The Moments That Defined 2024 Fashion

0:07This 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, Laya Garcia-Furtado and Jose Criales-Anzueta, to break down all the fashion moments and it items that define the year. Welcome, Laya and Jose. Thank you. We love a hyphenated last name. We're really a two for one and I love it. Getting all the words in it. Well, Laia, you wrote about it items, and Jose, you wrote about it moments, I guess you could say. Tell us about how you approach these lists. How did the things that are on them make the cut?

0:48For 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, because they have, like, I would have never thought to include the Alaya tackle 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.

1:24You guys fight between each other. Sometimes. It depends on how passionate we are about... You both had Brett Green. Yeah, we both had Brett Green. Is it an item or a moment? Or neither. Or neither. It's a feeling. It's an essence. 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 to 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.

2:00That's how you know you've been here a long time. And listen, life comes at you fast, honey. And that's how I did it. So like obviously kind of like the middle of the year, I kind of 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. Yeah. All right. We have a lot to cover. So we're going to start at the beginning, the first major fashion moment of the year. I think we all agree.

2:31came 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 live stream on your laptop. completely mesmerized, sort of yelling. And it was really a big moment, even at One World Trade Center. Yeah, Jose always puts the shows on on their big screen. We have like a laptop on a big screen and we put that on. And as soon as like Leon Day walked out.

3:14Yeah, it's funny because, yeah, I love a live stream of the show and I do that during Fashion Week just to sort of, you know, remind us at the office that it's still Fashion Week, that things are happening, that cool things are happening. Sometimes it's good for us to see them for the stuff that we're working on. And that one, again, it's just, it's a good show he hadn't done. Like his past, his right-to-art shows over in jail 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, it first started, the live stream started with a performance.

3:44And that was major. And I was like, oh, like, I wonder where this is going. And then, you know, I think they had pre-recorded 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. And they were like outside of the rain. Exactly. And like under a bridge. And it just, you know, it became this really dramatic, exciting thing. Because usually before shows start, what live streams are showing you is, you know, the arrivals. And to me, that's a really funny exercise just to sort of see what people are wearing.

4:17But this was like 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. There were Merkins in the show. He had, because 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 white hips. And I feel like there was, like the Merkin, which is a, can I say cooter on the podcast? which is a you know a cooter wig um helped because it was very much about you know fertility womanhood and not sort of whatever modern pubic hair trends exist this day so there were they had embroidered sort of the tool to create the illusion that the models were naked and it really just added something really sensual and spectacular to the clothes.

5:19Something else that's, you know, and that 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, you know, it's something that has changed in fashion. Obviously, in the era of the supermodels, you sort of have this vision of like 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.

5:53The second thing to Laya's point, there was an entirely fresh silhouette that was also based on models that were curved models, right? Like they were real bodies, which I thought was really exciting, like to see couture in this capacity. Also like the very viral makeup trend by... 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.

6:28And 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 fashion, very pure fashion, but everyone was talking about it. Like it was, 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 sort of that, that sort of glass, not a ceiling, right?

7:03But sort of like that window between fashion and, you know, everyday people. People got really excited about fashion at its purest form as opposed to fashion as celebrity. And it did it without gimmick also in a way. There wasn't like it wasn't a viral, you know, it wasn't a viral cast moment. It wasn't it was very like that was that's John Galliano, you know. So that's also really cool. Our colleague, our colleague, Mark Guaducci 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.

7:40Moving on, we can't talk about fashion in 2024 without Mewcha Prada, who was our cover star. March cover star. A huge moment for Leia. A huge moment for me. That was a gift, I like to thank, from Anna to me specifically. What did it mean for you? Why was it so special? I mean I still I adore her so much and I think you know in her I think it is in her editor's letter that Anna says that that Mewcha is more relevant now than ever but in my head I'm like she's never like not been relevant you know that's just like she's just one of those icons that can I think her work continues to reinforce like her energy and her power it's not where the kind of thing where you're like well her collections in the 90s were so amazing that now we just love her for that.

