By Emilia Petrarca

The coronavirus pandemic has upended just about everything, including the fashion industry. Not only are storefronts closed and runway shows postponed, but fashion magazines have also had to cancel photo shoots and get creative about producing future issues remotely.

Life before coronavirus feels like another era, but there was a time when people were outside being extra. British Vogue reminded us of this on Monday afternoon when it revealed its new May issue double cover starring none other than Rihanna. A double cover! Starring Rihanna! We’re twice as grateful.

“The May 2020 issue of British Vogue was created prior to the pandemic which has subsequently brought the world almost to a halt,” wrote Edward Enninful from self-isolation in London. “But, as the Editor-in-Chief of a magazine that prides itself on entertaining, delighting and distracting even under the most difficult of circumstances, I am thrilled to announce the inimitable @BadGalRiri as our May 2020 cover star.

Bad Gal and Enninful go way back. She’s covered British Vogue before, including Enninful’s first September issue for the magazine in 2018. But these new images mark a milestone: The durag Rihanna wears, made in this case by the famed British milliner Stephen Jones, is the first one to ever grace the magazine’s cover.

In an editor’s letter, Enninful explains that the durag was Rihanna’s idea. He received a WhatsApp message from her at 2 a.m. one night while they were prepping for the shoot saying: “How about we go with a durag?”

“Did I ever imagine that I would see a durag on the cover of Vogue? No, reader, I did not,” Enninful wrote in Instagram. “Although this potent symbol of black life — of self-preservation, resistance and authenticity — has an important place in popular culture, it is rarely viewed through the prism of high fashion,” he continued. “Yet, here we have the most fabulous, aspirational and beautiful durag, worn by a woman who is breaking every boundary she comes up against.”

In these trying times, Rihanna is an all-around inspiration. Her foundation pledged $5 million to aid those on the front lines of the coronavirus fight before everyone else was doing it. She’s also always been a style icon for staying in and dressing up.

The new issue of British Vogue will be on newsstands and available for free digital download on Friday, April 3.

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The very best from Gucci, Prada, Fendi, and more.

Agnona

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Alexander Mcqueen

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Bottega Veneta

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Brandon Maxwell

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Burberry

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Celine

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Chanel

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Chloe

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Coach

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Dior

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Dolce Gabbana

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Dries Van Noten

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Erdem

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Fendi

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Ferragamo

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Gabriela Hearst

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Givenchy

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Gucci

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Hermes

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Isabel Marant

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JW Anderson

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Lanvin

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Loewe

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Louis Vuitton

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Marc Jacobs

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Margiela

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Max-Mara

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Michael Kors

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Missoni

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Miu-Miu

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Moncler

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Moschino

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Off-White

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Prada

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Richard Quinn

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Rochas

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Saint- Laurent

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Stella

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Tods

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Tom Ford

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Ulla Johnson

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Versace

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The act of looking down can catch a lot of flak, but when it comes to Fashion Week, we're in full support of the faux pas. Footwear can further a designer's story, giving us more to lust over—and another a reason to carve out room in the upper corner of our closet for yet another designer shoe box.

We followed the footsteps of the fall 2020 collections parading down the runways and most definitely logged all the steps. The New York shows gave boot lovers everything they could wish for, from western-inspired shapes to hand-painted designs to Lycra bootie-cum-pants at Marc Jacobs. London, Milan, and Paris went flashier and higher with embellishments (like feathers and rhinestones), flatforms, and heels. Click through to see what we can expect to see on well-shod feet come next autumn.

by Bazaar

BY STEFF YOTKA

Vogue has been chronicling fashion trends since 1892, and for a great span of that time, accessories have taken a back seat to clothing. Debates about shifting hemlines, wild new couture shapes, and the play of sexy silhouettes versus a more serious, ascetic way of dressing have long reigned supreme. The times when Vogue has emphasized the importance of accessories has often coincided with moments of global crisis.

