By From disco utility through to super stripes, this is your official 2022 fashion trend report from the ELLE UK fashion team
While 2021 was all about hot pink, logomania, colour blocking and the ‘hot goth’ trend, the SS22 season is bringing sexy back – and we couldn’t be more excited to breathe new life into our working from home wardrobes.
As lockdown restrictions are gradually beginning to lift and the future is beginning to look a little brighter, last year’s desire for complete escapism has been replaced with all-out celebration, and SS22 is about dressing accordingly. It’s time to show off the bodies that lockdowns kept hidden at home for far too long – so think short, sheer or second-skin. The mood? Less fashion, more flesh.
It follows, then, that Nineties and Y2K throwbacks were in abundance in this season’s collections, with micro-mini skirts, sky-high heels, glitzy tops and low-slung waistlines making a comeback. And on the other end of the fashion spectrum, Bridgerton fever has seen designers turn to the 18th and 19th centuries as inspiration for their dramatic post-pandemic looks.
Bold stripes, solar shades and swimwear also emerged as hot trends, confirming once and for all that the SS22 season is all about optimism. 2022, we’re ready for you – and we’ll be dressing the part.
Youthquake
From mini to micro, hemlines are getting hotter and higher. On the catwalks, Sixties rebellion collided with Noughties exuberance for a barely-there take on the trend that’s both low-rise and high-rise.
Putting the Hot In Haut
If decadence is the theme of this spring-summer season – a bright, shiny take on sexy dressing for the Y2K generation – here’s how the grown-ups do it. This is subversive seduction, as much about body confidence as it is about provocation. It’s time to unbutton.
Time Travel
Post-pandemic dressing goes dramatic courtesy of Louis Vuitton, where Nicolas Ghesquière presented a masterclass in making the gothic glamorous by styling old with new. Other designers also looked back to the future for their collections, with crazy, creative takes on 18th- and 19th-century style. Quite literally historic.
Disco Utility
From cargo pants to glitzy tops, low-slung waistlines and Grecian draping, it’s time to go back to the year 2000. Channel your inner Beyoncé circa the Destiny’s Child ‘Survivor’ era – this is utility with an insanely glamorous edge, and it’s anything but basic.
The only rule: wear heels with everything.
Here comes the Sun
Maybe it’s because we’re all in need of a hot holiday, but beachwear became ready-to-wear for SS22. Virginie Viard sent chic swimsuits down the Chanel catwalk, while Rejina Pyo took things a step further, showing her collection by the pool at London’s Aquatics Centre.
Super Stripey
No need to read between the lines: there’s a simple formula for making a statement. The bigger, bolder and more in-your-face the better, as fashion gets two-tone and graphic. Banish the Breton – instead, stripes adorn dresses, suiting and shirts.
Sunrise to Sunset
So bright you’ll need SPF: this season’s retina-searing palette is all about solar shades. From gold to amber through to burnt orange and fiery red, consider this visual vitamin D
