Mother Knows Best: Why Fashion’s Matriarchs Ruled This Season

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During the fashion month circuit, as designer after designer took their post-show bows, it was hard not to notice the cavernous void of women in highly coveted creative director roles. This was reinforced by the news cycle of new appointments to come at some of the biggest brands in the world, who are also… primarily white men. However, as I moved through the Fall 2025 collections in New York, Milan, and Paris, what became overwhelmingly apparent was even in the absence of institutional validation, the greatest impacts this season came from our brilliant, tenured female talents–and their possible successors. As men in politics and business squabble and fumble over paths forward, sometimes over Signal chats, in fashion, it’s the matriarchs who shared a concrete proposal this season and one that felt right.

First, consider arguably the most influential designer alive today: Miuccia Prada. It is impossible to overstate how much her vision, attitude, and sartorial language have permeated every corner of the industry, in markets far outside Milan, Paris, or New York. At 75 years old, she helms Prada and Miu Miu and has achieved tremendous, long-lasting success with both. In 2024, Prada sales were up 4%, and in the same year, Miu Miu sales spiked to a jaw-dropping 93%. This tremendous combination indicates that not only is her work exciting and engaging to people, but it is also where they genuinely want to spend their money.

Mrs. Prada’s relentless curiosity about womanhood, politics, and modernity consistently challenges how we think about clothes and their significance in the ritual of self-presentation. She offers ideas so complex it takes me weeks, often months to fully digest them. Most recently, her subversion of glamour via awkwardly proportioned and twisted takes on traditional garments, seemed to be cooler versions of what you’d lift from your nana (or nonna’s) closet. A rejection of the male gaze and a wink to the women who, with decades of more life lived, maybe do have it all figured out. To see her “isms” permeate other collections is a testament to how precisely her finger is on the pulse of culture.

Another “Mother” moment of the season also happened in Milan, at the mega-watt 100th Anniversary Fendi show. However, it wasn’t the A-list attendees or supermodel cast that set the show apart; it was the clothes. This was the first full collection designed solely by Silvia Fendi, granddaughter of the house’s founder, since Kim Jones’s four-year tenure as creative director ended in 2024. While her return was not the most loudly marketed, it communicated one of the most triumphant messages of the season. The clothes, shoes, and handbags flexed a level of craftsmanship and precision that stoked instant desire.

The look Fendi conjured was uncomplicated but rich, a deep celebration of who the label’s client is and who she could be. The show received a standing ovation, and Silvia, at 64, greeted the crowd with the regal serenity of a woman standing in her power. It was a homecoming from one of fashion’s most beloved matriarchs who deftly cut through a tremendous amount of noise with her experience and her unwavering point of view. The show gave off a distinct child-like comfort of feeling like there was an adult in the room.

On the elusive end of the fashion matriarch spectrum is Rei Kawakubo. Her Comme des Garçons shows feel somewhat akin to a religious gathering, with guests outfitted in their best, beautiful CDG, uncharacteristically punctual, and speaking in hushed tones. Kawakubo is nowhere in site and if there are collection notes, they’re sparse. For Fall 2025, the soundtrack began with an acapella arrangement of female voices, which turned out to be Bulgarian female folk singers. The only other sounds in the room were the steady footsteps of models decked out in Kawakubo’s sculptural fantasies, simultaneously gorgeous and grotesque. The opening looks in men’s pinstripe and Glenplaid gave way to ruffle and flower-adorned creations, their skirts so full the models tenderly folded and contorted so each could pass freely. This was not a typical runway show where models marched past, staring straight ahead, each in isolation. This was about community, both tender and powerful.

Famously a designer who likes her work to speak for itself, the one clue into Rei’s inspiration was her feeling of fatigue with “big culture” and the sentiment that “small can be mighty.” And what a gift from one of our most brilliant minds: a defiant reminder that we can do things differently, and to never stop challenging the way things are. The Bulgarian song was one about harvesting, with the dissonant harmonies working together.

It is extraordinary that, in spite of a political and cultural landscape that is actively angling to surpress women, there were so many women whose fashion served to anchor us this season. And what can we learn? Neither Prada, Fendi, nor Kawakubo are interested in media attention or self-aggrandizing. They have poured decades of work and experience into building businesses and creating something of value that reflects the women–and the world–around them. Why wouldn’t we learn from these industry matriarchs and actively pursue more creative directors who look like them?

I think of Simone Rocha, who has also carved out a world and visual language uniquely her own, without sacrificing emotional richness. I think of Grace Wales Bonner, whose nuanced sophistication elevates everything from tailoring to Adidas trainers. I think of Rachel Scott of Diotima, whose recent show centered on this idea of “the auntie, the trans mother, the grandma, the matriarch” and who is committed not only to dressing the multiplicities in women but preserving and protecting the women responsible for the craft. I think of Colleen Allen, who has quietly become a breakout star of the emerging New York fashion scene, her cheeky “Witch Camp” t-shirts this season unsettlingly apropos for a time when women deviating from cultural norms is once again being vilified.

Some of the most compelling propositions for the coming season came from the covert brilliance of fashion’s matriarchs and those who are following in their footsteps. Let’s also not forget about Sarah Burton’s beautiful debut for Givenchy and, soon, Louise Trotter’s turn at the helm of Bottega Veneta come fall. All of these women are challenging our ideas of femininity, community, legacy, and power dynamics. Perhaps it’s time learn from the past and started listening more closely to what the next generation of women has to say–and what they’ll be wearing.

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