The 10 commandments of fashion for 2025

If the first good resolutions officially date back to ancient Babylon, it can be said that they have been in practice ever since humans started wanting to ease their conscience. From the desire to get back into sports to being more present in the moment or even improving ties with in-laws, good resolutions, even in 2025, are still very much around. Like a little devil on our shoulder, they remind us we've failed if we skip a Pilates session by January 3rd. However, resolutions can also be beneficial, serving as a springboard to leave behind habits and behaviors that are unwelcome in the new year. And heaven knows that fashion is full of those little habits, quirks, and flaws we wish it would shed. Here are the 10 resolutions, or rather the 10 commandments, we hope fashion will adopt in 2025.

Thou shalt not raise your prices

It’s no secret that 2024 was a year of crisis for fashion. After a prosperous decade and a booming post-pandemic sales recovery, 2024 was marked by instability and loss of consumer confidence. Between luxury shame in China, constant crises and changes within brands and major groups striving for exclusivity, the fashion industry lost customers but more importantly, credibility. Less demand means fewer profits, leading to skyrocketing prices. Yet, by becoming less attractive, some luxury brands have alienated once-loyal customers: prices have risen so high that hardly anyone can afford them. If luxury wants to survive 2025, it must embrace humility and adapt to the market and its consumers rather than the other way around. No more Miu Miu key rings costing €1,200 if you can't afford the bag that's approaching €4,000. 

Thou shalt recognize and condemn counterfeits

As we enter 2025, the counterfeit market—a thriving issue ahead of the Paris Olympics—remains deeply rooted. However, 2024 made significant efforts to combat it. With platforms like Vinted introducing luxury item verification services, and artificial intelligence developing increasingly advanced techniques, such as sniffing sneakers to identify them, this year has been rich in advances, a little less rich in fake luxury bags. If the rise of the dupes last year was partly caused by the rise in luxury prices mentioned above, let's hope that the fall of one will lead to the collapse of the other. 

Thou shalt stop fashion’s game of musical chairs

It has been such a hectic year that it would be difficult to sum up in a single paragraph the comings and goings of the creative directors in 2024. It may have ended with the departure of John Galliano from Maison Margiela and the one of Mathieu Blazy from Bottega Veneta, who few minutes after his departure was announced as head of creative direction at Chanel, but the preceding months were no less full of twists and turns that made many people's heads spin. We enter at least 2025 with the certainty that Virginie Viard has found her replacement, after months of speculation, yet some Houses still have a huge question mark hanging over their heads as to who will take over next, such as Maison Margiela and Y/Project.  And even for those who currently have someone at the helm, there's no sign of things staying the same: according to speculation, Jonathan Anderson could be leaving Loewe to go to Dior, Sabato De Sarno could be saying goodbye to Gucci and Pierpaolo Picciolo could be heading to Fendi (from which Kim Jones left last October) after leaving Valentino, replaced by Alessandro Michele. If these are just rumours, we hope they stay that way, because by the end of 2024 we've had enough of this musical chair. 

Thou shalt not blacklist journalists who share honest opinions

As well as giving us some memorable moments like a little Chanel comeback at Le Grand Palais, a Coperni show at Disneyland and a sensational last Bottega Veneta by Mathieu Blazy show that guests watched from a set that broke the internet, SS25, presented last September, also offered us a little drama. After influencer and fashion correspondent for Interview Magazine Lyas dared to give his negative opinion on a catwalk show (without specifying which one, although we're 99% sure it was the Dior show), he was contacted by an industry insider. After first asking him why he had expressed a negative opinion, the insider then suggested that the criticism was motivated by misogyny towards the designer. Lyas then discovered that the brand's employees were going to slander him, calling him misogynistic and biased, even though the young influencer's initial criticism was about the collection and not the designer herself. Although the story had a happy ending and Lyas was removed from the brand's blacklist, it represents a reality that all fashion editors - long before influencers - have to face: censorship by brands, who don't hesitate to manipulate journalists' opinions. 2025 will be full of criticism, both good and bad, full of honest and sincere analysis, comment and opinion, whether brands like it or not. 

