Internet-Breaking Couture, the Year of the Pop Star, and a Cowboy Takeover: The 24 Moments That Defined Fashion in 2024

What to make of a year as chaotic and filled to the brim with headlines as this one? Fashion in 2024 certainly took a hit, or two, with the e-commerce and retail landscapes taking a tumble and independent designers struggling to make ends meet through what’s been widely reported as a luxury downturn. There’s a fashion vibe-shift incoming, that’s for sure.

But there was also plenty of joy and inspiration to be found: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo entertained us for months and months before Wicked finally hit the big screen with their inspired and amusing method dressing, while on stage, pop stars from Sabrina Carpenter to Taylor Swift, Tyla to Chappell Roan, vied for best dressed. Charli XCX’s Brat helped quash “quiet luxury” once and for all. And somehow Beyoncé, Bella Hadid, and Pharrell Williams all agreed that this had to be the year of the cowboy.

John Galliano’s truly remarkable Maison Margiela Artisanal show in January set the bar for every fashion show and collection that followed (Spoiler alert: none was able to top it). Much of the fashion action was happening off the runways: Virginie Viard’s exit from Chanel left the industry’s top design job up for grabs, and Dries Van Noten’s replacement still hasn’t been named; meanwhile in New York, the CFDA Awards crowned a new guard of American talents. What to make of 2024? That 2025 will be one hell of a ride.

John Galliano Breaks the Internet with an Exquisite Margiela Artisanal Show

It wasn’t clear to anyone, except maybe John Galliano himself, that the January 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal show might alter the fashion firmament. It was only several minutes after the exquisitely crafted, immersive experience had begun—perhaps when a corseted Leon Dame took a seat, making direct eye contact with Anna Wintour—did this editor realize that this runway was different. I was lucky enough to be in Paris that week, but almost missed the show to prep for a shoot the next day. Thank the fashion gods I didn’t, but would you believe that my iPhone battery died just as the show was about to start? This is a good opportunity to thank Britt Lloyd, the stranger sitting next to me who let me borrow her phone so that I could capture the moment for posterity.—Mark Guiducci

The Year of the Pop Star—And of the Designers Who Dressed Them

A Ludovic de Saint Sernin-wearing Sabrina Carpenter was “working late, ’cause she’s a singer” on her Short n’ Sweet Tour. Billie Eilish was no Bird of a Feather in genderbending Willy Chavarria. Tyla made everyone sweat in archival Gucci by Tom Ford. Dua Lipa was radically optimistic in Courrèges and even more Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Ariana Grande yes, and?-ed her haters and delivered a knockout performance at the Met Gala in Maison Margiela Artisanal. Taylor Swift was a tortured poet (or tortured poets?) in many Vivienne Westwood gowns. Olivia Rodrigo poured her guts out on her Guts World Tour in custom Coach. Chappell Roan was H-O-T T-O G-O in Weiderhoeft at Saturday Night Live. And Charli XCX and Lorde worked it out on the remix, twinning onstage in matching Saint Laurent. It was the year of the female pop star, and our playlists are all the better for it. The real question is, who will we be listening to next year, and what will they be wearing?—José Criales-Unzueta

Usher Headlines the Super Bowl

“What you wear matters,” said the ever dapper Usher at a final fitting for his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance. And on the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, he proved it, wearing a Dolce & Gabbana white coat dripping in crystals, which he later swapped for a football uniform covered in, yep, even more crystals. Here’s to Usher proving that male pop stars can do costume changes, too. And a special shout-out to the Dolce tank that showed off his biceps so well.—J.C-U.

Miuccia Prada Covers Vogue

How does a designer score a Vogue cover? It helps if not one, but two of your brands are at or near the top of practically every list ranking the year’s most popular labels, including our own outlining the year’s most-viewed collections on Vogue Runway. And it doesn’t hurt if they’re both bucking the global luxury slowdown trend with consistent—and in the case of Miu Miu, astounding—growth. But what really landed Miuccia Prada on the cover of our March issue? “Miuccia has simply never been more relevant,” wrote Anna Wintour in her editor’s letter, “a designer with the towering stature of a head of state, and the ever-renewing intellect of a star undergraduate.”—J.C-U.

