Fall fashion favourites

BEFORE WE GET INTO THE details of this season’s top runway trends, it is worth noting that fashion has become so all-inclusive that perhaps the biggest trend this season is how fashion has become seriously equal-opportunity. Every important trend now addresses both sexes – men and women – and, without even a ribbon of irony, the rainbow of genders in-between. The overarching theme this season would be androgyny. Styling-wise, an undercurrent of conservatism pervades the collections – “buttoned up” is the freshest look of the day, after years of clownish, oversized clothing and tattered, exaggerated clickbait fashion.

From the Fall 2022 runways, we pick the top 5 trends to take note of. 

Lego brights

To counter the minimalist shapes, and add some energy to your Fall wardrobe, designers everywhere resorted to splashes of eye-scorching colour. It must mean something when Valentino sent out a shocking-pink collection (well, almost: the group of all-black clothes at the end simply underscored the brightness). And on the opposite end of the designer spectrum, Marc Jacobs sent out a crayon box of deconstructed ball gowns in primary Lego brights. You get the drift. The thing to note from these examples is to apply these bold colours as a monolithic, unadorned block. Go hat-to-heel in one searing shade wherever possible. An absinthe green is a top fashion colour; an unseasonably bright Sunkist orange, another. Leaven the colour loaf with a white tee, or a black glove for best results, and never forget a dour expression.

Pared-down style

It’s a sign of the times when brands known for loading on the bells and whistles suddenly feature quite plain, almost graceful looks after seasons of shrieking “look at me”, Instagram-worthy clothes. When top couture houses eschew the gilt and the bling – Dior sent out a group of gowns so shorn of detail, and Chanel sent out an unembellished grey tweed dress – you know minimalism is the zeitgeist. It brings to mind how the masters of the mid-1990s – the iconic “intellectuals,” including Helmut Lang, Ann Demeulemeester and Jil Sander – came to refresh vulgar 1980s fashion with pared-back looks. It’s a 1990s revival now, so look out for anything that’s long and unassuming: fitted, narrow skirts, featureless shirts, and classic trousers. Whisper, don’t shout.

Top Gun

Aviator jackets are being revived just as the 1986 movie Top Gun, which launched the look, is reprised with its star Tom Cruise wearing that battered bomber jacket quite convincingly, along with co-star Jennifer Connelly. The new take on this rugged classic comes deconstructed in shape, size and style. Think stripped-down black flight jackets, shorn of all detail at Givenchy; saucy shrunken ones at Miu Miu; super-sized ones at Prada and Louis Vuitton; and a deluxe croco version at Hermes. Whatever your flight of fancy, there’s an aviator iteration of this classic outerwear style to suit it.

Black leather

Any item in full black leather, be it a bomber jacket, wide trousers or floor-length coat, is one of the key trends worth investing in this season. A recurring motif in fashion through the years, black leather seems especially appropriate now during these uncertain, compromised times. Its references always have an undercurrent of unease: Think of the danger and violence implicit in a biker jacket, or a black leather-clad Michael Jackson. Think of all the sinister and perverse photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe featuring models wearing black leather. Think of Batman and his black leather cape and mask, and all that that implies. All this unease is translated this season into black leather classics you can enjoy for all times – a collarless, androgynous blouson at Fendi; a double-breasted suit at Bottega Veneta; a biker jacket reimagined as a dress at Saint Laurent.

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Ready for business

Traditional tailoring was woven into many of the runway collections in classic workwear’s long-awaited comeback, post-pandemic. As masks come off everywhere, it feels fresh and optimistic to wear something that requires some sort of ritual and discipline. The new tailoring also reflects the sleek minimalism of the 1990s revival, with classic, pre-pandemic office silhouette – the bold shoulder, the nipped waist – brought back to the fore, rather than the infantile, brashly be-logoed “elevated athleisure” we have been seeing of late.