In the ramp up to this year’s Forces of Fashion summit in October, with its special focus on the power, the drama, and the spectacle of the runway, the editors and contributors of Vogue came together to reminisce about and toast the fashion shows that have mattered most to them. Maybe it was the set that stood out (Chanel’s fall 2014 supermarket). Maybe it was the song that played on the soundtrack (The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” circa spring 1998 Marc Jacobs). Or maybe it was Kate Moss in hologram form. As Vogue put it at the time, Alexander McQueen’s breathtaking fall 2006 show—complete with the spectral image of Moss at the end—will “go down as one of fashion’s all-time highs.”
More often than not, though, it’s the clothes that we remember—the imaginative flights of fancy of John Galliano at Dior all those years ago or this past January at Maison Margiela Artisanal, feats of engineering à la Hussein Chalayan, and the collections that tilted fashion on its axis, like Phoebe Philo’s Celine and Alessandro Michele’s Gucci debuts.
The last time we made a list like this, the rule was you had to be in the audience to put it on your list, but more than a decade into the social media age, that requirement feels old-fashioned. There’s nothing like being there, of course, but tumblr, Instagram, and their brethren have produced fashion obsessives the world over, some of whom now work at Vogue. We think the final tally of unforgettable shows reflects the signal style moments of the last several decades, among them the Japanese arrival in Paris; ’90s grunge, goth, and “ugly chic”; Y2K glam; the return of minimalism; and the rise of both repurposed fashion and gender-fluidity. Enjoy!
Nicole Phelps, Global Director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business
Virginia Smith, Global Head of Fashion Network
Mark Holgate, Global Network Lead & US Fashion Features Editor
Sarah Mower, Contributor
Mark Guiducci, Creative Editorial Director
Chloe Malle, Editor of Vogue.com
Laird Borrelli-Persson, Senior Archive Editor
Luke Leitch, Contributor
Laia Garcia-Furtado, Senior Fashion News Editor, Vogue Runway
José Criales-Unzueta, Fashion News Writer, Vogue Runway
Irene Kim, Production and Editorial Coordinator, Vogue Runway
