The top 10 most-viewed AW25 shows on Vogue Runway

Number one with a bullet bra! Miu Miu topped Vogue Runway’s most-viewed show list for the first time this season. The brand has been on a roll ever since its post-pandemic return to the runway for spring 2022. With its hacked-off cableknit sweaters and pelmet skirts and the endless midriffs in between, that show was nothing less than generation-defining. I never saw cropped tops at the office before Covid, and now nobody bats an eye at their proliferation.

This Miu Miu collection, while more of a pastiche of past references than a silhouette story, has had a similar pulse-quickening effect on fashion watchers. If Vogue is anything to go by, Ebay must be doing a bang-up business in vintage satin brassieres at the moment. The Prada show, which also reconsidered feminine beauty, but with the non-sexy shapes of 1960s floral print house dresses, landed in fourth place — Miuccia Prada had a very good season.

Another designer who had a good season is Haider Ackermann, who made his opening salvo at Tom Ford. Of all of autumn’s debuts, his is the only one to crack the top 10. I’d say that’s partly down to Ford and Ackermann’s star quality, and the admiration for each other that they so evidently share, but of course Ackermann’s powers of seduction played no small part. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s beguiling ‘Good Night, Day’ on the soundtrack set the mood, while his sharply cut, colourful suits did all the rest.

Creative director-less collections from Chanel and Gucci claimed the number two and three spots; Gucci was actually a new entry, having fallen off the list when Sabato De Sarno was still in charge. It does put the endless speculation about who’s coming and who’s going in perspective, doesn’t it? Demna’s last words at Balenciaga, which didn’t make the ranking, are useful here: “Sometimes, I read more about rumours, and about who is going where than what we really want from fashion now.”

What do we want? Looking at these collections as a whole, I’d say juicy colour, frankly feminine shapes and a wink of humour, meow.