2025 was the year of creative director debuts as over twenty designers took the helm at the biggest fashion houses across the industry. Many of the new appointments were at major heritage brands including Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, and Demna at Gucci, which were among the most-anticipated runway shows of the year. These shakeups at the top are clearly redefining style this year. It’s also a pivotal moment that will reshape where fashion is headed in the coming decades. We also saw shifts in what is resonating in the luxury market as shoppers are more heavily invested in collecting fine jewelry, special archival pieces and nostalgia-coded fashion, and are increasingly drawn to craftsmanship and heritage.
To examine luxury fashion in 2025 with a closer lens, we spoke with industry experts and pulled data to take a more granular look back. In Who What Wear's annual Luxury Report, we discuss what resonated most strongly in designer fashion in 2025—including the brands that made a big mark, the impossible-to-track-down It items that dominated the style set, and the rising trends and themes that shaped the luxury market this year. Ahead, read everything to know about luxury fashion from 2025 and take a look forward to where it's headed in 2026.
The biggest fashion brands of the year fell into one of two categories—luxury houses with renewed energy from creative director debuts, or heritage houses that tapped into timeless style inherent to the brand. Firstly, shake-ups at the top of some of the major fashion houses brought debut collections to the runways. Some of the most successful shows at brands including Chanel, Dior, Bottega Veneta, and Celine infused the archives with new visions for the fashion houses, and brought them to the forefront of the fashion conversation.
Though this wave of change from new creative directors brought fresh ideas and excitement to brands, designers who doubled down on timelessness and heritage also rose to the top. “There is a massive interest in anything coming from Ralph Lauren, which has continued to gain traction and momentum amongst luxury shoppers,” shares Julia Rabinowitsch, founder of The Millennial Decorator. “The house is also reprising their archives, creating drops of pieces featured in previous runway shows, which has been extremely interesting to watch. As global luxury trends ebb toward timeless rather than trendy, RL’s aspirational aesthetic has found fresh relevance with an extremely inspired audience.” Shoppers are opting for long-term investments over trend-driven impulse purchases, so brands such as Ralph Lauren, Hermès, Cartier, and The Row that embody timelessness have continued to resonate in stronger and stronger ways.
Which items dominated in 2025 from a sales point of view? Experts weigh in. “Chanel’s 25 bags dominated our DMs, and continue to do so as I write this,” luxury product sourcer Gab Waller shares. “Every size, every color, every fabrication, clients wanted them all.” The buzzy Chanel 25 bag launched this spring and topped Who What Wear’s predictions as the bag to know for 2025. Since its debut in the fashion house’s spring/summer 2025 runway show, the bag has continued to appear in new versions in each collection, so it’s an investment-worthy style we expect to remain popular far beyond 2025.
Younger shoppers are also entering the luxury market, and there are some key brands and specific buys appealing to them. “Heritage brands like Ralph Lauren and Cartier are appealing to younger and younger customers, with many shopping both brands as their entrance into the luxury world,” shares Rabinowitsch. At Ralph Lauren, the brand’s iconic preppy polo shirts and cable knits reached a new level of demand, as did it’s newly-released Play bag. For Cartier, timepieces proved to be especially popular, including everything from the classic Tank and Panthère styles to the reimagined Baigoire.
Beyond specific It-items, luxury shoppers approached their wardrobes with greater intention this year. “We also saw a clear move toward longevity and wearability: clients are increasingly uninterested in pieces that feel trivial or suited only for a single occasion,” shares Moda Operandi President, April Hennig. This sentiment was echoed by Sourcewhere founder Erica Wright. “We saw clients increasingly gravitating toward pieces that are classic and less statement, underscoring a shift toward items that ground a wardrobe rather than overpower it,” Wright told Who What Wear.
There was an undeniable sense of newness on the runways that stemmed from the fresh creative leadership. At Chanel, Blazy took this head-on. "We can go two ways," Blazy told Tim Blanks in an interview for Business of Fashion. "Either we do a clean, modern, by the codes, by the book Chanel show, and it's a first step. Or we do this show as if it was our last. I took the last option." The collection he unveiled was confident and new, including the finale look that embodied the joy and renewed energy we’ve been eager to see unfold. Though it infused the heritage and house codes from Coco Chanel, it was distinctly Blazy.
