The Art of Making Us Want More
From Chanel's renewed imagination to Saint Laurent's gilded farewell, Fashion Month offered a compelling reminder that fashion's greatest currency may still be its ability to make us feel something.
Words by Carolyn Gray
We survived another Fashion Month. Four cities, countless collections, a few bittersweet goodbyes, and enough creative-director conversations to make you wonder who will still be holding the keys to their respective houses by next season.
I watched much of it from afar this time, taking in the collections, revisiting the details, and observing the conversations around them. What stood out wasn't necessarily a focus on trends, but a renewed sense of imagination. Fashion is becoming interested in building worlds again.
After several seasons dominated by quiet luxury, neutral palettes, and an almost obsessive celebration of understatement, there is something refreshing about designers willing to embrace theatricality, color, eccentricity, and emotion. Minimalism has not completely disappeared, and maximalism alone does not guarantees good design. The collections that resonated most with me were those that offered a distinct point of view, something beyond beautiful clothing and a logo.
At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy continues to demonstrate what happens when a creative director takes the time to understand not just the history of a house, but the person who built it.
A year into his tenure, his collections are beginning to feel like chapters of an ongoing conversation around the personal world of the late Gabrielle Chanel. From the celestial setting of his first show last September to a New York themed Métiers d'art presentation, an marine-inspired runway, and most recently what felt like a sky filled with illuminated birds, Blazy has used these environments to extend the narrative of his collections.
For Spring/Summer 2027, one of the most compelling details was the appearance of Gabrielle's personal archival 2.55 handbag in both the opening and closing looks. It felt like a deliberate gesture, bringing the collection full circle and reminding us that Chanel's history is as much about the woman herself as it is about the clothes she created.
What excites me most is the consistency beginning to emerge. His interplay of textures, unexpected colors, playful prints, updated knits, and familiar accessories reimagined from collection to collection suggests Blazy is developing an identifiable language for the house. There's room for a new Chanel woman without asking the existing client to abandon what initially drew her to the brand. That balance between familiarity and discovery is difficult to achieve, and truly the reason why his work feels so welcoming and exciting.
A similar sense of discovery is happening at Dior under Jonathan Anderson, although his approach is considerably more eccentric. His fascination with historical house codes, unusual proportions, and almost collectible design details is creating a world that feels unmistakably his. For Spring/Summer 2027, he explored nature through asymmetry, fluid silhouettes, watercolor-like effects, and handcrafted details.
Even the invitation arrived with two walnuts, a true Jonathan Anderson detail.
And I would be remiss not to mention Nina Christen, Dior's design director of shoes, whose journey from Bottega Veneta to Loewe and now Dior has been exciting to follow. Nina has also recently embarked on her own namesake footwear brand, which I think has something every shoe lover could appreciate.Her sculptural heels, unusual toe shapes, and delicate embellishments feel like an extension of Anderson's imagination rather than an afterthought. The shoes are whimsical, sometimes wonderfully strange, but rarely forgettable.
That matters, particularly in an uncertain economy where consumers are questioning large purchases and luxury houses are struggling to justify increasingly ambitious price tags. The familiar lipstick effect comes to mind, when consumers turn to smaller indulgences during difficult economic periods.
But today's luxury indulgence hardly resembles the price of a lipstick during the Great Depression. For some, its a designer dupe, for others it might be a $1,500 pair of designer shoes or a handbag that feels like a piece of the designer's larger universe. While hardly affordable, these accessories offer a more approachable entry into a fashion house than a $12,000 runway look, allowing consumers to buy into not just a product, but an identity.
Then there was Saint Laurent.
Anthony Vaccarello's departure after a decade at the house felt particularly bittersweet. His tenure helped shape my own affection for Saint Laurent, encouraging me to look more closely at the house's history and understand the relationship between its founder's vision and the modern woman Vaccarello was dressing.
His final Spring/Summer 2027 collection, with its gilded palette and commanding silhouettes, felt like a fitting closing statement. There was something very ceremonial about the gold, and the refusal to dilute a point of view that had become so recognizable over ten years.
Whether every look translates into commercial success is another conversation. But what Vaccarello demonstrated is the value of consistency. He created a woman with a recognizable attitude, and in doing so, cultivated an audience that understood precisely what it meant to identify with Saint Laurent. For those of us who came to consider ourselves Saint Laurent women during his tenure, his departure marks the end of a particularly influential chapter.
And it comes with no surprise that not every house, managed to inspire the same excitement.
At The Row, Spring/Summer 2027 brought a dash antique linens, lace, and delicate, doily-like details alongside the immaculate tailoring we've come to expect. While I understand the appeal for its loyal customer, I couldn't help but wonder whether we were seeing something new or simply another version of what already works. There's nothing wrong with knowing your audience, but at what point does consistency become repetition, especially when other designers are giving us so much more to imagine?
A similar question came to mind at Mugler, where Miguel Castro Freitas revisited the house's sculptural history through exaggerated hourglass silhouettes and insect-inspired references. While the collection generated conversation, I wondered how much of it was an evolution of Mugler's identity versus a return to what we've already seen. There's so much to explore within a house's archives, but shouldn't they inspire what comes next rather than determine it?
And then there's Demna at Gucci, an appointment I'm still not entirely convinced was the right fit. While certain pieces are undoubtedly speaking to the fashion industry's current crop of It girls, I find myself questioning the larger creative vision. There's a difference between developing a distinct language for a house and simply refining tailoring, styling familiar wardrobe staples, or introducing a gothic edge. Demna understands how to create an attitude, but when you strip away the characters and presentation, are the clothes themselves all that exciting? For me, not quite. And for a house with Gucci's history of eccentricity, glamour, and individuality, I expected a little more.
Perhaps one of the more unexpected examples of fashion's renewed appetite for storytelling came from John Galliano's collaboration with Zara. The partnership was understandably met with skepticism, given the contrast between Galliano's couture legacy and mass-market retail. Yet the first collection, Re{form}, demonstrated how creative direction can transform the perception of a product. The theatrical styling and well considered presentation made the garments feel like part of a larger experience. Whether you admired the clothes or questioned the collaboration, there was an undeniable commitment to creating an atmosphere around them.
And that, to me, is exactly what the industry seems to be loving again. World-building, or escapism to others.
PRODUCTION
Words by
Carolyn Gray
Photography
Cover Image: Louise & Maria Thornfeldt, Image 2: Alessandro Lucioni, Image 3: The Row, Image 4: Dominique Maitre