Even if 2021 wasn’t the “post-pandemic” free-for-all we hoped for, this year gave us plenty of reasons to feel excited about fashion again. We saw some major debuts, celebrities experimented with their red carpet comebacks, and we got a brand-new president, a stylish First Lady, and a VP who is supporting American designers.
With vaccines distributed around the world, in-person events resumed this summer, followed by the official, long-awaited return of Fashion Week. Despite all of the conversations about fixing the system, producing less stuff, and making fashion truly meaningful, the spring 2022 season felt oddly, well… normal. Clothing and the people who wear it often seemed like an afterthought at the expense of OTT spectacles and viral moments. Still, certain designers got us thinking: Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga’s Demna (no last name), Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, Rick Owens, and a swell of young, rule-breaking talents.
We have even more to look forward to in 2022—stay tuned for that story!—and until then, read about the moments that shaped 2021 below.
The inauguration started the year on a high note
After months of lockdown, a social justice uprising, and a contentious election, we took a collective breath on November 7th, 2020, when Joe Biden was officially named the 46th President of the United States. In January, the inauguration was a genuine celebration, complete with meaningful, memorable fashion. Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris showed their support for young American designers in turquoise Markarian and violet Christopher John Rogers, respectively, while Amanda Gorman gave a moving speech in sunny Prada (and sparked a frenzy for the label’s padded satin headbands). It was a good day for America, for women, and for fashion.
Alessandro Michele and Demna “Hacked” Gucci and Balenciaga
Just before Thanksgiving, Gucci and Balenciaga’s unprecedented “hack” launched in stores and generated lines around the block. Curious onlookers questioned the faux-graffiti’d “Gucci” on the Balenciaga shop windows—surely it was a mistake? In fact, Alessandro Michele “quoted” silhouettes and logos from Demna’s Balenciaga and mixed them in with his own signatures—glitter, ’70s suits, feathers—to reimagine what a collaboration can look like. Later in the year, the link-up between Fendi and Versace—or Fendace, as it came to be known—was every bit as buzzed about, with a runway cast that included Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Amber Valletta. The big question for 2022: Who will reimagine the collaboration next?
We were glued to our TVs—and actually got into the clothes
Not so long ago, the fashion we saw on TV was reliably terrible. In 2021, we’ve been spoiled with fascinating on-screen clothes, from the painstaking period costumes in Bridgerton to Succession’s take on power dressing and Halston’s Studio 54 gowns. Even when we love to hate it—ahem, Emily in Paris—we’ve never talked about TV fashion as much as we did this year. The fashion-entertainment connection evolved, too, from collaborations between designers and streaming services to new platforms that “shop out” every item from your favorite shows (as well as similar or inspired items). Are you obsessed with Molly’s confident tailoring on Insecure, or curious about the products And Just Like That’s makeup artist used to give Carrie such a healthy glow? Seek has every detail.
Marc Jacobs stages a major comeback at the New York Public Library
While his peers experimented with virtual shows and lookbooks to stay on track with the fashion calendar, Marc Jacobs was absent from the runway for well over a year. The time away was worth it: In June, he brought us to the New York Public Library to see Marc Jacobs couture: cocoon shapes, giant platform shoes, holographic dresses, trailing faux furs. “This collection was less about where we’ve been or the current fashion conversation than it was a raising of the fashion bar,” wrote Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps. Jacobs titled the collection “Happiness,” and that’s precisely how we all felt as we walked out.
Demna Resurrects Balenciaga couture
As debuts go, nothing in recent memory has felt quite as impactful as Demna’s first couture collection for Balenciaga. After 53 years, he brought it back in spectacular fashion, from the clothes—sculptural gowns, trench coats, haute jeans—to the setting at Avenue George V, the house’s original salons. Each detail was historically accurate, down to the faded paint and pin-drop silence. “People put me in the box of someone who designs hoodies and sneakers—and that’s not really who I am,” he told Vogue Runway. As Sarah Mower wrote in her review: “The feat he managed with this ultra-aspirational collection was not to turn his back on the aesthetics of the street and underground but to give the inclusive values of a generation a sensational elevation. Confidence, grandeur, ease: His focus was on how to imbue these clothes with ‘couture allure, posture, and attitude’... How to give equal value to a black turtleneck, pair of jeans, utility jacket, or T-shirt as to a grand ball gown or skirt suit?”
