From luxury to mass: fall winter 2022 trends

Luxury’s splash of color

As the colder days seem to be giving us a wide berth, let’s dive into the latest trends shaping this Fall and Winter season. With the start of the new year, collections have seen a shift, especially regarding the colors present in leading luxury brands.

Hot pink ruled the runway in 2022, and as Retviews’ data on brands’ state of collections shows, the bold shade’s presence in luxury collections increased by 11% during the fall winter season. What the industry named the barbiecore trend, mixed with the phenomenon of dopamine dressing, major brands picked up on it and spread a wide variety of bold colors into their collections. As Retviews’ data show, Valentino heavily invested in hot pink for its fall winter assortment, making up 17% of its collection between September 2022 and January 2023. On the other hand, pink made up 4% of the general luxury market’s overall assortment.

From barbie to recession core

As luxury brands set the tone, the bold trend quickly trickled down into mass market collections during the spring summer season, as Retviews’ data has shown. This fall winter season however, leading mass market brands such as ZARA, Mango, and Stradivarius among others, are opting for neutral winter hues, and staying away from the bold tones that showed up in luxury brands’ collections, indicating that the specific trend didn’t translate well into the mass market.

While the share of black within leading brands’ collections grew by 11% since September, Retviews data shows that khaki and red are showing prominent growth, with a 9% and 8% increase respectively over the past five months. Though burgundy and green stood out in pre-fall collections, muted colors took the lead in the fall winter season. Shades of denim blue quickly creeped up into collections, as jeans confirm themselves as one of the most resilient categories in the industry.

Considering the current global climate of inflation and lower income shoppers having limited discretionary spending as prices increase, brands could very well be taking the safe route by adding more neutral colors to their collections, as shoppers might be more likely to invest their money in classics and essentials. This begs the question of whether “recession core” is going to pick up steam this year.

The state of luxury denim

Multiple celebrities and models have been harbouring the timeless denim fabric on runways and red carpets, setting the tone for this season and the ones to come.

Luxury brands have increased their denim clothing offering by 34% since the last winter season. However, denim investments are not limited to jeans and jackets, but to the overall ready-to-wear category. Looking at in which categories denim showcased the most substantial increase in assortment share, tops are the evident winners within womenswear. Tops collections have grown by over 60% on average. Leading luxury brands such as Loewe, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci have been focusing primarily on denim dresses and skirts, whose assortment presence has increased by 53% and 15% YoY, respectively.

In early 2023, the denim trend is quickly showing in mass market brands’ collections. With the influence of the ’90s and the Y2K mania, fashion retailers are reinterpreting their jeans collection with high contrast, graphic designs, or overdyes. Skinny jeans are making space for more trendy styles such as wide leg jeans, denim cargos, and low-rise jeans.  Not only that, but denim skirts are also making a comeback. 

Cargo pants invaded the fashion scene in 2022 for both men and women, and there is no sign of it slowing down in 2023. Retviews’ data show that mass-market brands have significantly increased their assortment share of denim cargo pants, with a 970% rise YoY. Bootcut, as well as low-waisted jeans, have also increased, their assortment share growing by 18% and 58% YoY, respectively. Luxury fashion brands have also displayed the cargo trend by presenting utilitarian trousers on the runway.

Maxi or mini?

Fashion trends are shifting at record speed, which makes keeping up with these trends more crucial than ever, to stay ahead of the game. Retviews’ real-time data showcases the two extremes that have taken place within the skirt category. Whilst mini and micro mini skirts made their grand entrance at the start of 2022, longline maxi skirts are establishing themselves as the strong hitter this season.

Retviews’ data indicate that both mass and luxury markets have shifted focus towards maxi skirts, rather than the mini skirt which gained traction in 2022, in part thanks to Miu Miu’s micro mini skirt. However, this fall and winter, the maxi skirt is making its way into brand assortments. Within mass market collections, the presence of maxi skirts in assortments has grown by a significant 35%, whereas mini skirts’ assortment share decreased by 3%, YoY. The same is seen within the luxury market for their fall and winter collections.

Do colder days mean longer skirts, or could the hemline index theory be at work? Indicating that hemlines get longer in times of recession and shorter when economic situations are positive, could the long skirt trend directly reflect the current state of the economy?

Staying on top of industry trends is essential when planning your brand's next collection. Retviews, the automated benchmarking platform, can support your brand in mastering its assortment strategy each season, keep track of your competitors’ strategies, and drop the right collections, at the right time.

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