This Is What 36 Top Designers Have to Say About Fashion Now

Listening is an underrated fashion sense. While it may be true that pictures are worth a thousand words, designers cast out pearls of wisdom through show notes, videos, and, best of all, interviews, and there’s one of those behind every Vogue Runway review (upwards of 200 this far into the fall 2021 season).

Designer interviews are the source for the quotes gathered below, and they reveal some of the major themes animating the industry at the moment, kicking off with optimism (1–3), which is running high. There’s less consensus when it comes to embracing comfort (4–7) and whether or not to go big or go home (8–10). It’s clear that change is afoot in the industry (11–18). Also, that how you look affects how you feel; identity was a key preoccupation of the season (19–23). In anticipation of lockdowns easing up, designers focused on dress-up clothes. Note that there are options for introverts and for those with a flair for the dramatic (24–28). Sexy, we hear, is back (29–32).

Moving fashion forward, four prominent voices suggest (33–36), will require authenticity, bravery, imagination, and an appetite for discovery.