How does one cut through the noise in an era when personal style dominates both menswear and womenswear? For Fall/Winter 2025, here’s how to decode designer cues with clarity, character, and a touch of beautifully contained chaos.
TURN UP THE RED DIAL
Provocative, high-voltage and gloriously bold, red takes the spotlight this season. From Chanel to Comme des Garçons, designers are embracing the full spectrum, from vibrant cherry to deep crimson.
The specific shade of the moment, however, is undoubtedly poppy red. Searing, surreal, and unmissable, McQueen describes it as “hallucinatory”. At Ferragamo, poppy emerges as both a metaphor and a material with 3D embroidery and feathered gowns that are both delicate and dramatic.
Acne Studios continues the crimson tide with a fluid coord set drenched in 1970s-style Bordeaux tones, but it is Valentino that makes the boldest move. Creative Director Alessandro Michele presents his collection in a red-lit, Lynchian restroom—a moody, cinematic space that highlights the house’s signature hue.
ACE THE TRENCH IN TWO WAYS
The trench coat has never really gone out of favour. Quietly reasserting itself as the wardrobe’s most essential cornerstone this season, this versatile, inherently chic garment speaks volumes without raising its voice.
Classic khaki, of course, returns with refreshed silhouettes for purists. While Givenchy and Sacai’s boxy cuts exude quiet authority, Balenciaga stretches the silhouette into a full-length gown. Rather than shouting, this is an impeccably tailored whisper.
The high-gloss finish, on the other hand, will delight those drawn to polish with impact. Leather is embossed with motifs that evoke stately English tapestries at Burberry. Ferragamo’s Maximilian Davis uses satin or glossy leather, while Celine Homme chooses water-resistant leather. And last but not least, Tod’s trenches are made with buttery-soft nappa leather that feels as luxurious as pashmina.
TAP INTO YOUR ROMANTIC SIDE
Fashion is undergoing a romantic renaissance—one that blurs identities and plays with codes. Seán McGirr channels the eccentric elegance of the dandy at McQueen, drawing inspiration from Oscar Wilde and Vesta Tilley. Expect gold bullion cloaks, crystal masks, and plum-hued silk and nylon gowns, punctuated by Philip Treacy’s sculptural hats and Wildean jewellery.
Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior taps into Virginia Woolf’s timeless tale of gender fluidity and transformation. The fluidity appears in delicate frilled collars, intricate lace, and evolving
silhouettes. Sheer blouses contrast with sharply structured matte coats, while rounded shoulders sculpt the figure, and stylish masculine jackets pair unexpectedly with feminine bustiers, creating a dynamic interplay between genders. As for the classic tailcoat, it is softened with lace collars and a striking mix of shiny and matte textures in black and white.
Kim Jones’s final Dior Men collection strikes a graceful balance between opulence and restraint. Exploring duality through the figure of Casanova, the legendary 18th-century libertine and notorious ladies’ man, he tailors robes and opera coats from the women’s archives, intentionally blurring gender lines with impeccable precision. The footwear complements the vision, combining classic menswear shapes with couture embellishments sourced from the Dior vault.
ADD CHAOS TO ANIMAL PRINTS
It’s a jungle of animal prints this season—and no single species reigns supreme. From cowhide to zebra, it’s the ultimate maximalist playground where clashing prints prove more is, well, more.
Duran Lantink’s aptly titled Duranimal collection leads the stampede, a fearless 53-look parade of pattern mayhem. With zebra-print pony hair jackets, reworked snakeskin from deadstock LVMH sources, and velvet leopard print jackets, the buzzy Amsterdam- and Paris-based label happily embraces what some may dismiss as “bad taste”.
Mix in flashes of camouflage and plaid, and you get mashups that work brilliantly. The shoes, crafted with Sergio Rossi, reinforce that untamed look. As for Saint Laurent, it goes full-tech on animal prints. Silk cigaline fabric with classic animal and floral patterns is submerged in silicone for a slick finish.
At Sportmax, python-stamped leather stands as the foundation for a dramatic coat-and-skirt combination paired with an oversized hobo bag that means business.
EMBRACE IMPERFECTION
As perfection feels passe, perhaps even gauche, fashion’s obsession is with the beautifully undone. Today, it’s all about celebrating the raw, gritty, imperfectly perfect—and nowhere is this delicious devotion to destruction more evident than at Diesel.
Woven directly from the loom, houndstooth jacquards appear wrecked, layered, and distressed. Shapes reflect this decay of fabric; bandeau tops under corseted basques are paired with slim trousers. While boucle coats arrive pre-abused and proudly pilled, even tulle is woven with obliterated denim jacquard patterns and cut into dresses, strapless gowns, and gleaming padded silver coats.
