Everything you need to know about the SS25 fashion month
Fashion fanatic or curious onlooker, these are the names, shows and news to know about this season
New York Fashion Week kicks off on 6 September 2024; bringing with it a month-long whirlwind of shows, parties, events, celebrity sightings and viral social media moments. As ever, the New York, London, Paris and Milan collections are strictly for industry professionals and VIP clients – but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be part of the SS25 fashion month conversation.
With brands now prizing Instagram likes and TikTok views almost as highly as they do cold hard sales, the online comments section has never been more important. But, if you’re going to get ahead of the curve when it comes to having your say, you’re going to need to know what to look out for. So which are the hottest young designers on every insider’s lips? Which shows promise the greatest visual spectacle? And who has set rumours swirling by being notably absent from this season’s schedule? Here’s everything you need to know about the SS25 fashion month.
New York Fashion Week, 6-11 September 2024
Michael Kors AW24
Carolina Herrera AW24
NYFW has struggled with a reputation for being a little ho-hum over the past few years and, in truth, SS25 appears to be another mixed bag. Loyal faithfuls, including Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger and Tory Burch, remain firmly in place, but this season they’re rubbing shoulders with mid-tier brands such as Cos and Toteme. While in theory there’s nothing wrong with this – Topshop showed at London Fashion Week for years and was acclaimed for its support of young designers – it’s hardly a heavy-hitting line-up that can compete with Paris or Milan.
Which isn’t to say there isn’t plenty to look forward to. Having briefly re-joined the official schedule last year, Ralph Lauren is absent from this season’s roster, opening up space for some trans-Atlantic transplants. Ib Kamara will be showing his sophomore collection for Off-White at NYFW, uprooting the brand from its historic place on the Paris schedule, while Pieter Mulier also delayed Alaïa’s standard slot around Paris Couture Week to instead show off-schedule in New York. Au fait with the city thanks to a stint at Calvin Klein and no stranger to a little spectacle, for AW24 Mulier had the entire Parisian Alaïa boutique refloored with mirrors and the season before took over a bridge crossing the Seine – this is definitely one to keep your eyes on.
London Fashion Week, 12-17 September 2024
Richard Quinn AW24
Burberry AW24
A well-known incubator of young talent, with global fashion darlings including Simone Rocha, JW Anderson, Alexander McQueen, Roksanda, Molly Goddard, and Erdem Moralıoğlu getting their start at (and largely remaining loyal to) London Fashion Week, this is largely the result of the British Fashion Council’s extraordinarily successful Newgen scheme. Founded in 1993 to support emerging designers, it’s still going strong today, with this season’s beneficiaries including hugely promising names such as Di Petsa, Tolu Coker, Chet Lo, and Aaron Esh, among others. Big news, then, that after many seasons hosting its shows and presentations at the Old Selfridges Hotel, for SS25 the honour has been handed to 180 Strand – perhaps not coincidentally just doors down from London Fashion Week’s former home at Somerset House.
Elsewhere, celebrity spotters should get their autograph books ready on 16 September, when the British Fashion Council will host an ‘Icons’ themed party expected to be attended by the great and good of the global fashion industry. Also, stay tuned on 13 September when Completedworks will show the second in its Confessions of Lilith performance series. The first saw Joanna Lumley deliver a mesmerising in-the-round monologue that was more than enough to jolt London’s fashion scene out of its show stupor – we can’t wait to see what founder Anna Jewsbury comes up with next.
Big names on the LFW schedule this season include homegrown favourites Burberry – showing for the first time since installing new CEO Joshua Schulman – Erdem, Richard Quinn, JW Anderson and Emilia Wickstead. And, while many regular attendees are lamenting the absence of Molly Goddard from this season’s schedule, SS25 will see the return of Nensi Dojaka after a two season hiatus, the first London presentation from New York-based brand Puppets and Puppets, and an exciting debut from Central Saint Martins graduate Yaku Stapleton.
Milan Fashion Week, 17-23 September 2024
Susan Fang AW24
Gucci AW24
In a major show of strength from the Italian fashion scene, Milan Fashion Week will add an extra day to its usual calendar for the SS25 fashion month, with big names including Fendi, Marni and Alberta Ferretti showing straight out of the gate on 17 September. Given the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s levels of confidence, it’s perhaps unsurprising the rest of MFW is outfitted with heavy hitters, with Prada, Gucci, Versace, Bottega Veneta and Roberto Cavalli all taking their usual places on the schedule.
Perhaps a little more excitingly, however, is Dolce & Gabbana's collaboration with London-based fashion talent Susan Fang. Part of its ‘Supported by’ programme that has so far seen the Italian brand work with fashion up-and-comers including Matty Bovan, Feben and Karoline Vitto, Dolce & Gabbana will aid Fang in a dedicated runway presentation on 22 September. As part of the initiative, Dolce & Gabbana will provide all fabrics and materials for the collection as well as hosting the show at its via Broggi headquarters.
Paris Fashion Week, 23 September – 1 October 2024
Valentino AW24
Dior AW24
Taking place across a mammoth nine days, there’s a reason Paris Fashion Week is considered to be the ‘big one’ when it comes to fashion month. While most fashion editors will likely skip day one (haven’t heard of Weinsanto, Vaquera or Ruibuilt? No, us neither), after that the hits come thick and fast. From Dior and Saint Laurent on 24 September all the way through to Chanel, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton on 1 October, it’s a seriously packed-out schedule.
The biggest news of PFW is, of course, Alessandro Michele’s debut collection for Valentino. While hugely successful at stamping his colourful, often surrealist vision on the Gucci brand, Michele’s Valentino predecessor, Pierpaolo Piccioli, was a much loved figure with a very different aesthetic. We had a little taste of what to expect when a surprise Resort 2025 lookbook dropped earlier this year and all indications are Michele will very much be doing his own thing. Watch this space.
Elsewhere, Chanel will be showing its first collection since the departure of artistic director and house veteran Virginie Viard in May. As with Tom Ford, which also lost its creative director earlier this year and has opted out of the SS25 show season, Chanel has yet to name a predecessor, with this collection coming from its in-house design team as a collective. Often considered to be the top job in fashion design, the house seems in no hurry to name Viard’s replacement. Let the rumour mill continue to churn.