In 1941, the magazine advised readers to “let yourself go on flowers and veils.” In the ’60s we covered Courrèges and Cardin’s boots and baubles with the same vigor as their minidresses, and in the aftermath of 9/11, we christened the aughts the era of the It bag.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that as the fashion industry and the world at large grapples with the spread of Covid-19 and its impact on every aspect of modern life, accessories have taken center stage once again. The pieces our editors saw and loved over the course of the fall 2020 shows certainly weren’t quiet. Instead, they reflected a collective urge for unbridled flair (see the many veils and opera gloves), and for emotional comforts (the runway’s blankets and soft, pillow-like bags).

In austere times, the potential that these eight trends offer is the opportunity to turn any outfit into a fabulous one—even if, or especially if, you are working from home.

No-Nonsense Boots

Shoe trends have swung from casual sneakers to ladylike pumps so quickly over the past several seasons, you (and your closet) might be experiencing whiplash. What designers have thankfully agreed upon for fall 2020 is that a knee-grazing, preferably platform black boot is the unbeatable footwear of the season. At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello cut boots in dominatrix latex; Rick Owens added lucite heels and metal grills to his popular Kiss silhouette, and Victoria Beckham returned to the platform shape she made posh in the aughts. You’ve gotta have it.

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Holy Veils

In tandem with ready-to-wear’s slant toward the sacred is the rise of veils. They can look bridal, as at Tom Ford; clerical, as at Richard Quinn; vixenish à la Anna Sui; or extremely hardcore as in the case of Paco Rabanne’s chain-mail head wraps. Whatever the spirit, these veils are sure to make this year’s many video calls more exciting.

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Creature Comforts

As we temporarily settle into more sedate lifestyles, the importance of comfort will become paramount. Designers from Michael Kors to Jil Sander’s Luke and Lucie Meier offered wraps, blankets, stoles, and snuggly scarves to wrap yourself in. Think of them as pieces that work at home or at play.

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Single-Use Bags

Water bottle holders, AirPod cases, mobile phone pouches, and even a boot turned backpack were all the rage on the runway this season. Who can argue against an Alexander McQueen flask belt with a hand-hammered rabbit relief?

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Link and Build

As the bourgeois look builds, so too has the trend for elegant, chain-trimmed shoes, bags, and jewelry. JW Anderson’s embellished bags and Balenciaga’s chastity belts came with playful bits of subversion.

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Operatic Gloves

In our smartphone-addled age, elbow-length gloves may not seem like the most practical look, but with endorsements from Rihanna, Margot Robbie, and Zoë Kravitz, the trend for opera gloves is only growing. On the runways, The Row offered cozy knit options, while Rodarte, Moschino, and Marc Jacobs heightened the glamour of their collections with debutante-worthy gauntlets.

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Clutches to Hold Dear

Considering the popularity of Bottega Veneta’s Pouch clutch, it was only a matter of time before other brands took on the trend for soft, handheld bags. This season, Chanel, Proenza Schouler, Prada, and Khaite all offered elegant clutches in soft leathers or bejeweled velvet, while BV has updated its Pouch with a clever braided iteration. Keep an eye on our street style coverage to see which bag comes out on top for 2020.

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Tie One On

Neckties, the most traditionally masculine accessory of them all, received a feminine spin at Christian Dior, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana. Blazer optional.

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Vogue Runway

A daily recap of the biggest runway news, latest trends, and emerging designers.

There was plenty to talk about on the runways during the fall 2020 collections. In a season filled with celebrity cameos, street casting, and immersive “tableau vivants,” models still managed to make an impact. Whether it was established talents like Paloma Elsesser and Jill Kortleve bringing much-needed body diversity to the runways of Europe, or returning favorites like ’90s beauty Sibyl Buck walking alongside her daughter, many of the month’s most powerful moments involved the people who populate the catwalk.

The next generation of superstars was also angling for their moment in the spotlight. After all, you don’t become a household name without having that first opportunity to shine. The young people who made an impact during fall’s collections had personality and charm to spare. They were scholars (elegant Oxford grad Elisa Mitrofan), artists (Hong Kong–bred stunner Eliza Rutson), and hometown heroes (spirited Texan Millicent Rodges), all of whom made the collections exciting and fun. Whether they were sharing the spotlight with Miley Cyrus (agender beauty Juno Mitchell) or landing a coveted exclusive, these were the season’s standouts.

