From Phoebe Philo announcing her return, to Balenciaga’s take on Springfield, to Gucciaga and Fendace, we break down one of the most obscene years in fashion yet
Farewell to 2021, the year that brought us Ratatouille the musical and a Yassified Bernie Sanders. Less of an annus horribilis, more of a Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friends’ testes horribilis, it’s easy to look back over the past twelve months and feel somewhat thwarted. The psychic break of 2020 promised a roaring twenties where debauchery and hedonism reigned supreme but outside of Downing Street did anything of the sort actually happen? With our dried-out brains overloaded with daily discourse, NFT art, and Delta, we were stuck like a cargo ship in the Suez canal. One foot queuing for a booster and another still working from home, we learnt that freedom has a bitter tang, like the delicious slick of an envelope.
Of course, it’s not that nothing happened, it’s that, actually, too much happened. Between Lady Gaga’s unhinged press tour for House of Gucci, Machine Gun Kelly uttering the words “I am weed”, and the return of the selfie stick, in 2021, cringe became currency. With culture a constellation of flashing lights – a control room under attack – it seemed as though each and every bulb was willing to blow itself up in order to burn the brightest. Versace collaborated with Fendi, Gucci with Balenciaga, and then both “hacked” and “swapped” the other right back. Despite pledging to just do and make less, fashion just got bigger and more bountiful. Below, we address the state of fashion in 2021 through its wildest moments.
Ashley Olsen wearing yeezys, drinking beer, carrying a machete in the middle of the forest is my summer mood board. pic.twitter.com/9uXS3tiejP
— nydoorman (@NYDoorman) July 9, 2021
ASHLEY OLSEN WIELDING A MACHETE
It was the image that sparked a thousand “mood” quote tweets, yet what that mood was, exactly, was unclear. A woman on the edge? An alcoholic pseudo-shaman? Whatever it was, the feeling of walking through a woodland trail double-fisting a beer and a machete in a linen two piece was hawked as “2021 goals”. Of course, it was a divergence from Ashley Olsen’s usual look, which skews dour, swaddled in layers of black fabric, as if to immediately announce one’s low bone density and collection of Isamu Noguchi sculptures. Wait – is that a mood?
LARRY DAVID HATING FASHION WEEK
We were barely two weeks into the fashion season and Larry David epitomised how so many of us were feeling, as he cradled his head and plugged his ears at Staud’s SS22 show. An unlikely front row guest, the actor was there to support the designer, a friend’s fianceé. “My presence has never been helpful anywhere. Wherever I am, it’s wrong,” he said in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “Everything is better if I’m not there. Believe me. So I showed up. But you know, me and a fashion show, it’s a little out of place. It was very loud music and that’s why I was covering my ears.”
BALENCIAGA AND GUCCI’S HACKING
During Gucci’s Aria show, it suddenly became apparent that we were watching a collaboration with Balenciaga, and for at least one afternoon, the newsfeed was pandemonium. Alessandro Michele and Demna refused to call it a collaboration, however, framing their cross-pollination as a “hack”, which was translated onto cloth through a thousand Gucci monograms, emblazoned on pinched-shouldered Balenciaga silhouettes, co-branded, crystal-festooned hourglass suits, knife boots, and horsebit bags.
WHEN THE FAMOUS WENT FACELESS
She didn’t need to show her face. We have all become accustomed to every curve and contour of Kim Kardashian’s body, so even when she was obscured in sheets of black fabric at the Met Gala, it somehow demanded even more attention than usual. That, of course, was the work of Demna, who has similarly been directing Kanye’s sartorial exploits, covering the rapper’s face in humanoid masks. The ultimate goal was, of course, to obliterate (or magnify) his public persona, eventually sending out troupes of random people in the same lizard-man monstrosities.
FENDACE
Allegedly, the “swap” between Versace and Fendi had been in the works long before Gucci hacked Balenciaga, and by the end of Milan Fashion Week, it had become the worst kept secret in fashion. Bar SKIMS and Fendi, that is, when a personal shopper accidentally leaked the collection online. Fendace began with Donatella inviting a handful of fashion’s glitterati for a “special” show in her gorgeously landscaped back garden. The collaboration that ensued was a spangled get-together of fashion greats, among them Naomi, Kate, Kristen, and Amber. It felt incestuous and bombastic, but ultimately divided opinion.