Thou shalt forget bland campaigns and meaningless magazine covers

While 2024 delivered remarkable creative moments—like Jacquemus’s endlessly original campaigns, Loewe’s TikToks, and runway shows presented in breathtaking settings—it also somewhat lost its sense of originality. Some brands seemed to have been instructed to recreate a LinkedIn profile picture for their campaigns: the photos were clean but utterly dull. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it’s incredibly boring. A few years ago, logos fell victim to blanding, losing their fonts, accents, and complex details to appeal to the masses. Now it’s campaigns' turn: models posing against monochrome backgrounds, logos prominently displayed, and literally nothing to draw attention away from the product. For 2025, it’s crucial to remember that campaigns are meant to highlight the clothes, magazine covers have the right to be fun and colorful, and runway shows can be more than just slow, boring walks of models who look like they would like to be anywhere but on the podium.

Thou will reembrace innovation and theatricality à la John Galliano

On that note, it’s time to address the elephant in the room and talk about the one thing that 2024 lacked the most in the world of fashion and luxury: theatricality. While John Galliano’s (final) Artisanal show for Margiela brought back some of that magical opulence he made us accustomed to during his tenure at Dior, the rest of fashion was painfully devoid of storytelling, grandeur, and boldness. It’s safe to say that almost all fashion houses stayed firmly within their comfort zones. Yves Saint Laurent did Yves Saint Laurent, dressing models in oversized suits and sunglasses reminiscent of the designer himself; Chanel did Chanel (with a slight improvement after Virginie Viard’s departure); and Schiaparelli stuck to Schiaparelli. While we can appreciate this reverence for brand DNA, history, and codes, a return to unexpected and spectacular shows, along with some innovations, would not hurt anyone. In 2025, we want the show, we want exaggeration, but most importantly, we want something new.

Thou shalt showcase less revival and more novelty

This brings us to our seventh commandment: showcase more novelty. While nostalgia is a guaranteed recipe for success, and fashion from past decades has presented aesthetics and collections forever etched into our hearts and memories, it’s time to move on from the past and look forward. Of course, fashion is cyclical—its very essence lies in the departure and return of trends—but 2024’s designers failed to walk the fine line between revival and repetition. Versace’s SS25 collection is a perfect example, recycling the codes and ideas of the Versus SS97 collection created by Donatella as a reflection of herself while her brother Gianni still helmed the main line. Sure, a little throwback or moment of melancholy never hurt anyone, but in 2025, we hope to see much more novelty and far fewer backward steps that lead nowhere.

Thou shalt part ways with Quiet Luxury

Though we’ve already half-said goodbye to the trend—with the triumphant return of Alessandro Michele, the antithesis of subtlety and restraint, who honed his craft at Valentino with the maximalism we love—let’s hope 2025 will officially mark the death of quiet luxury. If the trend was born during covid-quarantine, when hoodies were the one and only dress code for the world's population, and quiet luxury emerged as the sober antidote to sportswear, the time has come to let it go.  

Thou will champion vintage over Fast Fashion

There’s no denying that vintage has made a powerful comeback this year, whether in bags, clothes, or even trends. However, despite the growth of second-hand markets, they’re still not catching up with the speed of fast fashion, which is not just fast in creation but also in its dissemination. While platforms like Vinted and Depop gained popularity this year, fast fashion remains consumers’ top choice online, with giants like Shein, Amazon, and Temu dominating the market with impressive results. If Gen-Z is showing increasing interest in second-hand treasures, why does it still flock to poorly-made clothes produced in inhumane conditions that won’t last more than two washes? Simply put, second-hand shopping lacks the appeal of fast fashion in terms of delivery speed, convenience, and a broad range of new items. In 2025, rather than listening to the little devil on our left shoulder, we're going to listen to the little angel on the right, who's telling us to search every nook and cranny of vinted rather than running headlong for our Zara basket, which probably only contains items that your neighbours already own.

In 2025, thou shalt have fun

Like a summer camp counselor urging their campers to enjoy themselves and reminding them that participation is what counts, we say to fashion: in 2025, it’s time to have fun. Collections come and go, trends evolve, fashion reinvents itself, and the missteps of SS25 will be forgotten by SS26. In this battlefield of fashion, the most important thing—for both industry players and consumers—is to navigate this chapter in fashion history in the most enjoyable way possible: wearing and creating what we love, without pretense or expectation. 2024 brought us its share of changes, comebacks, innovations, successes, and failures, arrivals, and departures. 2025, we’re ready for your own batch of changes, comebacks, innovations, successes, and failures—but maybe fewer departures. 2025, show us what you’ve got.