What’s Worth Noticing in Fall/Winter 2025 if You’re into Slow Fashion

Trends aren’t the goal — but they can reveal ideas worth noticing in fashion, embellishment, and design.
Some directions from Fall/Winter 2025 caught my attention — for good reason. Certain themes have been building over several seasons and show no signs of fading. Others reveal how designers are approaching surface, shape, and contrast in new ways.

It’s useful to look at how we — those interested in embroidery and slow fashion—can adapt or reflect on these ideas in our own way.

This article highlights four directions. It’s not a suggestion to copy anything. It’s an invitation to stay aware, inspired, and connected to the current visual language.

Dark Elegance and Drama

Fall/Winter 2025 made black a central element — not as a neutral base, but as a sculpting force. Designers explored tension, volume, and surface density using black as their anchor.

Zuhair Murad presented a sharply tailored cape with symmetrical crystal embroidery radiating from the shoulders. The design combined metallic sequins, transparent beads, and crystals to create a night-sky-like gradient — simple in shape, high in impact.

Louis Vuitton showed a short black velvet dress with a detachable collar made from glossy, smoked textile. The crumpled, semi-rigid surface formed bold ruffles, punctuated by a flat red velvet ribbon — a crisp, unsettling contrast.

Feng Chen Wang manipulated textiles into a thorn-like scarf with a shimmering finish. Sitting high on the neck, it turned a clean-cut suit into something sculptural and confrontational.

Alexander McQueen embedded black beadwork into the structure of a double-breasted cape, tracing lapels, seams, and edges to build volume and silhouette through embellishment itself.

Rodarte layered transparent fabrics with dense crystal embroidery to construct a gothic ceremonial gown. The vertical placement of crystals emphasized both fragility and control.

Antonio Marras used scrolling black embroidery over a jacquard jacket and skirt, drawing from Victorian and ecclesiastical tailoring. The placement followed structural lines, reinforcing the garment’s historical form.

Romantic Collars and Decorative Necklines

The shirt collar returned as a focal point this season — no longer supporting the look, but leading it. Designers used ruffles, layered flounces, oversized bows, and sculptural collars to inject drama and theatricality into clean silhouettes.

Emporio Armani paired a high white collar and oversized black velvet bow with a structured silk jacquard jacket. The look balanced masculine tailoring with dandyish flair.

Chanel extended cream flounces over the shoulders to form a layered collar. Styled with a black ribbon tie and fitted black bodice, it echoed 19th-century children’s dress — amplified into something more deliberate.

Moschino shaped a white collar into overlapping petals, worn over a plain black sweater rather than a blouse. It read more like a sculptural accessory than a garment component.

Conner Ives referenced costume language with a sheer black gown punctuated by ruffled white collars and cuffs. The effect was sharp and theatrical, like clownwear reimagined as eveningwear.

Alexander McQueen styled a sleeveless gown with a deep black ruff collar. Densely pleated and worn high on the neck, it nodded to Elizabethan shapes—but rendered with mass and density.

Ralph Lauren styled a soft ruffled cravat beneath a distressed leather jacket, placing formal shirt details into a casual, almost Western frame. The look referenced jabot traditions, repurposed with softness and layering.

Bird Motifs and Feathered Textures

This season brought a wave of avian references—some literal, some more abstract. Feathers, wing-like silhouettes, and lightweight textures suggested flight, fragmentation, and transformation.

Marni used textile appliqué and dense beading to build stylised birds across a paneled satin gown. Placed diagonally, the motifs integrated with seams and fabric shifts, emphasizing movement through form rather than colour.

N°21 inserted black feathers into the seams of a grey coat and pencil skirt, running vertically down the sides. They appeared less as decoration and more as structural interruption.

Jil Sander scattered sheer white feathers irregularly over a plain dress. The floating placement created the illusion of weightlessness, with some feathers extending beyond seams and side panels.

Ferragamo covered a full red ensemble in overlapping feathers. Dress and handbag alike were coated in dense plumes, allowing surface alone to drive the drama while keeping silhouette minimal.

Brooches Reclaimed

Brooches returned this season — but not as nostalgic heirlooms. These were styling tools: bold, deliberate, and worn across all genders. Often oversized or sculptural, they interrupted silhouettes and redefined form.

Miu Miu pinned sculptural gold brooches asymmetrically just below the collarbones of a grey wool coat. They broke the formal lines and disrupted uniformity.

Edward Cuming styled a sequinned floral brooch with satin ribbons over a cotton T-shirt layered on a red long-sleeve. Eveningwear materials met casual structure in a deliberate clash.

Erdem placed a white enamelled floral brooch at the centre of a pinstriped high-neck coat. It added contrast and draw without relying on sparkle—just weight and form.

Toga paired a rhinestone starburst brooch with a jewel-tone knit and metallic lamé collar. The reference was vintage, but the styling was off-centre, mismatched, and contemporary.

Oscar de la Renta used large golden brooches on a short black cape and the hips of a matching mini skirt. The mirrored placement recalled fastenings or buttons — but blown up, recontextualised as ornament.

Whether you're creating on a schedule or stitching at your own pace, some of the most striking ideas this season weren’t about novelty — they were about reworking familiar elements: black to carve volume, collars to anchor silhouette, brooches to break the line. These shifts suggest that even within a trend cycle, there’s room to think structurally and work deliberately — on your own terms.

If you're looking to explore these kinds of ideas in practice — not just as inspiration, but through hands-on technique — my courses are designed to help you develop real, adaptable skills for slow, embellished fashion.