“Familiar, but not repetitive,” Waller describes of the designs. “Matthieu Blazy’s debut at Chanel was certainly the most anticipated from the year, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive from my clients. It is always a strong sign when pre-order requests immediately flow in post runway show!” Wright made a similar observation and explained how this is already impacting requests on Sourcewhere. “I think what we’re seeing is a renewed emphasis on authorship,” she shares. “At Céline, Michael Rider’s approach to precise shirting, structured outerwear and refined bag silhouettes, has already translated into early interest on the platform, particularly around the Smile Tote and statement belts. At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy’s Charvet shirts and reworked bag shapes saw traction almost immediately. Collectively, these patterns point to clients wanting pieces with a clear signature—when the design feels intentional, interest follows fast.”
This blend of archival references with a new point of view was mirrored at other debut shows too, including Rider at Celine, Anderson at Dior, Vitale at Versace, Trotter at Bottega Veneta, and Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, who each brought their distinct visions to the runways. “The strongest shows for me (and many others) had an element of paying homage to the archives, which I found extremely interesting,” Rabinowitsch tells Who What Wear. “Celine was a very strong show that took homage from their many renditions of their original logos to create pieces that felt fresh and new, not to mention the styling was superb. Dior also pulled from the archives to create a complete reinvention of pieces. Each item on that runway felt intentional, and was a clear homage to the pieces that make Dior the heritage house that it is, down to the buttons.”
Across brands, this is already translating to sales, whether it’s pre-orders for the upcoming collections or vintage shopping from the designers. “As new designers at top fashion houses reprise logos and styles from archival collections, the interest in those specific archives have grown as well, with many reaching out to source the exact reference style that is now featured in new collections in houses that include Celine, Hermès, Dior, and many more,” Rabinowitsch shares. Shoppers have a continued interest in brands that fall within the iconic codes of a particular fashion house, but reimagined for today. It’s a fine line to get right, but the most successful debuts successfully achieved this.
Nostalgia was a through line in luxury fashion this year. The debut collections referencing the archives brought iconic house codes to the runways through a modern lens. With its emphasis on heritage and timeless style from its own archives, Ralph Lauren stood out as one of the top brands of the year. Bourgeois style was one of the most dominant trends of the year, resurrecting the timelessness of prep. ‘90s-coded editorials and campaigns tapped into photography of past decades, including Theo Wenner’s photographs for Mark Guiducci’s first issue of Vanity Fair, as well as his campaign for Dior. In short, past met present.
In some instances, designers literally turned to the past by offering vintage resale programs with curated archival items available for purchase directly from the brands. “Some that already do that are incredible are Ralph Lauren, Armani, Coach, and Gucci. “Alongside an emphasis on the resale and vintage market, I think luxury houses will continue offering a return to real heritage with archival storytelling, and signature silhouettes making a huge comeback.” Rabinowitsch shares. “Brands are taking the time to emphasize archival storytelling and are paying attention to their archives. Shoppers interest in the luxury sphere want a story and a connection to what they are buying—brands revisiting signature silhouettes, and vintage styles are attracting younger luxury shoppers with more intent to buy. The vintage luxury market grew 9% in the last year alone, from USD $34.79 billion in 2024 to about $37.95 billion in 2025.” Wright, too, recognized the outsized growth of vintage sales. “In general, we’ve seen vintage continue its upward trajectory, accounting for 40% of all requests on Sourcewhere,” Wright shares. There’s a growing market there, whether brands are capitalizing on it or not.
While many categories suffered from this year’s luxury slump, the jewelry boom brought big sales numbers to fashion, fine, and high jewelry alike. “Our fine jewelry category is on track for its strongest year on record,” Hennig shares. “Our view is that clients are gravitating toward pieces that retain value, feel inherently meaningful, and offer limitless repeat wear, characteristics that align perfectly with how today’s luxury customer defines smart investment.” This lines up with the overall shift to more intentional shopping and an approach to investing in pieces with longevity that we’re seeing across all categories.