Photo: GoRunway.com
1/11
Agi Akur
Agency: IMG
Hometown: Adelaide, South Australia 
F/W 20 Highlights: Saint Laurent, Chloé, Givenchy, Simone Rocha 

Agi Akur is part of a new generation of South Sudanese talent currently dominating the fashion industry. Born in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, she grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide and got her start at Sydney Fashion Week. Now working internationally, Akur has racked up an impressive roster of regular clients. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
2/11
Allana Santos Brito
Agency: Next
Hometown: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil 

F/W 20 Highlights: Prada, Versace, Paco Rabanne, Alexander McQueen 
Scouted last year during a trip to her local beach, Brazilian Allana Santos Brito is impossible to ignore. With her strong features and hypnotic gaze, the rising star was exactly what casting directors were searching for this season. In demand from the moment she made her debut at Prada, she avoided freshman burnout by only walking for a select group of elite brands.

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Photo: GoRunway.com
3/11
Elisa Mitrofan
Agency: Models 1
Hometown: London 
F/W 20 Highlights: Miu Miu, Loewe, Saint Laurent, JW Anderson

Before she was front and center at nearly every big show in Europe, Elisa Mitrofan was completing her English degree at Oxford. An accomplished concert violinist and tutor, Mitrofan is also a natural on the runway. Graceful and cool with a gamine presence and book smarts to boot, she’s certain to go the distance in the competitive world of modeling. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
4/11
Eliza Rutson
Agency: The Society
Hometown: Hong Kong SAR, China
F/W 20 Highlights: Paco Rabanne, Off-White, Altuzarra, Valentino 
Artist and model Eliza Rutson debuted during the last leg of Paris Fashion Week, but she made an outsized impression. The daughter of former Lane Crawford fashion director Sarah Rutson, she enters the industry with a high-fashion pedigree but still made a mark on her own merits. Elegant and distinctive, Rutson stood out amongst a crowded field. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
5/11
Evie Harris
Agency: DNA
Hometown: Shepherd’s Bush, England
F/W 20 Highlights: Chanel, Dior, Prada, JW Anderson 
Newcomer Evie Harris’s baby face may remind you of aughts favorites like Abbey Lee and Gemma Ward, but her charms are all her own. The teen from Shepherd’s Bush burst onto the scene by opening JW Anderson’s spring 2020 collection, and she’s carried that momentum into fall. This season Harris proved herself capable of versatile work, transforming from one of Miuccia Prada’s urbane muses to a latex-and-feather-clad Saint Laurent vixen in a matter of days. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
6/11
Juno Mitchell
Agency: New York Model Management  
Hometown: Philadelphia 
F/W 20 Highlights: Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Alexander McQueen 
It takes confidence not to be eclipsed by one of the world’s biggest pop stars, but Juno Mitchell has it in spades. The Philadelphia native shared the runway with Miley Cyrus at Marc Jacobs’s fall 2020 collection and still managed to shine. Their success continued in Paris, where they joined the casts at Valentino and Alexander McQueen. Post-season, the agender rising star hopes to increase visibility and opportunities for nonbinary people within fashion, a cause deserving of attention. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
7/11
Maryel Uchida
Agency: Women
Hometown: Belo Horizonte, Brazil 
F/W 20 Highlights: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chloé, Dior 
Japanese-Brazilian stunner Maryel Uchida is a new kind of cool girl. Her blunt bangs and eclectic off-duty style all add to her appeal, but it’s attitude that sets Uchida apart. On the runway at shows like Prada and Louis Vuitton, she delivered personality-packed performances that were more than the standard catwalk stomp. That star quality is sure to come in handy once campaign season begins. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
8/11
Maty Fall
Agency: IMG
Hometown: Chiampo, Italy
F/W 20 Highlights: Valentino, Versace, Prada, Burberry 
Maty Fall began the season on a high note with an Italian Vogue cover and plenty of buzz. The Italian-Senegalese newcomer has quickly become a favorite of designers like Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Angela Missoni, who selected her to open fall’s exploration of geometric pattern. Born in Ouest Foire, outside of Senegal, Fall moved to Italy at the age of nine. A newly minted citizen, she’s helping to redefine the meaning of Italian beauty. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
9/11
Millicent Rodges
Agency: Next
Hometown: Iriving, Texas 
F/W20 Highlights: Saint Laurent, Valentino, Rick Owens 
Discovered by Mother Management, the agency that launched superstars like Grace Hartzel and Karlie Kloss, the striking Texan Millicent Rodges made her debut as an exclusive for Burberry’s spring 2020 collection. The youngest of six children, Rodges put in the work to achieve her modeling dream. After apprenticing at an orthodontist’s office in St. Louis while in development, and touring the world racking up experience in front of the camera, it all paid off this season with one great booking after another. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
10/11
Valerie Scherzinger
Agency: Women 
Hometown: Hewlett, New York 
F/W 20 Highlights: Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Giambattista Valli 
Never underestimate the appeal of local talent! Long Islander Valerie Scherzinger kickstarted her season at Tom Ford’s Los Angeles extravaganza, and it’s easy to see why. Blessed with movie-star looks and an innate glamour, Scherzinger fit right in with the designer’s luxurious vision. Ford wasn’t the only fashion figure to be captivated, and Scherzinger’s nonstop bookings are a testament to her universal appeal. 

