What clothes? The nepo babies (and criminal) who stole fashion month

Moments after Kylie Jenner closed the show for Coperni in Paris, a month of runway shows spreading across New York, London and Milan came to a welcome end.

This is traditionally the time to dissect the trends of the spring 2025 collections but like the most recent season of Emily In Paris, does anyone remember the clothes?

For the forgetful, Jenner was wearing a basic black ballgown, but the rest of the runway is a blur.

Kylie Jenner returns to the runway at Disneyland Paris for Coperni.Credit: Getty Images

The same aesthetic amnesia took place at Chanel, where Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough sang from a swing in the Grand Palais and at Valentino, where new creative director Alessandro Michele transplanted his vision and front row from his time at Gucci.

This was another season where stunts took over, with safe styles aimed at reluctant shoppers requiring more than stony stares from models to manipulate social media statistics.

Here are the runway moments that rose above a sea of bodysuits and skirts.

Kylie Jenner at Disneyland

Convincing Kim Kardashian’s youngest sister Kylie Jenner to return to runway, 11 years after modelling for Canadian singer Avril Lavigne’s long-forgotten label Abbey Dawn, should have swallowed Coperni’s marketing budget. But the label’s pockets must be deeper than those on their pink cropped, sheer cardigans.

The French brand staged their show at Disneyland Paris. Who can remember the clothes when the front row wore Mickey Mouse ears?

Coperni understands the value of a gimmick. A video of supermodel Bella Hadid having a dress spray-painted on her body in 2022 earned a reported $US26 million ($38 million) in media value. Unfortunately, Hadid’s dress was a one-off, hindering a sales follow-up from click-happy fans.

Riley Keough on a swing at Chanel

Chanel ambassador Riley Keough takes to a swing for the ready-to-wear show at the Grand Palais, Paris.Credit: Getty Images

Since Karl Lagerfeld’s successor as Chanel creative director Virginie Viard departed the luxury label in June, it has been a house without a guiding spirit. The experienced team remaining in the atelier sent out a string of classic suits, but it was left to the brand ambassadors to add sparkle.

With the new face of Chanel No. 5, actor Margot Robbie pregnant, Riley Keough was a safer choice to swing above the crowd in a birdcage and trill When Doves Cry by Prince. Perhaps a song by her grandfather, the King – Elvis Presley – was deemed inappropriate with metallic platform pumps outnumbering blue suede shoes on the runway.

Designer Hedi Slimane has just announced his resignation from Celine, so the house of Chanel may have a new father figure waiting in the wings, letting Keough return to earth next season.

Sunday Rose Kidman Urban at Miu Miu

Sunday Rose Kidman Urban makes her modelling debut on the Miu Miu runway.Credit: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

With a determined walk, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, the 16-year-old daughter of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, opened the Miu Miu show in Paris and set out to break the Jenner and Hadid sisters’ celebrity stranglehold of the runway.

Following the show, Sunday Rose performed the major task of a modern supermodel by taking part in a viral video. Following a chat with US Vogue, the latest Hollywood nepo baby has people entranced with her accent, which has a hefty dose of Nashville and healthy splashes of three Nicole Kidman characters (take your pick).

Sunday Rose doesn’t need to feel the pressure of selling the collection, with Miu Miu on a winning streak since returning micro-minis to fashion’s frontline in its spring 2022 show and convincing pop star Troye Sivan to push the preppy agenda in a polo shirt and board shorts last year.

Inventing Anna at NYFW

Designer Shao Yang and Anna Delvey walk the runway a tthe SHAO fashion show during New York Fashion Week.Credit: Getty Images

Last year, grifter Anna Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, staged the Shao runway show on the roof of her East Village apartment building while under house arrest. This year, liberated by an ankle monitor, the subject of the hit Netflix series Inventing Anna took to the runway at New York Fashion Week.

Delvey’s front row, at a venue sponsored by sex-positive website Pornhub, included her partner Ezra Sosa from a recent appearance on Dancing With The Stars, wearing an ankle monitor as a sign of solidarity.

Designer Shao Yang’s basic shirting and black trousers failed to steal attention from Sorokin’s ankle accessory. Anklets are bad enough without criminal couture becoming a trend.

Putting your foot in it

The Avavav show at Milan Fashion Week on September 22.Credit: Getty

It’s difficult to tell the difference between irony and earnest trend-chasing during fashion month. Beate Karlsson, the creative director of Avavav, teamed up with Adidas for the world’s slowest runway race at Milan’s Forza e Coraggio sports arena.

The brand’s four finger leather boots were given a sporty makeover, raising a sartorial middle finger to Maison Margiela’s cult Tabi shoes.

Models deliberately falling on the racetrack were a fantastic advertisement for media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s more stable Hoka wedding sneakers.

The revamped tracksuits also failed to score. As Karl Lagerfeld said: “Sweatpants are a sign of defeat.”

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