In Their Own Words: 35 Designers on the Fall 2023 Season

As the fall season progresses across the globe, Vogue editors are speaking to designers pre-show, backstage, by phone, on Zoom, and over email in order to arrive at a nuanced understanding of the collections, and to “take the temperature” of the times. A close reading of the reviews reveals that designers are hyper-focused on creating garments that speak to wider audiences, and in a way that meets their evolving needs for “real-life” wardrobe options for work and play. At a time when distinguishing real from fake is challenging, there’s a desire for authenticity; designers are distilling their personal experiences into their work. In addition, deconstruction—or more accurately—reconstruction was top of mind as creative teams worked with existing materials and built bridges between past and present. Below, some words of wisdom from designers’ themselves.

“I wanted to return to the source…nothing,” the designer said through Adrian Joffe. “I wanted to use fabrics that existed without thinking about making proper patterns, just basic patterns, free.” Joffe continued: “She thinks it is really good for the world if we go back to our original source and start again. To try not to fuck it up again. Basically that’s the feeling.”
— Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons