2022 fashion highlights, as picked by the Wallpaper* team

Wallpaper’s fashion and beauty team share their personal 2022 fashion highlights – from the Renaissance splendour of Wales Bonner’s show in Rome to Gaetano Pesce’s colourful set for Matthieu Blazy’s sophomore outing at Bottega Veneta, and a special beauty launch from Belgian designer Dries Van Noten. These are style moments that will stick with us.

2022 fashion highlights, according to the Wallpaper* fashion and beauty team

Jason Hughes, Wallpaper* fashion director

‘We first found out that [Italian designer] Gaetano Pesce was collaborating on the set for Bottega Veneta’s September show a couple of days prior; I’m a big fan of his work, and his screen for Cassina had recently featured on the cover of Wallpaper’s July 2022 issue, so it felt like an exciting moment. It also felt exciting because it was Matthieu Blazy’s second show for Bottega, and his first had been such a statement, with so many clothes and accessories I loved. 

‘The show wasn’t a disappointment – Pesce had created 400 chairs, each one completely unique, made from colourful resin and decorated with playful hand-drawn motifs, like smiley faces and question marks. The models sped out across Pesce’s poured-resin floor – Blazy said it was all about “a contrast of characters on the go” – in a way which felt totally energising, with so many incredible, seductive pieces which reflected the pragmatic luxury which Blazy has made his signature. It was my highlight of fashion month; maybe the entire year. 

‘A smaller – but no less memorable – moment was impromptu lunch with the Amsterdam-based brand Extreme Cashmere in Paris. It was a warm afternoon and we had come to see the latest collection; the team was cooking, and they convinced us to stay. We sat in the garden and heard the story behind the brand from the founder Saskia [Dijkstra], who is such a charismatic force. We tried on some of the pieces afterwards – which are all in Mongolian cashmere, in really unexpected shapes and colours – and have since become totally obsessed. You will always get at least one compliment when you wear one of their sweaters.’

Jack Moss, Wallpaper* fashion features editor

‘One moment which comes to mind is Grace Wales Bonner’s show as guest designer during Pitti Uomo in Florence. It took place at the 15th-century Palazzo Medici Riccardi – a magnificent Renaissance palace that served as the Medici family’s private residence for decades – in which Wales Bonner had drafted artist Ibrahim Mahama to ‘intervene’ with the space, creating a vast work from stitched-together jute bags which once held Ghanaian cacao beans. It made for a transporting spectacle, the collection itself full of incredible expressions of craft – from hand-dyed fabrics made in Burkina Fasso to Ghanaian glass beads and Indian macramé, as well as collaborations with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard and jacquards by the historic House of Charvet in Paris. She has been one of Britain’s foremost designers for almost half a decade now, but this felt like a declaration of arrival on a bigger fashion stage. It was exciting to witness.

‘Prada will always be one of my highlights, but there was something about Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ womenswear show in September (during Milan Fashion Week S/S 2023) that really stuck with me – like all great collections from the brand, it teetered between subversion and seduction, the various pieces requiring a second look to reveal the strange intricacies of their construction, which made them appear creased, crumpled, ripped or snagged. I loved how they described these imperfections as ‘the memories of beauty embedded in cloth’, perhaps best captured in a series of papery dresses – their painterly prints outlined in white, as if not quite meeting the edges of the canvas. They are some of the year’s most intriguing pieces.’

Mary Cleary, Wallpaper* beauty and grooming editor

‘Of the year’s fashion moments, I really loved Chopova Lowena’s joyful first runway show as part of London Fashion Week S/S 2023 in September. Inspired by Bulgaria’s Rose Queen festivals and lacrosse wear, the collection was such a buoyant and brilliant mishmash of prairie pageantry and punkish sportswear – I was left lusting after every single thing. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena’s signature pleated kilts are of course amazing, but I really couldn’t get enough of the fuzzy sweater vests, doodle T-shirts, or the patterned detachable sleeves which you can use to jazz up any outfit. The energy of it all was joyfully amplified by the duo’s inclusion of their friends as models and a soundtrack overlaid with the shouts of lacrosse players who had been mic’d up in practice. Make-up wise, I thought Ana Takahashi’s eight-shaped, brown-lined lips and rhinestone eyes were a perfect complement. Another beauty favourite from London Fashion Week was the colourful glitter hair and metallic nail extensions at KNWLS. 

‘And, of course, I can’t talk about beauty and fashion this year without mentioning the launch of Dries Van Noten’s beauty line, which we debuted in the May issue of Wallpaper*. When I first smelled the fragrances for the collection I was blown away by how none of them smelt like any perfume I had ever encountered before – Cannabis Patchouli is a particular knock-out – and, colour-wise, the brand’s lipsticks are my favourites at the moment, like Violet Silk in matte and Stanley Orange in satin.’