Summer 2024 is set to be an exciting season for fashion, blending bold new trends with nostalgic revivals and a continued emphasis on sustainability. Whether you’re drawn to vivid colors, playful prints, or eco-friendly fabrics, there’s something for everyone to embrace. Get ready to refresh your wardrobe and step out in style!
The Key Spring/Summer 2024 Trends To Know Now
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The most talked-about collection at the spring/summer 2024 fashion shows was the one that wasn’t there. Phoebe Philo, yet to unveil the first fruits of her eponymous line, which had been originally slated to debut online in September some six years after she departed Céline, dominated the fashion news cycle throughout the month. As the spring/summer 2024 fashion trends piled up, designers waited nervously to see if their collections would be eclipsed by a spontaneous digital drop from a woman many revere as fashion’s messiah.
Read more: Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet
Her cult status as industry saviour was only heightened by the news that the spring/summer 2024 show would be Sarah Burton’s last collection for Alexander McQueen, with Gabriela Hearst also departing Chloé. Incoming: Sabato de Sarno at Gucci, Peter Hawkings at Tom Ford, Peter Do at Helmut Lang, and Louise Trotter at Carven. Does fashion have a woman designer problem? At LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, only Dior and Pucci have female creative directors, while Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo are eponymously run. At Kering, the second biggest fashion conglomerate, not a single brand is helmed by a woman, nor a person of colour.
Set against that demoralising disparity, and an equally sobering economic and political backdrop, designers played it safe for spring/summer 2024. The palette was muted, with black and white blotting out the colour-box brights that typically come to the fore for summer collections. Retina-searing red was one of the few tones that managed to make it through the muzzled colour wheel. The post-pandemic era of body positivity – and the nude looks that came with it – has largely faded, and with it the broader variety of body types that had begun to populate the runways.
WATCH
Will you say yes to the white dress? Ranging from diaphanous and sheer to embroidered and densely-worked, designers signalled a clear shift away from the euphoric shots of colour and frothy pastels that come around every spring with a bevy of swan-white dresses.
JOSEPH
Danube Silk Crêpe De Chine Midi-Dress
MARNI
Balloon-Skirt Cotton-Poplin Sleeveless Dress
COS
Deconstructed Midi Shirt Dress
STAUD
Wells Pleated Stretch-Cotton Poplin Midi-Dress
High-rise trousers
Trust Jonathan Anderson to define the season’s silhouette. At Loewe, the designer celebrated his 10-year anniversary at the Spanish house by ushering in a new super-high-waisted trouser shape – so high, in fact, that the trousers came with an in-built corset to hold them in place under the bust. The good news: they’re an instant leg-lengthener, as Anderson’s contemporaries at Alaïa, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent will attest.
COS
Wide-Leg Tailored Wool Trousers
FRAME
Le Palazzo Trouser
ERDEM
High-Rise Cotton-Twill Wide-Leg Trousers
NANUSHKA
Lynda Pleated Slip Satin Pants
Polo club
If Mrs Prada says the polo shirt feels right again, who are we to disagree? With Miu Miu riding high as one of the most influential fashion shows on the calendar, prepare to see a lot more of the humble collared cotton style, which was styled with everything from men’s board shorts to ruffled micro-mini skirts, gold brocade shift dresses to sequin-embellished blouses. That country club mood persisted elsewhere, with rugby shirts making an appearance at Dries Van Noten and DSquared2, and flip-flops and spa towels accessorising looks at Chanel and The Row respectively. The key to making it feel effortless? Just remember to muss up your hair. No one likes a prim prepster.
& DAUGHTER
Edith Striped Wool Polo Sweater
LOEWE
Wool Polo Sweater
GUCCI
Wool Polo Shirt With Horesbit
FILIPPA K
Knitted Polo Sweater
Transparent skirt
After several seasons of sheer wafting gowns and lingerie-inspired details, the sheer skirt takes spring’s spotlight as a racy look to trial for day or night. Altuzarra lent it ladylike edge, pairing sheer pencil skirts with soft crew-neck sweaters and top-handle bags, a combination that showed up at Carolina Herrera, Coperni, Givenchy and Carven. If that feels a little frou-frou, double up sheer layers and style it with a bomber jacket and chunky belt, as seen at Louis Vuitton.
