lauren/BEI/REX/Shutterstock
The #MeToo Movement gained widespread resonance in 2018, with Hollywood spearheading the movement with its Golden Globes red carpet blackout, where celebrities wore black in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse.
The movement also affected fashion brand Marchesa, cofounded by Weinstein’s ex-wife Georgina Chapman. Following Weinstein’s allegations, Marchesa took a break from dressing stars on the red carpet — the brand was noticeably absent from the Golden Globes blackout — and transitioned from hosting runway shows to private presentations where Chapman and her now former designer partner Keren Craig were absent.
The year was also marked by the changing of the guard at a number of major design houses. Hedi Slimane joined Céline as artistic, creative and image director in January — later dropping the accent mark from the brand’s logo — Wes Gordon replaced Carolina Herrera as creative director in February, Riccardo Tisci was named chief creative officer at Burberry and Virgil Abloh was named artistic director of Louis Vuitton Men’s in March.
Hubert de Givenchy, Judith Leiber and Kate Spade.
The fashion industry also mourned the losses of a number of legendary designers, including Hubert de Givenchy — who founded the design house in 1952 — in March, handbag designer Judith Leiber in April and fashion designer Kate Spade in June.
Ralph Lauren celebrated a major milestone in 2018, marking the 50th anniversary of his namesake company.
One of the biggest acquisitions of the year was Michael Kors Holdings purchasing Versace for $2.1 billion. The company then rebranded as Capri Holdings to reflect its growing empire.
2019: Karl Lagerfeld’s Death, Changes at Calvin Klein, Rihanna the Mogul
Karl Lagerfeld, in the early Sixties. Courtesy of Mary Russell
The year started off with the fashion industry mourning the loss of legendary Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died in February at the age of 85. Lagerfeld had one of the longest and most respected careers in fashion, starting off as an assistant to Pierre Balmain in 1954, then joining Chloé in 1963 and Fendi in 1965 before heading to Chanel in 1983. He was succeeded by his right-hand woman, Virginie Viard, who is the first female designer to take the helm of the brand since Gabrielle Chanel herself.
There were also major changes at design houses and conglomerates, notably at Calvin Klein. Months after Raf Simons left his role as chief creative officer, Calvin Klein announced in March it would be closing its collections and appointment businesses. This meant the brand would no longer be a fixture at New York Fashion Week or on the red carpet.
Rihanna unveils her first fashion designs for Fenty at a pop-up store in Paris. Francois Mori/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Rihanna also made history by partnering with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in May to launch her Fenty fashion label, marking the second time LVMH created a fashion brand from scratch since establishing Christian Lacroix in 1987.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America saw a changing of the guard in March, when American fashion designer Tom Ford took over as chairman, succeeding Diane von Furstenberg who served as president and then chairwoman from 2006.
The year’s biggest retail news came from Barneys New York, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, the second time in the retailer’s 96-year history. After a tumultuous bankruptcy battle, Authentic Brands Group bought the retailer for $271 million, and has plans to convert the Madison Avenue flagship into a smaller-scale, experiential pop-up shop and bring the Barneys name over exclusively to Saks Fifth Avenue.
Read more here:
The Biggest Fashion News Stories of 2019
The 10 Fashion Moments That Encapsulate the 2010s
The Biggest Fashion and Beauty Controversies of 2019
WATCH: NYFW Spring 2020 Recap
Welcome to the mother-forking future, people. Is it just us, or does 2020 not even sound like a real year? If things break just right, this will be the decade that we solve the climate crisis, end world hunger, close the wealth gap, and eradicate bad fits once and for all. To help you get a jumpstart on making that last goal a reality, we've outlined 11 major men's fashion trends—a few returning favorites, a few calculated risks, and a few complete galaxy-brain swerves—that will define menswear in the early stages of the year ahead. If we all work together and stand firm in the face of adversity, we can and we will overcome swaglessness forever. Godspeed and good luck.
The cure for your Chelsea fatigue is simpler than you'd think: a slightly higher rise and a zipper down the side is all it takes to make your trustiest boots feel brand new.
Bone-chilling temps are no excuse for a middling fit—especially not when there's a glut of seriously warm, seriously wavy puffers at your fingertips right now.
Your steady diet of open-necked camp shirts over the last few years has all led to this: the return of strong collars jutting out over jacket lapels, Saturday Night Fever-style.
The flip side of that last entry? After years of us pushing you to wear tees, turtlenecks, and camp collars with your suits (all of which are still great looks!), ties have made a triumphant return to relevancy. And we're not talking the skinny, slinky ties of early-aughts rock videos; we mean big, brash, thick-knotted beauts like these.
When you're sick to death of plodding around in your anvil-esque winter boots, these camping slip-ons will be the toasty, featherlight reprieve your weary dogs deserve.
It's not enough for your pants just to be enormous anymore. Thanks to navel-veiling icons like Harry Styles, they also need to sit as high on—or above—your waist as possible.
That plain silver signet ring and thin gold chain were great for getting yourself acclimatized to wearing some flash, but now it's time to shift into turbo. Whether that means an always-cool dangly earring, an A$AP Rocky-approved pearl necklace, or a punkish gold bracelet from Tiffany's new men's line (also works great as an anklet!) is entirely up to you.
It's always leather weather when you've got a smooth cowhide shirt on hand to shake up your fits with just the right amount of sophisticated sleaze.
Maybe it's just because the hat god Melo is back in the league, but we're really feeling all manner of headgear beyond your basic ballcaps and beanies.
In case our anoinment of quilting visionary Emily Bode as GQ's first-ever Breakthrough Designer of the Year didn't hammer this home plainly enough, allow us to spell it out for you: patchwork deserves a spot (or several) in your closet—the wilder, the better.
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Hobbit feet, kinda in this year! Fuzzy, furry textures are sprouting up on all manner of footwear right now, ideal for liberating Middle-Earth or at least turning a few heads at a dinner party.
Looking for more men's fashion trends? Head this way. Or, if you're looking to stock up on the basics first, check out GQ's list of 50 wardrobe staples every guy should own.
The 50 Wardrobe Essentials Every Guy Should Own in 2020
