The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
NEW YORK, United States — While the new, fey masculinity, epitomised by Alessandro Michele's Gucci, continues to make headlines in menswear, its inverse, which could be called butch femininity, is hardly new. In the 1980s, and during the suffragette movement long before, power dressing helped pave this well-travelled road. Yet there is a surprising amount of mannish tailoring for bare-faced, stompy-footed ladies on the London runways this season.
Margaret Howell has always been there. She has a distinctive take on the theme: sophisticated yet rustic and usually poetic, with whiffs of the English countryside all around. Think tweeds, sturdy brogues and a general emphasis on texture and matte surfaces. The collection she presented today was just another chapter of the story. Blazers got shorter and boxier, and so did trousers, while flat bowties — halfway between schoolboy and dandy — appeared prominently, even with rather dowdy sack-dresses. All in all, the collection was respectable and did not lack for covetable pieces — the coats and duffel coats, in particular, looked fresh. But, overall, the offering was a tad too repetitive and lacked the poetry that normally elevates her work.
And designer Sabato De Sarno doubles down with his Cruise ‘25 show for the brand, writes Tim Blanks.
From where aspirational customers are spending to Kering’s challenges and Richemont’s fashion revival, BoF’s editor-in-chief shares key takeaways from conversations with industry insiders in London, Milan and Paris.
BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks and Imran Amed, BoF founder and editor-in-chief, look back at the key moments of fashion month, from Seán McGirr’s debut at Alexander McQueen to Chemena Kamali’s first collection for Chloé.
Anthony Vaccarello staged a surprise show to launch a collection of gorgeously languid men’s tailoring, writes Tim Blanks.