On the Podcast: Impossible Fashion Jobs, Internet-Breaking Couture, and Pop Stars—This Is the Year in 2024 Fashion

This is The Run-Through, I m Nicole Phelps.

As the year comes to a close,

it s time to look back at the best in fashion in 2024.

I ve invited my Vogue Runway colleagues,

Laia Garcia-Furtado and Jose Criales-Unzueta,

to break down all the fashion moments that defined the year,

and It items.

Welcome, Laia and Jose.

[Laia And Jose] Thank you.

We love a hyphenated last name. [laughing]

I know.

We re really a two-for-one, and I love it.

She s getting all the words in.

Yeah.

Well, Laia, you wrote about It items,

and Jose, you wrote about It moments, I guess you could say.

[Jose] It moments, yup.

Tell us about how you approached these lists,

how did the things that are on them make the cut?

For items, it s really a collaborative process.

Some feel very obvious,

like I think we had jelly sandals there,

jelly sandals felt very obvious.

And then I think others,

you really need the help from like the fashion teams,

from the market team specifically

cause I would ve never thought

to include the Alaia Teckel bag,

but that was like also a very obvious thing

once I like looked into it.

So it s really a collaborative process.

And then there s only one or two moments

where I have to check in with Jose

to see if something is a moment or an item,

which is kind of funny. Right, yeah.

You guys fight between each other.

Sometimes, it depends on how passionate we are about-

[Nicole] You both had Brat green.

Yeah, we both had Brat Green.

Was it an item or a moment, or neither? [laughing]

Oh, neither. Neither.

It s a feeling. It s an essence.

[Laia and Jose laughing]

For moments, this year, I did something different.

So this is the third time that I ve worked on this piece.

And the last two years

have been a lot about like, oh my God, like what...

You know,

like going back through what I posted on Instagram,

going back to what we ve posted on Instagram,

what we ve covered.

This year, I did a Notes app.

So starting January, I started writing things down.

That s how you know you ve been here a long time.

[laughing] Listen, life comes at you fast, honey.

And that s how I did it.

So like, obviously kinda like in the middle of the year,

I kinda forgot about it,

and then it picked up back again at the end of the year.

But that was really helpful to sort of write things down

that felt like a moment in the moment

as opposed to in hindsight,

and then do a combination of those things

which was really fun, I will say.

Preparation.

[Laia And Jose] Yeah.

There s so many things now that we re like...

For next year s Met Gala,

like yesterday I sent Nicole an email

and I was like, I ll send myself a reminder for October.

Yeah.

Like that s a really... [laughing]

It s just about being good to future me, you know?

[everyone laughing]

And like again, as I was writing this story,

like present-day me was really pleased with the old me.

I was like,

Good for you girl, you did something for yourself.

Alright, we have a lot to cover,

so we re gonna start at the beginning.

The first major fashion moment of the year,

I think we all agree, came to us courtesy of John Galliano.

His January Margiela Artisanal show,

as spectacular as fashion shows get.

I have a very clear memory

because I think I was doing something else.

None of us were in Paris, we were all in the office.

And I was busy editing some other review

from the couture shows,

and you were both watching it

on the livestream on your laptops.

Yeah, on the computer, yeah.

Completely mesmerized, sort of yelling and-

Yes. [laughing] It was really a big moment,

even at One World Trade Center.

[Jose] Yeah.

Yeah, Jose always puts the shows on their big screen.

We have like a laptop on a big screen,

and we put that on,

and as soon as like Leon Dame walked out.

Yeah.

It s funny cause yeah, I love a livestream of the show,

and I do that during Fashion Week

just to sort of remind us at the office

that it s still Fashion Week, that things are happening,

that cool things are happening.

Sometimes that s good for us to see them

for the stuff that we re working on.

And that one, again, it s a good show he hadn t done...

Like his [indistinct] shows [indistinct]

have been really good in the past year,

so I was like, Oh, let s see what he s up to.

And it started in such a beautiful cinematic way.

You know, the livestream started with a performance,

and that was major.

And I was like, Oh, like, I wonder where this is going.

And then, you know,

I think they had prerecorded this part, I m not sure,

but Leon Dame, who s one of our favorite models,

started sort of his own performance going into the runway

and dancing in this really, really, really tight corset.

And that s like, we were sold at that specific time.

And they were like, outside in the rain-

Exactly, and under a bridge. Under a bridge.

And it became this really dramatic, exciting thing.

Cause usually before shows start,

what livestreams are showing you is the arrivals.

And to me, that s a really funny exercise

just to sort of see what people are wearing.

But this was an altogether entirely different experience.

And it was major, it was crazy.

And talk about what he achieved

in terms of the clothes themselves.

There were merkins in the show.

[Jose] Mm-hmm.

There were merkins in the show.

Cause some of the dresses had the illusion of sheerness.

Yes.

And they also had sort of a padded,

like he created a new body silhouette.

Very tight waist, very wide hips.

And I feel like there was...

Like the merkin, which is a...

Can I say cooter on the podcast?

[everyone laughing]

Keep that in.

Which is a cooter wig.

Helped because it was very much about fertility, womanhood,

and not sort of whatever modern pubic hair trends

exist this day.

They had embroidered sort of the tulle

to create the illusion that the models were naked.

And it really just added

something really sensual and spectacular to the clothes.

I think it was something else that s, you know...

And a big sort of topic of conversation

around fashion this year

was the idea of a movement director, right?

And it started with this show,

that we started talking about how important it is

to see models walk a certain way.