ACNE STUDIOS
Mesh Maxi Skirt
SAINT LAURENT
Black Flared Sheer Tulle Skirt
PRADA
Georgette Skirt
VINTAGE
Chanel Runway Black Lace Midi-Skirt
’90s redux
Time for a ’90s redux. As the world slides towards another recession, bold colours and ballsy logos are on the way out (Phoebe Philo’s October launch, with its uber-understated branding, made sure of that) and discreet chic is back. That the trend corresponds with the 25th anniversary of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s untimely death is no coincidence, as the New York Times recently pointed out. With a US presidential election and a potential Trump return on the horizon, cool-headed minimalism seems the only suitable sartorial riposte. Seek out camel pencil skirts, grey tailoring, white shirts and boyfriend-style jeans from the key practitioners: Proenza Schouler, Max Mara, Bottega Veneta, and Gucci.
KURT GEIGER LONDON
Regent Slingback Heel
THE FRANKIE SHOP
Gelso Tencel-Blend Blazer
WITH NOTHING UNDERNEATH
The Boyfriend Shirt
FILIPPA K
Long Tailored Skirt
Modern flapper
Embellished with Catherine wheels of crystals, metal fringing and shiny grommets, Prada’s spring proposition blended sculpted tailoring and shift dresses with Jazz Age pizzazz. The stand-out show christened a trend the Vogue editors are calling “the modern flapper”, traced through the season in the gilded fringing, shimmering headpieces and drop-waist dresses we associate with 1920s baby vamps, now remixed for 2024 with leather barn jackets and blazers.
16ARLINGTON
Marabou Feather-Trim Mini Dress
TALLER MARMO
Fringed Kaftan
CHRISTOPHER ESBER
Beaded Maxi Dress
PROENZA SCHOULER
Fringed Macramé Maxi Dress
Smell the roses
Romance was in the air at Simone Rocha, where fresh, pale pink, long-stemmed roses were trapped between layers of tulle that comprised the prettiest of party dresses. That rose theme curiously persisted across fashion’s four main cities for spring. Olivier Rousteing, feeling philosophical after most of his Balmain collection was stolen several days before his show, quted Gertrude Stein’s 1913 poem ‘Sacred Emily’ with its famous line “Rose is a rose is a rose” ahead of a floral-bedecked outing; meanwhile Sarah Burton closed out her Alexander McQueen tenure with a collection partly inspired by a blood-red rose and female anatomy. Spanning rose prints, floral embellishment, three-dimensional appliqué, or petal-shaped silhouettes, designers from Rei Kawakubo to Richard Quinn are feeling, uh, thorny.
ACNE STUDIOS
Delouise Floral-Print Woven Midi-Dress
ERDEM
Rose Print Denim Midi-Skirt
BLUMARINE
Rose Earrings
BURBERRY
Rose Clutch
Short shorts
If you can coolly observe the trend for short shorts without your mind immediately replaying that ‘1957’ song by the Royal Teens (or the Homer Simpson homage), well, you’re more culturally robust than we are. Micro shorts pumped down the catwalks in Milan – most memorably opening the new-look Gucci show, now under the direction of Sabato de Sarno – and filtered into Paris, too, at Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Isabel Marant. Think of it as the logical conclusion to autumn’s no-pants predilection.
REFORMATION
Mason Tailored Shorts
DÔEN
Paige Pleated Cotton-Poplin Shorts
SACAI
Drawstring-Waistband Shell Shorts
PRADA
Re-Nylon Shorts
Metallics
Sequins, lamé and metallic treatments never seem to leave fashion’s trend orbit – but they gained renewed traction for spring as host city Paris looks ahead to the 2024 summer Olympics. A dose of supermodel sashay certainly helped too: at Ralph Lauren, Christy Turlington looked statuesque in a liquid gold gown, while at Versace, Claudia Schiffer lent chequerboard chainmail a sinuous ease.
& OTHER STORIES
Fitted Metallic Dress
GANNI
Silver Foil Stary Jeans
TOTÊME
Off-The-Shoulder Rolled Knit Top
LOEWE
Pre-Loved Limited Edition Basket Bag
Craft
Matthieu Blazy’s clever tricks continue at Bottega Veneta, where he moved on from denim-illusion leather to pom-pom adorned net dresses and fringed gowns that looked like they were made from feathers (they were, you guessed it, leather). The crafty illusions continued at Diesel, where Glenn Martens shredded deadstock denim and jersey into party dresses with a paint-peel effect and melted old movie posters into jackets. Elsewhere, crochet, embellishment and laser-cut leather extended the crafty mood.
MARNI
Striped-Pattern Knitted Wool Midi-Dress
BODE
Fair Isle Intarsia Wool Cardigan
DRIES VAN NOTEN
Woven Raffia Mules
DRAGON DIFFUSION
Small Santa Croce Woven Leather Tote Bag
