Artificial intelligence, nostalgia, and the desire to feel protected will influence the directions women’s fashion take for Fall/Winter 2024-2025, according to Fashion Snoops.
The trend forecasting firm breaks the season down into three themes: Sentimental, Immersive, Chaos and Fragility. In a webinar hosted by MMGNET Group (formerly known as Informa Fashion Markets), Melissa Moylan, Fashion Snoops VP and creative director of women’s wear, described the drivers of each theme and how they translate into apparel, footwear and accessories.
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In Sentimental, wellness combines with craft to offer consumers physical and emotional comfort.
“We’ve seen indications of this in the post-pandemic reality with more interest in upcycling,” Moylan said. “We also see an interest from consumers wanting to extend the value and lifespan of their goods by wanting to repair them, and additionally using or leveraging recycled materials.”
Meanwhile, brands are looking back to the origins of everything from the raw materials they source to artisan techniques that bring a sense of charm to fashion. “We’re embracing some of the richness and skills of the past to carve our way forward,” Moylan said.
These feelings are resulting in a new form of bohemian maximalism rooted in adorned surfaces, new spins on classics and a focus on craftsmanship. Saturated colors like twilight, purple, indigo and inky blue are balanced by warmer hues like baked pear, rose and oxblood. Embellishments and appliques add to the uniqueness of a garment.
Key items include tapestry coats, intarsia sweaters and patterned blazers. The trend also tees up opportunities for designers to incorporate deadstock or recycling materials, Moylan said. Patchwork denim is an easy entry point for brands to explore upcycling.
Fashion takes on a sleeker tech vibe in Immersive, a theme inspired by artificial intelligence and how the technology pushes imaginations into new realms. “It’s about a new state of existence that’s neither physical nor abstract,” Moylan said. “There is more flexibility in our design.”
A color palette of hyper bright greens and pinks and deeper celestial shades of blue helps create this “bizarre fantasy” she added.
Slinky column dresses, metallic pants and scuba-like crop tops with fantastical prints and patterns are standout items for Immersive. The trend also calls for Y2K staples like tie-front tops with bell-sleeves, low-rise cargo pants and bomber jackets with utilitarian details.
Accessories like Lurex mesh boots, glasses with chrome frames and jewelry with sphere-like pendants round out the futuristic theme.
“As the world pushes us to be more comfortable with the unknown, it cultivates a never-ending transformation and innovation,” Moylan said. This mindset inspires Chaos, a theme that reflects “ongoing ambiguity” and how consumers are supposed to live with uncertainty.
“The anarchy of the universe could be something that we find unnerving but also liberating. So, it almost expands our point of view and disrupts our outlook,” she said.
Style-wise, Chaos is reflected through repaired surfaces, ruptured textures, fragmented construction and a more industrial take on craftsmanship compared to the artisan approach in Sentimental. Distressed denim, scratched leather and plaid introduces a punk element to the theme.
A dramatic color palette of earthen shades of red and orange are coupled with darker neutrals like pewter and java, Moylan described.
Key items include leather and denim maxi skirts, cropped turtleneck tops and cropped blazers—particularly styles with denim. Openwork sweaters, cargo pants made with grittier materials like leather and moto jackets also live here, adding a cool ’90s feeling to the story.
The cool-girl vibe carries into accessories like acid-treated denim boots, glasses with red-tinted lenses and oversized belts adorned with grommets.