I think it s something that has changed in fashion.

Obviously in the era of the supermodels,

you sort of have this vision of Christy, and Linda,

Naomi, Cindy,

walking in a certain way for different shows.

And it s something that fashion sort of lost along the way,

and this brought that conversation back.

So that s something interesting to me.

The second thing to Laia s point,

there was an entirely fresh silhouette

that was also based on models that were curve models, right?

Like they were real bodies,

which I thought was really exciting

to see couture in this capacity.

Also, the very viral makeup trend by Dane.

Oh my God, the makeup was amazing.

Pat McGrath, right?

Like the sort of porcelain doll vibe

that immediately people picked up

to try to see what was happening.

But I think at large, and the reason why

this is our opening fashion moment of the year

is because this was a show

that was about fashion at its purest form, which is couture.

And this is taking time,

like he took I think 16, 18 months to build this collection?

But not just doing that, but it s weird, right,

it s specific, it s niche, it s so strange.

It s very pure fashion, but everyone was talking about it.

Like, I think it was crazy to see people on TikTok,

not even fashion people,

just random people that had seen a video on social media

perform in the same way as those models were performing.

It was Halloween costumes, like 10 months later.

Like, I think that s what it achieved.

It like broke that sort of glass, not a ceiling, right,

but sorta that window between fashion and everyday people.

People got really excited about fashion at its purist form,

as opposed to fashion as celebrity.

Yeah, and it did it without gimmick also in a way.

Like, it wasn t a viral cast moment.

It was very like, that s John Galliano,

you know? Exactly.

So that s also really cool the way that happened.

Our colleague, Mark Guiducci,

has the very funny story that he came back from Paris,

where he saw the show in person, the lucky guy,

and got in the cab, and the cab driver in New York City

knew about the Margiela couture show.

Yeah, and it s funny because Mark,

we had Mark write a paragraph about it for our story

because he was there,

but also because I ve sat next to Mark at so many shows,

he s never taken his phone out.

He does not photograph, take videos of shows, never.

And this was a show that he had so much content of,

but his phone had died and he was so frustrated.

He asked like the person next to him, who he didn t know,

to borrow their phone to take photos.

And those are the images that we also have on the site,

in addition to an amazing Steven Meisel photograph

for the magazine, the day after the show.

That s why fashion is a community.

Yeah. [laughing]

Love.

Moving on.

We can t talk about fashion in 2024 without Miuccia Prada,

who was our cover star.

Ugh, iconic. March cover star.

A huge moment for Laia. [laughing]

A huge moment for me.

That was a gift, I like to think,

from Anna to me specifically.

[Laia and Jose laughing]

What did it mean for you, why was it so special?

I mean, I adore her so much.

And I think, you know, I think it is in her editor s letter

that Anna says that Miuccia is more relevant now than ever,

but in my head I m like, she s never not been relevant.

You know, she s just one of those icons

that I think her work

continues to reinforce her energy and her power.

It s not the kinda thing where you re like,

Well, her collections in the 90s were so amazing

that now we just love her for that,

it s like every season, every couple of seasons,

she completely changes the game.

And that s really why it s interesting too

that I think the big sort of impact that she s had this time

is because of Miu Miu, and not necessarily Prada,

which I think is usually how it s been historically.

And I think something also, you know,

in terms of industry that is worth mentioning

is not just her impact.

I mean, we see it on other shows, [laughing]

we ve seen it in front rows, we ve seen it in street style,

like people are dressing not just in Prada and Miu Miu, but-

In the style of, mm-hmm.

In the style of, but also in the style of Mrs. Prada,

which I think is really interesting.

You know, she is sort of like this icon,

fashion matriarch in so many different ways.

But in addition, we re working on the Vogue business side,

we ve been really looking at

this sort of widely-reported luxury slowdown, right?

And Prada and Miu Miu

are two brands that have been immune to this so far.

They re actually in growth mode, especially Miu Miu,

it s like those numbers are insane, right?

So I think it s not just that there s an impact,

a visual impact from Mrs. Prada,

there s also like, it s working.

People are buying it, people are excited about it,

people wanna wear it, and it s undeniable.

So I think it was really cool

to sort of have that recognized with a cover.

She had two of the best shows of this recent season,

right?

The Prada show, with the very cool set

that the models wound around this space-

[Jose] Yes.

And the crazy helmets.

Ugh, the helmet hats.

Yeah, and all these models styled.

And I sort of-

That was Spring 2025.

Yes. Yup.

And you know, I was talking about this on social media,

but all these models were styled kind of in a very chaotic,

very internal monologue kinda way.

Like the kind of thing that where you re getting dressed,

like you do have an internal monologue

while getting dressed, and it s so chaotic.

And it almost is like when you find an outfit by accident,

that s what that show felt like.

And it felt so real because that s how so many people dress,

especially young people dress on the internet

which I thought was interesting.

And of course- Which is ironic though,

because she was sort of talking about anti-algorithm

in fashion. Exactly.

It is very interesting.

Breaking the patterns

that we have gotten used to by looking so much online.

Exactly. But it was like,

she didn t offer a formula.

Like, the formula that she offered was do whatever.

Yeah.

The formula wasn t like oversized jacket, white shirt.

It wasn t about the wardrobe basics.

Take a shot.

[Laia and Jose laughing]

It was just about like,

your wardrobe basics are whatever s in your wardrobe.

Yeah. You know?

And I think, again, that s what s interesting.

