Author: Nikole Vasilcenko
The Autumn/Winter 2025 fashion season delivered a striking mix of nostalgia, reinvention, and bold new expressions of body consciousness. BoF’s Editor-at-Large Tim Blanks and Founder Imran Amed reflected on the standout moments, from the highly anticipated designer debuts at Givenchy and Tom Ford to unconventional silhouettes and evolving brand identities.
Haider Ackermann’s debut at Tom Ford and Sarah Burton’s first collection for Givenchy were among the most anticipated shows of the season. Ackermann blended Ford’s signature sultry aesthetic with his own refined sensuality, successfully merging “Tom’s sexualism and Haider’s sensualism,” as Blanks put it. Meanwhile, Burton reconnected with Givenchy’s origins, balancing heritage with modernity. “We haven’t seen something that projects Givenchy into the future while staying grounded in the past,” Amed noted. Her collection demonstrated a deep understanding of the house’s DNA while pushing it forward.
This season also saw designers challenging conventional silhouettes. Pieter Mulier at Alaïa introduced exaggerated shapes that expanded away from the body, described by Amed as resembling “body condoms.” Duran Lantink took a provocative approach with prosthetic-inspired designs that played with notions of eroticism. Fashion’s fixation on the body was a recurring theme, as designers encouraged audiences to rethink the relationship between clothing and form.
Brand identity remained a central conversation. From Simone Bellotti’s brief but impactful tenure at Bally to Daniel Lee’s evolving vision at Burberry, luxury houses wrestled with reinvention in a shifting market. Jun Takahashi at Undercover revisited past work to inform his present designs, and even LVMH powerhouse Louis Vuitton scaled back its usual spectacle in favor of a more intimate show emphasizing craftsmanship. This shift reflects a broader industry response to a cooling luxury market, where clarity of vision is more crucial than ever.
Off the runway, Off-White’s pre-show step-and-repeat allowed guests to showcase current collection pieces in real-life settings, making avant-garde fashion more relatable. Amed highlighted this as an opportunity for brands: “There’s a step-and-repeat for what’s available to buy now, and then there’s the show for what’s available for the future.”
While high-profile debuts dominated headlines, some of the season’s most compelling collections came from smaller designers. BoF’s top shows list reflects a season that balanced tradition and innovation:1. Duran Lantink, 2. Tom Ford, 3. Givenchy, 4. Undercover, 5. Burberry, 6. Louis Vuitton, 7. Bally, 8. Marc Jacobs, 9. Miu Miu, 10. Dilara Fındıkoğlu.
Autumn/Winter 2025 reinforced fashion’s role as both an art form and a business. Whether through nostalgic reinvention or boundary-pushing experimentation, this season proved that brand evolution, body-conscious design, and consumer engagement remain at the industry’s core.
