Two critics break down which designers actually moved the needle this season. They unpack Chanel’s quietly powerful debut and the tactile details that drove customer excitement. They debate Gucci’s high-stakes reinvention and whether it can convert buzz into sales. The conversation also highlights fresh signatures at Dior, Marni’s relaunch, theatrical work from Japanese labels, and Tom Ford’s cinematic comeback.
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Off-Peak Store Visit Revealed Chanel Hysteria
Imran Amed visited Chanel's Avenue Montaigne store off-peak and watched a young woman gasp when trying on a feather-hemmed blazer.
He compared the frenzy to Alessandro Michele's Gucci moment, noting editors buying blazers and bags.
insights INSIGHT
Craft Over Instagram Wins With Chanel
Tim Blanks sees Blazy's Chanel as craftsmanship-forward, prioritising tactile, layered details over social-media gestures.
Examples include tweeds treated with printed strands on linings to create kinetic depth and Pollock-like effects inside jackets.
insights INSIGHT
Anderson's Signatures Are Shaping Dior
Jonathan Anderson is already establishing signatures at Dior through accessories and daring silhouettes like lily pad shoes.
Anderson applies a 'magpie sensibility'—mixing craft, surreal footwear and couture fabrics for ready-to-wear drama.
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After a season shaped less by shock debuts and more by second and third chapters, Tim Blanks and Imran Amed take stock of the fashion month that was.
“This season was kind of one note for me,” says Blanks. “It reminded me that in that golden age … of the ’90s, you would go to a day that was just bang, bang, bang. That’s what I still crave — that sense of surprise and that sense of designers working at a peak.”
If last season was driven by anticipation, this one was more revealing; in addition to witnessing how their creative ideas are evolving, new designers’ visions are now landing in stores, meeting customers and beginning to show whether they can convert attention into traction.
Key Insights:
For both Blanks and Amed, Chanel is the season’s most convincing success story – not just on the runway, but in the store. Amed describes seeing customers respond viscerally to Matthieu Blazy’s first ready-to-wear in person, noting that “the way customers were engaging with that product — the shoes, the bags — I hadn’t seen anything like that since Alessandro Michele at Gucci.” Blanks argues that the collection’s appeal lies in the intelligence of its details — not in obvious Instagram gestures, but in private pleasures built into the clothes. He points to a tweed jacket lined with a scarf print drawn from a caricature of Chanel herself and says, “That lining would be your secret.” For him, this is precisely why the work resonates: “He says we don’t make fashion for Instagram… and I think that kind of thing will elicit an incredible response from people.”
Gucci prompts the most debate because the stakes are so high. Amed frames Demna’s task as structurally different from what he previously achieved at Balenciaga. However, Blanks is more interested in the atmosphere and coded intention of the show, even if he remains unsettled by it. “I think that in his mind he was making a show about Italian fashion,” he says, adding that “it came across better in pictures than it actually did while we were watching it.” Still, he stops short of dismissal: “There is so much in fashion that I can look at and say, well, it’s not for me, but I appreciate that it’s for someone.”
Just months into the role, both Amed and Blanks see clear signs of Anderson’s authorship beginning to take shape inside the house of Dior. Blanks points to details like the lily pad shoes, which echo the surrealist footwear from Anderson’s past work, noting that “he already has signatures at Dior.” More broadly, Blanks describes the approach as “a magpie sensibility applied to the monolith of a brand.” Amed agrees that the pace of change is striking, saying “the amount that he’s already brought to that brand in such a short period of time is pretty extraordinary,” even if the process remains experimental. “Not everything is successful,” he adds, “but that’s the way he progresses… he’s refining, he’s a refiner.”
The Business of Fashion Podcast