2022 was undoubtedly one of the biggest years in fashion. From Y2K trends to exciting fashion weeks, debuts, and fashion scandals, fashion was bigger and more intense. 2021 closed off with a bang, with Zendaya winning the CFDA Fashion Icon Award. She was the youngest person ever to do so. (FYI, Lenny Kravitz is the honoree recipient of the 2022 Fashion Icon Award). This year showed us from the start that it was going to be massive. Barely two months into the year, Glenn Martens established himself as the breakout designer of the year.

Martens became the acclaimed unofficial designer of FoxYe (RIP to Julia Fox and Kanye). Ye pulled Glenn’s SS22 Diesel designs for his ex-beau on their infamous second date. Next, Glenn Martens presented his collection for Jean Paul Gaultier’s spring 2022 couture at Paris Fashion Week. Martens is the second guest couturier to do so in a series of planned seasonal takeovers of the brand. Glenn put out two of the fashion week season’s most memorable collections. This includes the one at Y/Project, a label on which he’s built his reputation over the past nine years. The second was for Jean Paul Gaultier, authoring his first-ever haute couture collection as a guest designer for the fabled Parisian house.

The Belgian designer is known for his experimental takes on clothing construction at the helm of Y/Project. For this collection, Martens’s innovative signatures reverberate throughout while honoring the distinctive essence of Gaultier. (The corsetry! The stripes!) The result is a refreshing and graceful interpretation of the brand that will remain in our minds for months to come. 

Fashion Hits

Model Of The Year – Bella Hadid

2022 brought Bella Hadid her first solo Vogue cover, a big moment for any supermodel. But a viral moment at Coperni’s recent show and social media’s fixation on her each and every outfit. As well as her viral TikTok is all signs that Gen Z has embraced her as the decade’s first superstar. In case this needed any confirmation, Bella was crowned the Model of the Year at the Fashion Awards in London earlier this month.

Streetstyle – Rihanna’s Baby Bump Debut

This was one of the biggest moments in entertainment history. We all know Rihanna is the queen of street style, So when the time for her to announce her pregnancy came, Rih chose a vintage Chanel puffer and Christian Lacroix jewelry and took to the streets of Harlem with her partner A$AP Rocky to make it official. Shot by the famed celebrity paparazzo Diggzy and revealed on Instagram on February 2, the photos practically broke the internet. 

Emmys – Amanda Seyfried

Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried won Emmy’s best-dressed according to the public vote. She arrived shimmering like a pretty pink mermaid in this Armani Prive design. The slinky frock included eye-catching all-over embellishments and a unique neckline. 

MTV VMAs – Lizzo

Lizzo, who is the biggest body-positive advocate in showbiz, delivers stunning looks almost every time she steps out of her house. But, there are times when even Lizzo fails to curate a head-turning look worthy of praise and applause on the red carpet. This eye-popping billowing gown is an haute-couture design by Glenn Martens from the Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2022 collection. For this event, she was styled by Brett Alan Nelson.

Miss SA Finale – Bonang Matheba

Something you can be sure of is Bonang Matheba will serve an unmissable look. She wore a red sizzling ensemble with a flattering bust. The shimmery dress designed by 2207 By Tbally featured a plunging corseted top that accentuated her waist along with a high slit featuring a side train. The style star complemented the look with gold accessories, including a gorgeous gold bag, red stiletto nails, and strappy heels.

Fashion Misses

– Emmys – Kerry Washington

Emmy winner and the people’s favorite fixer Kerry Washington served up one of the biggest misses of the night in this ivory pick. The Elie Saab design on its own would have been a lot, with those floral embellishments on the neckline and hip and that dramatic train, but pairing the already busy frock with black tights and pointy-toe pumps was a bizarre styling choice.

MTV EMAS – Bebe Rexha

American singer Bebe, 33, cut a dramatic figure wearing a wacky head-to-toe electric blue outfit with an abstract leaf-shaped panel surrounding her. Bebe, whose real name is Bleta, exuded confidence in the paneled outfit, which towered above her frame and finished by her knees. The unique number matched her head-to-toe velvet jumpsuit with a corset panel to showcase her svelte waist. Unfortunately, she had to hold the lower section of the panel to keep the illusion of it encapsulating her supper half, a disaster!

Grammys – Tayla Parx

Going bold is applause-worthy, and it looks great when executed correctly. But this bold look by Tayla just doesn’t hit the right note, especially for the Grammy Awards. The jumpsuit looks more like a fancy dress costume than a red carpet look. And, the choice of shoes just takes the look several notches down.

Trends & The Best Streetstyle

Controversial Moments

Met Gala – Kim Kardashian In Marilyn Monroe’s Dress

This year’s Met Gala theme was Gilded Glamour. And Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress. Monroe wore it to serenade President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday in 1962. It sold at auction in 1999 for over $1 million as part of Monroe’s estate sale at Christie’s. Then for a whopping $4.8 million at Julien’s Auctions in 2016. The dress was later acquired by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, which lent it to Kardashian. To this day, it holds the record for being the most expensive dress sold at auction.

Kim reportedly wore the real dress as she hobbled up the museum’s steps, then donned a replica for the rest of the night. Even still, the look was the most talked about of this year’s Met Gala, with some questioning the re-wearing of a precious piece of fashion history and others problematizing her dramatic weight loss to fit into the dress. Kardashian told Vogue that she lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into the dress. After that, however, a lot of controversies sparked when there were reports that Kim had torn the original dress.

