Dezeen's top 10 fashion design moments of 2023
Schiaparelli gowns with faux taxidermied animal heads and a microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag feature in this year's top 10 fashion moments, which continues our 2023 review.
In an era that rewards viral trends and prominent brand collaborations, designers have continued to push the boundaries of fashion this year.
From striking clothing and footwear to memorable bags and store installations, here are Dezeen's top 10 fashion moments of 2023:
Plasticine clothes by JW Anderson
British fashion house JW Anderson presented hoodies and tailored shorts crafted entirely out of plasticine as part of its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show during London Fashion Week.
Sculpted and hardened into rigid but wearable forms, the clay clothes were designed to put "playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness", according to the brand.
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Microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag by MSCHF
Art collective MSCHF caused a stir by unveiling a 3D-printed Louis Vuitton bag that it called "smaller than a grain of salt", created to critique luxury fashion.
Made of neon-green photopolymer resin, the miniature bag was designed to question the functionality of increasingly small handbags produced by the fashion industry.
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Faux taxidermied gowns by Schiaparelli
French fashion house Schiaparelli kicked off Paris Couture Week with a collection defined by three gowns, which looked as if they had been taxidermied from the bodies of a lion, a snow leopard and a black wolf.
Despite their hyper-realistic appearance, the brand used hand-sculpted foam, silk faux fur, resin and wool to create the much-discussed hand-painted dresses.
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Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton
To mark a capsule collection created in collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, Louis Vuitton positioned an oversized inflatable sculpture of Kusama atop its Champs-Élysées store in Paris.
Select Louis Vuitton outlets across the world featured similar installations including life-like and human-scale animatronics of the artist, which were placed in window displays with the robotic replica of Kusama repeatedly painting her trademark polka-dots onto the surface of the glass.
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BioSequin jumpsuit by Stella McCartney
This skin-tight all-in-one by Stella McCartney was embellished with hundreds of shimmering discs called BioSequins, an alternative to the petroleum-based plastic options on the market.
Developed by biomaterials company Radiant Matter, the iridescent sequins were created from renewable polymer cellulose extracted from trees, which naturally reflects light and makes the sequins sparkle.
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Big Red Boots (Yellow) by MSCHF and Crocs
MSCHF teamed up with footwear brand Crocs to design a pair of jumbo yellow boots punctuated by the recognisable holes that define Crocs' Classic Clogs.
Called Big Red Boots (Yellow), the shoes are the latest iteration of oversized boots by the art collective, which previously created a similar pair of red boots modelled on those worn by the manga character Astro Boy.
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Rotated gowns by Viktor & Rolf
Tulle ballgowns characterised by "surreal" sideways and upside-down silhouettes were presented by Dutch fashion house Viktor & Rolf as part of its Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023 show during Paris Couture Week.
Called Late Stage Capitalism Waltz, the 18 ballgowns were 3D-printed and designed to invert "a singular and narrowly defined 'fashion ideal'," according to the fashion house.
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Rewild the Run by Kiki Grammatopoulos
Rewild the Run is a project by Central Saint Martins graduate Kiki Grammatopoulous, who created chunky, bristly outsoles for trainers that help to spread plants and seeds in cities.
Densely covered in tiny hooks that grip onto dirt and plant matter as the wearer treads, the shoes mimic the natural phenomenon of epizoochory, where seeds are transported by becoming attached to an animal's fur.
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Architecture-informed handbags by Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton
Last week's design fair Art Basel Miami Beach saw Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry release 11 limited-edition handbags for Louis Vuitton.
Gehry designed a trio of sculptural bags, which he designed based on the form and finish of three of his best-known buildings – the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
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Breast-cancer survivor and architect Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau created a collection of one-cup bras and bikinis after her own single mastectomy.
Designed for women to feel "confidently asymmetric", Uno fills a distinct gap in the market for one-cup bras that do not compromise on comfort or style, according to Marks.
This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.