It s like that s what makes her

such an endearing and influential fashion figure

is that even while having the conversation

about what we re trying to avoid, which is the algorithm,

you re putting in evidence

how algorithmically [laughing] inspired we all are,

you know,

and I think that s what was really interesting about that.

And Miu Miu will go down in history

as the show with Willam Dafoe.

Willam Dafoe- Yeah.

Yeah, he closed the show.

He was in a Prada show way back when, right?

Yes. He was in Prada-

About 12 years ago? Fall 2009, I believe.

Oh, 15? Yeah.

Oh, 2012 maybe?

He looks just as good now as he did then.

Yeah, it was like him Adrien Brody, yeah.

Willam Dafoe is so-

That s a man, honey.

That s a man, that s a man. I love him.

You know who else had a huge year?

Me?

No, I m just kidding. [everyone laughing]

Chemena Kamali, on Chloe.

Chemena Kamali, yes.

I mean, her debut.

And you wrote about this for our story, Nicole,

but her debut collection

was one of those shows that you look at

and you re like, Oh, something shifted here.

You were waiting for boho too.

[laughing] So listen,

this is a funny thing because it sort of became...

I wrote so much about boho

in so many different capacities this year,

and it all started in February

with her Fall 2024 collection,

which was her debut show at Chloe.

Chemena worked at Chloe in the past,

during two different times of her career,

first with Phoebe Philo.

And what I [laughing] really loved about it

is that when I saw it, it took me back,

but it also re-contextualized me

in a really interesting way.

You know, I saw it and I was like, Oh my God,

Serena van der Woodsen, Sienna Miller,

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at NYU.

Like, I could name so many of these references

that in a lotta these cases,

these women were wearing Chloe or something related,

or inspired by,

or what had inspired the looks, in the case of Sienna,

who loved a vintage blouse in the early 2000s.

But now, it also sort of recontextualized boho

into what it can look like today.

And I thought it was really interesting also because,

you know, so many of the trends that we discussed today,

it s not necessarily that trends start on the internet

but the conversation starts on the internet.

And in this case, it started on the runway,

which was I think, quite fun.

So I wrote it when it first happened,

then I wrote it again for the magazine

for the June/July issue,

and then I wrote it again [laughing]

for like, looking back-

You re our boho expert.

Yeah, for our 25 years of fashion.

So like, [laughing] I ve been boho reporting all year long,

it s really fun. It s just so nice,

like when you see something new,

like new meaning new for right now obviously

since we re talking about

how there s a historical precedent or whatever.

But sort of when you finally see something

that is just completely different

from everything you re used to,

which I think is what happened with Margiela

on a different level, you re just like, Ugh!

Like, Oh, this is why...

Like, even if you hate it, which not that we did,

but sometimes

you just want something

to sort of be a shock to the system in a good way.

I mean, that s why we keep coming back, right?

That s why we keep coming back every season,

to see something new.

Yes.

And it was also really funny, as an aside,

a viral moment from the show

was Sienna Miller et all, basically,

and all the other celebrity attendees

were all wearing the same clog.

And then that started another trend.

And then that started another trend, exactly.

So there s so many clogs on the runway at the moment.

Yeah.

No, I meant the front row.

Oh, also that, yeah. Remember at Tory,

all of the front row celebs

were also wearing matching shoes.

Yeah, so now this is a thing, you know,

sort of uniforming with the shoe because-

A meme.

A meme. Yeah, my personal trend

was that I wanna grow my hair like Chemena.

I think she s so cool. Oh yeah,

she has beautiful hair. Yeah, beautiful hair.

And like the way she wears jeans, that s what I wanna be.

Exactly.

And like Chloe Schama wrote a great profile on Chemena

for the October issue,

with beautiful photos as well of her recent collections.

But it s been really interesting,

it s been exciting to sort of see her rise.

The thing that I m obsessed about Chemena

is that she has 600 to 700 blouses.

[Jose] Blouses.

We ve never talked about blouses

as much as we did this year.

And I think what s really...

Listen, something that, and we can all agree on this,

a lot of designers keep telling us like,

I m bringing the dress back.

So many designers are like, I m bringing the dress back,

and you re like, Sure, bring the dress back, honey.

But, what about the blouse?

She brought it. You know,

she actually brought back the blouse.

Like, blouses weren t really like...

You know, we had gone into shirting,

we had gone into a lot of knits through the pandemic

to now so many novelty knits.

But she really made the blouse a thing.

And like to me, the evidence is that I go, you know,

as we make our rounds every season

to talk to a lotta these designers in New York,

specifically so many of the designers

that design contemporary women s wear have been telling me

how much they ve been focusing on the blouse.

Blouse and jeans, which is a Chemena uniform.

And the vintage.

And the vintage of it all. I went to the vintage store,

to the vintage fair-

Yeah. A Current Affair,

I went to A Current Affair, and the blouses.

Yeah.

It s all Edwardian and like the old, old ones.

So there were other debuts this year,

and I ve noticed both of you on social media

have been talking about

one of the designers who made a debut quite a bit,

Sean McGirr, at McQueen.

Yes. So?

So Sean McGirr,

I had so much to say at the time of his debut.

[laughing] I have so much to say,

is an understatement of the century, my God.

Listen, one thing about me, I ma have an opinion.

And I think it s really funny

that now I have a job about having an opinion.

You know, life just really works in mysterious ways.

But it s been really interesting

because Sean had a widely commented debut at McQueen.

