Bella's return, Kylie Jenner's catwalk debut and Harry Styles of (times twos ): The viral moments of SS25

New York delivered Wu-Tang Clan fist bumps and Botticelli-adjacent Rihanna street style; London gifted us a Harry Styles mullet and a late-late night courtesy of Charli XCX; Milan proffered perfume-bottle Versace heels and Bottega bean bags; and Paris, well Paris brought back Bella Hadid. Here, Vogue brings you the nitty-gritty details of what actually went down during a spring/summer '25 show season to remember.

There was only one woman who could make the fashion pack wait longer than the acceptable 30-minute time at Alaïa’s Guggenheim takeover. Oh na na, what’s her name? Our US colleague, Chloe Malle, summed up the moment best from the ground: “Clutching her custom Alaïa crystal mesh dress across her chest like Botticelli’s Venus emerging from the shell, the nautilus of Frank Lloyd Wright’s interior rising above her, the mononym icon appeared like a siren fresh from a shimmering sea.” All, of course, was promptly forgiven.

Related: The best street style from Paris Fashion Week SS25

“Something iconic, but a little unexpected,” was how Tommy Hilfiger decided on this season’s venue: a massive ship at the southernmost tip of Manhattan that operated as a Staten Island Ferry until 2021. The same could also be said for the designer’s closing act. Towards the end of Hilfiger’s red, white and blue presentation of crinkled collegiate uniforms, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Raekwon of Staten Island’s Wu-Tang Clan delivered a performance of “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Ice Cream”. Method Man offered Anna Wintour a fist bump.

Related: “I love the water”: Tommy Hilfiger sets sail at NYFW with a new nautical mood

The Eckhaus Latta show was a dinner, no a fashion show, no a dinner. After Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta thanked guests for coming to their Tribeca supper club, comedian Kate Berlant stole the mic and told everyone to channel their inner supermodel. Ella Emhoff joined editors on a makeshift runway, in keeping with the tradition of the brand’s friends, who frequently shoot guerilla-style catwalk videos. “We’ve been doing it for years as a joke when we’re travelling or at weird fabric conventions,” Latta told Laia Garcia-Furtado of their spontaneous game, which put the critics in the spotlight for once.

The seat sign next to Anna Wintour’s read “reserved”, propelling the SS Daley front row into a quiet frenzy about whether he would actually show. Reader, he did. Minority shareholder Harry Styles reportedly flew in just to catch his Liverpudlian friend’s first womenswear presentation, and treated the Royal Academy to a freshly cut mullet while he was at it. Hearts swooned (forgive the teen speak) at Styles’s crochet brooch, but he was in and out of LFW – quick as a watermelon sugar high – so as not to detract attention from the man of the hour: Steven Stokey-Daley himself.

“Get the f*ck up on someone’s shoulders!” shouted Charli XCX as editors spilled their dirty sodas while legitimately sizing one another up to get a better view of the Brat girl performing at the Copper Box Arena. Dressed in custom H&M, but with all the swagger of Mugler, the club rat achieved the inconceivable and made fashion week – whisper it! – fun on a night soundtracked by herself, Jamie xx and Sherelle.

The guests at last season’s Chopova Lowena presentation were welcomed with a shot of something called “Gerty Milk” – a traditional Cornish dish made from cow’s milk thickened with flour and oats – that tasted just as good as it sounds. For spring/summer 2025, designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons collaborated with a more mainstream kitchen staple: Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. (Don’t question it – what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained.) The duo debuted a brilliant shoulder bag with a special compartment designed for holding a jumbo-sized jar of the good stuff and a decorative spoon for digging in. It was good news for the magazine editors who love to post pictures from McDonald’s (and other fast food restaurants) during fashion month.

Dimitra Petsa grabbed the bull literally by the horns on the first Friday morning of fashion week, drawing on the Greek myth of the Minotaur and Ariadne reaching enlightenment from a maze of darkness through self pleasure. Cue clothing that explored the taboos of the female body: blood-stained bikini bottoms, lactating nipple-print crop tops and, ahem, “masturbation denim” – jeans with triangular pockets at the crotch that had been vigorously rubbed. LH

Priya Ahluwalia collaborated with a number of musicians this season, with Adekunle Gold and MassiveMusic working on a soundtrack inspired by the idea of home, featuring the noises of Nigeria, India and London. Meanwhile, Wretch 32 made a surprise appearance on the runway, wearing a brown coat featuring a print inspired by ’70s wallpaper and a pearl necklace from Pandora, which the designer partnered with for spring/summer 2025. EC