Beyoncé Makes a Rare New York Fashion Week Appearance

It was a Tuesday night at New York Fashion Week, the second-to-last day of collections. Snow had unexpectedly fallen that morning and the vibes were at a low ebb, with editors dropping out of shows they didn’t need to attend. More fool them! An hour or two before Raul Lopez’s Luar show in Bushwick rumors started swirling that Beyoncé would attend. Yes, Beyoncé, people! Dear reader, I made my way to the venue shaking with anticipation, and just as I arrived a guard stopped me and said I needed to wait to get in. A black SUV pulled over and out walked a silver oversized Luar Ana bag, a cowboy hat, and a platinum blonde ponytail. I made my way upstairs, texting my colleagues to rush, and then Solange arrived and sat down next to Christopher John Rogers directly across from me. Just as the lights dimmed and the show was about to start, Beyoncé emerged with her mother Tina Knowles. And that, my friends, is how Raul Lopez won New York Fashion Week.—J.C-U.

Chemena Kamali Debuts at Chloé, Ushers in the Return of Boho

Fate is what you make it, but Chemena Kamali’s Chloé takeover really does feel meant to be. Young Chemena's interest in fashion was sparked by her fellow German Karl Lagerfeld, who spent 25 years of his career at Chloé. Over the course of her own career, she’s built a vintage collection that includes upwards of 600 blouses, a Chloé specialty. And then there's the fact that she worked at the Gaby Aghion-founded, Richemont-owned maison not once, but twice, first under Phoebe Philo, then under Clare Waight Keller, before accepting the creative director role in late 2023. None of that would matter, of course, if Kamali didn’t have a feel for Chloé, but that she most certainly does, as evidenced by her utterly winning fall 2024 debut and equally strong spring 2025 follow-up, with their effulgence of romantic ruffles, delicate laces, and highly wantable jeans. Oh, and she also cuts a very presidential pantsuit—more on that later. —Nicole Phelps

The Row Bans Cellphones, the People Go Wild—on their Cellphones

One of the most hilarious fashion kerfuffles of the year was when Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen of The Row banned phones from their resort 2025 show in March. Guests were provided with a notebook and a pencil instead and the models were shot on film, delaying the delivery of images by nearly a week. The internet went crazy overanalyzing the implications: Is this gatekeeping? Are the Olsens trying to make their shows even more exclusive? Why not let people engage with the collection online and, effectively, give it good press? The online sturm und drang about the absence of pictures meant that the show became one of The Row’s most talked-about ever. In fact, it caused such a stir they invoked the same no-social-media rule all over again six months later in September. One way to make people talk? Tell them they’re not allowed to.—J.C-U.

A Little Bit Country: Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, and Bella Hadid Christen the Year of the Cowboy

Beyoncé sings “This ain’t Texas…” in Cowboy Carter, the country installment of her trilogy project that began with last year’s disco house knockout Renaissance. Except that, maybe this is Texas after all. Beyoncé wasn’t the only one to lean into the American West vernacular in 2024: Pharrell Williams explored the Black cowboy with his fall 2024 menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. Bad Bunny rode a horse onstage at his “Most Wanted” Tour. And Bella Hadid decamped to the Lone Star State and became a cowgirl. Howdy, partners.—J.C-U.

Jonathan Anderson Enters His Costume Designer Era

Where does he find the time? Not only did Jonathan Anderson launch eight new collections this year across Loewe and JW Anderson (and that’s without even mentioning his Uniqlo and On collabs), he somehow also costumed two—yes, two—films for his buddy, director Luca Guadagnino. First, there was Challengers in the spring, which married the studied technical practicalities of the characters’ tennis outfits with playful touches (think: those viral “I Told Ya” T-shirts) to instantly desirable effect, prompting a revival of the tennis-core trend that has cropped up sporadically on the runways over the past few years. (Zendaya’s killer looks during the press tour—many of which came courtesy of Anderson himself—certainly helped on that front, too.) But it’s his second outing as a costume designer for Guadagnino’s Queer that is, in my eyes, an even more impressive feat: Echoing the richly atmospheric world conjured by the film’s production designer of Mexico City’s seedy queer underground in the 1950s, Anderson meticulously sourced items of clothing from that period to outfit his stars Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, even down to their underwear. If the sheer short-sleeve shirt worn by Starkey in one sequence towards the end of the film doesn’t inspire you to head straight to eBay and hunt for a similar style, then we clearly weren’t watching the same movie.—Liam Hess

