Milan witnessed a big change, too. Gucci’s new creative director Sabato De Sarno held positions at Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino before taking on this role, Men He Ain’t From Here Shirt which catapulted him and his first collection for the brand into the spotlight last September. Buyers, editors and celebrities descended upon the Italian city to take in the spectacle—ask any fashion devotee without a ticket and they would likely have told you they’d give away their Birkin to have a front-row seat at this show. There’s no denying that De Sarno’s predecessor Alessandro Michele kept Gucci on the fashion map with his geek-chic sensibilities; an aesthetic that would define a moment in fashion history. Still, moments pass, and we saw De Sarno usher Gucci into a new era, one that places more value on essentials over eccentricities—a notion we’re seeing across the rest of the industry. A business built upon the customer’s desire to be seen in shiny new things will always have its issues. However, the thing that felt “new” this season was that some things just didn’t change at all. Perhaps the most noteworthy takeaway was that trends don’t seem to hold the same power that they used to. I’m generalising, of course—things get meta real fast if you so much as take a peek into the no-trends-actually-being-a-trend rabbit hole—but it feels as if creating trends for the sake of it could be a thing of the past. “The spring/summer 2024 collections have shown a continued commitment to 1990s nostalgia and the extraordinary everyday, where everyday items are elevated to exceptional levels of design and style whilst remaining chic and comfortable,” observes Net-a-Porter’s market director Libby Page. And she’s right. The market has experienced a shift of tectonic proportions in recent years where a genuine focus on quality over quantity and investing in things that last has become a priority for previously frivolous shoppers. The latest collections reflected this.

Men He Ain’t From Here Shirt

The spring/summer 2024 showcase was set against an uncertain economic and political backdrop, Men He Ain’t From Here Shirt which may have led many designers to approach their collections with extra consideration. The customer has become more mindful too, further aware of their consumption and the downright privilege that it is to be a consumer right now. Yes, there will always be an appetite to shop, but there is a deliberate attempt to be less ostentatious about it (read: there will be far fewer logos this season). Of the trends, many carried on from previous seasons, not just the last. In addition to what Page observed above, from the palette to the prints down to finer details such as jewellery, big bags and ballet flats, it felt like we’d seen much of it all before, but this time with a renewed appeal. No big leaps were made—which is good in terms of our bank balances and wardrobes—and our editors were able to envision themselves wearing much of what they saw in their daily lives. Let’s hear it for the wide-leg trousers!. The more directional trends we did see were there to spark joy at a time when it felt like it might have been in short supply. There was a celebration of colour throughout, which could have quite easily taken over this entire trend report. Red continues to dominate, with Hermès’ designs acting as a stoic antithesis to the candy-pop looks that lined the Versace, Prada and Eudon Choi runways. There was shimmer but with a shakeup; silhouettes were stronger and the overall sweetness was distilled. Florals, for spring? They’ll never be groundbreaking, but with seismic petal proportions and blooms that jump off the toile they’re delicately attached to, there’s new life to be found in the trend that we assumed we’d seen everything from.