THE FASHION Resistance

From strong-shouldered power suits to Matrix-adjacent looks and fashion armour, feminine empowerment was the key takeaway of the Fall 2022 collections, reports PATTY HUNTINGTON

- PATTY HUNTINGTON

It wasn’t quite the reunion the fashion pack had anticipated last year. February 24, 2022, the day Russian troops commenced their assault on Ukraine, was the second day of Milan Fashion Week. It was also the halfway point of a season that represented the biggest return to the traditional, physical runway show format since Covid-19 shut down the world in early 2020. Planeloads of international buyers, journalists, photographers, celebrities, and models had reassembled on the circuit in numbers not seen in two years—over the moon to be back in the business of fabulousness.

Then came Putin's reality check. “My decision not to use any music was taken as a sign of respect towards the people involved in the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine,” tweeted Giorgio Armani, the first designer to respond publicly to the crisis, after dispatching his models down the runway in total silence. And in solidarity, other designers expressed their disagreement with the war, including Balenciaga.

Call it coincidence—or perhaps yet another illustration of fashion's much-discussed knack for serving as a cultural barometer, but frissons of fearlessness and feminine empowerment reverberated throughout the Fall 2022 collections. Yes, there were nods to the heavy sexual overtones of the Spring 2022 season, when collections groaned with cut-outs, micro-miniskirts, bralettes, seductive strapwork, and sleek catsuits, as if designers had been celebrating the world reconnecting after two years of isolation. But come winter, and they seemed far more preoccupied with serving up a heavy dose of fashion PPE.