Two for One: Zendaya Doubles-Down on Fashion at the Met Gala

On the first Monday in May, Met Gala co-chair Zendaya wore not one, but two John Galliano looks. The first was a newly created Maison Margiela fantasia, but the second (initially a surprise to Galliano, himself) was a spring 1996 Givenchy couture creation, the very dress that Veronica Webb wore on the runway almost 30 years ago, and which Galliano said he hadn’t laid eyes on since. Perhaps the best part of this vintage moment was that Zendaya actually acquired the dress for her own archives—a fact worth mentioning in the era of the celebrity-borrowed-fashion business complex.—M.G.

Anthony Vaccarello and His Silver Screen Affair

Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, Bella Hadid, and Greta Gerwig all looked spec-tac-u-lar in Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent when they were at Cannes in May. Yet Vaccarello and the house made an even bigger show at the festival by producing three movies: Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino; Emilia Perez from Jacques Audiard; and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, which might creep you out even more than The Substance creeped you out. But you know who’s not scared? Vaccarello, who has taken Saint Laurent into new territory for a fashion brand: Don’t just clothe (or costume) culture, but actually enable culture—in this case, films—to be created in the very first place. “From the beginning, it was about helping filmmakers make their films,” Vaccarello told Vogue about YSL’s foray into producing. “It’s harder and harder these days for directors to get the budget to do what they want to do without suffocating the production so they have to change their vision.” And clearly Vaccarello has the instincts to back a (potential) winner when he sees one: Emilia Perez is being talked up, loudly, as a Best Picture contender at the 2025 Academy Awards.—Mark Holgate

Thigh-O-Mania: Paul Mescal Gives Tiny Shorts a Leg up

How short can short shorts go? Ask Paul Mescal, a gladiator of a menswear influencer who this year stepped into the Colosseum to win the battle against full-length pants. Mescal, in case you’ve been living under the ruins of the Roman Empire, stars in Ridley Scott’s much-anticipated follow-up to his 2000 epic starring Russell Crowe. In the lead-up to the new movie’s release, he’s rocked some seriously abbreviated shorts, but what makes him a style icon for the kinds of guys who are lining up to see Gladiator II is that it looks like he’s not thinking too hard about how manly he comes off in his clothes. That’s not what makes you sexy, boys, it’s your attitude that does.—J.C-U.

Dries Van Noten Bids the Runway Adieu

The evening started with cocktails as videos from Dries Van Noten’s past collections played on a screen. The designer greeted his guests—which included the designers Haider Ackermann, Thom Browne, and Pierpaolo Piccioli, in addition to fellow Antwerp Sixers Walter Van Beirendonck and Ann Demeulemeester. Then came the show, his last after 38 years: An ephemeral silver foil runway with specks lifting after every step, it was like an hourglass that marked how much time was left with each passing look. There was no sentimentalism about the past and this was no retrospective. Instead, the collection felt entirely forward looking, with Van Noten’s sartorial practicality preserved by his determination to move into his next chapter. It’s so very rare that fashion gets to see someone leave on their own terms and in their own time. After Van Noten took his final bow, the curtains dropped and the screens playing his past shows were replaced with a disco ball, Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” playing in the background to kick off a dance party.—J.C-U.

Help Wanted: The Most-Coveted Job in Fashion Is Still Vacant, but Maybe Not for Long

It’s nearly seven months to the day since Virginie Viard made her abrupt exit at Chanel. Seven months of speculation and rumors about who will land the most-wanted job in fashion. Hedi Slimane, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Pieter Mulier, Daniel Roseberry, Marc Jacobs, and, most recently, Matthieu Blazy have been named as likely contenders, and many others would surely like to have been considered. Notice something missing from this list? A woman’s name. It’s been a year since fashion-philes started protesting the lack of women in top design jobs. Some things don’t change.—J.C-U.

