Maximalist Design dominates fashion week

“I’m so tired of everyone constantly equating modernity with simplicity. New things can’t work either, become baroque and luxurious?” A direct quote from Daniel Roseberry, creative director at Schiaparelli, is shared with respected guests attending the brand’s Paris Haute Couture Runway Show, and is an inspiration for a conversation about the impact of visually inspiring collections and the biggest designs during Fashion Week.

The Italian luxury brand, known for its enthusiastic use of the design details of Trompe l’oeil, pushed up the physics of physical clothing boundaries and traditional hourglass silhouettes with its presentation of the Spring Haute Couture 2025 collection during Paris Fashion Week. The runway was decorated with a variety of volume appearances built with visual boning and distorted wiring, creating the illusion of an accented waist and a tiny waistline. Additionally, the design is made with eye-catching necklines, bursting side seams and intricate pleats, and is built in to add texture and dimensions.

The clothing, which did not rely on the grand silhouette, was instead detailed with ornate beads, lined with feathers and covered with layers of lace. To complement the visibly large physical structure of the collection, the appearance of the outfit was made from soft shades of black, champagne and gold, with equally delicate materials such as velvet, organza and satin.

Another collection coincided with a notable shift in aesthetics during the designer’s latest stint as guest editor for the December issue of American Vogue, but Marc Jacobs showed. There are no strangers to the brand of the same name, playful colorways or eccentric ones, but there were many designs emulating cartoon-style shapes, silhouettes and scales at the ready-made autumn runway show at New York Fashion Week. Using coarse fabrics such as neoprene, felt and faux fur, each item was made of three-dimensional elements, producing clothing that occupy the physical space, whether it was to maintain the truth in the natural curves of the body. From bulbous shoes with upward-facing vamps to pleated trousers from the body to bulging pleated trousers, the doll-like clothing from the collection gave me a bigger vibe than the real thing.

One of the most surprising collections that stuck to the notable trends of large designs was Calvin Klein. Now at the helm of creative director Veronica Leoni, the brand debuted its ready-made 2025 collection in the fall at New York Fashion Week. The brand’s eponymous founder, sitting in the front row beside respected Calvin Klein models Kate Moss and Christy Turlington, was slightly lost from its typical adherence to minimalist designs and streamlined silhouettes. Consistent with the brand’s simplified aesthetic, maintaining a muted colour palette of grey, black and cream, the collection was surprisingly full of newly accentuated design details, including exaggerated shoulders and extended bottom hem. Additionally, many of the clothes were decorated with oversized shirt collars, lengths of extended sleeves, and large pocket flaps.

Of all the recent collections seen at each of the fashion week this year, the looks from Calvin Klein perfectly illustrate how this trend in the biggest design is permanent.

To understand why this aesthetic change is so important it is essential to break down what modern fashion means to design executives and average consumers up until now. A key starting point for the current climate of sophisticated and minimalist design is the concept of quiet luxury.

It debuted around 2023 with the influence of celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Sophia Richie, and has become popular in media consumption such as the HBO TV show “Subsession,” so unisex fashion trends feature sophisticated average clothing, usually decorated at prices, due to sophisticated materials and amazing quality. These designs and this overall trend were intended to emulate the logoless style of very wealthy people, composed of individuals who often wear preppy selections of simple clothing adjacent to the East Coast in neutral colourways.

Unlike past trends, the trend that prevailed most specifically in the early 2000s to mid-2010s was well known for its very short brand expiration dates. In line with this trend, shoppers were given the authority to selectively shop high quality pieces that last longer within their wardrobe. The alignment with the old money aesthetics also encouraged consumers to abandon socially anticipated interest in fashion, labels, designers and trends, and spend time on other, perhaps more fruitful hobbies such as reading, writing, and athletics.

Referring to Roseberry’s previous statement on the equivalent of modernity and simplicity, a recent selected example of runway shows is even some of the most “stealthwell” brands by garnering a shift from previous modern take, integrating the biggest design details, in addition to collections from designer brands such as Marni, Fendi and Prada. This physical evidence of a decline in once popular clothing trends is further backed up with statistical data reflecting the interest of declining consumers, with Google Trends reporting search term data for “quiet luxury” that peaked in June 2023, slowly decreasing, and this year achieved a search volume of 44% compared to the popularity of peak people.

As often accompanied by the trickle-down theory of fashion trends, a product adoption model defined by the shift in fashion styles from the high-end market to mainstream consumers, we can speculate that this implication of this vast design will ultimately give way to the masses. Trends first appeared in more obvious forms, such as comical silhouettes that use volume and structure to morph the appearance of the body’s clothing, but the biggest designs are more likely to be adopted by consumers with a simplified approach, such as large shirt collars, large prints and patterns, shoulder pads, and wide belts.