Just two months later, Demna reimagined the fashion show yet again with his spring 2022 collection, a meta “red carpet” followed by an ingenious Simpsons collaboration episode. His explanation was simple enough: “We needed something fun to happen.”
Pieter Mulier introduces Alaïa to the Next Gen
Another debut we couldn’t stop thinking about? Pieter Mulier at Alaïa, the first designer to succeed the house founder Azzedine since his passing in 2017. A longtime collaborator of Raf Simons—he worked with him at Calvin Klein, Dior, and Jil Sander—Mulier brought a combination of deep experience, masterful skills, and a reverence for the “family-scale” business Alaïa built. As he told Vogue Runway, his task was to present the house codes—body-skimming knits, laser cut-outs, sculpted leather—to a new generation. “I wanted to make it democratic again,” he said, hence the luxe hoodies, couture leggings, and cycling shorts. The collection met its young audience via its first celebrity endorsement: Zendaya, who wore look 15’s sensational mulberry crop top and fur-trimmed skirt to the Venice Film Festival.
Schiaparelli becomes the go-to label for the World’s most influential women
Speaking of film festivals and year-defining celebrities, one of the most memorable looks of 2021 was no doubt Bella Hadid’s Schiaparelli couture number, complete with gilded “lungs,” at the Tre Piani premiere at Cannes. It cemented Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry as a new celeb favorite; his clothes also garbed Lady Gaga at the inauguration, Lorde on the cover of Vogue, and Adele at her “One Night Only” live performance. The label has surely enjoyed the exposure, and it’s fair to expect surreal jewelry and accessories to be an even bigger trend in 2022.
Kerby Jean-Raymond makes an historic couture debut in New York
It was meant to be one of the biggest shows of 2021: Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond had been invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture to participate in the fall 2021 couture season, the first African American designer in history to do so. And he did it in New York, not Paris. On July 8, he brought editors by shuttle bus to Irvington, New York, where he’d set up a spiral runway on the lawn of Madame C.J. Walker’s home. But what began as a sunny, hopeful day ended with one of the worst storms New York has seen in years, flooding the subways and grinding Raymond’s plans to a halt. The show never even began, and it became something of a cautionary tale for designers looking to stage outdoor, mid-pandemic fashion shows. But a few days later (on a warm, dry afternoon), much of the crowd came back for round two. The turnout was a testament to the excitement around Raymond’s work, and the collection was unlike anything else at couture: a surreal tribute to Black inventors through history, from the beauty mogul Madame C.J. Walker (represented by a model with larger-than-life hair curlers) to Jan Matzeliger, the inventor of the shoe lasting machine, honored with a look resembling a sandal.
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Zendaya becomes a fashion icon—literally
A brief scroll through Zendaya’s page on Vogue.com calls up many of the year’s best red carpet looks. From the aforementioned Alaïa number to Loewe’s metallic breastplate, Balmain’s wet-look dress, and Rick Owens’s draped sequins, Zendaya hasn’t just been the first person to wear the year’s most-talked-about runway looks, but she wears them in ways no one else possibly could. Much of it comes down to her natural sense of style and attitude, but her longtime partnership with Law Roach also plays a part. Ahead of Zendaya’s Fashion Icon Award at this year’s CFDA Awards, Roach spoke to Vogue about their collaborative process: “Everything we do is 50/50. Yes, it’s me finding the clothes and styling her, but it’s also her wearing them, going out to do her thing,” he says. “Picking out pretty clothes for a pretty girl isn’t particularly exciting. You have to create a moment.” Lucky stars might have a few “moments” a year; with Zendaya, we’ve simply lost count.
Telfar Clemens reimagines the streetwear “Drop” with Telfar TV
Telfar’s slogan is “Not for you—for everyone.” It sums up his vision of fashion as something that’s affordable, accessible, and anonymous. Where other brands seek exclusivity and intentionally manufacture desire they can’t meet, he’s interested in ubiquity. Suffice it to say, when the demand for his vegan leather bags grew overwhelming, he was eager to find a solution. Every release was selling out instantly, often thanks to bots that were cheating the system; how could he make sure his fans who’d saved up for a bag could actually buy one? His answer was Telfar TV: a first-of-its-kind public access channel to stream content, Telfar runway shows, and QR codes for viewers to shop securely. As Clemens put it at a press conference in September: “It’s not a drop, it’s a drip.”