Rabinowitsch also observed the upswing in jewelry, specifically with timepieces. “There was a major and rapidly growing interest in watches—specifically Cartier watches,” she shares. “It's no secret that Cartier has had an incredible year, with parent group Richmont reporting earnings from last year of €15.33 billion in sales—an increase of 8% year-over-year. I saw hundreds of sourcing requests for variations of Cartier watches ranging from the Cartier Tank, Baignoire, and Panthère.” Wright similarly witnessed the appetite for luxury watches on the vintage market. “We see clients consistently drawn to fine jewelry and watches from Cartier and Patek Philippe, signalling a growing appetite for pieces with depth, context and longevity,” Wright shares with Who What Wear.
The momentum for luxury jewelry and timepieces is expected to continue into next year. “With unit sales growth outpacing all other fashion categories, jewelry’s bright moment is set to continue into 2026,” McKinsey reported. "Having defied the broader luxury slowdown, the category will continue to reap the rewards of a growing customer base with a desire for long-lasting investments, self-expression, and self-gifting. As jewelry cements its role as the centerpiece of accessories, fashion players will seek to capture their share of the category’s outsized growth.”
In 2025, luxury brands refocused on heritage, artistry, and craftsmanship. “Luxury, for its part, is now embarking on a period of reinvention. In an effort to reignite demand, several of the largest luxury houses welcomed new creative directors in the year through September 2025,” McKinsey & Company shared in its annual State of Fashion report. “Among high-net-worth individuals, higher product quality and craftsmanship and better in-store service are among the top factors that would encourage them to buy more from luxury brands in the year ahead.”
In the first advertising released under new creative director Louise Trotter, Bottega Veneta released a ‘Craft Is Our Language’ campaign, featuring the hands of the brand’s creative talent and artisans, as well as the craft of the brand's signature woven leather intrecciato technique. On Instagram, Loewe took an intimate look at the making of its new Amazona 180 bag, highlighting its artisanal, handcrafted design. The new bag was inspired by an iconic bag of the Maison and first appeared on the spring/summer 2026 runway for Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s debut show, and this messaging shows the brand’s interest in connecting the new designers to the history and craftsmanship of the heritage house.
Chanel celebrated 50 years of partnership with Mantero, reissuing six scarves from the ‘80s and ‘90s archives, which were shown in its Cruise 2025/2026 collection and gave a rare look inside the manufactory. In Matthieu Blazy’s debut Chanel collection, he debuted an unexpected partnership with Charvet—a 200 year-old brand renowned for its impeccable tailoring and materials. Quality, longevity, and craft matter more than trends, and brands are increasingly peeling back the curtain to highlight the artisans and artistry behind the designs.
Looking ahead to 2026, it’s hard to predict exactly what will unfold in luxury fashion in the coming year. In fact, some surprising news arrived just this week that creative director Dario Vitale is out at Versace after just one season—a sudden exit that comes on the heels of the brand’s acquisition by the Prada Group. The conversation-starting show was a darling of the fashion community, but points to one new designer shake-up we’ll have to wait until next year to confirm. One change we do know, however, is Grace Bonner Wales’s appointment as the new creative director of menswear at Hermès—an announcement that was received with acclaim and much anticipation.
Other things we know without question? There is a renewed focus on the US market in the luxury space. Gucci and Louis Vuitton will show their 2027 cruise shows in NYC this spring, while Dior will show in L.A. The domestic cities are noteworthy choices, as the cruise collections are typically set in more far-flung international locations.
Beyond what we know for certain, there are signs of growing shifts that are set to impact luxury fashion in 2026. “The future of luxury will belong to brands that spark feeling, cultivate imagination, and meet clients with meaningful creativity.” Hennig shares, and we’re already seeing evidence of this. Cinematic moments and storytelling will play a big role in fashion moving forward, especially on the runways. We saw this at Haider Ackermann’s spring/summer 2026 collection for Tom Ford, and more recently at Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’Art 2026 show inside a decommissioned subway station in NYC with a cinematic cast of commuters. Beyond It items and cult buys, shoppers and the collective fashion audience are craving a deeper connection to fashion brands. “Storytelling matters more than ever,” Waller shares. “Luxury now is about belonging to something, not just buying something.”