DOMINIQUE JACKSON AT MUGLER
Get the shoes, baby, get the shoes! The overlap between Dominique Jackson and the fashion world became a complete circle this year, as she was deigned a Mugler muse. Strutting down the catwalk in one of Casey Cadwallader’s slinky catsuits, it was as if she had been possessed by the spirit of Elektra Evangelista, ensuring the designer’s AW21 show became a viral moment.
BURBERRY’S BAMBI EARS
There’s only one creature Riccardo Tisci loves more than Irina Shayk and that’s Bambi. While fawn-like prints have become a steadfast motif for the designer throughout his tenure at Burberry, this year Tisci made it weird. For SS22, models trundled out assless – or should that be ass-out wearing prosthetic doe ears, reminiscent of weird Instagram beauty accounts and Dobby, the house-elf. A viral moment.
AOC’S BIG FASHION BLUNDER
AOC made one of the most ill-judged fashion decisions of the year, turning up to the Met Gala in a dress made by a millionaire tax avoidant scrawled with the phrase “Tax the Rich”. Cue a million thinkpieces quoting Mark Fisher and yet more celebrating the politician for bravely taking down the institution from inside its gilded cage. Who did the statement end up speaking to? Who cares? It was extremely corny. A moment for the Scarlet readership.
FRANK OCEAN BROUGHT A CREEPY BABY TO THE MET
Having launched his own brand – not a makeup line, thank god – Frank Ocean walked the Met Gala’s red carpet cradling a lime green mechanical baby dressed in a Homer romper. We speculated on Frank’s bizarre relationship to “Cody”, questioning whether the musician was actually babysitting Grimes’ and Elon Musks’ X Æ A-Xii. At one point, he put on a navy cap emblazoned with the DreamWorks film logo, except it read ‘Dreamcore’ – a popular TikTok aesthetic that revolves around weird, nostalgic imagery that ignites a surreal sense of unease.
JUSTIN BIEBER MODELLED FOR BALENCIAGA
If the beginning of his tenure at Balenciaga and Vetements saw Demna toiling with the notion of celebrity and social media, this was the year he gave into fame. He dropped his surname – Gvasalia – preferring to be known as a mononym for his professional endeavours and cast Justin Bieber in two separate campaigns. And that’s not even getting into his work as Kim Kardashian’s unofficial creative director…
PHOEBE PHILO MADE A RETURN
It was as if you could hear the sound of thousands of women emptying their shopping carts at The Row and Bottega Veneta at the same time – Phoebe Philo was making a return to fashion. Revealed in July, the beloved Céline designer, who cloaked women in a quiet cultural cognisance, was to make a comeback with her own LVMH-backed label. Details were scant but, lo, the sisterhood of sloping silhouettes is set to reconvene next year.
LIL NAS X RELEASED SHOES MADE FROM HUMAN BLOOD
As Cardi B piped on Bodak Yellow, “these are bloody shoes”. Back in March Lil Nas X announced he would be selling 666 pairs of Satan Shoes, a collaboration with MSCHF which saw the rapper inject human blood into the soles of Nike Air Max 97s. It all got very serious though when Nike inked a lawsuit against the musician, to which he responded with a “heartfelt” apology video, which bursts into a scene from “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” where Lil Nas X gyrates on the devil. Once a troll, etc.
NOEL FIELDING COLLABED WITH FENDI
Perhaps the most unlikely link-up of the year was that of Fendi and The Great British Bake Off. For AW21, Silvia Venturini Fendi tapped actor, presenter, and artist Noel Fielding to create a series of scribbly-scrawly prints, reminiscent of his early days in the The Mighty Boosh. As if to hail Kim Jones’ tenure at the house, the Brit’s ‘multicoloured, stream of multi-consciousness’ markings turned the Fendi logo inside-out, offering flashes of alien creatures on knitted sweaters, quilted robe-like coats, and boxy shirts.
THE SIMPSONS’ BALENCIAGA SPECIAL
One of the most memorable, if not defining, moments of fashion in 2021 was when Balenciaga debuted its SS22 collection with an episode of The Simpsons. Guests were invited to Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet, where they walked its red carpet, alongside models, before being seated and realising that everything had been livestreamed on a giant television screen – meaning they were the show. Lights dimmed and a ten-minute-long episode of The Simpsons played as Demna screwed with, and skewed, the limits and expectations of a fashion show.
KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN WENT GOTH
The goth revival, the Y2K revival, the medieval revival, the regency revival. 2021 was in a constant state of consuming old things and past subcultures, spewing it all up on a big buffet-style table for people to make TikToks from. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Since everything is trending all the time, fashion has become less prescriptive, giving people the freedom to experiment with their style. Kourtney Kardashian, for example, began to pledge her allegiance to the dark side as she got closer to Travis Barker. She now dresses like she owns 51 per cent of Hot Topic in Rick Owens leather pants, studded Givenchy mules, grungy Raf Simons knits, and steampunk lace-up skirts.