Meanwhile, Prada offers Raw Glamour, highlighting construction while subverting proportions. Also creased fabrics and aged patinas are not defects; they are badges of honour. Miu Miu builds on this idea, softening it with tender femininity and focusing on the decolletage, as slips, shifts, and dresses collapse and fall away to reveal the body beneath. Satin slips are also deliberately creased because, apparently, true beauty lies in the gloriously unironed.
INVEST IN AN OLD-MONEY COAT
Fashion’s take on the “mob wife” look this season is quieter and more nuanced than what’s trending on TikTok with its smoky eyes, big hair, and bold attitude. The new statement coats are lavishly textured, undeniably plush, and steeped in old-world glamour. Moreover, they are made with conscience in faux fur or treated shearling that nod to vintage without the baggage.
At Fendi, this ethos manifests through masterful techniques. In the flared coat cinched in gold that opened the show, shearling was worked into intarsia, honeycomb, and gheronato patchwork to mimic fox, mink, and sable without the use of the real thing.
With faux fur coats, Gucci channels the lavish flair of the notorious Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci, in which she was portrayed by Lady Gaga. Balenciaga’s exaggerated opera coats in shaggy faux textures are part of its homage to the mood, while Miu Miu is all about legacy dressing, with brooches, bangles, stoles, and capes suggesting inheritance over impulse.
True elegance doesn’t shout; it remembers.
GET YOURSELF ONE GREAT LEATHER JACKET
The leather jacket, whether an aviator bomber or a biker’s Perfecto, has long been a symbol of misfit fashion, cool, defiant, and always willing to break a few rules. It is this effortless swagger that brands like Coach are tapping into. It captures its energy with cropped bomber jackets in eight of its 35 youth-charged looks, styled with loose trousers and snug tops for a fresh spin on proportion.
The high-school emo undergoes a poetic reinvention at Simone Rocha. Her collection channels various teen archetypes—jocks, nerds, and emos—with the brooding outsider’s leather jacket taking a prominent spotlight. Over razor-sharp skirts, this iconic piece is reimagined with puffed sleeves. Trust Rocha to combine femininity and rebellion in exquisite finesse.
While Lemaire combines leather jackets with soft volume to wear over balloon skirts and dresses, Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello takes a maximalist approach: leather jackets over humongous ball skirts grounded in pure attitude.
TUXEDO RULES, REVISED
The tuxedo jacket is no ordinary blazer. Stylish, sharp, and self-assured, it’s a sartorial power move—whether finished with a shawl collar or oversized peak lapels. This season, designers rework the classic with softened silhouettes that nod to tradition while breaking the mould.
As Sarah Burton makes her debut at Givenchy, she brings emotion to tailoring, demonstrating how it can embody strength, vulnerability, intelligence, and sensuality all at the same time. “It’s my natural instinct to go back to pattern cutting, to craftsmanship. To cut, shape, and proportion,” she notes in the press release. Her ultra-sharp tuxedo suits and dresses follow that instinct to powerful effect.
The off-white tuxedo jacket also appears on the runways of Prada, Gucci, Dior Men, and Saint Laurent, where it even takes a risque turn with a nod to Robert Mapplethorpe and thigh-high leather boots.
With its slouchy white tuxedo jacket, lilac buttonhole, grey trousers, and Western boots, Prada offers a more idiosyncratic take. Less ballroom, more poetic rock star.
CHECK YOURSELF
There’s nothing more quiet and powerful than checks this season, even if you’re not a fashion scholar. From tartan to gingham, and Prince of Wales to Glen plaid, heritage patterns are everywhere—but now they have been reimagined with fresh intent.
Rugged countryside chic takes centre stage at Undercover and Burberry, where kilts, skirts, and jackets are filtered through a romantic lens that nods to the windswept charm of the British outdoors.
In a riot of textures and silhouettes, Comme des Garçons mixes colourful checks with ruffles, bows and silk flowers. The result is less textbook plaid and more artful bedlam. Bringing back the workwear aesthetic that defined peak hipster style a decade ago, Junya Watanabe channels lumbersexual energy with a wink. He collaborates with Filson, an American heritage outfitter founded in 1897, producing robust jackets in bold buffalo checks of red and blue.
Thom Browne, returning to ready-to-wear for Fall/Winter 2025 after a couture detour in Paris, turns tradition on its head with surreal tailoring. Glen plaids and pastel ginghams are spliced into sharp suits that challenge classic menswear.
