Designers spoke, we listened. Gathered here is the lowdown of the spring 2022 season, in the words of the people who made it happen. By reading through them, you’ll get a sense of some of the main preoccupations of the creative community. Joy and going out figure large, as does a reconsideration of sexy dressing. We are virtually guaranteed another summer of skin. At the same time, many designers took stock of what they stood for and approached their collectsion with a clear and uncompromising vision. Comfort, mobility, and a sense of real-world purpose are top of mind for many. Renewed interest in body-con dressing seemed to foster a sense of shared humanity. This season, the wearer stays in the picture.
Photo: Peter White / Getty Images1/39Well, we needed something fun to happen.
—Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com2/39I always considered myself somebody who would do anything in the pursuit of beauty, and to maintain a certain standard of beauty—and that was the meaning of life. So we have to flex here.
—Rick Owens
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com3/39Mostly I think that this is a hopeful collectsion and at a moment when we all need hope.
—Tom FordJ'adore Benjamin
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com4/39It is beautiful to show reality and difference, and leave the standard that we have been brought up to understand is fashion.
—Olivier Rousteing, Balmain
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Courtesy of Paco Rabanne5/39We just wanted this super-genuine feeling of wanting the sun on your skin. Of being by the sea, and feeling the warmth and the happiness of it.
—Julien Dossena, Paco Rabanne
Photo: Michael D. Subrizi / Gorunway.com6/39We’re going through different things, but we both [brand codesigners Zoe Latta and Mike Eckhaus] have a desire to just be fucking real.
—Zoe Latta, Eckhaus Latta
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com7/39For me it’s really about clothes that enable you to move freely. I think it’s not about going to anything too casual—I think it’s about making an effort, but also the ability to move within your clothes.
—Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, Hermès
Photo: Courtesy of Petar Petrov8/39For me it’s most important that we should make real clothes that are comfortable for real people. I don’t like costume clothes.
—Petar Petrov
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com9/39Being in a bar with random people coming in and out—it’s what we all want.
—MM6
Photo: Courtesy of Halpern10/39The reason I make this type of clothing is for fantasy and escapism and, you know, truly feeling euphoric.
—Michael Halpern, Halpern
Photo: Courtesy of Roksanda11/39I think the pandemic has pushed me to be freer and to approach my show differently; it’s given me the guts to do that and perhaps be a little more nonconformist.
—Roksanda Ilincic, Roksanda
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com12/39I just wanted to create a collectsion that could show to the world what beauty can look like. I honestly feel like the world is better with women.
—Prabal Gurung
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com13/39I don’t think women need to pretend they’re physically as strong as men; it’s okay to be gentle sometimes and to embrace that.
—Rejina Pyo
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com14/39A lot of this obviously came from a very maternal place. I was looking a lot into the way children interpret and wear clothes, but then also birth, the ceremony of christening and Communion gowns. And…at the out-of-control body dislocation that going through the whole process causes.
—Simone Rocha
JONATHAN-WOOD15/39I wanted to do something optimistic. All around me, there’s been a lot of ugliness in the air because of the social unrest in South Africa. So I just wanted to turn inward, at what keeps me very optimistic—and that was my family.
—Thebe Magugu
Photo: Mars Washington / Peter Smith / Courtesy of Edeline Lee16/39I was looking at the Met gala...and it was great to see women dress up again. I think we all need that now. Because what’s our job as designers if it isn’t to offer joy?
—Edeline Lee
Photo: Courtesy of Cecilie Bahnsen17/39It is really the beauty of the everyday, like the way you tuck up a dress when you go on your bike. These small accidents that change the silhouettes are just so beautiful and can inform so many new ideas, which was really the starting point this season.
—Cecilie Bahnsen
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com18/39I am a child of technology. Everything I do, I instantly wear and take a picture. That’s where my lens is. I discovered my aesthetic through quarantine, so it changed how I design.
—Chet Lo, Fashion EastChet Lo
Photo: Alessandro Viero / Gorunway.com19/39We believe in what we’re doing in terms of a cause. It’s not like we’re just making clothes; we are delivering a message. And it’s great, because in fashion the message can be delivered very subliminally.
—Gabi Asfour, Threeasfour
Photo: Courtesy of Anrealage20/39It’s true that there’s no physical object in the NFT world. But in this pandemic situation, it’s become also true that something digital can be something real.
