February is the season graced with the spectacle of Fashion Week, namely the Fall/Winter collections. Not only is this a time for creatives to display their talent, but avid buyers of the luxury houses get a glimpse into the up-and-coming trends for the following year.
Although the majority of this year’s Fashion Week discourse surrounded who Kanye West’s latest muse is, there have been significant trends and developments in the industry, worthy of note.
This year, four particular vogues of designer bags and accessories emerged from the runways. You can now prepare your winter wardrobe with confidence, as we are set to see these trends influence the fashion industry in Fall/Winter 2022.
- Studs and Spikes
The revival of indie-sleaze is well and truly underway and has dominated the runway with the addition of studs and spikes to some of our favourite designer’s accessories. The aesthetic is a combination of trendy and trashy, everything your inner teenager desperately needs. The relaunch of the aesthetic has been widely supported by Gen Z, almost as a form of rebellion to the restrictions placed upon the world by the global pandemic. The spikes are a harsh contradiction to the smooth leather, wool finishes and fur touches that can be seen throughout the rest of the runway. This contrast has been welcomed by multiple designers and will begin to offset the rest of the world back into our long-awaited punk, trashy and messy era.
- Puffer Bags
If there’s one design that all luxury houses are taking with them to a desert island, it is undoubtedly the quilted, puffer bag. This is a design that has trended for the last 3 years, and despite all reservations, has made it into this year’s Fall/Winter collections. The design is highly influenced by the fashion and culture around outerwear, particularly skiing and apres-ski. It is one of the few high-fashion designs that incorporates style and practicality, which makes it a good trend to invest in. The soft-to-touch accessories are set to, once again, fill the streets of our fall fashion in 2022.
- Mini Bags
You either love it or hate it, but you definitely can’t deny it, the mini bag trend is here to stay. The wave of impracticality that we saw luxury accessories shift into during the pandemic was of course explainable, we were living through unimaginable times, what harm was an unusable micro bag going to do? When normal life, and the multitude of burdens it carries, started to fall back into place, we saw a shift towards practicality in designer bags, hence the mass reservation to the mini bag trend resurgence. Despite this, fashion designers have shown us that their love for the tiny bag has exceeded its criticism and will continue into the trends of FW22.
- Top Handle Bags
The crossbody bag has been the reigning style in the luxury accessory world for the most recent seasons, seen with the Prada re-edition of 2019 and more. A recent emergence from the FW22 collections is the top handle bag design, a feast for all Birkin lovers. The structured accessory is a direct result of the tiktok claimed “twee” aesthetic re-emergence.
Although we have to wait for the mentioned FW22 collections to reach their high-street boutiques before parading the streets, the good news is you can begin to invest into these trends by buying preloved pieces now. The trends are not exclusively for the pieces shown on the runway, more what the mass will be sporting in Fall/Winter 2022. This means if you start buying more studded pieces or more top handle bags or even more quilted accessories you can ensure to be on top of the trends this Fall/Winter season.