A breakdown of all the trends for spring/summer 2024

While climate change may be causing delayed summers and fluctuating weather, fashion is still soldiering on. Fashion catwalks around the world’s key cities turned into forecasters—giving us a six-month preview of what is to come. The fashion month, this year in particular, carried heavy hearts (Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen said goodbye after 25 years of working for the brand) and new beginnings (Sabato De Sarno started his first day on the job at Gucci and with it showed us his vision for the Italian luxury house). And in keeping with the world’s changing temperatures gave us drop-waist hemlines, leather for summer, black and white as the reigning palate, and a whole spectrum of shiny objects to catch the light. Here’s a breakdown of what we saw for spring/summer 2024.

SHEER

The most prominent designer to show-off the transparent trend this season was Miuccia Prada and her army of sheath dresses. In varying colours of sky-light blue, cake-icing pink, mint-leaf green and a bride’s-veil white, models walked fast and with purpose as their gazar dresses whisked in the wind. Several designers looked to sheer as a trend to evoke lightness and comfort. Undercover’s Jun Takahashi created viral moments for Instagram with his glow-in-the-dark sheer dresses, while Simone Rocha inserted hers with roses.

EARTH TONES

Marsala and shades of sand, soil, and muddy browns, as well as nudes and fuss-free flesh pinks, made up a large chunk of the colour wheel this season, especially at Saint Laurent and Maximilian Davis’s Ferragamo. Neutral territory is what designers were aiming for—alluding, perhaps, to a collective world mood for peace.

SUMMER LEATHER

Leather, but make it summer. Perhaps more appropriate for the trans-seasonal months (do those even exist anymore?) of March and April before diving into summer followed by high summer, the leather trend is perfect for staying warm but feeling light. Creators of the buttery-soft leather dresses at Hermès and Bottega Veneta were certainly thinking of keeping ventilation open in the fabric, with cut-outs in the bodice and the back.

METAL MAGIC

No one can forget the moment Naomi Campbell shed a tear as she walked Sarah Burton’s last show for Alexander McQueen. The dress (a silver-foil toned fringe dress that swooshed as she walked her iconic stance) and that moment will remain forever engraved in our minds. Meanwhile, at Prabal Gurung, sharp, shiny objects came in the form of handkerchief hem dresses in burnished mermaid colours. Mowalola—London’s most-talked about new designer (who counted Kanye West and Bianca Censori as front-rowers), served up gleaming silver dresses and Versace gave us everything with just a little bit of sheen on top.

FEATHERS AND FRINGES

The ‘lightness of being’ theme, continued with feathers that added flounce to clothes. Who better to illustrate this than Casey Cadwallader at Mugler who brought a third dimension to clothes with mechanic fans that flew feathers on clothes into a frenzy as models walked by. Another trend bringing movement and dimension to clothes was fringe—not just on the edges but everywhere, dancing and directing the flow of a model’s walk. Case in point? Neelam Gill in a deep red dress, fringed for fantastical effect.

BLACK AND WHITE

The existence of colour in clothes, or in this non-colour, did not mean that creativity had to take a backseat. In fact, designers showed how black and white can be chameleonic. At Balenciaga, black took new forms—from baggy pantsuits to wedding dresses. Bring out the summer whites. But make them anything but boring. In varying lengths and layers, designers looked to white for inspiration. At Wales Bonner, the non-colour existed in the form of a pearl-layered net on top of a white-on-white look, overlaid with a white trench. At Vivienne Westwood, it took more of a classical shape, with nostalgic corsetry on a dress with imaginary bustles.

JEWELLERY

In jewellery, the bangle is back, earrings no longer need to match (in fact, make them as diverse as possible), and long chains (circa mid-aughts) come layered and wiry thin.

SHOES

How do you make the biggest splash on your first day on the job? Gucci’s new creative-in-chief has the answer. Flatforms that mean business were the designer’s final flourish to every look on the runway. Meanwhile, at Chanel, a longing for summer escapes meant swimsuits and flip-flops with only sarongs to match. At Erdem and Simone Rocha, shoes were the extension of the garments with bows and embellishments dripping from clothes to shoes.

BLUE MOOD

That Yves Klein blue that took over London’s Bond Street for Daniel Lee’s first outing at Burberry was seen on clothes and shoes at the show, too. But it also landed on every other designer’s mood board, from Isabel Marant to Givenchy, where the blue hue brought brightness to several looks. A blue mood also came in the form of denim, stitched into apron dresses or tapered into denim and jackets.

NET

Netting—of the fishnet, lacework or cut-work variety was seen everywhere from Chloe to Lanvin, and Valentino. What it does is bring a fanciful aesthetic and lightness to clothes, to let the sun and air in. As the heat rises and summers get scorching and weather apps fail to predict the next peak temperature, designers turn to clothes to make them habitable, adaptable and agile in the face of climate change.