The most exciting runway shows of Fall/Winter 2022

Some might say that the most shocking thing to come out of Alessandro Michele’s collection this season is the brand’s collaboration with Adidas – its first drop already on retail last month. For all its lifestyle-friendly leanings, though, one can always count on the impassioned fashion magician to dream up a phantasmagorical display.

The central tropes: masculine suits for all genders that mash-up influencers from the ’70s to the ’90s and subcultures spanning hippie to punk; and Victorian-style dresses, capes and corsets contemporised with Adidas’ distinctive three stripes. Complete with a trippy mirrored set, the show – held in February – seemed to send out a message that was a cheeky wink to the sporting giant’s own slogan: possibilities are infinite.

For his debut as creative director, Matthieu Blazy zeroes in on the Italian label’s essence – something he describes as “quiet power” – only to make one of the biggest splashes in Fall Winter 2022. Understated staples like tank tops and jeans are in fact, made of printed nubuck while meticulously crafted fabrics like Leavers lace and colour-flecked herring bone give classic silhouetted (think slips and sheaths) new life and glamour.

The new Kalimero bucket bag is another item of interest not only for its sliding rope-like strap that lends cool, rustic ease, but also because it’s crafted from a single piece of Intrecciato leather without stitching. Blazy’s starting point was the brand’s roots as a bag company, or as he puts it: “So you go somewhere (with it),” explaining the emphasis on pieces that no one can move, stride, and swish freely in. Such movement, as seen on the runway, is nothing short of dramatic.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simon join the circle of designers who will make the tank top the most fashionable essential of Fall Winter 2022 (both the opening and closing looks of the show, as well as several others in between, featured it). How’s that dramatic then, you might ask? The answer lies in how this power duo is focused on making an occasion out of the everyday this season.

On the runway, said tops were paired with peek-a-book pencil skirts made up of panels of flannel, satin and embellished mesh (another recurring motif), for example. Blocky jackets come adorned with rings of faux fur around the upper arms, while seemingly austere tailored sheath dresses and coats sport unexpected, sensuous, cut-outs on the back. Mrs Prada explained in a statement distributed post-show: “You want to live again, to be inspired, and to learn from the lives of people,” And that’s how she and Simons take our breath away.

Prepare for the “blizzard collection” – nicknamed for its show scenography: a giant enclosed globe in which models trudged through a simulated snowstorm that got progressively stronger with each of the 69 looks. Staged just over a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the presentation – originally a commentary on climate change – became Demna’s powerfully poignant protest against the war. (He knows the pains too well having been a child refugee who had to flee his hometown of Abkhazia, Georgia when he was 10).

The clothes and accessories are trademark Demna – think distressed, oversized staples; stretch maxi dresses; a towel-like wrap that’s, in fact, made of high-quality stretch knit; that “packaging tape” bodysuit made famous by Kim K. A new garbage-like carrier named the Trash Pouch further drives home the designer’s message that even the mundane shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Sarah Burton mesmerises with the magic of mushrooms in a collection inspired by mycelium – the network of filaments that make up the root and support system of fungi. Exquisitely cut bustier dresses and pants suits – signatures of the house – come in psychedelic colours like acid green and yellow. Giant mushroom motifs are artfully embroidered onto nubby sweaters and bedazzled party frocks.

There’s also a tribute to the brand’s iconic Spring Summer 1999 show, when robots spray-painted Shalom Harlow’s gown live, in sharp tailoring sporting the same splattered effect – nothing to do with mushrooms here, but hypnotising all the same. Completing her ode to this underground hero of the natural world were heaps of mulch in the Brooklyn warehouse where the show was staged – a scene that resembled earth post-apocalypse and on the mend.

Nicolas Ghesquiere moved the brand’s show from the familiar grounds of the Louvre, where it had been presenting for years, to the Musee d’Orsay on Paris’ Left Bank this season. That break from the mould was fitting for a collection that celebrates the intrepid fashion experimentation many dabble with during adolescence – what the designer describes as “an essential, initiatory journey.”

This concept best manifests in the collection’s carefree layering. Clock the opening look of baggy pants, oversized bomber jacket and gaudy printed tie modelled by house ambassador Jung HoYeon, or the XL-sized, rugby sweaters – worn rakishly thrown over maxi dresses on the runway. Ghesquiere has even included references to his ’90s hero, the photographer David Sims, whose images of free-spirited youths pop up as prints. Consider this a collection that – to paraphrase Charlie in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – makes us feel infinite.

The French shoemaker’s presentations have always been a delightfully madcap affair, staged as an immersive, multi-room experience in Hotel Vivier – a pop-up concept the brand sets up for media and guests every season. Artistic director Gherardo Felloni’s approach this time: let the imagination run wild because “it’s more important than ever.” Besides themed spaces such as a boudoir with cat-headed footmen and a dining room that looks right out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the event in March, the collection is fittingly fanciful and bold on embellishments. The signature Viv Choc Strass shoulder bag, for example, now comes in ruched neon satin; colour blocking is a key motif; and there’s a new plumped pair of pumps dubbed Choc Feathers.

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This article was first published on Female.