For Charli XCX, It’s Easy Being Green

How could a color so ugly take over the culture so completely? Such is the power of pop music, and of the ubiquity of Charli XCX’s hit album Brat, which premiered to critical and commercial acclaim in June. Flanked by a particularly bright shade of green on one side, and a knack for messiness and chaos on the other, Charli became one of the main stories of the year, not least of all because she provided an antidote to the conservatism of TikTok-fueled aesthetic trends like “trad-wife” and quiet luxury.—J.C-U.

The Most Fashionable Olympics Ever

First came the announcement that LVMH was sponsoring the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris—a clear indication that the world would witness an incredibly stylish Games. In the months that followed, fashion houses began unveiling the uniforms they’d made for various countries. Stéphane Ashpool x Le Coq Sportif for France, Stella Jean for Haiti, Telfar for Liberia, and Labrum x Adidas for Sierra Leone all garnered praise and enthusiasm, but two small brands set a new standard for Olympic dress–while also setting the internet ablaze: Michel & Amazonka with stunning looks for Team Mongolia, and Moshions, which designed sleek, impeccably tailored suits for the South Sudan menMoshionss basketball team.

The night before the Games kicked off, LVMH and Vogue hosted a Prelude, which saw LeBron James and Tyla in Louis Vuitton, with First Lady Jill Biden opting for Schiaparelli. Dior looks abounded (both Lady Gaga and Celine Dion were dressed by the house for their Opening Ceremony performances) and the guests were just as well-heeled: Cynthia Erivo watching gymnastics in Thom Browne, Nicole Kidman at an Omega party in Valentino, and Sharon Stone wearing a floral Antonio Marras suit to Roland Garros. While bold looks were all over, one of the biggest fashion statements of the 2024 Paris Olympics was technically one of the smallest: Accepting one of her many gold medals, Simon Biles gently pulled on the pendant dangling from her neck—a diamond encrusted goat designed by Jill Heller. The most fashionable Olympics ever, indeed.—Leah Faye Cooper

The Multi-Brand Retailer Collapse

This was a tough year for multi-brand retail. Farfetch (and with it, Browns) were sold to South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang in a rescue deal. Matches went into administration, leaving many brands and suppliers that relied on the retailer in the lurch. Selfridges changed owners, and loss-making Net-a-Porter was up for grabs after the deal to sell to Farfetch fell through. But things aren’t all doom and gloom. A few players made it out unscathed: Mytheresa is still flying billion-dollar clients to all corners of the world—and it just announced the acquisition of Net-a-Porter. Ssense is still making great content—and, we presume, sales? The upside: This year’s rough road has paved the way for a retail landscape overhaul in 2025. Here’s hoping those left standing—and, maybe, some new players—are up to the task. Barneys 2.0, anyone?—Madeleine Schulz

The Deepest of Archival Deep-Cuts Take Over the Red Carpet

Kamala Harris Wears Chloé at the DNC

Vice President Harris delighted the fashion section of her constituency when she wore a “coconut brown” suit from Chloé by Chemena Kamali, the year’s breakout designer. Here’s what the designer told Vogue about it for the magazine’s October issue: “For me, women who wear Chloé embody a powerful femininity and confidence. Chloé is not transformative—wearing Chloé is about feeling like yourself.”—J.C-U.

Fashion Goes Very Mindful, Very Demure

Jools Lebron went viral on TikTok in August when she memed about being “very mindful, very demure.” Almost overnight, everyone around me seemed to be fixated with being “demure.” Of course, there was a tinge of satire in Lebron’s comments, which seemed to go over most people’s heads: A trans woman, Lebron, like many queer people, doesn’t enjoy the privilege of being “demure” in the outside world. Quite the opposite, she’s often the subject of much unwanted attention. That the internet took her words literally and twisted them into one of the year’s aesthetic mottos, well, it just goes to show you can’t trust mainstream culture to be nuanced. Kudos to Bottega Veneta, though, who sat Lebron front row at its spring 2025 runway show in Milan in September. Someone in the comms department over at BV is doing their job right.—J.C-U.