Adidas Cut Ties With Kanye

Kanye held a private show for 100 guests at the Paris Fashion Week on October 3. At this show, he was photographed wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt. The slogan was criticized by many as a fascist call in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. On October 8, 2022, he posted anti-Semitic comments on Twitter and Instagram that violated the policies of the platforms. In one of his posts, which was later removed, Ye had said he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” The Anti-Defamation League slammed Ye’s post, calling it “deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period.”

Things got heated further around Ye’s remarks, and several top entrepreneurs that were associated with the rapper terminated their relationship with him. These include Anna Wintour, Vogue, Ye’s agency CAA, Balenciaga and Kering, JP Morgan, and Adidas, which reportedly suffered a huge loss post the announcement.

H&M Sustainability Marketing Lawsuit

H&M was named in not one but two lawsuits in 2022 over the marketing of its “Conscious” collection. In the first proposed class action, which was filed with the SDNY in June, the plaintiff alleges that H&M has created “an extensive marketing scheme to “greenwash its products” to present them “as environmentally friendly when they are not.” Thereby, engaging in deceptive acts/practices and false advertising. Part of H&M’s overarching effort comes in the form of its “misleading” environmental scorecards, which are prominently displayed on “green hang tags, in-store signage, and online marketing.” 

The Swedish fast fashion giant was sued again in November (this time in federal court in Missouri) for allegedly peddling a “false” sustainability narrative by “marketing and labeling products as ‘Conscious Choice’” even though they were “not made from sustainable and environmentally friendly materials.” H&M’s marketing, which aims to “increase profits and to gain an advantage over its lawfully acting competitors,” – serves to “deceive consumers” like the plaintiffs, who say that they would not have bought the products or would not have paid the prices they did had they known the real nature of the goods. 

– The Hermès v. MetaBirkins Lawsuit

In January 2022, Hermès filed a trademark infringement, federal trademark dilution, false designations of origin, cybersquatting, misappropriation, and unfair competition lawsuit against Mason Rothschild. The individual behind the collection of 100 MetaBirkins NFTs. Hermès claims that in furtherance of his sale of the NFTs, which are tied to digital images of furry Birkin bags, Rothschild simply “rips off Hermès’ famous BIRKIN trademark by adding the generic prefix ‘meta.’”

(Ad break) – If you are wondering what NFTs are, it is Non-Fungible Tokens. They are generally created using the same type of programming used for cryptocurrencies. In simple terms, these cryptographic assets are based on blockchain technology. They cannot be exchanged or traded equivalently like other cryptographic assets. Like Bitcoin.

Now, back to the lawsuit, Rothschild pushed back against Hermès claims arguing (under Rogers) that his “fanciful depictions of fur-covered Birkin bags and his identification of his artworks as ‘MetaBirkins’ are artistically relevant and do not explicitly mislead about their source or content.” The parties are slated for trial in January 2023. 

Balenciaga Child Pornography Lawsuit

This is probably one of the biggest controversial scandals in fashion history. Close to a month ago, Balenciaga had filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. They were seeking at least $25 million in damages. The luxury brand was alleging that production company North Six Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins used documents related to a child-pornography case in photos in the ad campaign without permission. Balenciaga “has decided not to pursue litigation.” They posted a statement signed by Chief Executive Officer Cédric Charbit on its official Instagram account. The luxury fashion house didn’t provide more details.

Balenciaga is now dropping the lawsuit despite the campaign having embroiled the fashion house in controversy. The Balenciaga brand had fashion enthusiasts and social media in a chokehold a few months ago when it rolled out shocking ads for its spring 2023 collection and holiday campaign. The photos depicted children gripping teddy bears clad in S&M gear, and they quickly started going viral. The BDSM accessories were also on the runway at Balenciaga’s show at Paris Fashion Week. It’s a marathon of Keeping Up With Balenciaga lately as the brand is quite inconsistent in what they exactly represent in their ethos.

In Memory Of One Year Without Virgil

November 28th marked the year anniversary of Virgil Abloh’s passing, and 2022 was dedicated to commemorating his legacy. First came Louis Vuitton’s staging of Abloh’s final collection at a runway show titled “Louis Dreamhouse.” Then a Nike and Louis Vuitton exhibition of Abloh’s Air Force 1 designs in New York. It was then followed by one final goodbye from the French house at a touching runway show in June, where Kendrick Lamar performed. Finally, at the beginning of December, Nike honored Abloh at Art Basel in Miami once more with a new exhibition. This was titled “Virgil Abloh: The Codes c/o Architecture.” While Off White staged its first show without Abloh’s oversight in September under the direction of Ib Kamara, Louis Vuitton has yet to announce Abloh’s successor.

Over the past two years, the fashion industry has made it hard to be fully excited about the Ins of fashion. Fast fashion has been at its peak, the death of prominent designers has struck, and the copious amounts of releases, collaborations, and products that we’re exposed to every single week! We’ve had to fight to keep up. However, as the year 2022 draws to an end, It’s important to reflect on these fashion highlights and see just how far we’ve come and how further we can still stretch. 2023 brings a new era, trends have been forecasted, and calendars are soon going to be marked for fashion week dates, but for now, our beloved industry bows and takes a curtain call.

Share your favorite fashion moments of the year with us. Follow MEFeater on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for more updates.