Fashion's inner child is healing
nostalgia, whimsy, and childlike wonder -- SS25 shows in a nutshell.
It’s the first day of October, which means fashion month is officially coming to an end. Paris Fashion Week wrapped up today, and a familiar note across all the shows this month was a sense of play. The collections were fun, exaggerated, whimsical, and tapped into the much-needed childlike wonder we are all craving amidst global distress.
Some highlights from today included the long-awaited show from Chanel, whose former creative director, Virginie Viard, recently got the boot. Designed by the in-studio team, it offered a refreshing take on the brand's iconic symbols—the skirt suit, tweed, and candy pastels. With adorable stripes, floofy collars on signature tweed suits, and sheer reimaginings of classic Chanel silhouettes, this collection was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of why Chanel is so beloved.
Miu Miu’s sporty sequence handled details masterfully, as they always do. Dainty layered spaghetti strap tanks, legwarmers peeking through peep-toe heels, arm warmers under short-sleeve scrunched jackets, and layers creeping out from underneath sweaters and jackets created effortlessly intriguing looks.
Louis Vuitton was oversized, colorful, textured, and filled with patterns—a sensory dream or nightmare, depending on who you are.
To close out the final day of Paris Fashion Week and fashion month was Coperni at the most magical and childlike place of them all, Disney Land Paris.
This September was filled with whimsical references to childhood and fantasy, historical callbacks to decades past, with 70s chevron and 20s turbans, and reclamations of 2010s trends like peplums and gladiator sandals. It was a beautiful mashup of past, present, and future, seamlessly synthesizing, paying homage to, and reviving fashion in all its forms. Loewe’s unique plays on hoop skirts and corsets provided both a blast from the past and a modern, girlish, playful reimagining of French Golden Age couture. Bows, polka dots, ruffles, and balloon-hemmed dresses—elements that have been running rampant on city streets—made regular appearances across many collections, nodding to the current climate of street fashion. Japanese designer Junya Watanabe presented metallic, sculptural pieces that offered a glimpse of the future with avant-garde, unconventional shapes, materials, and silhouettes.
While society may be moving away from corporate work culture, it is running straight toward its aesthetics. We saw exaggerated shoulders on structured suit coats from McQueen, Schiaparelli, YSL, Bottega Veneta, Balmain, and many more. Layered striped button-ups from Rabanne were styled with mini skirts, boxer-like shorts, and oversized khaki flight jackets and blazers, evoking the image of prep school kids raiding their parents' closets. Bottega Veneta gave us a full-blown office commute, featuring oversized suits of all varieties alongside plastic takeout bags, leather brown lunch sacks, and crochet floral bouquets in brown wrapping paper fashioned as clutches or nestled next to Bottega’s iconic bags.
Boho is back in full force just in time for Coachella this spring, one of the many festivals that helped make the style a signature of the 2010s, thanks to the likes of Chloé and Isabel Marant. There was no shortage of billowy dresses and skirts, strappy sandals, sheer materials, lacy and ruffled trims, slouchy suede boots, and more.
Rappers took over the runway this year, with Travis Scott for Vetements, Offset for Luar, Wu-Tang at Tommy Hilfiger, NLE Choppa for Off-White, Tinashe for Elena Velez, and countless others. Music and fashion have always been deeply intertwined, so these features are always fun, whether they feel totally aligned or not. NLE Choppa for Off-White felt like an intentional nod to Virgil Abloh’s inclusion of Playboi Carti at his first Louis Vuitton show in Paris. Abloh was the founder of Off-White, which is now under the direction of Ib Kamara, and this was Off-White’s NYC debut. The collection, titled "Duty-Free," told the story of a traveler and clothing as a cultural connector. It paid respect to the global heritage of Abloh’s Ghanaian-American background and highlighted the global nature of the brand—an Italian house from an American designer, showcased in Paris and inspired bystreet culture everywhere.
These shows perfectly captured the transitory state of mind the world is in right now. For some, it’s the space between youth and adulthood; for others, it’s the gap between the values of past decades and the evolving ones of the present. We find ourselves caught between yearning and contentment, between blasé and total chaos. We are neither here nor there, constantly on the cusp of something—an uncertain and unstable something, at that. In response, we flee back to the comforts and memories of youth, to our parents' oversized closets, to dollhouses and stuffed animals. Tolu Coker’s retro, nostalgic collection was inspired by her Nigerian heritage and memories from her childhood home, the living room set and 70’s style pieces were inspired by old family photos of her parents, and explore the role the living room plays as a gathering place for immigrant communities.
Art is always a reflection of the times and environments we inhabit. AlaĂ¯a took this quite literally, as the pieces in the collection beautifully mimicked the structure and layout of the Guggenheim Museum, with spiraling and floating pleated silhouettes. Similarly, Chanel returned to the Grand Palais after four years, a home base for the brand during unstable times in its leadership.
Another common theme was visibility. The hypervisibility of our digital world doesn’t necessarily make us feel more seen. Instead, personas and profiles often mask our true selves, curating a perfect image under the guise of authenticity, which creates a sense of hiding in plain sight.
I saw this demonstrated in Issey Miyake’s sheer garments that obscure the face and body, as well as in The Row’s grainy, barely in focus collection photos. Both examples give only an impression of a person.
Marni likened the pursuit of beauty to chasing a rabbit across the yard, describing beauty as a velocity rather than a destination—something we are always seeking. This yearning for beauty, life, peace, for more is a quenchless thirst that, despite what the world may suggest, can never truly be satisfied.
Beyond the references, symbolism, and parallels to what feels like a burning world, Fashion Month brought so much joy. We truly needed a bit of fun.
Loved this analysis sis!