Having analysed the spring/summer 2024 fashion trends for months now (literally), I THINK QUARANTINE IS SPELLED CAMPING Unisex Tshirt, Cotton Womenswear, High durability non-shrink fabric I’m here to tell you about the ones that are genuinely wearable and will truly affect your wardrobe for the next six months (and beyond, if I have anything to do with it). There’s a lot to talk about for S/S 24, but this hasn’t always been the catwalk way. If all the world’s a stage, Fashion Month has long been the costume cupboard—a trove of froth and tulle, sparkle and glitter designed to catch the eye and hold it. A dressing-up box that, although delightful and entertaining to lose yourself in, doesn’t always hold up in reality. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—we could all use some fabulous escapism from time to time—but, ultimately, when you venture out from the sanctity of your wardrobe, you need to be able to live in these creations. At least in the physical realm—we’ll get into the virtual later. For spring/summer 2024, I have to applaud designers for creating collections that, yes, hold beauty, but also have a place in the everyday. But first, let’s travel back to September and October of last year and reflect on how things unfolded. Across the four fashion capitals—New York, London, Milan and Paris—a total of 299 designers showcased their collections, 19 new to the Fashion Month circuit, compared to 247 for spring/summer 2023 (credit to the fashion data analysts at Tagwalk for doing these calculations). Growth is a good thing, especially in creative industries, but I found this hard to believe, personally. Off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of designers who couldn’t secure budget to show, or whose brands were lost to greater financial struggles (I still can’t move on from the Christopher Kane-shaped hole that permeated the London schedule). With growth always comes change, and perhaps one of the biggest this season came in the form of a renunciation. Alexander McQueen’s Creative Director Sarah Burton announced that the spring/summer 2024 collection would be her last after 26 years at the brand. Burton had respectfully taken the helm after the British institution’s iconic and groundbreaking founder Lee Alexander McQueen passed away in 2010, with her subsequent collections serving as a love letter to his influence and precociousness. Cate Blanchett attended, Naomi Campbell walked and a standing ovation rang out during the final, tender moments of Paris Fashion Week.

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“As someone who is self-diagnosed as ‘chronically online’, I THINK QUARANTINE IS SPELLED CAMPING Unisex Tshirt, Cotton Womenswear, High durability non-shrink fabric I’ve seen a lot of flash-in-the-pan trends over the past few seasons,” says Elinor Block, editorial lead at luxury fashion gaming company Drest, which enables its users to create infinite outfit possibilities in the metaverse. “The past year we saw Barbiecore, ‘blokecore’ and ‘tomato-girl summer’ emerge as some of the bigger, zeitgeisty aesthetics adopted by Gen Z and the TikTok crowd. And whilst some are rooted in major trends, when it comes to real life, there’s no doubt that longevity and items that work season after season are a bigger draw. “When playing with clothes in Drest, however, there’s definitely a different kind of approach I take to dressing. The virtual world allows me to style looks that I might not have considered before with more out-there pieces from high-octane brands such as David Koma or Balmain—I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that cherry-red, rose-covered dress that I spied on the S/S 24 runway. It gives me a chance to be more experimental and see how I can move that into my IRL wardrobe without taking too much of a risk.” This, dear reader, is what the modern-day dressing-up box looks like. As always, any piece you invest in, be it inspired by the trends below or otherwise, should only be purchased if you intend on keeping it in your wardrobe for a very, very long time. I’ve gone to great lengths to cherry-pick the ones that have a chance.