Photo: REX1/16Alexander McQueen, Fall 2006Even if this hadn’t been my first Alexander McQueen show, it would probably still qualify as my favorite. The natty, nipped tweeds; the hourglass tartans; the feathered headdresses . . . By the time Kate Moss emerged in hologram form, I wasn’t the only one crying.
Photo: Indigital.tv2/16Callaghan, Spring 2001For one brief moment in the early 2000s, Callaghan came to New York. At the time, Nicolas Ghesquière was designing it and, of course, he was blowing up at Balenciaga; for all of us who weren’t going to Paris, it was a major event. I was tucked away somewhere in the third row, probably, but I’ll never forget it. What I wouldn’t give for one of those Kelly green and navy striped dresses now.
Photo: Indigital.tv3/16Christian Dior, Fall 2012 Haute CoutureRaf Simons made his Christian Dior debut with this haute couture show, and it was a changing of the fashion guard like no other I’ve witnessed. All of Paris seemed to show up—Alaïa, Elbaz, Jacobs, Theyskens, and Tisci, among them. And then there were those flowers, reportedly more than a million of them affixed to the walls. It wouldn’t have meant anything if the clothes didn’t hold up, but they did, and then some. Simons’s sharp tailoring and modern approach to evening is still influencing designers, five years later.
Photo: Indigital.tv4/16Valentino, Fall 2015 Haute CoutureThis Valentino haute couture show was held in Rome’s Piazza Mignanelli, on a blazing hot July night. Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were never better together than they were at this moment—one that was made all the more memorable by the tour of the city’s hidden treasures (closed-to-the-public places like an 1840 marble bath in a private palazzo, and a 3rd-century A.D. Mithraic grotto found in the 1930s) that preceded it. An exquisite experience from start to finish.
Photo: Indigital.tv5/16Vetements, Fall 2015Vetements had already produced two collectsions by the time of their Fall ’15 collectsion, but this is the season they exploded. In the basement of a Paris sex club! With Kanye in the front row! And with the models’ oversize coats brushing our knees as they stomped past! So much energy packed into such a tight little space.
Photo: FirstVIEW6/16Marc Jacobs, Spring 1999I crashed this Marc Jacobs show. I was working at WWD, but was too junior to land an invite, so I snuck in with the help of my colleague Jessica Kerwin. (Thanks, Jess!) It was the season that Marc used “Bittersweet Symphony.” If I had any doubts about my career path, they were obliterated that night. With that music and those models (Shalom Harlow, Kirsty Hume, baby-faced Malgosia . . . ), I fell in love.
Photo: Indigital.tv7/16Hermès, Fall 2013Four years later this Hermès collectsion by Christophe Lemaire remains, for me, the sine qua non of chic.
Photo: Indigital.tv8/16Miguel Adrover, Fall 2000No best of list would be complete without a Miguel Adrover shout-out. He wasn’t a lasting presence, but his brief run encapsulates what was most exciting about the New York fashion scene at the turn of the millennium: its up-from-the-streets experimentalism and grit. Literally, in this case; this collectsion included a coat famously made of mattress ticking from Quentin Crisp’s discarded bed.
Photo: Indigital.tv9/16Koché, Fall 2016After 10 years of covering the Paris shows, Christelle Kocher took me to a corner of the city I’d never seen. The crowd lined the sides of the 18th-century Passage du Prado, lately taken over by African hairdressers and mobile phone shops, where we witnessed Kocher’s lively mix of streetwear and haute couture touches. One of the most energizing shows I’ve been to, not least of all because it honestly reflected real French life.
Photo: Indigital.tv10/16Balenciaga, Spring 2012Several rows of benches broke in the moments before this Balenciaga show started. In the pictures you can see bunches of us standing up clutching our notebooks to our chests. I said it felt like church in my review, and I remember the note Nicolas Ghesquière sent afterward, which I kept, of course. He signed it, “religiously yours.”
Photo: Indigital.tv11/16Rochas, Fall 2005I don’t think Olivier Theyskens has ever surpassed the ethereal beauty of this collectsion’s Edwardian-tinged dresses. This blouse and skirt are so ravishing I’d happily wear them now, 12 years after later.
Photo: Indigital.tv12/16Balmain, Spring 2009You know who deserves a shout-out? Christophe Decarnin, who, for a five-year run at Balmain, was absolutely the hottest thing going. Of all of his sexy, souped-up collectsions, this one remains the most iconic.
Photo: Indigital.tv13/16Céline, Fall 2011I fell for Phoebe Philo’s Céline. Hard. This collectsion stands out in my memory. I think it’s because of the absolutely perfect, I-still-wish-I-had-a-stack-of-them-in-my-closet turtlenecks.
Photo: Indigital.tv14/16Dries Van Noten, Fall 2010Dries Van Noten is so consistently good it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’m going to choose this one, Fall 2010, for the irresistible way he married olive drab with just about everything and made it work.
Photo: Indigital.tv15/16Paco Rabanne, Fall 2014Julien Dossena is a designer fashion is going to be paying attention to for a long time. It was obvious from his very earliest shows for Paco Rabanne, this sophomore collectsion included.
Photo: Indigital.tv16/16Chloé Spring 2004Phoebe Philo was such a star at Chloé. She had a run of terrific collectsions before cutting her tenure short to spend time with her growing family, but this one was the best. Those high-waisted jeans still look amazing. And Daria was at her most beautiful.
