A year ago today, Alessandro Michele’s maximalist juggernaut continued apace at Gucci, Balenciaga’s winning streak remained untouched, and Raf Simons was quietly being Raf on the sidelines. 2022 was not only rocked by fashion’s great switch-ups, but also the loss of some industry greats, a surprise supermodel rebrand and a certain rapper’s fall from grace. Amidst the chaos, there were also moments of quiet brilliance: Kate Moss’s flannel shirt care of New Bottega’s Matthieu Blazy, Rihanna’s agenda-setting maternity wear, and Jodie Turner-Smith’s reinvention of Old Hollywood glamour. Here, your 101 of fashion in 2022.
January
André Leon Talley’s death weighed heavily on the fashion world, which lost a true trailblazer in every sense of the word. While the industry paid tribute to a larger-than-life character with a knack for delivering deliciously good bon mots, the menswear and couture shows rolled on with more poignant memos for the year ahead. Virgil Abloh’s last collection for Louis Vuitton echoed the childlike wonder of Talley and took place in a “Louis Dreamhouse”, while Pierpaolo Piccioli paved the way for how a more diverse picture of haute fashion salons could look – a vision the former Vogue editor would no doubt have loved to see come to fruition. By the time we eased into the trend cycle – indie sleaze started to rear its head as influencers basked in the nostalgia of boozed-up Noughties selfies – another legend, Manfred Thierry Mugler, passed away. Tributes abounded for another game-changing creative.
February
It was an autumn/winter 2022 season of hair transformations (hi redhead Kendall), celebrity cameos (Julia Fox at LaQuan Smith! Hunter Schafer for Prada!), and supermodel reunions (Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Helena Christensen and Cindy Crawford flew the flag for the originals at Virgil Abloh’s final Off-White show), as fashion made up for time lost during lockdown. Against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine, this showmanship felt, at times, jarring, but was met with thoughtful tributes from an industry in a state of flux. Meanwhile, Adele and her 70-pound Valentino dress put the Brits back on the fashion map, and Kim cemented her status as a Balenciaga model with a campaign that positioned her alongside French fashion royalty, Isabelle Huppert.
March
The Oscars played out with all the usual froth and fantasia, but the strongest looks from both the Academy Awards and its British sister, the BAFTAs, stood out for their simplicity. Swathes of black echoed the Time’s Up red-carpet movement, white shirting signalled a pragmatic approach to eveningwear, and stars looked to the past in archive looks that spoke volumes about each wearer. Elsewhere, Harry Styles ushered in a delicate new era with a little help from Molly Goddard, Alexa Chung shuttered her namesake label, and a heavily-pregnant Rihanna closed out Paris Fashion Week with a babydoll Dior lace look that positively laughed in the face of maternity leggings.
April
Coachella signalled the start of festival season, while the industry continued to rally to support Ukraine and the Queen celebrated 96 with a new royal portrait showing her steadfast love of the outdoors and its associated regalia. But none of this could overshadow the noise made by the Peltz Beckhams’s multi-million dollar Florida wedding, which saw Nicola commission a fashion shoot’s worth of looks and Victoria make her first foray into couture as mother-of-the-groom. The beachfront spectacular set the tone for the blockbuster summer of celebrity nuptials to come.
May
Cannes brought with it the usual promise of glitz, but the real message from the Croisette this year was that colour is in. From the bold block hues championed by Viola Davis and Rebecca Hall to dopamine-inducing bouclé, à la Kristen Stewart, the red carpet was awash with rainbow shades that shone as bright as any diamond sponsor. Equally as happy-making? The increasing volume of vintage photographed by the paps – a trend that was underscored by the KarJenners, who decamped to Portofino for the Dolce-sponsored wedding of Kravis. May wouldn’t be May without the Met Gala, which was dominated by Kim’s mission to sauna suit herself into Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday Mr President” dress, and the various other naked gowns, corsets and lingerie, which somehow nodded to the America: An Anthology of Fashion theme. Fashion, after all, is nothing if not open to interpretation.
