Fashion in 2025: what to shop, visit and look out for

It is no exaggeration to say that 2024 has been a rollercoaster year in fashion, with a near-endless stream of designer departures and arrivals, leaving the lasting impression that fashion is currently in a state of flux. That said, with the announcement that Matthieu Blazy is set to head to Chanel – as one of fashion’s most powerful houses, the vacancy after Virginie Viard was keenly felt by the industry – and Sarah Burton’s tenure beginning at Givenchy, 2025 looks to be the year that fashion settles into a new era (though, if the rumours are anything to go by, the creative director merry-go-round will continue to spin well into the new year).

Here, we look forward to an exciting 2025 in fashion, a year which already seems to be embracing the new: whether the changing of the fashion guard at Chanel, Givenchy, Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta et al, or a fresh vanguard of on-the-rise designers set to define the year in style. Elsewhere, there are blockbuster fashion exhibitions at the V&A and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (the latter will be celebrated with the 2025 Met Gala in May), and a vast auction of the work of Maison Martin Margiela. Here’s everything to look forward to in fashion in 2025.

Witness a changing of the fashion guard

After a year of flux – 2024 was a year which saw creative directors depart en masse – 2025 will see a new guard of fashion designers begin to carve out their visions for fashion’s most venerable houses. Notably, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel (his appointment in December was perhaps 2024’s most high-profile hire), Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford. Elsewhere, Louise Trotter will take over for Blazy at Bottega Veneta, Julian Klausner will replace Dries Van Noten after the designer’s exit from his eponymous label, and Michael Rider will take over from Hedi Slimane at Celine. As for which one of these appointments will catch fire remains to be seen, though even for the incidental fashion fan 2025 will prove a year full of intrigue. There will also be revealing collections from Alessandro Michele (his sophomore collection for Valentino, and a first couture collection), Sean McGirr (his third collection at Alexander McQueen) and the first Fendi show since the departure of Kim Jones. And with plenty of rumours abounding about further arrivals and departures, expect the musical chairs to continue into 2025.

Shop the largest-ever auction of Maison Martin Margiela

The early collections of Maison Martin Margiela – the name of the house while the eponymous Martin Margiela was still at the helm – are some of the most influential of the late 20th century, oft-referenced but near-impossible to find IRL. An expansive new auction seeks to change that, putting 270 ultra-rare pieces of fashion and ephemera created by the designer on the auction block, spanning the years 1988-1994 (1988 was the year the maison was founded by the Belgian designer). The auction is being led by Angela and Elena Picozzi, the daughters of Graziella Picozzi, an Italian fashion industry insider who amassed the collection having been a longtime friend and collaborator of Martin Margiela (London’s Kerry Taylor Auctions and Paris’ Maurice Auctions will host). ‘The meeting between our mother, Graziella, and Martin Margiela was a fundamental moment for both of them. We always considered these items an important part of fashion history that ought to be protected,’ say the sisters. ‘Over time, we realised how important it is that Martin’s talent and vision be enhanced, studied, told, and, why not, worn. And that’s why we are selling today.’ Read more.

‘Martin Margiela: The Early Years, 1988-94’ auction will take place on January 27, 2025 at 81 Boulevard Voltaire, Paris 75011 and broadcast live on drouot.com and invaluable.com

Visit the Met Museum’s ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’

Each year, a blockbuster fashion exhibition lands at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, celebrating either the work of singular figures (Rei Kawakubo; Karl Lagerfeld) or musing on a theme (American fashion; fashion and technology; the influence of China). This year, curator-in-charge Andrew Bolton has drafted Monica L. Miller – author of the 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity – to guest curate an exhibition on ‘Black dandyism’ in the era-spanning exhibition which is titled ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’. It will mark the first exhibition since 2003’s ‘Men in Skirts’ to explore menswear, charting the history of Black dandyism as ‘a discrete phenomenon that reflects broader issues of power and race in the Black diaspora’ through a multitude of garments and ephemera, from the 18th-century to present-day, with a focus on tailoring. Though the annual Costume Institute exhibition is best known for its accompanying Met Gala, taking part on the first Monday of May, with this year’s co-chairs including Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky and Anna Wintour, alongside Lebron James acting as honourary co-chair. Tune in on May 5, 2025.

‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ will run from 10 May – 26 October 2025 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Or in London, a Marie Antoinette exhibition hosted by Manolo Blahnik

Meanwhile in London, the V&A has announced its own yearly blockbuster fashion exhibition: this September, it will host a wide-ranging exhibition on Marie Antoinette, tracing her enduring style legacy (it will be sponsored by Antoinette aficionado Manolo Blahnik, whose work will feature in the show). Titled ‘Marie Antoinette Style’, the organisers hope to present a more nuanced portrayal of the divisive historical figure, offering new insight into her links with Britain (she was purportedly an Anglophile), spanning both historical objects and contemporary works influenced by the monarch, including pieces from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette. Expect a starry opening night, and – as is tradition with the V&A’s fashion exhibitions – queues around the block come the opening. We advise you to book as soon as the tickets drop (currently they are listed as ‘coming soon’).

‘Marie Antoinette Style’ runs from 20 September 2025 to 22 March 2026 at V&A, London.

Watch fashion’s relationship with film continue

With designer Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of Loewe and JW Anderson, already picking up a Costume Designers Guild Award for his work on Luca Guadagnino’s erotic tennis thriller Challengers which was released in 2024, it’s not out of the question to see Anderson become an awards season fixture (the same goes for his subsequent work on Guadagnino’s new movie Queer, where he also serves as costume designer). With Anderson cementing the symbiosis of fashion and film in 2024, the relationship looks set to continue, with British designer Gareth Pugh creating the costumes for Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, while no doubt more fashion-filled press tours will take over the red carpet (Wicked part two is released on November 21, 2025, so expect plenty more on-theme green and pink confections from stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande). We also expect a continuing obsession with fashion merch – read Mary Cleary’s exploration of why film ephemera took over film in 2024, from Anderson’s ‘I Told Ya’ Challengers T-shirt to merch from The Substance and Nosferatu.

Queer is in UK cinemas now.

Look out for a new generation of designers set to shift the fashion needle

We have collated a list of eight designers set to shift the fashion needle in 2025, chosen for the way they are not just shaping how to dress, but who to be – from Renaissance Renaissance’s poetic collections, shaped by designer Cynthia Merhej’s Lebanese heritage and backdropped by the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, to Ellen Hodakova Larsson’s subversively glamourous take on upcycling. ‘At a moment when building a brand from the ground up has never felt like a taller task, above all there seemed to be a deeper focus on what makes it all worth it – a love of craft and a need to put things out in the world,’ writes Orla Brennan, who met the eight designers. ‘[They] draw upon resilience in the face of the unknown, offering up powerful new ideas about not only how to dress, but how to be.’

Discover eight on-the-rise fashion designers set to define 2025 here.

Discover Pitti Uomo’s latest guest designers

The January edition of Pitti Uomo, the historic Florentine menswear fair, marks the beginning of the fashion calendar for 2025 (men’s fashion weeks in Milan and Paris will follow, before haute couture week, and women’s fashion week in February). As such it has a feeling of freshness, with the A/W 2025 edition hosting two guest designers both interested in subverting the traditions of menswear: MM6 Maison Margiela and Setchu, the Milan-based label led by Japanese designer Satoshi Kuwata. The latter is a particularly intriguing prospect: trained on Savile Row he combines meticulous craft with avant-garde pattern cutting, which is influenced by both traditional Japanese garments and the country’s most influential designers, from Yohji Yamamoto to Rei Kawakubo. A finalist for the LVMH Prize in 2023, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Kuwata poached for a major label in 2025. Watch this space.

Pitti Uomo A/W 2025 runs from January 14 – 17, 2025.