What just happened? A look back at this year’s most major fashion moments

It's been another rollercoaster 12 months in the fashion world, punctuated by loss, spectacular looks, and some frankly jaw-dropping moments. Here, in case you forgot or understandably weren't able to process them at the time, are the moments that stunned the world and helped define 2022.

A colossal statue of Virgil Abloh looks out over Miami’s twilight sky. Adorned in bold fluorescent attire – with his signature futuristic flare – he guards a fiery-red Louis Vuitton hot air balloon as it flames rhythmically in the sunset. Below them, Abloh’s final men’s collection for Louis Vuitton is paraded, watched by a crowd including Rihanna, Bella Hadid and Pharrell Williams. It was a fitting tribute to the iconic designer, who tragically passed away from cancer aged just 41 in November 2021.

The creative luminary was at the top of his game, with so much unmet promise undoubtedly ahead of him. His loss was a sucker punch to the fashion world, but as the Miami sky lit up with the words ‘Virgil Was Here’ it was a reminder that his legacy lives on.

If you didn’t know Julia Fox by January of this year (and let’s face it, only a very dedicated few did) by the end of the month, you couldn’t escape her. Her denim-on-denim at Schiaparelli look alongside Kanye West at couture cemented her arrival on the global fashion scene, quickly followed by her signature ink black smudged eye and bondage aesthetic. This was a cult icon in the making, for the arrival of Fox as West’s squeeze-du-jour was very quickly eclipsed (not only because of their swift break up) by her own unique draw.

Here was a woman unafraid to play with fashion’s boldest, strangest toys and to make celebrity a form of performance art. By the time she uttered the words "uncut jahhhhms" and showed up at the Oscars in a chokehold dress with a bag made of human hair, proclaiming her unpublished memoir a "masterpiece", she was already living rent free in our heads.

Nicole Kidman wearing Miu Miu’s micro mini skirt on the cover of Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood issue, was a cult moment within a cult moment. Not only was it a middle finger to ageism to put the season’s tiniest skirt on a 55-year-old woman (even if she is a global icon), it was the ultimate endorsement of what was already becoming the most viral sartorial piece of the year.

Related: The 5 runway pieces that were the 'Miu Miu set' of their time

In 2022, the Miu Miu skirt was everywhere (at least ten major magazine covers) and on everyone, from Saweetie to Emily Ratajkowski. It was, perhaps, the moment which brought back fashion’s preoccupation with shrinking our clothes in the wash. The Miu Miu mini ran so the Diesel belt skirt could walk.

If you’ve caught yourself lusting after hot fuchsia this year, blame Valentino. This March, at Paris Fashion Week, Pierpaolo Piccioli sent a homogenous pink collection down the runway and it was mesmerising. Far from being one note, or even sickeningly girly, it reinstituted the hue with modernity, maturity, depth, texture, and killer shoes that would become another cult buy of 2022.

The trickle-down effect was clear, as the high street was soon awash with the punchiest pink shades. To cement its legacy, Pantone has even added ‘Pink PP’ to its official colour chart.

OK, so it wasn’t exactly April, but in the closing days of March 2022, Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve walked the red carpet at the Oscars, in Louis Vuitton no less, and her star status was cemented.

Related: Renate Reinsve on what 'The Worst Person in The World' really means

Reinsve had only a handful of minor film credits to her name when she was cast as Julie in Joachim Trier’s critically acclaimed The Worst Person in the World – a role which would land her the Best Actress Award at Cannes, a BAFTA Best Actress nomination and parts in major upcoming Hollywood films opposite Sebastian Stan and Lily Rose Depp. Yet it was her stunning appearance at the Oscars, in an ethereal old Hollywood glamour look, that announced to the world: Renate Reinsve has arrived.

The makings of a truly great fashion moment are always laced with a little bit of drama – even a smattering of controversy. So, it was when Kim Kardashian took to the steps of the 2022 Met Gala in Marilyn Monroe’s iconic nude dress from her ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ performance.

For some it was an icon wrapped in an icon – Monroe’s viral successor paying her homage. For others, it was sacrilege, not least because rumours flew about Kardashian breaking the dress, and still more were irked by her very real, very sudden weight loss in order to fit into it. Whatever your viewpoint, it was an undeniable moment where pop culture, fashion history and the internet’s fire and fury intersected wildly.