Oh, Cole! With Oh, Mary! Cole Escola Becomes Fashion’s Latest Darling

This was the year of Cole Escola. For a decade, Escola wooed hardcore comedy fans with performances in Difficult People, Search Party, and At Home with Amy Sedaris, as well as on their very funny Instagram and TikTok account. But it was in the role they created of a drunk, wannabe-cabaret star Mary Todd Lincoln, in the off-Broadway-then-on-Broadway massive hit Oh, Mary! that made Cole a mainstream sensation; and turned them into a fashion star. There was Cole walking the red carpet at the Met Gala wearing full Thom Browne, complete with a little veiled chapeau and a wicker Hector bag filled with flowers. Turn on the television and there was Cole was again on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in a fall 2024 faux croc Luar jacket, AVAVAV price-tag festooned trousers, and Women’s History Museum lion-paw shoes; and on The View in a floor-length Christopher John Rogers striped knit dress; on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in a vintage clown costume giving off serious Bode vibes; and yes, that was them riding a pearl necklace-wearing pink flamingo in a full Christopher John Rogers look at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It was only fair that they’d show up as a model at one of NYFW’s coolest presentations, for the jewelry designer Presley Oldham. “New York is so back!” they declared at the time, and it is! And thank you to Cole for that.—Laia Garcia-Furtado

The Rise of “King Kylie,” Gen-Z’s Answer to Her Sister Kim

Kylie Jenner sat front row at Schiaparelli couture and closed Coperni’s Disneyland show, but she was crowned Gen Z’s queen bee when she appeared on the cover of Chioma Nnadi’s first September issue of British Vogue. “In the spirit of firsts, I’m thrilled to introduce Kylie Jenner’s debut on our cover,” Nnadi wrote in her editor’s letter. “The 27-year-old beauty mogul and mother of two has lived virtually all of her life in front of the camera, the youngest daughter in the world’s most influential reality TV dynasty. Lately, though, the social media supernova has come into her own.” You could say Kylie is her generation’s Kim.—J.C-U.

Victoria’s Secret Runway Show Is Back…Is it?

When Gigi Hadid emerged in a pink silk teddy and giant feathered wings it had been six years since the last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. In the interim, the brand had fallen from grace and undergone a public reckoning, aligning itself with contemporary values, like diversity and more varied product assortment, that its former executives had rejected. But it was back to bombshells on the runway. Lisa from Blackpink, Tyla, and Cher were enlisted to perform; veteran angels including Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Tyra Banks staged their returns, and mother-daughter pair Kate and Lila Moss were recruited. The new executives insisted that Victoria’s Secret customers had been clamoring “loud and clear” for the angels, but this comeback fell flat. As I put it that night, “the campy, showgirl fun had a whiff of nostalgia tonight. If you do want something more natural, or modern, you’ll just have to buy your lingerie somewhere else.”—N.P.

The CFDA Awards Christen American Fashion’s New Guard

The 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards were a long, long night—five hours, if you include the cocktail preamble, and at that length, you’d need a cocktail—but spirits weren’t ever going to sag given the winners: Rachel Scott of Diotima for American Womenswear; Willy Chavarria for American Menswear; Luar’s Raul Lopez for American Accessories Designer; and, lastly but never least-ly, Henry Zankov of Zankov for American Emerging Designer. It was a real and exciting changing-of-the-guard moment, and underscored what fashion here in America is currently succeeding at like nowhere else: sheer creativity powered by community, craft, culture, and a consciousness about who you are, where you’re from, and where you’re going. And that evening wasn’t so long when you consider it against the backdrop of the last two decades of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund; all four winning designers went through the program. If the aim of the Fund has always been to establish a new generation of designers with something fresh to say, then clearly it’s a case of job done.—M.H.

They’re Gonna be Popular: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Take Over with Wicked

If you thought the rollout of Barbie was the press tour to end all press tours, you were wrong! Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the same name and prequel to The Wizard of Oz, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, finally hit theaters on November 22 after what felt like a years-long promo tour. There were magazine covers, lots of “method dressing” moments by the costars, and a plethora of fashion and beauty collaborations from GAP and H&M to Grande’s own R.E.M. Beauty. It’s a wicked coincidence that Vogue’s December edition, which was guest-edited by Marc Jacobs, features a pink (and blue!) skirt by the designer over a green background.—J.C-U.