OK, we’re bending the rules with this one. The Standing Ground show was viral because it was decidedly unviral. Founder Michael Stewart is arguably the most secretive designer working in London, because, he’s told Vogue in the past, the work “has to speak for itself”. Accordingly, there were no spring/summer 2025 show notes and no interviews, as the Irish designer modestly told a throng of well-wishers that this was just a stop on the journey to where he wants Standing Ground to be. For anyone watching the statuesque, sci-fi-like gowns stalk around 180 Studios, this was the most couture-adjacent fashion London has seen from a young designer. The future looks bright, but don’t expect Stewart to shout – or even talk – about it. He’s not showing next season either. Maybe a sense of quiet – much like the ancient stones of Michael’s homeland that inspire his painstakingly beaded, hand-draped dresses – is the best kind of publicity after all. It certainly was one of the hottest tickets in town. AN

Lots of designers have been inspired by family members this season: JW Anderson spoke about his sister, while Chet Lo dedicated his show to his mother, a computer science pioneer. Meanwhile, Tolu Coker paid tribute to her mother, Olapeju, whom she described as one of her earliest style icons. Cheers erupted from the audience as the designer brought her out for her bow in a sweet moment. EC

It wasn’t a catwalk and nor was it a concert, but it was an amorphous third thing. On the final evening of London Fashion Week, Mowalola Ogunlesi staged a berserk spectacle in a hangar-sized warehouse in north Greenwich. The designer performed 10 songs from her soon-to-be-released album as models were dispatched onto the stage in groups. Irina Shayk closed the show in a hirsute bathing suit – perhaps the biggest casting of the London season – while Ogunlesi sang into a pitch-shifted mic. (Kind of like Victoria’s Secret… but dirtier.) DR

Gunners at Vogue HQ delighted in the news that Labrum’s spring/summer 2025 runway was to be staged at Emirates Stadium. At the most atmospheric show space of the season, Arsenal die-hards were treated to a collection that celebrated lifelong Gunner Foday Dumbuya’s collaboration with the football club (with its sponsor Adidas, he is designing the official away kits for the season ahead) and saw beloved midfielder Declan Rice take to the catwalk. It’s not the first time Dumbuya has put a footballer on the runway. Ian Wright took his own much-cheered turn for spring/summer 2024. As for Rice, he didn’t have much time for a changing room debrief… he hot footed it to the Burberry show at the National Theatre. His seatmate? Rio Ferdinand. LH

Dolce & Gabbana’s spring collection was plunged in the amber of a ’90s Madonna, with the queen of pop herself situated on the front row in a black veil and golden crown. It was, of course, Ms Ciccione who first catapulted Stefano and Domenico into the spotlight – wearing their erstwhile label Complice on the cover of American Vogue’s October 1992 issue – before tapping Dolce & Gabbana to style her 1993 arena tour. An enduring friendship later gave rise to the fetishistic lingerie Madonna wore on the cover of 2008’s Hard Candy album, while “Celebration” was shot at Stefano and Domenico’s Metropol Theatre in Milan the following July. And the year after that? Steven Klein captured the musician for both the house’s spring/summer and autumn/winter 2010 campaigns. Stefano and Domenico were photographed kissing her hands towards the end of their spring/summer 2025 show as if she was, in fact, The Madonna. DR

The industry’s great and good delighted over being assigned animal bean bags to sit on to watch Matthieu Blazy’s latest Bottega Veneta show about childlike wonder unfolding. That Jacob Elordi was prescribed a bunny rabbit while A$AP Rocky perched on a chicken is an unusual state of affairs (and a sentence we never thought we’d write). That each cute couch, inspired by the 1968-born Zanotta Sacco chair, costs thousands to buy is an even stranger barometer of where fashion is now. But didn’t they look cute! AN

Versace’s show was inspired by the freedom and happiness of Versus’s spring/summer 1997 collection – all squiggly prints, splashy florals and “being more casual [about] putting clothes together”, per a newly pastel-obsessed Donatella. The only accessory the Versace girl needs in her new sugar-coated dreamhouse? Point-toe pumps with perfume bottles (Bright Crystal, of course) as heels. Sorry Loewe, there’s a new novelty shoe in town… AN

One of the most in-demand faces on the circuit, the model has been conspicuously absent from the catwalks for several seasons after hitting pause on her fashion career to focus on her health (she has spoken openly about her long battle with Lyme disease). Now, with a handsome cowboy on her arm and a line of sellout fragrances under her (tooled leather) belt, Bella got back to the business of being a new-generation super at Saint Laurent. On the first day of Paris Fashion Week, she strode out onto Anthony Vaccarello’s burnished bronze runway in a mannish black suit and tie that “reflected Yves Saint Laurent’s own persona in which artful sophistication coexisted with instinctual desire”. Of course, this particular Saint Laurent woman embodies her own unique set of contradictions: a model who’s every bit as comfortable in the saddle as she is in front of the camera. KM

