If there’s something to take away from 2024—or from the 21st century, at this point—it’s that everything is content. In that spirit, we’ve decided to turn our group chats into reality with a fashion poll for the second year in a row. Rather than keeping our behind-the-scenes superlatives to ourselves, we reached out to over 300 industry folk—fellow editors, stylists, photographers, designers, models, and content creators—to participate. We asked about favorite designers, top collections, and the year’s standout debut. And we made it anonymous because we wanted to know what you really feel about the year coming to a close. And I’d say you delivered.
A stylist crowned Ozempic as the must-have accessory of 2024, while an editor said hers was her husband—would-be It-bags be damned. In a manifestation exercise, perhaps, a publicist said the show they would have most liked to see was Phoebe Philo’s, while another wrote in “most of it” when talking about what they’d never wear from this year’s runways. Yikes. Finally, a special mention to the person who said yours truly should be the one to take the Chanel job. Though I wish you would have taken the question more seriously, I appreciate being in such illustrious company.
In an entirely unsurprising turn of events, Vogue Runway’s constituency named Jonathan Anderson the designer of the year for the second time in a row. It’s easy to see why: Not only did Anderson have two hit collections at Loewe, he also outfitted two of the year’s biggest films with Challengers and Queer. “Everyone wants his nachos,” declared a content creator, referring to how often both Anderson’s aesthetic and his approach to marketing, social media, and celebrity dressing is copied these days. A writer agreed: “Jonathan Anderson, because he runs shit,” while an editor-in-chief elaborated, “It’s because of the great spring 2025 show, gossip buzz, and ad campaigns.” Our runner-up was Matthieu Blazy, the Bottega Veneta creative director said to be headed to Chanel. An editor declared: “It’s Matthieu, for his continued ingenuity, focus on craft, and ability to create a viral show moment via intellect and humor.”
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Blazy’s spring 2025 collection, in fact, was a couple of votes away from nabbing the spot as the collection of the year. Instead, it went to John Galliano’s spring 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal collection, which was, after all, a runway moment that reverberated in and out of the industry this year: “John Galliano brought back magic to the fashion world,” said a publicist, “people talked about what they saw on the runway, not who they saw in the room.” Amen to that. Chemena Kamali’s Chloé debut also made the cut, as did Dries Van Noten’s farewell show. Worth mentioning is the person who nominated Hedi Slimane’s bye-bye Celine collection, cheekily dubbing it “the Celine ‘Chanel’ collection.”
Curiously enough, given the hotness of its accessories, Alaïa only made it to the third spot on this index of the year’s most covetable brands, despite an editor writing that people are “desperate for all of it.” The Row and Miu Miu battled for number one, but the latter came out ahead. Which makes sense. Miu Miu was one of the few brands to buck the widely reported luxury slowdown this year; its revenues more than doubled in the third quarter, and they were up 105% year-on-year. Nice.
You all seem to have different definitions of “underrated” than us, given that Marc Jacobs—fan-favorite, designer extraordinaire, and Vogue’s December issue guest editor—received a fair number of votes. There was not much alignment here at all. We had a three-way tie between Sacai’s Chitose Abe, Maximilian Davis of Ferragamo, and Ryota Iwai of Auralee. “What he shows, he sells,” said a model of Iwai’s work. “He knows his audience and he makes clothing for them.” Of Abe, a publicist commented: “Chitose owns her brand 100%, what a boss. And after 25 years, she doesn’t get the same recognition as others.”
Emerging designer is a new category for us this year, but you’ll recognize this name. It’s Rachel Scott of Diotima, who took the American Womenswear Designer of the Year at the 2024 CFDA Awards in November after receiving the CFDA’s Emerging Designer of the Year Award in 2023. “Her clothes make me feel confident, sexy, and sophisticated,” said an editor, with a strategist adding that “everyone cherishes her work in arguably the most competitive market category [knitwear].” The runner-up was 2024 LVMH Prize winner Ellen Hodakova Larsson.
It was a year full of runway debuts—if not quite as many as we’re expecting in 2025—so we tasked the group with picking a favorite. No surprise here: Chemena Kamali’s fall 2024 collection for Chloé is the undisputed winner.
Stylist of the Year was one of our most competitive of this year’s categories. Dara Allen, Danielle Goldberg, and Lotta Volkova fought it out ’til the very end, with Volkova emerging the victor for the second year in a row. Chalk it up to the power of her collaboration with Miuccia Prada at Miu Miu: “She is the best merchant whose day job is being a stylist,” said a Volkova voter.
Alex Consani was named Model of the Year by the British Fashion Council at the 2024 Fashion Awards in London last week, and our constituency named her this year’s runway standout too, with Mona Tougaard and Anok Yai trailing closely behind.
Unlike the definition of “underrated,” here’s something the group definitely agreed on: Trends are over. Tasked to pick between quiet luxury, Brat green, cowboy chic, and the return of Boho, you opted to avoid them altogether. Seems like that one person who said they’d never wear most of this year’s fashion was not that far off.
Except that trends do exist, and, whether insiders like them or not, some things do charm the public in such a way that they’re quickly everywhere. When asked what they would or wouldn’t wear from this year’s trending fashion, the group said they’d avoid low-rise jeans, Boho-chic, and, above all, the bag charms the kids have been adding to their bags, to “Jane Birkify” them, as they call it. “Jane would never adorn her namesake bag with a malnourished Tamagotchi and $6.00 cherry charm from Amazon, babes,” said an adamant, and hilarious, editor. Sending love to the real ones who said “never say never.” Remember, in life, and in fashion, what goes around comes back around.
You won’t be shocked to learn that the show this group wished it could have seen in person is Galliano’s spring 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal extravaganza. “Couture-shows that make you forget your world and wish you lived somewhere else in a different time are few and far between,” said a photographer. Personally, I teared up when I tuned into the livestream at the office—I’m not sure I could have handled seeing it live, but I would have loved to.
Fashion has a new It-bag. The Pieter Mulier-designer Alaïa “Le Teckel” handbag took the top spot for the year’s best accessory. The east-west shoulder bag was indeed so ubiquitous among the fashion cognoscenti that, when the Alaïa PR team sent a set of cute stickers of the bag to the Vogue offices, all my colleagues tussled for one of their own. Alaïa took the second spot too with its equally omnipresent ballet flats.
Everyone’s favorite pop star released an album this year: Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and many, many more. On top of all the great bops was all the incredible fashion. Your pick for the tippy top? Charli XCX. As one editor put it: “She dresses like herself and makes brands work for her. When else would you see Rodarte at the rave?” Special shoutout to her remarkable stylist Chris Horan.
One of the biggest and most covetable jobs in fashion, that of the Chanel creative directorship, remains open. It has been so since June. Everyone has been rumored to have been in talks to take on the role, so we figured we’d ask our constituency to take their pick. Marc Jacobs got the most votes—worth remarking that we sent this poll out right before Jacobs commented in an interview that he would love to be considered. Such is the power of good press, and good will. A note that no women made the cut here, other than people who voted “a woman.” The sentiment is heard and felt, and needed, but I would’ve loved to see the same people come together to name a woman as opposed to the entire gender.
An announcement is said to be imminent so this may soon be moot, but your pick for the Chanel job is Marc Jacobs. Possibly that’s because we sent out this poll the same week he told an interviewer that he’d like to be considered for the role. What surprised me: No women designers made the cut, though a few people did nominate “a woman.” The sentiment is heard, felt, and needed, but I would’ve loved to see somebody, anybody name a woman as opposed to an entire gender.
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