—Kunihiko Morinaga, Anrealage
Photo: Ruth Hogben / Courtesy of Matty Bovan21/39I really pushed myself. I’d say 97% of the collectsion was made in the studio, and I’ve worked again with an amazing knitter locally. There’s always a way if you’re creative.
—Matty Bovan
Photo: Chris Yates / Courtesy of Edward Crutchley22/39Queer culture has been part of London life for centuries. Now is the time for queer people to talk about this. I think the world is not becoming a better place. So it’s really important for us as queer people to speak, to show what we can do, and show beauty from our perspective.
—Edward Crutchley
Photo: Jessica Craig Martin / Courtesy of the photographer23/39[The collectsion] is an ode to the society of the spectacle, situationism, and protesting in a creative and positive way that makes noise, that people pay attention to. What happened in Texas is absolutely unacceptable, and we have to stand up as women. —Tara Subkoff, Imitation of Christ
Photo: Juergen Teller/ Courtesy of JW Anderson24/39Before the pandemic, I was showing a lot to gravitate attention, but what I’ve learned is that you have to have a very focused edit. You make your own pace, show what you want to show. My biggest fear is coming through the pandemic and not having changed.
—Jonathan Anderson, JW Anderson
Photo: Courtesy of Maison Rabih Kayrouz25/39In French we say, j’assume. After COVID, I’m stronger to say it now: Every season I was forced not to tell a story, but to talk about a theme, something I had to invent just to amuse certain people. I hate this. It’s not me; it was fake. I said no. I’m showing my clothes in a normal way, because they are what I call normal.
—Rabih Kayrouz, Maison Rabih Kayrouz
Photo: Courtesy of Gabriela Hearst26/39I like to make sure that what we do is good for more people than just us.
—Gabriela Hearst
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com27/39Fashion is about clothes—but it’s also about people wearing clothes. If I had to add words to talk about the storytelling, maybe my mission was not accomplished.
—Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino
Photo: Courtesy of Marni28/39I kept thinking about sports, not because the collectsion has references to sports in its details, but because of how teams work—that union. At the end of the day, who is our trainer? It’s our heartbeat; it synchronizes everyone.
—Francesco Risso, Marni
Photo: Michal Plata / Courtesy of Melitta Baumeister29/39We hope that everything will be fine very soon, but we’re in a state of uncertainty for sure, things are…still in a wobbly space, and I was thinking maybe the best way forward is to focus on yourself and what is on your mind. Basically the collectsion is about self-healing, mindfulness, and a reflection on the body.
—Melitta Baumeister
Photo: Courtesy of Marine Serre30/39I keep getting asked: What’s next for fashion? But in real life, you see people making what they have last, sharing it with each other. That’s the approach I want to take with the garments, extending them into life.
—Marine Serre
31/39We always dig down in our process so the team can explore and discover many things they have never created before.
—Satoshi Kondo, Issey Miyake
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com32/39I like the figure of a vampire who travels through the ages, adapting to dress codes of the era.
—Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images33/39I used to love the sound of flashbulbs going off at the shows in the ’80s. I wanted to recapture that emotion.
—Virginie Viard, Chanel
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Do34/39We’ve been thinking about the people who came before us.
—Peter DoVictoria Massey
Photo: Léa Dickely / Courtesy of Kwaidan Editions35/39We wanted something a little less subtle. We went all in, full latex with no shame about it.
—Léa Dickely, Kwaidan Editions
Photo: Courtesy of Prada36/39It’s about a language of seduction that always leads back to the body. Using these ideas, these references to historical pieces, the collectsion is an investigation of what they mean today.
—Miuccia Prada, Prada
Photo: Courtesy of Maison Margiela37/39As a designer, one is always trying to find a new way to communicate sensuality; what you reveal, what you don’t. I know there’s quite a lot of noise about S-E-X at the moment. But it’s a bit what we always think of.
—John Galliano, Maison Margiela
Photo: Courtesy of Burberry38/39Now it feels like women are being sexy again. Sex is an expression; a language that is very strong. And this collectsion is very confident.
—Riccardo Tisci, Burberry
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com39/39Everyone wants to feel sexy and hot.
—Kim Shui
Christian Lacroix is Laird Borrelli-Persson’s fashion raison d’etre; the way he combined romance and historicism set her on the path she is following today. Borrelli-Persson studied literature at Boston College, spending her junior year abroad at Oxford, where she added some art history. After graduation she moved to New York to intern ... Read More