McQueen is an impossible job,

not only because it s such an emotional thing

for so many of us,

but also because what is the spirit of McQueen

is something hard to get at, right?

His second collection in September was better received,

I will say.

But what something we ve been talking about online,

but also just Laia and I just whispering at the office,

is that they ve been dressing really cool people

and these really cool people look great in the clothes.

Like Emma Corrin recently, at a Nosferatu premier

in a beautiful yellow dress;

Caroline Polachek, in another really witchy, willowy dress.

Yeah, those clothes look really good on the red carpet.

Even even the menswear,

like they did a costume for Charli, for the tour.

Like every email that I get from the McQueen people

with like a celebrity placement,

I am like, Oh, that looks good.

Work, yeah.

And so, because as Jose said,

you know, the McQueen collections were, we can say lukewarm,

I think that s- Yeah.

Not our opinion, but...

No, that was our opinion.

It was a lukewarm reception, whatever.

But now that we keep getting these like celebrity images,

I feel like I see a vision, like it s all coming together.

I think, and I will say also,

Sean attended the British Fashion Awards

next to Caroline Polachek,

and he looked great in the menswear.

[laughing] He looked really good.

He looked so good in the menswear,

and it was styled in a slightly different way,

it was less limited than on the runway.

So my message is more of that on the men s side.

But I will say altogether,

something that is also really interesting about this

is that something we can take away I think

from those first two collections,

plus the pre-collection that we ve already seen from him,

is that there s a weirdness there that is compelling.

I think that s what s interesting about it.

And like by dressing people like Emma Corrin

or Caroline Polachek, weirdos I will say,

and I say this with love cause I m a weirdo too-

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

It looks good.

And I want weirdness.

Again, going back to Galliano,

the reason why that landed in such a way

is because it felt niche, and it felt specific,

and it felt strange and bizarre,

and it sorta like scratched an itch, you know?

I think that s more of that.

Yeah, all of his collections have had those moments.

Like, I remember the first collection,

very early on, like three or four,

there was a great suit with sort of the very tall shoulders

and the very strict jacket.

And I was like, Oh, if this is what we re in for,

like I m here, but then that was sort of like the only one.

Yeah.

So I wonder if there s-

Yeah, there s a lot there to-

Yeah, there s a lot there,

I feel like he just needs to let the weirdo free,

set it free. [Jose laughing]

Okay, briefly,

let s talk about another big debut of the year,

which was Alessandro Michele, at Valentino,

which I was there for and I was there for.

[Jose] Yes, you were there for.

I was there for. You were there for!

I was really there for it! You were there for it, yes.

Actually, you tell us about that.

Oh, I mean, the setting,

the mysterious sort of dungeon of this sports arena

dressed up like granny s attic, the mirrored floor.

All of my pictures from that show were very cool,

so atmospheric.

And being up close to those clothes,

you saw the differences

that the people who were watching online

and who were very quick to say Gucci 2.0 really missed.

I mean, even that show looked like couture in a way,

the fineness of the materials and the details.

And I loved it, I just thought it...

I m not a more is more girl

in any shape or form in real life,

but he made me wanna be for the time span of that show.

I love that. Yeah.

I feel like the Gucci comparisons only sort of like...

Like the Alessandro-isms that appear in Valentino,

I think are very much styling based.

Cause I think when we got the first Resort collection

that had like 500 images,

I felt like the clothes were more ladylike.

They felt like for mature women.

Like for mature women, who is the Valentino customer.

Like, to me, it felt very real.

And then in the styling, it s like,

Oh, here s a funky shoe and a crazy sock,

and we love it, but the clothes themselves, like the shirts,

like if you took away sort of everything from around it,

were very much not Gucci at all, they re very different.

I think, two things I would say,

is one, I love the flamboyance.

It s something I ve always loved about Alessandro,

the flamboyance, the opulence,

the sort of extraness of it all.

The more is moreness,

I think is something I relate to, something I love.

I find it inherently queer in so many ways.

And I think that there s so much value to it,

that s the way in which Alessandro has changed fashion

10 years ago,

so I think it s exciting to have him back on the fold.

That s one thing.

The second thing I will say

about, again, the Gucci 2.0 of it all,

it s that I will say it lacks research

when people make that argument.

And the reason why

is because so many of Alessandro s references

were clearly related to that 60s/ 70s Valentino

from the beginning, when he was a Gucci.

So for me, this is more of a homecoming for his aesthetic

because it looks like what Valentino looked like,

you know, 50 years ago,

but with the point of view of our gender-bending extraness,

more is moreness of today.

And I think that s the value in there.

Yeah.

Alright, changing gears,

we wanna talk about something that was quite controversial:

The Row s cell phone ban.

[Laia] Ugh, my queens.

This is hilarious. I love it.

One thing about me, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen-

Can do no wrong. Love you down.

If they have no fans, I m dead.

I ve seen every movie twice.

If I could afford the clothes, I would wear the clothes.

Oh Laia, explain exactly what the no cell phone ban was.

[Jose] Yes.

So guests arrived at the show, and they were told

that they were not allowed to take pictures,

or basically a social media ban.

I think they could take pictures,

they just couldn t share them, but no pictures.

And they had a little sketch, a little notepad,

and a Palomino Blackwing pencil, the chicest of all pencils.

My personal favorite, thank you very much.

[Jose laughing]

But it s like an iconic black pencil.

It has a thick lead, very nice, a replaceable eraser.

It s truly like, it s the Ferrari of pencils.