Fashion month resumes, starting with a high-energy New York Fashion Week
After a year-and-a-half of glitchy livestreams, Zoom appointments, and a few masked IRL shows in Europe, September 2021 marked Fashion Week’s official return. The New York schedule felt as busy as ever, and for the first time, the focus was really on the city’s new guard: Collina Strada, Luar, Eckhaus Latta, and Maryam Nassir Zadeh (who isn’t new, exactly—her store is 10 years old—but remains an indie favorite, and broke into Vogue Runway’s top 10 most-clicked shows of the season for the first time). Those runways reflected the exuberant, individual spirit of the streets, where people wore clashing prints, vibrant colors, and unlikely pairings. The good vibes continued on in London, Milan, and Paris, where shows became more OTT (see: Balmain’s music festival with Doja Cat). Fashion Week snapped back to “normal” much faster than we expected. Still, what sticks in our memory is the energy of New York, where personal style and self expression overtook flashy spectacles and trends.
After two-and-a-half years, the Met Gala returns to celebrate American fashion
Last year’s Met Gala was an early casualty of the pandemic, set to take place on May 4, 2020. By the same time in 2021, most of us had just gotten our second vaccine, and in-person events were still next to impossible. But by September the gala was back, and celebrities made up for lost time on the red carpet. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky became the night’s best-dressed couple when they finally arrived, but it’s Kim Kardashian’s jet-black, head-to-toe Balenciaga body stocking that defined the night for many of us.
40 designers honour Alber Elbaz with a special show at Paris Fashion Week
As Nicole Phelps wrote of Alber Elbaz’s shocking death in April, “fashion lost not only one of its most celebrated designers, but one of its best cheerleaders.” A regular at friends’ runway shows and a generous supporter of emerging talents and students, it’s only fitting that his peers would honor Elbaz in collaborative, communal fashion. After the spring 2022 season wrapped in Paris in October, 40 of them staged a show for AZ Factory, the label Elbaz launched in January, with looks inspired by his most celebrated signatures. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Jean Paul Gaultier incorporated his familiar heart motif; Rosie Assoulin, a former intern of Elbaz’s, created a trompe l’oeil dress that mimicked his suit and square glasses; and Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton referenced his vivacious ruffles. It was a heartfelt end to a busy month, but we think Elbaz would have been happy to see everyone coming together in new, creative ways.
Harry Styles goes on tour and celebrates “Harryween” at Madison Square Garden
Here’s hoping the people who ridiculed Harry Styles’s December 2019 Vogue cover ate their words a couple months later when a pandemic set in. Men in dresses didn’t seem like such a big deal then, did they? Of course, much of the world remains indefatigably prejudiced, but Styles has carried on like it’s nothing (because it is). For his hotly-anticipated tour this fall, he collaborated with his stylist Harry Lambert on dozens of epic looks, from sparkling fringed tops to ’70s suits to, yes, a lot of frilly dresses. The tour culminated in a two-night Halloween series at Madison Square Garden, dubbed “Harryween” by fans, many of whom turned up in DIY versions of Styles’s best looks.
Fashion enters the Metaverse
Fashion began experimenting with gaming and virtual reality in 2020, from Collina Strada and Balenciaga’s video games to start-ups making digital garments. But 2021 saw some of the most agenda-setting brands move past concepts and actually invest real money in the metaverse. Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, and Gucci all sold NFTs; Balenciaga teamed up with Fortnite on a line of skins; and yesterday Vogue Business reported on Nike’s acquisition of Rtfkt, the “Supreme of digital fashion” that merges fashion collectibles and gaming. The announcement came just two weeks after the unveiling of Nikeland on Roblox, where users can explore a digital remake of Nike’s HQ and play online games like dodgeball and tag.
What does it all mean for 2022? Will we all be buying NFTs next year (or at least get a handle on what they are?) Vogue Business’s Maghan McDowell told me that despite the hype, it’s still too soon. “While the metaverse and NFTs entered common parlance faster than any tech I’ve seen (and probably any in history), it is still incredibly nascent for the average person. Most fashion consumers who acquire brand NFTs in 2022, aside from the crypto and digital fashion communities, will be buying them for special perks associated with them—like a modern-day VIP membership card. The good news is that digital fashion is relatively easy to try, either through a platform like DressX, AR try-on on Snapchat, or dressing your avatar.” Don’t give up on the physical world just yet!