8:33It's like every, you know, every season, every couple of seasons, she completely like changes the game. And that's really why, like, 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. We've seen it, you know, 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, but also in the style of Mrs.

9:11Prada, 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, you know, we're working on the Vogue business side. We were really looking at like this sort of widely reported luxury slowdown, right? And like 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.

9:44People want to wear it. And it's undeniable. So I think it was really cool to sort of have that, you know, 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 and the crazy helmets. The helmet hats. Yeah. And all these models styled. That was spring 2025. Yes. And, you know, I was talking about this on social media, but all these models were styled kind of like in a very chaotic, very internal monologue kind of way. Like the kind of thing that you're getting dressed. Like you do have an internal monologue while you're getting dressed and it's so chaotic.

10:25And 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. Which is ironic, though, because she was sort of talking about anti-algorithm fashion. 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. She like the formula that she offered was do whatever. Yeah. The formula wasn't like oversized jacket. Exactly. White shirt. It wasn't like it wasn't about the wardrobe basics.

11:06Take a shot. It was just about like the it's like your wardrobe basics or whatever is in your wardrobe. Yeah. You know. And I think again, you know, that's what's interesting. It's like that's what makes her such an enduring 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 inspired we all are. And I think that's what was really interesting about that. And Miu Miu, Will Godin is in history as the show with Willem Dafoe. Willem Dafoe, yep. Close the show. He was in a Prada show way back when.

11:44He was in Prada fall 2009, I believe. 15, yeah. 2012, maybe? He looks just as good now as he did that. Yeah, it was like him, Aiden Brody. Willem Dafoe is so... That's a man, honey. That's a man. That's a man. You know who else had a huge year? Me? No, I'm joking. Shamina Kamali. Shamina Kamali, yes. I mean, her debut, and you wrote about this. I mean, you were about this for our story, Nicole, but her debut collection was one of those shows that you look and you're like, oh, something shifted here. You were waiting for the, you were waiting for Boho too. 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.

12:32And it all started in February with her Fall 2024 collection, which was her debut show at Chloe. Shamina worked at Chloe in the past during two different times of her career. first with Phoebe Philo. And what I really loved about it is that when I saw it, it just, it took me back, but it also recontextualized me in a really interesting way. You know, I saw it and I was like, oh my God, Serena Vanderwood and Sienna Miller, Mary-Kinn and Ashley Olsen and NYU. Like I just, you know, I could name so many of these like references that a lot, and a lot of these cases these women were wearing Chloe or something related or inspired by, or, you know, what had inspired the looks in the case of Sienna who loved a vintage blouse in the early 2000s.

13:16But now it also sort of recontextualized Bojo 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 start, not necessarily that the 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, you know, when it first happened, then I wrote it again for the magazine for the June-July issue. and then I wrote it again for like looking back. You're our boho expert. Yeah, for 25 years of fashion. So like I've been boho reporting all year long.

13:49Yes. 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 McGurr at McQueen. Yes. So? So Sean McGurr, I had so much to say at the time of his debut. I have so much to say as an understatement of the century, but go on. One thing about me, Emma 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, you know, Sean had a widely commented debut at McQueen. McQueen is an impossible job, not only because it's like such an emotional thing for so many of us, but also because it is like what is the spirit of McQueen is something hard to get at.

14:37Right. His second collection in September was better received, I will say. But what I've been really, you know, something we've been talking about online, but also just Laya and I just, you know, 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 had a Nosferatu premiere in a beautiful yellow dress. Carolyn Polachek in another like really witchy willow-wee dress. yeah those clothes look really good on the red carpet. Even the menswear like they did a costume for Charlie for the tour. Like every email that I get from the McQueen people with like a celebrity placement I'm like oh that looks good.

15:21Yeah. And so 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 you know, I will say also, Sean attended the British Fashion Awards next to Carolyn Polnchek, and he looked great in the men's wear. He looked so good in the men's wear. And, you know, it was styled in a slightly different way. It was less slim than on the wrong way. So my message is more of that on the men's side.