She loves the pencil. [laughing]

Yeah, I really do.

Is it The Row of pencils, how s that?

It s The Row, it s literally The Row of pencils.

And then people were so mad about it,

like, Ugh, like who do they think they are?

Let s talk about who was mad about this.

And I think this is what Nicole and I were laughing about,

as we were writing this story, right?

Cause the people that were mad about this

were the people online. [laughing]

Where were they mad?

On the phones. Online. [laughing]

On their phone.

Listen, one thing about me,

I love to hate it from outside the club.

But I think that s what was really interesting, right,

is that to me, what made this such a fashion moment

is that the reason why we were all so puzzled by this

is because we couldn t see it, right?

We couldn t see it immediately,

you had to wait for them to deliver the images

whenever they wanted to deliver the images.

Almost a week later.

Yeah, because they shot them on print,

so they delivered the images to us almost a week later.

So that took a minute.

Everyone was like, Oh my God, why can t I see this?

And of course, people love The Row, they love those shows,

so there was a big frustration with that.

You know, there were a lot of comments on like,

how it was about exclusivity, how it was about gatekeeping.

And we can mental gymnastics our way

into agreeing with a lot of these things

or disagreeing with them,

but what I thought was really funny

is that The Row made people talk about...

Like, it was one of the most talked about The Row shows

because people couldn t see it and couldn t talk about it.

And people talked about it so much that they did it again.

And do you think they could do it again,

is it gonna become a regular thing?

I think they could,

just also what I thought was kind of really exciting

about when they did it

was that there was indeed

a sort of black market of The Row videos.

Yes.

So I did see the videos, and it was amazing.

And I love that it was just like, I don t know,

secretly texting videos of a fashion show is really funny

and I loved it.

So you know where I saw a video?

A friend of mine posted one on WeChat.

And I assume because they sort of thought that The Row

wasn t necessarily going to be monitoring WeChat

as often as they were gonna monitor Instagram, or Twitter,

or X, sorry, which I thought was really funny.

And I think they could pull it off again.

I think if anything, they could make it a norm,

they could make it a thing.

People will talk about it less.

I just thought it was fabulous,

and I think it s such an Mary-Kate and Ashley thing to do

I would say.

And I just thought it was really chic.

I do love the pictures from their show.

Like I wish, like the last show that we have,

which is a show with the jelly sandals,

like I do love the women just walking through the salon

and it s very chic.

So a part of me misses that.

Yeah, the inaction photos.

But that s something

that we actually talk about all the time with presentations.

A lot of designers will do a presentation

and then send you lookbook images.

And sometimes the experience captured for posterity

should be those pictures.

The experience everyone had.

Yeah, I feel strongly about that.

I would much rather prefer to see the clothes in motion

than these very beautiful but still lookbook images.

Yeah, so I feel like

if they just released versions of that a week later,

to me, I d be like, no beef, move on.

I mean, there can be a whole content strategy.

Exactly.

But it was really interesting.

It was interesting to sort of see people frustrated

because they couldn t see it.

And that only comes to show

how passionate people feel about the brand,

which is what made it a fashion moment of the year.

Jose, you called this year the Year of the Pop Star,

why did you do that?

Oh my God, listen- It was.

One thing about me, my Spotify Wrapped,

one, it s all woman, two, it s all pop.

Yeah, it came out yesterday and that was-

In Spanish, in English, in French.

Girl, [laughing] you name it, I listen to it.

What was it?

Pink pop princess Pilates?

Pilates strut, something of the sort.

I dunno, Spotify and their sort of branding, hilarious.

[laughing] But I will say, the reason why I called this,

and I actually think

going back to The Run-Through earlier this year,

[laughing] Laia and I spoke about this on the pod-

That s true.

And it is because this year

has been jam packed with releases

by some of the world s biggest pop stars.

I m talking Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa,

Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Lady Gaga had two singles.

And on top of that, there s been the rise of new pop stars,

which I think is really exciting.

You know, Sabrina Carpenter, Tyla, Chappell Roan,

obviously Charli

has been such a cool if-you-know-you-know figure

for so long,

and her ascent has been crazy to experience and witness.

Troy Sivan, as an aside to that, great album this year.

But all this to say,

that s why we called it the Year of the Pop Star, but also

because of the amazing things that they were wearing.

Like it was, you know, Taylor Swift,

the last year when we wrote about the pop star of it all,

it was just about Taylor Swift and Beyonce

because of the looks that they had worn on tour.

Especially Beyonce, she sort of made it now the norm

to be changing looks for every single performance,

which I thought was really interesting.

She followed so many designers into her tour.

But this time around,

a lot of these next-gen but also established pop stars

started doing the same.

You know,

Ariana performed some of her new songs at the Met Gala

actually in the Margiela couture collection

that we were talking about, sans merkin.

Then, you know-

It s a great drag name, Sans Merkin.

[laughing] Sans Merkin.

Please welcome to the stage, Sans Merkin.

You know, Sabrina Carpenter

has been wearing a lot of Ludovic de Saint Sernin on stage.

Tyla looks amazing,

like my friend just put her in vintage Gucci the other day

for the CFDA Awards.

Chappell Roan has such an interesting kind of draggy style,

which has been exciting to see.

Charli, we covered the tour, styled by Chris Horan.

We covered the tour on vogue.com.

The amount of things that she s worn, but also-

Every designer-

You know, every designer. Every cool designer.

Like from Rodarte, to Saint Laurent, to McQueen,

you name it, it was on stage.