The emergence of the couture catsuit
Is it fashion, or is it haute athleisure? Is it an “outfit” or a single garment? We can’t quite explain the catsuit or its rise in popularity, though perhaps Kim Kardashian embracing the look is explanation enough. Sporty, striking, and futuristic, the catsuit was a natural style progression for Kardashian, who’s long favored body-conscious silhouettes and monochrome dressing. She isn’t the only celebrity pushing the idea, either: her sister Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Sandra Bullock have also chosen catsuits over cocktail dresses this year. When Zoe Kravitz takes up the leading role in Catwoman in 2022, the look might just go mainstream.
House of Gucci gives Oscar-worthy performances and major Fashion
House of Gucci’s costume designer Jancy Yates revealed that in all 54 days of filming, Lady Gaga never repeated a look—“not even an earring”—in her role as Patrizia Reggiani. The film had everyone buzzing in March when a teaser image leaked of Gaga and her co-star, Adam Driver, in high-glam ’80s ski gear; the photo garnered an estimated 4.3 million likes on Instagram. The premiere in November sparked an even greater interest in Gucci and its past, and Lady Gaga adopted a new look of “painful Italian glamour” for the press tour, in keeping with her preference to reinvent her look for each new role or album. We’re already hearing whispers about Oscar nominations, both for Gaga and Yates.
Fashion remembers Virgil Abloh with a tribute at Art Basel Miami
Ask anyone in fashion, and they’d likely tell you that nothing has shocked the industry quite as much as the news of Virgil Abloh’s death on November 28. His rare cancer diagnosis was kept private, and his tireless work ethic and positive outlook led most of us to believe he was in fine health. That he was able to continue working, giving, and inspiring us through it all makes his passing that much more emotional. “It’s important that people know that his desire for documenting and promoting his own work and existence wasn’t about him, but about the references he used, so many of which celebrated the breadth of Black histories,” Anders Christian Madsen, a Vogue contributor and Abloh collaborator, explained in a Vogue Runway newsletter last week. “Whenever he’d write ‘Virgil was here’ on a trainer or a table or whatever, he was making that point.”
Two days after Abloh’s death, a reprisal of the spring 2022 collection he unveiled in Paris in June took place in Miami,. What may have been just an upscale, client-facing shopping event was imbued with new meaning, with friends of Abloh’s in the crowd including Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, LV’s CEO Michael Burke, and the Arnault family, the owners of LV’s parent company LVMH. Against the night sky, red lights spelled out that familiar saying: “Virgil was here.”
And Just Like That serves major fashion and major plot twists
There were plenty of surprises in And Just Like That’s long-awaited premiere, from Miranda’s bumbling attempt at “wokeness” to (spoiler alert!) the death of Mr. Big, evidently spurred by a cigar habit and a needlessly hardcore Peloton class. As for the fashion, it was just as bold and directional as we expected: Miranda ditched her suits and normcore for Dries Van Noten, Carrie nodded to many of her Sex & the City signatures (the flower pins, the Manolo Blahnik heels, the tutus), and Charlotte looked reliably ladylike in Lela Rose and Oscar de la Renta. If some of it feels a little over-the-top for today’s New York woman, no one ever accused SATC of being particularly realistic. We’ll be tuning in tomorrow and through the holidays to see what the next episodes have in store.
The first Yeezy x Gap product dropped out of nowhere
In the middle of summer, with zero advance warning, a cerulean puffer appeared on Gap’s website. It was the first product in a highly-anticipated Yeezy x Gap collaboration, dubbed “The Round Jacket” and priced modestly at $200. The avalanche of orders nearly broke Gap’s website. Kanye West wore a red version during his Donda tour, and a simple cotton hoodie followed in September. Another drop of the puffers was announced for tomorrow morning, December 16, with all three colorways in sizes XXS to XXXL; be sure to set your alarm for 8:00 a.m. EST. Rumor has it the rest of the collection will debut in early 2022, but that’s all we know for now. Come back in January for more details—until then, we’re turning off our phones. Happy New Year!
This article first appeared on Vogue.https://www.vogue.com/article/year-in-fashion-best-moments-2021.
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