Daniel Lee is leaving #BottegaVeneta, just weeks after the big show in Detroit. No more BV green? No more pouch bag? Oh boy.
— Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) November 10, 2021
DANIEL LEE-AVES BOTTEGA VENETA
Daniel Lee shocked the industry when he announced that he would be separating from Bottega Veneta after spending three years resuscitating the formerly-forgettable fashion house. Rumours swirled on his departure, some genuinely awful, some vehemently denied, but what was perhaps the most bizarre moment in Lee’s divorce was when the label called his tenure a “collaboration”. Wunderkind designer Matthieu Blazy has since taken the reins and will debut his new look for the label in February 2022.
GUCCI’S LOVE LETTER TO HOLLYWOOD
Fashion got flash in 2021 and began to behave like a genre of entertainment, like sports, television, or even film. Alessandro Michele hailed this new era, taking over Hollywood Boulevard in LA as he lined the streets with more than a hundred models and famous faces for Gucci’s schmaltzy Love Parade. Macaulay Culkin, Phoebe Bridgers, Miranda July, St Vincent, Jodie Turner Smith, and Jared Leto all walked for the designer, as well as two curve models – a history-making first for the fashion house.
BIG TOPSHOP CLOSED FOREVER
Once a honeypot for young women and devotees of Alexa Chung, we said farewell to Topshop this year. As it fell into administration, the lodestone of 2010s style shuttered the doors on its Oxford Street flagship, bidding adieu to an era of Jamie jeans and Kate Moss wannabes. “Meet by the big IKEA”. It doesn’t feel the same. Gone but not forgotten.
DEMNA DEBUTED COUTURE
This entire list could be one running homage to Demna's work at Balenciaga this year but we must think back to July in particular when the designer debuted his first ever couture collection in a restored version of Cristóbal’s salon. Soundtracked by absolutely nothing, models skulked through the cosy-looking rooms in jeans, overblown jackets, dressing gowns, Philip Treacy saucer hats, and ghostly wedding dresses. It was a deft blend of the labels’ heritage pieces and Demna’s off-kilter twists on the quotidian.
ASAP ROCKY’S ERL BLANKET
Steadying himself in front of the phalanx of photographers which flank the Met Gala’s red carpet, ASAP Rocky puffed his chest and tossed the quilt he had arrived in to the ground, revealing… a black suit. The “cape” was sourced by ERL but actually turned out to be some grandma’s old blanket which had been sent to a charity shop years before. Much to the surprise of the granddaughter who spotted the look doing the rounds on social media…
DUA LIPA AT VERSACE
During the 90s, Donatella was the first real designer to welcome celebrities into the world of fashion, inviting Prince, TuPac, and Madonna to star on Versace runways and in campaigns. She continues that tradition today, seen last season, when Dua Lipa opened and closed the label’s SS22 show, sulking her way down the runway in skimpy metal mesh and a silk press. The popstar closed the show by licking her teeth, perhaps marking the very moment that fashion lost its libido to Y2K mania.
OSCAR ISAAC’S BTS SHOTS
Oscar Isaac was photographed wearing full-look Uniqlo (?) in a BTS costume shot whilst working on Scenes from a Marriage. With his salt ‘n’ pepper curls tousled over his forehead, the actor was snapped in a coterie of looks which spanned the breadth of brown corduroys, greige henleys, and New Balance sneakers. Yet despite looking like anybody you’d see working in an expensive-tat shop in Stoke Newington or Brooklyn, it sent fans into a hot-limbed frenzy. “Oscar Isaac gives hot English professor who fucks at least 6 of his graduate students a year,” someone Tweeted, and it was enough.
The face when you just win the award for Artist of the Decade pic.twitter.com/WtjtwWuCzo
— Lana Del Rey Online (@LanaDReyOnline) December 5, 2021
LANA DEL REY WEARS… SHEIN
For those who complain that celebrity stylists have too much power – *cough* Tom Ford – and that red carpets were better when famous people exercised their unbridled taste by dressing themselves, let us point you in the direction of Lana Del Rey, who wore a strappy, marble-printed dress from Shein to pick up Variety magazine’s artist of the decade award. Of course, the monstrous fast fashion site is known to copy from independent designers, so that may well be the case here, but an ethical choice would be for Lana to simply not peddle its wares.