And to me, one of the best moments was when Lorde joined her

to perform Girl, So Confusing at MSG,

at Madison Square Garden,

and they were both in matching Saint Laurent,

by Anthony Vaccarello.

It was again, it s a fashion moment

not just because they re pop stars and they wear clothes,

but also because they wore really good clothes.

Mmm.

And then she wore Luar.

And then when they did the SNL, what do you call it?

Skit? A skit.

When they did a sketch on SNL,

Bowen Yang was Charli in Luar,

which I thought was also like a cool way to-

Yeah. It was so iconic.

Yes.

Oh, also we need to call out our girl, Addison Rae,

who we love. We love Addison.

Addison looked amazing this year as well,

like with Diet Pepsi and Aquamarine has been her rise.

Aquamarine.

Styled by Dara Allen.

And again, it s been a really great year for pop,

but it s also been a really great year for pop and fashion.

All of these women

have a really specific point of view on style,

which I think is what makes it a fashion moment.

Well,

Jonathan Anderson has gotten a lot of accolades this year,

but I don t think anyone

has called him the pop designer of the year,

and I m nominating him for that title.

[Jose] No, you re right.

Because he had such a huge success

with costuming the Challengers movie, right?

You know what I think is quite funny about this

is that Challengers

was not supposed to come out this year,

it was supposed to come out last year.

And this is serendipity.

And you know, obviously because of the...

Oh my God, I m blanking. The strike.

The strike last year, thank you.

Because of the strike last year,

Challengers was pushed to the beginning of this year.

So Jonathan had two really big movies come out this year,

two very exciting movies.

People have been talking about them for so long,

Queer and Challengers.

The costuming specifically for Queer was incredible.

He sourced all of vintage clothing

for Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.

But on top of that, you know, he s been everywhere.

Like last year, he was also one of the designers of the year

having dressed Rihanna for the Super Bowl,

et cetera, et cetera.

So it s really interesting.

He also just signed with UTA-

Yeah.

So he has new representation on the Hollywood side.

So we ll see what happens.

But Laia, you had one of your It items as part of-

Yeah, the I Told Ya...

No, it s Told Ya So.

No, it is I Told Ya. I Told Ya, yeah.

In my head, I always confuse them,

and I thought I would confuse them.

Okay, so yeah, the I Told Ya T-shirt,

which is a big part of the movie

which I finally watched like six months after everyone.

She watched Challengers on the plane, y all,

which is really chaotic evil.

Well, I watched it on the plane

because there was no one behind me,

there was an adult woman sitting next to me,

and so I felt that whatever-

I love that you feel the need

to remark that she was an adult. [laughing]

[laughing] Whatever horny moments happened on the TV,

I felt like-

She could handle it. She s an adult.

It was fine, yeah.

And I knew

that there weren t gonna be any children behind me.

But also, you know, take it up with Delta.

Thank you, Delta.

So the T-shirt plays a really big role in the movie.

Yeah, so-

Is it-

So Zendaya-

It s her T-shirt first.

So it s Josh O Connor s...

It s Patrick s T-shirt- Yeah, it s Josh O Connor.

Yeah.

Which Zendaya wears.

It s sort of a sisterhood of the traveling T-shirt.

It s like a ping...

Well, I guess it s definitely a-

It s a tennis match of a T-shirt.

Yeah, I was gonna say, it s definitely not a sisterhood.

No.

[everyone laughing]

That s a different movie.

Yeah.

But yeah, so this was a big moment.

And then I mean, obviously it was so smart,

Jonathan Anderson and the team

knew that people were gonna watch the movie

and zero on the shirt,

which was inspired by a T-shirt worn by JFK Jr. before.

Yes.

And he just knew that people were gonna, you know,

go home and DIY it, and so they just released it as a merch.

And that s the thing

that makes Jonathan such a smart designer, right,

and a pop designer if you will, as you were saying Nicole,

is that there s obviously a clear understanding

that like Gen Z / younger Millennials culture overall

are obsessed with JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,

their relationship, the things they wore.

So by extrapolating this T-shirt

that he wore in this specific moment,

putting it on Josh O Connor, making it a thing,

it s so interesting, it s so smart.

And of course, you make it merch.

But when I watched Challengers,

Zendaya showed up at our movie theater

and she was wearing the T-shirt.

Yeah, everybody wore it.

Exactly. It was great.

It was again, it s a pop culture moment,

and that s what he s so good at creating.

We should speak about Dries Van Noten, who-

[Jose] Oh my God.

Gave us

one of the most meaningful runway shows of the year

when he signed off.

Yeah, he signed off.

After many, many decades actually

as an independent designer.

So earlier this year, I was joking that I had a big year,

[Jose and Laia laughing]

it s because I was in the room.

You know, I ve been going to Paris for menswear

to cover the menswear shows,

which is amazing, such a wonderful experience.

But on top of that, you know, his last show was in June

for the menswear collections in Paris, and I got to go.

And it s just something that I will never forget.

It was just my second ever Dries show.

And this is just one of those things that, I don t know,

Nicole and I were sitting together just trying to...

It was funny cause we were trying to also capture a video,

but also just be there, but also I was tearing...

Like, it was just such an insane experience.

But I think what I liked about the show

is we walked in, it started with cocktails,

there were screens

showing all of his past shows, his past work.

He was walking around just saying hi to everyone,

saying hi to all of the journalists

and his fellow designers, including Haider Ackermann,

Pierpaolo Piccioli, Thom Browne,

Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck.