June
Barbiecore swept fashion, while #PlattyJoobs gripped the nation. Kate Middleton played the historic moment well in a white McQueen suit that read Bianca Jagger, while Kate Moss wore her own piece of rare fashion history – a John Galliano spring/summer 1993 Union Jack blazer – while partying on a double decker bus along the Mall. Kendrick Lamar’s Glasto look, featuring a custom titanium and pavé diamond Tiffany & Co. crown, overshadowed a quiet men’s show season, when he integrated the 137-carat, 200g design into his festival performance. “They judge you, they judge Christ. Godspeed for women’s rights,” repeated the rapper, referencing the rollback of abortion rights for women in the US days earlier. Speaking of music, Beyoncé also shared her latest chapter as a house disco goddess with Vogue.
July
Congratulations were in order for Bennifer, who finally wed in Vegas in what felt like a month-long celebration of rekindled romance. Or perhaps that was just the honeymoon, which saw Lopez live out her Paris fashion fantasy in a whirlwind of Birkin bags and Hustlers platforms. Brad Pitt was also congratulated for his newfound relationship with a particularly good linen skirt, while the rest of Hollywood decamped to Europe and the news cycle feasted on long lens paparazzi shots of the Beckhams partying yacht-side with Gigi Hadid in Saint-Tropez. While Kate Moss scored points for the most unlikely collaboration of the summer (nothing tastes as good as a Diet Coke gig feels), one woman made a lasting impact at the couture shows: Florence Pugh. Valentino’s pink lady took down body shamers fixated with her visible breasts in an eloquent post that showed what a modern brand ambassador looks like.
August
Tinseltown descended on Venice, where the festival was rocked by tales of spitting in the Don’t Worry Darling camp. If “Miss Flo” stole hearts with her brilliant two-fingers-up fashion, the title of best dressed belonged to Jodie Turner-Smith, who saw every premiere as an opportunity to let her imagination run wild. There’s great red-carpet wear, and then there’s the kind of red-carpet wear that deserves a place in Hollywood history. A moment, too, for Issey Miyake, who died aged 84. The legendary Japanese fashion designer left a pleated hole in an industry that could always use his lightness of touch and the quiet joy with which he imbued everything he touched.
September
London Fashion Week was rocked by news of the Queen’s death, with Burberry, Raf Simons and Roksanda pulling out and scores of designers shifting their narrative to reflect a nation in mourning. The runway juggernaut continued apace across the Channel, as brands bet big on star power to distract us from the dreary news cycle. In a season that saw Kim Kardashian turn Dolce curator, Paris Hilton moonlight as a sexy Versace bride and Kate Moss make the flannel shirt a cult buy, nothing surprised us. But the lack of body diversity and the number of clicks one particular spray-on dress garnered left us feeling somewhat disillusioned about the state of play. Something was rotten in the state of fashion.
October
Kanye West got blacklisted – we’ll give his anti-semitic diatribes no more airtime than this – while planet Hollywood poured all its efforts into Halloween. Heidi Klum’s prosthetic worm won Most Memed Look of 2022 and summed up just about every element of the permacrisis, while Timothée Chalamet turned cannibal fashion influencer on the promo trail for Bones and All. Special commendations must go to Anne Hathaway, whose “incidentally fabulous” rebrand was down to a “secret sauce”, and Rihanna, a red-carpet comeback queen in directional Rick Owens. If her return to radio was something of a soft launch, she proved she’ll be going hard on the fashion for this next chapter.
November
Fashion loves a game of musical chairs, but November played out like last man standing – at Kering, that is. While Demna got himself in hot water over a certain campaign, Alessandro Michele shocked the industry by announcing his departure from Gucci after a wildly successful seven-year run. Raf Simons left hypebeasts weeping into their ravewear by shuttering his namesake label, and Riccardo Tisci debuted his first solo work in 17 years as Daniel Lee doubled down on designing a new dawn for Burberry. Not since Phoebe Philo left Céline has the fashion pack been so discombobulated, or nostalgic for a past when the most we had to digest was that loafers had become backless and severed heads could legitimately be called accessories.
December
Fashion felt bloated with Christmas party fatigue, but decked out the halls of the Royal Albert Hall in sheer sequined party dresses anyway. The Fashion Awards tried to highlight the good in a year defined by tumult, by letting beefeaters playing bagpipes loose among supermodels and voting Tilda Swinton as Britain’s next PM. Confused? So were the audience when the ethereal actor waxed lyrical about baby seals and half the presenters couldn’t read the auto cue. But, really, what could be more 2022 than being lost for words?
This article was originally published on Vogue UK.
