Glam fashion meets vintage bohemian for late summer 2022

There is power in creating your own personal style.

So the July 2022 WWD Weekend cover photoshoot featured designers with a strong sense of nostalgia who updated iconic styles to make them feel like new. Results include an inventive mix of patterns, daytime party dresses and headpieces that help erase old dress codes and enable fearless new personal style.

The vibe: glamorous, vintage and bohemian.

Demna at Balenciaga, which constantly draws inspiration from the 90s, clearly shows how to renew old concepts. For fall 2022, he collaborated with director Harmony Korine on a film called "The Lost Tape", which evoked what a Balenciaga show might look like at the time, if it was directed by Balenciaga himself. /p>

"The real message here is that it could have been the exact same collection in the 90s – how much fashion really changes aesthetically from decade to decade It's just a question," he told WWD International Editor Miles Socha backstage at the show.

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To infuse the shoot with daring drama, the choice fell on a long black pleated dress with asymmetrical hemlines, paired with extra-wide leather thigh-high boots - the perfect example of minimalism of this era, with a touch of extra cool the dark energy the French house is known for today.

Another big inspiration for this WWD Weekend Edition was Anthony Vaccarello's Saint Laurent pre-fall collection. His obsession with the house's original designer Paloma Picasso's muse in the '80s was a catalyst for the spring collection and continued for pre-fall. The era of excess has resulted in chunky faux fur coats over seductive extra-long, silky dresses – plus countless powerful shoulders. This loaded 80s Parisian was sleek, edgy and sexy all at once, and her look gave a sophisticated bohemian touch to photographing.

A silver metallic strapless dress by Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton helped heighten the tension between the ultra-glamorous and vintage vibe of the shoot. The Alexander McQueen fall collection, shown in New York (a city chosen only once before by the house's founder in April 1996) had touches of the 90s, including a trompe-l'oeil dress patterned with graffiti revealing the shadow of a female form inspired by McQueen's 1999 Shalom Harlow action art graffiti dress, Burton said backstage.

The exploration of vintage nostalgia continued with the delightful Simone Rocha collection. "Dark and light, grounded and ethereal, Simone Rocha's collection was full of contrast and absolute beauty," said Samantha Conti, WWD's London bureau chief, in her fall review.

A see-through slip dress with rhinestone embroidery and long satin streamers flying over the shoulders added a touch of 19th-century poetry and romance to the story.

A painterly floral sheer cape by Oscar de la Renta, an 80s-inspired black silk mini dress by Carolina Herrera with a floaty trail and a chunky cream cable-knit sweater by Ulla Johnson were some of the key pieces that introduced a touch of American fashion, while highlighting the element of personal style.

"Our wife is not a wallflower, she's not shy; she likes to dress up and express herself. There's always that classy component, but she plays with her clothes. It's not shy," Carolina Herrera creative director Wes Gordon told WWD editor Booth Moore backstage on his show.

That sense of self-expression, playfulness and sassiness sums up the powerful woman of the season.