Like you name it, they were there.

And he was just there welcoming people in, right?

And then the runway was revealed,

and it was like silver foil.

And every time a model walked, the foil lifted

and like there were specks of silver all over the air.

But also there was an ephemeral kind of quality to it,

right, that you could see the passing of time.

Every time there was more foil in the air,

you knew it was gonna end.

And what I loved about it the most

was that the collection was entirely forward looking.

You know, it didn t feel nostalgic, it didn t feel...

And Nicole, you can tell us what you think about this too

cause you were there as well.

But it was so great, it was so graceful,

and I loved...

You know, it s not very often in fashion

that we get to say goodbye.

In so many cases, designers just kind of like,

from one day or the other,

they re like, Oh, I guess I m not coming back next season,

[laughing] you know?

And we just don t know until we know.

And this, he gave us the opportunity to just be like-

I m getting emotional, just hearing you talk about it.

It was wild.

I don t know how you felt, Nicole.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

Especially because there was a show over 10 years ago,

maybe 15 years ago, where he had gold foil on the runway.

So this was a callback, but different.

And you know,

Dries is a designer who had a really specific language,

and he s not the kind of 180, you know,

he s changing every season.

There s a real throughline through his work.

Yeah.

And he makes beautiful clothes.

Dries gave us a beautiful goodbye,

but we also paid a lot of attention

to emerging talents this year, as always at Vogue Runway.

But it was a really great year for emerging designers

in New York Fashion Week,

which both of you have written a lot about.

[Jose] Yeah.

Yeah, New York basically, I feel like for a year,

or I feel like last year

was when I started harping about this.

Yes. I can say harping

cause it s me.

[Jose laughing]

Where you know, every season in New York, they re like,

Ugh, New York, there s no one here.

It s dead. You hear that.

Blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, we don t say that, you hear that.

No, yeah, we hear that.

Yeah, no, no, we don t say that.

You hear people talking like this all the time,

and I m just like,

I don t know what New York you re talking about

because my New York is-

[Jose] Is back, baby.

Is so back, as Cole Escola also said this year.

But it s like we have Willy.

Willy consistently puts on one of the best shows

of the season. Willy Chavarria.

Willy Chavarria.

Like, the whole season, not even like in New York.

We have Luar, we ve had Collina,

we have Eckhaus Latta.

We have a lot of like cool emerging designers

that don t do shows yet, that you can see by appointment,

like Giovanna Flores, and Lee,

and Zoe Gustavia. Zoe Whalen.

Yeah, should we just say Zoe Whalen?

Zoe Whalen.

[Jose laughing]

She has four names,

but I think she s just using Zoe Whalen so it s fine.

Colleen Allen.

And so there s actually a lot of great, great work

coming out of the city, you just have to look for it.

Yeah.

And so this year at the CFDA Awards,

it felt like Rachel Scott of Diatima,

who doesn t do a show but does a presentation.

Basically this year at the CFDA Awards,

it was like everything that I was saying,

I was proven right. Was confirmed.

So you know, at the CFDA Awards,

the four main big categories for designers

are Womenswear Designer of the Year,

Menswear Designer of the Year,

Emerging Designer of the Year,

and Accessories Designer of the Year.

And the four winners, as Laia wrote for the site,

confirmed this next gen,

the new establishment more than a next gen,

the new establishment for American fashion.

You know, Rachel Scott of Diatima won for womenswear.

Willy Chavarria,

who you can listen to my interview with him on the podcast

[laughing] if you scroll down, he won for menswear.

Raul Lopez of Luar won for accessories,

and Henry Zankov won for emerging.

And what s really exciting about this

is that it is the confirmation

that this new energy that we ve been feeling,

and this excitement we ve been having

about the all these designers is not just us, right?

We re not siloed, it s like all of us together

really do feel

that there s something really cool and exciting

happening in New York, and the awards confirmed that.

So, New York is back.

Yes, and I think we can t say this loudly or firmly enough

in the moment we re living in

that all of those designers are either immigrants

or children of immigrants. Correct, yes.

Let that sink in, people!

Yeah.

And that s also the thing, you know,

the reason why these designers hit

is the best way of putting it

in fashion, and in culture, and in New York,

is because the stories that they tell

are so individual and so specific.

But specificity is universal, right?

And these stories, their personal stories,

their stories of otherness,

their stories of just being different altogether

are what make us so passionate about their work

because it makes their work so individual.

Yes. Alright, speed round.

[Jose] Speed round.

[Laia] Speed round.

Favorite show of the year?

Oh my God, favorite show of the year.

Dries.

Dries, Spring 2025 menswear.

What was my favorite show of the year?

Closely followed by Willy Chavarria, Spring 2025.

I m gonna jump in Laia while you think,

and say Undercover.

Oh yeah,

you love the Undercover show. Major, major.

Undercover, with Jun Takahashi s riffs

on that Perfect Days movie, by Wim Wendors.

Which is a brilliant movie and-

[Jose] It is a really good movie.

I love that show.

And if only he was producing those jeans.

Yes.

Oh my God, that show was-

You know what, maybe it was Bally.

Love.

By?

By Simone Bellotti, who I m obsessed with.

So speaking of weird, speaking of weird-

Like, he also- We re so cool.

He started Bally three seasons ago,

and the clothes are weird but not weird.

[Jose] Mm-hmm.

And he does a co-ed show,

and the men and the women often wear the same clothes.

It s fab. And it s just...

Like, I feel like that s the kinda show

where it s just like the stuff that you want to wear.