Technically not true, but the rapper had to peep through her graphic fringe to see Casey Cadwallader’s latest runway collection. The chameleonic rapper’s commitment to serving a look this season has been unparalleled – from her turn as a conceptual Rick Owens grunger to her Rabanne mermaid cosplay – but that Mugler beauty moment emerged as the most bonkers front-row look of SS25. There’s always one celebrity who claims Paris as their playground, and this September, it’s Cardi. AN

“The face is the sexiest part of a woman’s body,” said Olivier Rousteing back in 2012, and 12 years later, the designer is holding firm in his belief. So much so that he rendered the faces of beautiful women – including Kylie Jenner – on dresses, jackets and shorts in hundreds of thousands of pearlescent beads. Although a compliment of the highest order, Jenner was not even front row to take her portrait in, simply posting fashion’s ultimate selfie on Instagram during a fitting. Power trip, non? AN

Interestingly, Jonathan Anderson’s playful trapeze-line dresses were not the most commented upon looks at the Loewe show. Campaign face Daniel Craig and wife Rachel Weisz’s zany knits, tinted sunglasses and baggy pants were. It takes gumption to out-dress the street-stylers roaming around Paris Fashion Week, but this is James Bond we’re talking about. Of course he was going to shake, not stir things up. AN

The Beckham family front-row moment has become a linchpin of the fashion-week calendar – newspapers hold their front-page slots for The Shot. But, Victoria, now two years and four seasons into her tenure as a Paris Fashion Week designer, had bigger fish to fry this season, like watching the numbers on her etail platform soar as fans swiftly purchased the Atonement-green dress a bare-faced Gigi Hadid wore on the spring/summer 2025 runway. David, too, took his seat next to the industry’s great and good mere seconds before the lights went down and Hadid’s memorable see-now-buy-now look appeared. Perhaps the Beckhams are outgrowing the celebrity circus? AN

Gigi Hadid cropped up on the Vetements spring/summer 2025 runway wearing a similar packing-tape yellow get-up to the one Kim Kardashian broke the internet in at Balenciaga’s autumn/winter 2022 show. It was a bombastic reminder of the fact that Vetements did the DHL look first (back in spring/summer 2016, to be precise) and the creative ties that bind brothers Demna and Guram. “You can unwrap that for yourself: the Gvasalia saga rumbles on,” said Luke Leitch in his Vogue Runway review. A sticky situation, indeed. AN

Famously private, Harry Styles has treated us to not one but two fashion month appearances this season – with the second being at Alessandro Michele’s hotly anticipated debut show for Valentino. Of course the singer, dressed in a tangerine sweater, blue ruffled shirt and aviator shades, would turn out to support his friend, who’s been behind so many of his most memorable red-carpet moments to date (the sheer black shirt with the single pearl earring at the 2019 Met Gala springs to mind). There was plenty for him to get excited about on the catwalk, from the sequinned jackets to the Harry-coded pearl necklaces, which will undoubtedly be coming to a red carpet near you soon. EC

Much was made of the Beckham family’s departure from Paris yesterday, thanks to Victoria and David’s handbags, but there was one member of the Hermès-wielding clan that got left behind. Romeo Beckham, in a surprising turn of events, cropped up on the Balenciaga runway, wearing the kind of striped polo shirt, baggy jeans and statement trainers that his father might have, at one point, modelled himself. “The time has come for fashion to have a point of view,” said Demna of his new-season edit. Was his answer really… Romeo Beckham? AN

Chanel closed out its spring/summer 2025 collection at the Grand Palais with Riley Keough swinging from a perch inside a CC-branded bird cage while performing a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”. Both the ditty and the set design nodded to Vanessa Paradis’s 1991 ad for the Coco fragrance, in which she played the canary to a (very Choupette-like) cat. Also present and correct on the Chanel ambassador front: Margaret Qualley in Chanel tweed, the newly appointed Lupita Nyong’o, and Blackpink’s Jennie Kim, sporting freshly dyed platinum locks. HM

Coperni rounded off the spring/summer 2025 season with a theme park-sized spectacle at Disneyland Paris. It was a strange thing to see establishment editors abandon their hard-won cool for… Mickey Mouse headbands… but a sense of delirium was perhaps to be expected this late in the fashion-month game. To wit: Kylie Jenner closed in an enormous bouffant gown. “Every time I go to Paris things just happen,” she previously told Giles Hattersley during her September cover interview for British Vogue, adding the eerily familiar catchphrase, “It’s a whole new world”. (Perhaps she knew something we did not.) Whether Jenner was the villain or heroine of this season’s story is dependent on your own personal fantasies. DR