15:52Okay, we're going to take a quick break.

16:00Thank you.

16:30has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

16:47And we're back. Briefly, let's talk about another big debut of the year, which was Alessandra Michele at Valentino, which I was there for and I was there for. Yes, you were there for. I was really there for it. Yes. Actually, you tell us about that. 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 are 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.

17:40And 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 want to be for the time span of that show. I love that. 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. Because I think when we got the first resort collection that had like 500 images, you could tell that the clothes, like I felt like the clothes were more ladylike. They felt like for mature women, for mature women, who is a 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.

18:28And we love it. But it felt like 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.

19:01So 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, is that it's just, I will say it lacks research when you make that argument, you know, 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 more-ness of today.

19:38And I think that's the volume in there. Yeah. Right. Changing gears. We want to talk about something that was quite controversial. the Rose cell phone band. My queens. This is hilarious. I love it. One thing about me, Mary Kay 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, Laya, explain exactly what the no cell phone band was. So, guests arrived at the show and they were told that they were not allowed to take pictures or basically a social media band. I think they could take pictures.

20:16They 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. But it's like an iconic black pencil. It has a thick lead, very nice, replaceable eraser. It's truly like, it's the Ferrari pencils. She loves the pencils. Yeah, I really do. Is it the row of pencils? It's literally the row of pencils. And then people were so mad about it. 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 this as we were writing this story, right?

20:55Because the people that were mad about this were the people online. Where were they mad? On their phones. On their phones. 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 also like 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.

21:26So that took a minute. Everyone was like, oh my God, why can't I see this? And of course, people love the road. 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 like we can mental gymnastics our way into like 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 it was so people talked about it so much that they did it again.

21:58Jose, you wrote you called this year the year of the pop star. Why did you do that? Oh, my God. Listen, one thing about me, my Spotify wrapped. One, it's all women. Two, it's all pop. Yeah, it came out yesterday. In Spanish, in English, in French, girl, you name it, I listen to it. What was it? Pink Pop Princess Pilates? Pilates Strut, something of the sort. I don't know, Spotify and their sort of branding, hilarious. But I will say the reason why I called this, and I actually think, you know, going back to the run-through earlier this year, Liam has a nice book about this on the pod. And it is because this year has been jam-packed with releases by some of the world's biggest pop stars.

22:36I'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, Kyla, Chapel Rhone. Obviously, Charlie has been such a such a cool, if you know, you know figure for so long. And like now she really like her ascent has been crazy to experience and witness. Troy Sivan as an insight 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.

23:12Like it was, you know, Taylor Swift. And last year when we wrote about, you know, 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, you know, 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 Megala, actually, in the Margiela Couture collection that we were talking about.

23:45Sans Mirkin. Then, you know. It's a great drag name, Sans Mirkin. Sans Mirkin. Please welcome to the stage, Sans Mirkin. You know, Sabrina Carpenter has been wearing a lot of Ludovic the Sans Serena on stage. um tyla looks amazing and a lot of like you know my friend just put her in vintage gucci the other day for the cfda awards um chaperone has like such an interesting kind of like draggy style which has been exciting to see charlie we covered the tour um style by chris horan uh we covered the tour in vogue.com the amount of things that she's worn but every designer you know every designer like from rodarte to saint laurent to mcqueen you name it it was on stage and even to me that one One of the best moments was when Lorde joined her to perform Girls So Confusing at MSG in Madison Square Garden.

24:33And they were both in Matching Saint Laurent by Anthony Maccurello. Again, it was like, it wasn't only because it's a fashion moment, not just because they are pop stars and they wore clothes, but also because they wore really good clothes. Well, Jonathan Anderson has gotten a lot of accolades this year, excuse me. But I don't think anyone has called him the pop designer of the year. and I'm nominating him for that title because he had such a huge success with costuming the Challengers movie, right? You know what I think it's quite funny about this is that Challengers was not supposed to come out this year.