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Photo: GoRunway.com
11/11
Yidan Huang
Agency: The Industry
Hometown: Chengdu, Sichuan, China 
F/W 20 Highlights: Rodarte, Paco Rabanne, Loewe, Stella McCartney
We have Chinese social media platform Weibo to thank for Yidan Huang. The Southwestern University of Finance and Economics graduate was scouted on there several years ago and has been slowly building momentum ever since. Overnight success is nice, but Huang has developed gradually, moving from an exclusive spot at JW Anderson last year to global success this season in all four fashion capitals. 

What is fashion’s role in a time of crisis? Though these collections were already in development when the coronavirus became a global health threat, Paris’s designers had no shortage of opinions. Kenneth Ize, a newcomer from Nigeria and a finalist in last year’s LVMH Prize, went with unbridled optimism and joy—and a supermodel closer in the form of Naomi Campbell. Marine Serre and Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia faced the darkness head on, with bold experiments in silhouette and upcycling that produced visions both ominous and exciting. Theirs are clothes for survivors.

At Alexander McQueen and Maison Margiela, Sarah Burton and John Galliano have embraced upcycling with sincerity, and results that are both inventive and exquisite. When it comes to responsible production at the top brands, the tide is beginning to turn in the right direction; now is the time for other designers to follow their leads.

Celine’s Hedi Slimane, Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello, and Virginie Viard, who presented her most charming Chanel collection to date, all agreed on one thing: the rejuvenating experience of dressing way, way up. There was statement fashion of a more nuanced and restrained sort at Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior.

The Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition About Time: Fashion and Duration shaped more than just Nicolas Ghesquière’s collection for Louis Vuitton, which is sponsoring the museum’s examination of 150 years of fashion. At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson lifted shapes from the past to hatch dresses both unexpected and new, while Julien Dossena conjured exemplars of female fierceness over the centuries at his powerful Paco Rabanne outing. These are designers unafraid of testing themselves and taking risks. Especially in a time of crisis, the future of fashion depends on talents like theirs.