Perhaps we didn’t know just how much we missed Alicia Vikander until there she was, resplendent in armoured Louis Vuitton on the Cannes red carpet as a shimmering beacon, a metallic warrior with Michael Fassbender as the ultimate accessory. After a spotlight hiatus of nearly two years Vikander’s Cannes moment – her first appearance with Fassbender since March 2020 – was to promote her HBO show Irma Vep, which premiered in June.

Related: Alicia Vikander opens up about family, fame, and her road to becoming Scandinavia's biggest star

Her brilliant showbusiness satire was a worthy lead role comeback after only a handful of several smaller parts in 2021. The Swedish actress appears back on form, and not just because she was a rather gorgeous cover star this month of a certain publication….

Perhaps more so than any other fashion house, Balenciaga lives for a viral moment, an unconventional aesthetic, a pointed new direction. It was unsurprising then, that their couture collection in July was notable, not only for its sartorial output, but its A List casting. Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell and a baco-foil wrapped Nicole Kidman were among the big names who walked regally through a Parisian drawing room for the brand’s haute couture vision.

Besides the star talent, other models walked in all-black looks complete with face-obscuring black plastic helmets. Demna’s second couture collection proved there is never a dull moment at the new house of Balenciaga.

Everything about the Don’t Worry Darling press tour, including its grand premiere at the Venice Film Festival, was a walking, talking Twitter thread; a dozen comment pieces warring with each other; a moment which placed a chokehold on the zeitgeist. Whether it was Harry Styles’ and Olivia Wilde’s relationship, the quiet revenge of Florence ‘Miss Flo’ Pugh or the did-he-didn’t he ‘spitgate’ moment with Chris Pine, it really was the pop culture gift that kept on giving.

Related: Meet the leading Icelandic makeup artist behind Don’t Worry Darling’s retro glam looks

Yet another standout was the fashion, and no one pulled out the stops quite like Harry Styles, whose ‘tourdrobe’ was a masterclass in 1970s chic; from silk scarves and bell bottom pants to wide-collared Gucci suits and leopard print suitcases.

It would be difficult to find a film more beloved by the fashion industry than The Devil Wears Prada. So, when Anne Hathaway turned up to the Michael Kors show wearing the same black roll-neck and maroon leather jacket as her character Andie Sachs and sat next to Miranda Priestley’s assumed inspiration, Anna Wintour… it was too delicious a moment. In fact, it produced one of those online meltdowns – the dizzying sense of life imitating art, which in its own way was imitating life – as well as everyone’s awareness that the 39-year-old actress has not aged a day. Sequel anyone?

Every few seasons, there is a fashion show which causes a collective gasp – a moment of sheer inventiveness and innovation which pushes the boundaries of, not just the spectacle of a show, but the possibilities of fashion itself. One such moment was Alexander McQueen’s spray-painted dress in his SS 1999 show. In an echo of this, Bella Hadid walked on to an eerily quiet stage at Coperni’s SS23 Paris Fashion Week show, in nothing but nude underwear, and had her dress made for her, live. But this was more than just decorating a blank canvas. Hadid herself was the canvas, and the dress was made entirely from scratch using Fabrican sprayable liquid fibre. A collective gasp indeed.

There are moments when fashion reaches beyond style, commerce and trends; when we use our clothes to convey meaning or imbue a sense of commemoration. So, it was at the premiere of the long-awaited Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever, at which star actress Letitia Wright wore an Alexander McQueen 2023 pre-collection suit – a replica of the Givenchy suit worn by her late friend and co-star, Black Panther himself Chadwick Boseman, at the premiere of the original film. With silver embroidered lapels, which cross-crossed at the suit’s back, Wright used her look to pay the ultimate homage to Boseman; a moment in which fashion served as legacy.

A moment’s silence, please, for Elsa Hosk’s midriff, which made an appearance at the British Fashion Awards in London this month, sashaying down the red carpet before the Royal Albert Hall. The stunning Swedish model donned an eye-catching Miu Miu two piece; an aquamarine sequined vision with functional belts- the viral Miu Miu skirt in red carpet form. Channelling a '90s Super with a distinctly 2022 spin, Hosk stole the show. Her midriff didn’t do too badly either. What a way to end the year.