Pastels & Power-Suits: Fashion Week Takeaways [Spring/Summer 2025]

Introduction

As New York Fashion Week comes to a close I can finally start pouring through the never-ending sea of collections to develop my trend predictions for Spring-Summer 2025.

For today's post, I thought it would be best to give you my main takeaways so you have a heads-up on planning your wardrobe for this upcoming season.

1) Pastel Colors - Butter Yellow & Baby Pink

As fashion moves away from individualism and power, this Spring delicacy is in.

This can be seen firsthand with the choice of colors for the season: butter yellow and baby pink.

Both colors are known for their gentle nature. They're the kind of color you would expect in a nursery.

It's as if Fashion Designers want their wearers to feel relaxed and calm as this spring.

This trend will likely be worn monochromatically with lightweight fabrics to evoke tranquility and innocence.

Likewise, be sure to stock up on pastel colors for this spring.

2) Suits are Bigger Than Ever

Another women's trend I saw is suiting details being remixed for women to be more dramatic than usual.

The collars are bigger, the shoulders are lower, and the styling is maximalist which is funny because this goes directly against the themes of tranquility and peace I mentioned before - but this is to be expected.

Because fashion is related to identity and humans like to be divided you'll usually see every trend have an equal and opposite counter trend.

For example, the summer 2024 hedonistic vacation trend of linen, white, and camp collars was juxtaposed by the grunge leather black and white "brat summer" aesthetic to suggest a conflict between the natural and the urban.

However, this spring, the suits serve to juxtapose the delicate nature of butter yellow and baby pink I mentioned before creating an interesting conversation between relaxation and perseverance.

Suits represent power, respect, and perseverance, so to see them this fashion week shows that not everyone is going to be relaxing this season, and that's okay.

So, if you're a woman my advice is to stock up on black oversized blazers and dramatic white collar shirts.

Remember - bigger is better.

3) American Pride is In

Maybe it's because of the election, the state of the economy, or ongoing political rivalry, but American Designers like Todd Snyder, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren all pulled inspiration from what it means to be American.

It seems American Designers are tired of the long-lasting notion that New York copies the rest of the world which has created a lot of push to develop an American style of design that pulls inspiration from our historic imagery and themes.

There was a lot of American iconography, like flags and stars, but even where this imagery wasn't present you could still feel American Pride everywhere.

Royal Blue, White, and Red showed up in many collections, so anything in these colors I say is in this spring.

My Favorite Show - Carolina Herrera

I'll likely do another post about this show, but my favorite collection is Carolina Herrera's Spring 2025 collection.

It's fun, it's different, and it just has so much personality.

I appreciate brands like Melke or YITAI that are willing to step into their own creative space, and I think Carolina Herrera did that this season.

My personal favorites are the B&W polka dots.

They're so cool!

Conclusion

While there's still a lot of time left to love Fall/Winter 2024, I'm excited to know that good things are coming down the road this spring.

Life has been moving so fast recently (it's almost 2025???) and I'm looking forward to a season led by simplicity and artistic celebration.

I can't wait to see how people will play with these themes.

Until then, thanks for reading!

-JM

P.S. - Something about the fashion industry that I've always hated is that New York Fashion Week is actually New York Fashion Month. As I write this article and after I publish it designers will continue showing their spring collections. I'll do my best to stay up to date-as things change.

Also, I know I already said this, but I must say it again - thank you for reading. I've tried a lot of similar creative endeavors before, but this one feels right. It doesn't feel gimmicky or like I'm pretending to be something I'm not. I'm just being myself, and the other day I heard from an old mentor that they loved my Ann Taylor post. Needless to say, a future shopping trip will be planned. 🥰🥰🥰