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Louis Vuitton Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Louis Vuitton

“Arguably, all of fashion is a synthesis of the past, but Ghesquière makes a closer study of it than most. He’s compelled by the anachronous; for spring 2018, he clashed 18th-century frock coats and the high-tech trainers of our contemporary period. Here, there was more in play: Jewel-encrusted boleros met parachute pants, buoyant petticoats were paired with fitted tops whose designs looked cribbed from robotics, and bourgeois tailoring was layered over sports jerseys. Ghesquière seemed particularly taken with the visual codes of distance and speed—be it race car driving, motocross, or space travel.” —Nicole Phelps

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Chanel Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Chanel

“‘Freedom!’ declared Virginie Viard during a fitting in Chanel’s rue Cambon atelier on the eve of her breezy show. Viard explained that she was talking about the sort of wind-in-the-hair freedom that a horse rider feels as the steed bounds through the landscape. That idea of liberation translated into a collection of unforced, woman-friendly pieces that embraced the house codes at the same time that they reinforced Viard’s own pragmatic instincts for comfortable, insouciant, no-nonsense glamour.” —Hamish Bowles

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Alexander McQueen Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Alexander McQueen

“The thoughtful collection opened with the sound of birdsong and echoing children’s voices, and reverberated with the thud of sturdy boots or flashing knife-steel shoes against the stripped wooden floor. The McQueen warrior women marched relentlessly on, in sharply tailored frock coats and slim-leg pantsuits gripped by belts jangling with jewels that included tiny silver hip flasks and metal-bound notebooks; dresses that resembled leather blankets draped like tartan shawls over fitted cuirass bodices; and a finale of fairy-tale ‘bird’s nest’ evening dresses of frothing net and embroidery suggestive of medieval folk tales: powerful romance.” —H.B.

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Balenciaga Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Balenciaga

“Black—its resurgence, the cutting of new silhouettes, its links to minimalism and classicism—is playing throughout fashion this season. To each their own, though. Gvasalia’s route is always freighted with social observation on the state of the world, power politics, dress codes, fetishism. His intense parade of priests and priestesses in long black robes, with their ‘religious purity, minimalism, austerity,’ arose from memories of the Orthodox church in Georgia, and looking at the Spanish Catholic origins of Cristóbal Balenciaga. ‘He made his first dresses from black velvet, for a marquesa to wear to church,’ said Gvasalia.” —Sarah Mower

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Celine Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Celine

“Hedi Slimane’s passion for the dress codes of the Parisian bourgeoisie of the 1970s continued unabated into fall 2020. Shedding a rare chink of light on something personal, the enigmatic creative director dedicated the collection ‘a ma mère’ in his show notes. What did his mother wear when Slimane was growing up in Paris? Was it something like the idealized Celine collection he sent out this time? That wouldn’t be surprising, because everyone did back then. Slimane was born in 1968, the momentous year of the uprising of French young people against the government, and was too young to have participated, but he would have seen the style of the ’70s through the observant eyes of a young teenager—exactly the age of the boys and girls who roamed his runway this (and indeed every) season.” —S.M.

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Loewe Fall 2020Photographed by Corey Tenold

Loewe

“What he began with—the volumized ‘entrance-making’ shapes he showed in his terrific collection for his eponymous brand in London—was followed through with inspirational conviction at today’s Loewe show. It’s always a good sign of innovation—of things we haven’t quite seen before—when clothes can’t be easily described in stock fashion language. Loewe came up to that mark: What were they, these brocade dresses, gathered into matte black frontages? How do we talk about those horizontal pelmets suspended at mid-upper-arm level? How to capture the shoulder-extending device from which caped-back sleeves were suspended? Extra good is the fact that they don’t need labored explanation; they landed in that category of fashion desire that comes under the heading of You Never Knew You Wanted It Till You Saw It.” —S.M.

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Paco Rabanne Fall 2020Photo: Getty Images

Paco Rabanne

“For some time now, Dossena has been exploring ways to extend the ’60s space-age limits that the house of Paco Rabanne is associated with. His own tastes have traveled, to much critical acclaim, toward a look that modernizes a glamour appropriated from the ’70s. But this time there was something deeper and more subversive going on: a placing of the symbolism of spiritual-religious garb—allusions to clerical robes, monklike habits, and Joan of Arc armor—firmly within the female domain. ‘I don’t want to say that they’re a cult, exactly,’ he said. ‘I’m not a believer at all, but I’m interested in how thinking about something that’s beyond still drives everyone, even in the age of technology.’” —S.M.