Directional, so you don t feel like...

You know, it s not quite luxury wardrobe basics,

blah, blah, blah, it s just like cool and weird.

So maybe actually, I m gonna go with Bally.

Yeah, love.

Bally Spring 2025 and Undercover Fall 2024, by the way.

Yeah, Bally Spring 25.

Give me seasons, people.

Yes, Bally Spring 25.

Next speed round?

One more, one more?

Best thing you bought this year?

[Jose] [gasping] Ooh.

Oh, best thing I bought this year

was a pair of Eckhaus Latta pants.

Nice. They are brown lace,

they re from the Spring 2024 collection.

They re brown lace, and they come with a built-in...

They come with an extra half-skirt that is detachable.

I saw them on the runway, liked it.

But then one of the stores that I like to browse, Maimoun,

which is actually open in Williamsburg this weekend,

they re based in LA, they had them.

And it s funny

how sometimes when you see something styled differently,

it just like clicks.

And I saw the pants on the website and I was like,

Oh, I m gonna buy those pants for my birthday.

I turned 40 this year,

and I was planning my outfit basically since February.

And so I-

She looked great, by the way.

Thank you.

And I basically just went on a quote-unquote shopping ban,

and then I bought them, and I ve worn them a bunch.

And it s just a lace pant, like it s so simple,

but I feel chic, it s very elegant.

I always get compliments. Yeah.

And so that s the best thing I bought this year.

Love.

A golden lame barn jacket,

by Christopher Georges for J. Crew. [laughing]

We love. What about you, Nicole?

Nice. Well, a barn jacket

is one of the items of the year.

Yeah, exactly. Everyone in a barn jacket.

Yeah.

I think the thing I wore more than any other thing

is a snap-front rib knit,

from Nicola Di Felice at Courreges.

Love.

If I could have that sweater in every color,

that is the only thing I would wear.

Which you can also listen

to Nicole s interview with Nicola.

[Jose and Laia laughing]

One thing about me, I m a plug.

We work really hard, y all. [laughing]

Well, yeah, we re also wired to always link back.

Yeah, exactly.

This is also like writer brain, where-

This is kinda like SEO.

Yeah.

And you know, I do wanna give,

and Laia will agree with me on this and so will Nicole,

a special shout-out to Cole Escola

wearing Christopher John Rogers

on a pink flamingo, at the Macy s Thanksgiving Parade.

A star is born, honey.

Cole Escola is my person of the year.

If you haven t seen Oh, Mary yet, you have about one month

before Cole s gonna take a little break-

Yeah.

And then Betty Gilpin is gonna take on the role-

Hilarious, amazing, perfect. Of Mary Todd Lincoln.

But Oh, Mary is the best thing I ve seen in Broadway.

Yeah.

It s so funny, it s completely ridiculous-

It s one of those things that-

But it s so intelligent.

People kept being like, You re gonna laugh so much,

and I m one of those people that I react,

I m like, No, I m not gonna laugh.

I cried, [laughing] like I went through so many things.

Amazing, great.

Again specificity, again queer stories,

again all of these great things.

And their fashion sense?

Major. Every appearance is a fit.

Yeah.

Just vintage, new, like clown costumes.

Literally, actual clown costumes.

Yeah, actual clown costumes.

They wore a little like 50s golf set recently.

And it all just works.

It all just works.

Shout-out to Cole Escola.

Yeah,

you can listen to Chloe and Chioma speaking to Cole Escola

if you scroll down as well, so listen.

Again, see a fashion first. [laughing]

Alright, we have a little bit more time.

So any predictions for 2025?

A complete huge major fashion vibe shift and overhaul.

I m actually writing about this

for Vogue Business right now, so stay tuned for January.

But I do think we are in for a very interesting year

with Peter Copping at Lanvin, Sarah Burton at Givenchy,

and a lot of these moves that there s whispers off.

Yeah- We ll see.

My hope for us is that everyone gets a job

and nobody moves for a bit.

Yeah.

Because the whole year,

we ve been living on pins and needles every day.

Who s going, where s going, when is it?

Just trying to track who s working where.

And we need a break, we need a break.

[Jose laughing]

Alright, my prediction is actually just a plug

to read Sarah Mower s review

of Stella McCartney s Pre-Fall collection.

She had a great conversation with Stella.

And Stella has a prediction

that the pencil skirt, the midi-length pencil skirt

is coming back. I see that-

I see it.

I will agree with that actually.

I see it because it s very-

Should I buy a pencil skirt?

Yes,

absolutely. Right?

[gasping] Yes,

with little boots. It s very business casual.

Remember business casual?

Yes, oh my God-

Big trend. Remember

when we were wearing business casual at the club?

We were talking about this.

Okay, let s not bring that back though.

I did wear a vest with shorts to the club.

That s right.

Before it s in fashion, it s in Vogue.

If I can wear it with flats, I might give it a try.

[Jose] Yeah.

[Laia] Of course you can.

I m not putting heels back on.

Alright-

This is where we disagree, I love a heel. [laughing]

Oh, but remember all of those Marc by Marc,

another thing that was amazing,

shows in the early 2000s

was always a little flat with a little pencil skirt.

Maybe we ll all try it.

Thank you Laia, and thank you Jose,

this was so much fun. Thank you!

Thank you, Nicole.

And stay tuned because we have an episode coming up soon

where we re looking at the best fashion

from the first 25 years of the century.

That s it for The Run-Through, see ya next week.