New York Fashion Week: 3 takeaway trends for fall/winter 2024

Fur, red, leather and transparency were among the major trends seen at New York Fashion Week, at shows from the likes of Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera and Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Image: Charly Triballeau / AFP©

Are we finally done with the 1990s and 2000s? What materials will be in vogue next winter? What will be the star color? As 2024 gets underway, designers and major fashion houses are busy defining the fashion trends we'll be snapping up in a few months' time. And it was New York that kicked off the festivities, unveiling a minimalist silhouette boosted by a few touches of bright color, high-end fabrics and (once again) plenty of transparency.

Star piece: dresses, dresses and more dresses

It would be wrong to say that pants were totally absent from New York, but the fact remains that dresses—and to a lesser extent, skirts—were everywhere. And that's good news for anyone who can't get into the low-rise cuts that have been trendy for the past few seasons. The Big Apple put the dress firmly in the spotlight, but with no prevailing style. Seen with thin straps, long sleeves or in strapless styles, and with plain finishes or covered in sequins, transparent or embellished with cut-outs, dresses mostly followed the curves of the body, flattering the silhouette. Exceptions included Carolina Herrera, where dresses came in more imposing shapes, and Coach, where they were transformed into oversized hoodies. Note that pants, when present, were more chic and comfortable than ever, in loose-fitting yet sophisticated styles.

Top two fabrics: leather and fur

New York Fashion Week revived two materials that seemed to have been neglected in recent seasons: leather and, even more so, fur. Whether synthetic or natural, fur was clearly one of the stars of the fall-winter 2024-2025 runway shows, appearing mainly on coats or in small touches on jackets. A trend seen at Michael Kors, Eckhaus Latta, Proenza Schouler and Ulla Johnson. However, most of these pieces made up only a tiny part of the new collections by the above-mentioned designers. Leather, for its part, was an all-round favorite. It stood out for Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who made his New York debut with a tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe, but also at Coach and Helmut Lang, mostly in deep black.

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Key color: red

The Big Apple didn't exactly go in for bright, vibrant hues for the fall-winter 2024-2025 season, but one color did stand out: red. And that's not surprising, considering that the color of passion was named the star shade of 2024 a few weeks ago. Red, which had already made a place for itself at the spring/summer 2024 shows, continued its rise, stealing the spotlight from neutral colors (ubiquitous in New York) on numerous catwalks, starting with Carolina Herrera, who also tinted her collection with touches of yellow, purple and pink, as well as at Prabal Gurung. Meanwhile red was seen in subtle touches at Tommy Hilfiger.

Also read: From sequin tops to silver skirts: what to wear this festive season

One more thing: transparency

For several seasons now, designers and major fashion houses have been revealing bodies with cut-outs and sheer materials as delicate as they are transparent. It's a trend that gives pride of place to a modern, elegant form of sensuality, but also to self-assertion, and it doesn't seem to be about to run out of steam. The transparency trend was seen in New York, where Christian Cowan, Eckhaus Latta, Tory Burch and, of course, Ludovic de Saint Sernin presented a host of pieces in this style.