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Maison Margiela Fall 2020Photo: Getty Images

Maison Margiela

“The difference now is the purchase this collection has on 21st-century reality. Galliano’s ‘Recicla’ label is a step on from the ‘Replica’ reeditions of vintage clothing that Martin Margiela originated at the house, making sure to print the date of provenance on the label. Galliano’s purpose in studying vintage pieces is different: He lops and excavates structures to discover new forms, often ‘freeze-framing’ work in progress. And so, with this collection, ‘instead of slavishly copying,’ he decided that studio-reworked charity shop finds deserve to be sold as they are. ‘Now I’m feeling a little braver,’ he said. ‘The idea is that this voyage of discovery supports this feeling of being inventive with a conscience.’” —H.B.

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Saint Laurent Fall 2020Photo: Gorunway.com

Saint Laurent

“What was new was the way Vaccarello chose to riff on the kind of taut yet lush sensuality that Monsieur Saint Laurent was such a master of, twisting it anew by focusing on all those bourgeois gestures in high contrast with his slicked-up leggings. And what else was new, yet very Yves: the uninhibited sense of color, with Vaccarello working his way through the classic YSL palette—fuchsia to purple to emerald to hot pink—and showcasing it his own way through that extremely non-classic latex. After the show, Vaccarello laughed and said he’d only gone so colorful because he was always being told that he only does black, and that it might be a one-season-only excursion. Let’s hope not, when it so readily sprung to life here.” —Mark Holgate

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Dior Fall 2020Photographed by Corey Tenold

Dior

“Though the show opened with a tailored pantsuit, Chiuri has moved well beyond the house’s famous Bar jacket. In keeping with her starting point, this was Dior at its most informal and relaxed, an elevation of the quotidian: The designer says she identifies most with Marc Bohan’s tenure at the house. Bohan presided over Dior in those pivotal ’70s years, as prêt-à-porter was emerging and the once-sacrosanct diktats of designers were starting to lose their sway. He dressed women who had embraced new, freer lifestyles, even launching a Dior ski line. In a sort of homage, on the runway today there were logo puffers, denim jackets and jeans, blanket checks modeled on a Bohan-designed bias-cut checked ensemble, jumpsuits in cotton or leather, and those dependable signifiers of youth: fishnets and combat boots. The season’s message tee read, ‘I Say I,’ a phrase lifted from the Italian critic and activist Carla Lonzi that is more or less the 1970s equivalent of the millennial ‘you do you.’” —N.P.

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Marine Serre Fall 2020Photographed by Corey Tenold

Marine Serre

“Being hardwired to the news cycle is an important aspect of what drives Serre to create, and this season that led her to think about our planet burning, her every-age-imaginable model cast underscoring that it’s about more than her own generational urgency; it hardly needs repeating, but we are really all in this together. That burning motif could be seen in her signature moon logo, which looked as though it had been distorted by heat. It was used for that perennial Serre-ism, a bodysuit, worn under layers of a coat and dress, both in a print that at first glance seemed akin to a Palestinian keffiyeh yet was actually a black lizard darting over an ashen landscape of white. There was a terrific series of sandy denim pieces with a distressed scorched effect, allowing some new kind of warped beauty to emerge; their hue also riffed back to Frank Herbert’s Dune, which Serre quoted on her invitation, inspired, she said, by its depiction of new communities emerging in a radically different world.” —M.H.

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Kenneth Ize Fall 2020Photo: Getty Images

Kenneth Ize

“Ize has been working with a small circle of asoke weavers in Nigeria with the hopes of preserving the centuries-old craft from the brink of extinction. For fall, he expanded on that commitment to local artisanship by collaborating with Austrian lacemakers in Vienna, where he was born and raised. The green and orange lace tunics and suiting were a nod to Ize’s mother, who, like many West African women, would source Viennese lace to make custom outfits for special occasions. The collection was largely inspired by her meticulous approach to Sunday best in particular; the devil was in the details here, with matching fringed bucket bags and clutches made in collaboration with Austrian accessories label Sagan. It’s exquisite transcultural fashion experiments like these that will put Ize and his heirloom-worthy designs on the map.” —Chioma Nnadi

by VOGUE