2017: The Year in Fashion

[I]t’s been another year of bootlegging, plagiarism, stiletto roller skates, mountain bikes, sad losses and triumphant collections. See our breakdown of 2017 below.

January

Fashion-wise, 2017 got off to a flyer. Anthony Vaccarello offered a us a first glimpse of his grunge-glam menswear with some help from Collier Schorr’s collage skills, whilst post-grunt princess Frances Bean Cobain was announced as the new face of Marc Jacobs. Juergen Teller went fully lo-fi in Berlin, shooting the year’s first newsworthy lookbook for Adidas EQT while Vetements brought security guards, squaddies, punks, office workers and Dads to their guest spot on Paris’ couture schedule. Kiss van Assche stunned with a typically luxe take on raving for Dior Homme before Louis Vuitton and Supreme stole the show with a garish/shameless/brilliant collab collection. Oh, and Alexandra Shulman stepped down as editor of British Vogue sowing the seeds of a revolution that would happen later in the year. Toupées, ill-fitting suits and red ties sunk ever further in the style stakes as Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States (vom emoji).

February

As ever, February was all about fashion week. Alessandro Michele continued to captivate, presenting a maximalist floral fantasy in Milan. Also in Milan, Miuccia Prada brought feminism to the front, parading a cast of fearless femme fatales. Ashish made a statement in London with an all-inclusive slogan-heavy show that felt particularly poignant as the reality of Donald Trump’s rule set in while Burberry’s second see-no-buy-now collection paid wonderful tribute to sculptor Henry Moore. We explored the style influences of Twin Peaks as the excitement surrounding the series’ spring return began to build.

March

Progressive New York label Eckhaus Latta stole headlines in March with a campaign that featured actual couples having sex. JW Anderson and Uniqlo announced a collaboration and people started queuing almost immediately. Back in New York, Raf Simons’ Calvin Klein revolution continued apace as he presented a series of typically tasteful campaign videos featuring beautiful young people shot on a VHS camera. Jean-Paul Gaultier designed some Euro which was just weird and a new era at Helmut Lang was announced as Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver was installed as designer-in-residence.

April

In April, Balenciaga continued to mine everyday life for its inspiration, debuting its (very expensive) take on IKEA’s classic blue bag. IKEA responded with some instructions for discerning between the Balenciaga version and its own. Moschino released a collaboration with Candy Crush, while Gucci announced it would be casting aliens in its AW17 campaign (more on that later). #Featherbrows became the beauty trend that no one asked for. Oh, and Zara put classic meme turned alt-right mascot Pepe the Frog on a skirt. Yeah, wtf was that all about?

The biggest news, though, came at Vogue where Edward Enninful became the publication’s first black editor.

May

Balenciaga remained in the news in May as the retrospective exhibition Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion opened to rave reviews at the V&A, exploring over 80 year of progressive silhouettes and enduring influence. We all got our first look at Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace in the (still) forthcoming American Crime Story: Versace. Naturally she was draped in a hot pink gown, next to a swimming pool, surrounded by Herculean men in pants. Vivienne Westwood did the right thing and announced her support for Jeremy Corbyn.

June

June got off to a controversial start as Gucci issued a statement defending its blatant rip-off of legendary Harlem bootlegger Dapper Dan. Shamelessly, the brand claimed the piece was part of Alessandro Michele’s “exploration of popular culture” before adding that the designer was in a collaboration with Dan (an offer that would later come to fruition). Further accusations of plagiarism were leveled at Gucci later in the month as illustrator @StayBold pointed out that his artwork was copied for Gucci’s Cruise collection. The brand said the design has been “Guccified” which is, yep, you guessed it, total BS. Alexander Wang created some condoms for NYC Pride and Drake dropped in to provide the music for Louis Vuitton’s SS18 show. Former One Directioner Zayn Malik dropped his debut collection for Versus Versace and that LV x Supreme collab arrived in stores.

July

Days later, LV x Supreme t-shirts would be selling on eBay for £7500. Balenciaga released a mountain bike, while Edward Enninful made a huge statement of intent at British Vogue, hiring Grace Coddington, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss as contributors. Iconic Paris boutique Colette announced it would be closing in December, while Vetements used their window display at Saks 5th Avenue to share a giant heap of used clothes with the public. That Gucci aliens campaign was finally released and quickly followed by another plagiarism accusation, this time from former CSM student Pierre-Louis Auvray. Shayne Oliver released his debut campaign at Helmut Lang, featuring archive looks and a cast that featured adult film star and actor Traci Lords, Larry Clark, legendary model Alek Wek and Oliver himself. Off-White announced that Princess Diana would be their muse for SS18.

August

August 2017 will forever be known as the month that Saint Laurent sold roller skates, stiletto roller skates. It was also the month that Rihanna slayed at Crop Over once again and Marc Jacobs finally admitted that those SS17 dreadlocks were “insensitive”. Supreme released some chopsticks, Raf Simons released some sticky tape and Kristen Stewart got naked for a Chanel fragrance campaign.

September

On 1st September, news broke that trans model and activist Munroe Bergdorf had been fired as a brand ambassador for L’Oréal. Shockingly, Bergdorf was fired for calling out racism on social media, writing “Honestly I don’t have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.” The incident sparked a flood of support for the model from all corners of the industry. Meanwhile, problematic man Vincent Gallo showed up in a Saint Laurent Campaign, Raf Simons made a shoe inspired by Friday the 13th baddie Jason’s hockey mask. At Versace SS18 in Milan, the OG 90s supermodels reunited to sing George Michael’s “Freedom”.

October

In October, Balenciaga put platform Crocs on the runway, Naomi Campbell walked for Off-White’s Princess Di themed show, LV sent a Stranger Things t-shirt down the catwalk. It wasn’t all on-point pop culture references though. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal Cara Delevingne shared a disturbing encounter with the film mogul, while Donna Karan reminded everyone she’s alive by claiming that Weinstein accusers “ask for it”. Elsewhere in misogyny and dumbfounding male aggression, model Arvida Bystrom was met with extraordinary levels of online abuse after appearing in an Adidas commercial with hairy legs. In more positive news, Gucci announced it would be going fur-free from 2018.

November

Kinda creepy news broke in early November when Drake let it be known that he is collecting Birkin bags for his future wife. Weird. Weirder still, was news that artist Illma Gore created a toilet out of £15,000 of Louis Vuitton bag. To be fair, it did subsequently go on sale in Los Angeles for £75,000. It was also confirmed – after months of rumors – that Rihanna would host the 2018 MET Gala, celebrating the opening of the exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Colette announced that it would celebrate its final weeks by selling Saint Laurent branded sex toys.

All of this news was superseded though by the sad news that pioneering designer Azzedine Alaïa passed away aged 77.

December

In the lead up to Christmas, Balenciaga kept up their subversive schtick with a family portrait style menswear lookbook and the release of a $1000 supermarket shopping bag. A stone’s throw away at Vetements, there was the announcement that the brand would be returning to the Paris runway for a menswear show in January and Helmut Lang released the capsule collection and campaign of the season featuring IRL New York taxi drivers.

The Fashion Awards seemed to go quite well with Donatella Versace claiming the prestigious “Style Icon” award, Adwoa Aboah scooping model of the year and Jonathan Anderson winning British Designer of the Year award for his eponymous label and Accessories Designer of the year for his work at Loewe. By all accounts the place to be after hours was at Virgil Abloh’s after party.