I’ll be honest: I did not initially understand why anyone, let alone the entire internet, was talking about 2016. (My personal brand of Millennial nostalgia usually takes me to the mid-aughts.) But inevitably, I did start trying to remember what kinds of things we were covering here at Fashionista at the time. Suddenly I was deep in a 2016 fashion industry rabbit hole, my own mind being blown by coverage that I myself wrote or oversaw (I’ve worked here a long time), drawing connections between things that happened then and how the industry operates today.A lot happened during those 12 months. If there’s one theme that encompasses it all, at least in retrospect, it was the year the internet caught up with everyone.Without further ado, read on for 2016: the Year in Fashion.
Miu Miu Fall 2016. Photos: Launchmetrics Spotlight
Jenners, Hadids and the Era of Nepo Baby ModelsNary a day went by in 2016 that Fashionista didn’t publish at least one new article with “Jenner” in the headline (and thousands of you clicked on them every time, so don’t act like that was our fault). To list just a few of the Jenner sisters’ newsworthy activities, spanning modeling, business deals and more, that year:Kendall and Kylie Jenner launched a clothing line together, dubbed Kendall + Kylie.Kylie rapidly expanded her new beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics.Kendall starred in a Calvin Klein #mycalvins underwear ad alongside Justin Bieber.
Kendall Jenner for Calvin Klein underwearPhoto: Tyrone Lebon/Courtesy of Calvin Klein
Kylie starred in a Puma campaign.Kylie covered Paper Magazine.Kylie covered Allure.Kendall starred in campaigns for Fendi and Marc Jacobs.Kendall walked several runways, including Chanel couture, Miu Miu, Givenchy (rtw and couture), Balmain, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and, of course, Victoria’s Secret.Shortly after she got a whole Vogue subscriber issue dedicated to her, Kendall unsurprisingly nabbed her first official American Vogue cover — for September, of course.Kendall then covered Vogue Japan, Vogue Australia, Vogue Germany, Vogue Spain, Garage and Allure — all for the month of October.Kendall got attacked by the dance community (including Abby Lee Miller) for (badly) pretending to do ballet in a photo shoot.Kendall channeled Paris Hilton in a chainmail mini-dress for her 21st birthday.Kylie covered Complex.Kylie revealed on snapchat that she’d been unable to remove a Cartier Love bracelet from her wrist for multiple years. This really was big news.Related: Teen Millionaire Unable to Remove $5,000 Shackle
Photos: Courtesy of Vogue
Of course, it was also a big modeling year for Gigi and Bella Hadid, who walked multiple couture runways for the first time alongside the usual ready-to-wear shows and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Bella starred in campaigns for the likes of Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, J.W. Anderson and Nike and covered titles like Elle, Vogue Turkey, Vogue Japan, Vogue Paris, Paper, Glamour and Allure. She also memorably worked out, smoked and ate a banana for Love Magazine’s beloved advent calendar video series.Gigi fronted ads for Versace, Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger, Max Mara and Stuart Weitzman, among others, and covered American Vogue, Vogue Paris (twice), Allure, W, Dazed and Harper’s Bazaar (the Age Issue, for some reason). In addition to all that, Gigi and Zayn hard launched their relationship with a Vogue editorial shot by Mario Testino. A few weeks later, they walked arm-in-arm up the Met Gala steps.
Gigi Hadid and Tommy Hilfiger celebrate their collection runway show for Fall 2016Photo: Launchmetrics Spotlight
By the fall of 2016, it felt like every major fashion magazine cover was going to a Jenner or Hadid, so we offered a pretty solid list of alternatives.It wasn’t just the Hadids and Jenners, by the way. They opened the door to a new generation of nepo-baby and Insta-famous models. In 2016 specifically, Lila Moss, then 13, got a Vogue cover with her mother Kate; and Kaia Gerber, then 14, got one with her mother Cindy Crawford. Other famous family members making waves in the modeling world at the time included Presley Gerber, Rafferty Law, Cara and Poppy Delevingne, Willow and Jaden Smith, Lily and Ruby Aldridge, Sailor Brinkley Cook (daughter of Christie Brinkley), Peter and Harry Brant (sons of Stephanie Seymour) and a pre-Bieber Hailey Baldwin. And, in addition to plenty of modeling gigs, Brooklyn Beckham got an impressive behind-the-scenes opportunity as well: photographing a Burberry campaign at the age of 17.
Kylie Jenner at Revolve Desert House during Coachella 2016Photo: Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for A-OK Collective, LLC
The Rise of the Influencer EconomyIt was the year fashion and beauty brands really started putting serious marketing dollars toward influencer marketing. Brand trips, many of them hosted by Revolve (like its Coachella activations and Revolve House in the Hamptons), were especially on the rise. Pricey though these all-expense-paid vacations may have been, the social media exposure was worth it for the sponsoring brands. We also investigated the business of being an influencer during fashion week and the lucrative strategy building between influencers and designers.The hottest models of the moment — Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and more — participated in a marketing scheme in the Bahamas for what turned out to be the historically disastrous Fyre Festival.
Chiara Ferragni at Milan Fashion Week Fall 2016Photo: Launchmetrics Spotlight
We ranked the 19 Most Sought-After Instagram Beauty Influencers, the 21 Most Influential Beauty Vloggers and the 20 Most Influential Personal Style Bloggers of 2016.In a viral, surprisingly out-of-touch roundtable article, Vogue editors came for bloggers and their growing presence at fashion weeks, reigniting the ongoing war between print and digital. (Digital creators like Susie Bubble and Bryan Boy were quick to defend their careers.)
Gucci Fall 2016. Photos: Launchmetrics Spotlight
Saint Laurent Fall 2016
2016’s Inescapable TrendsCalled “Tumblr Pink” by some and “Millennial Pink” by others, pastel pink was seemingly the only color fashion and beauty brands knew about in 2016. From marketing materials to magazine covers to product packaging, it was truly everywhere, and we spoke to the experts to investigate why.Saint Laurent debuted its viral Heart Coat as part of Hedi Slimane’s final couture collection for the house. Immediately, it was on the cover of W, worn by Rihanna and then made the fashion week street-style rounds. Of course, its legacy continues well beyond 2016 thanks to Bronwyn Newport, who wore the furry statement piece in 2024 for her debut appearance as a cast member on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”Gucci’s Alessandro Michele provoked a tricky (and still-relevant) conversation around nostalgic re-releases, vintage and bootlegs, by showing vintage-inspired Gucci logo tees that looked more like the bootlegs made famous by Dapper Dan and his rapper clients, than anything else. We asked Dapper Dan, who later went on to collaborate with Gucci directly, what he thought about it. “It’s so interesting,” he said. “It’s like, who’s copying who?”
Photo: Purpose Tour All Access
2016 was the year music merch became the coolest category of clothing, from Beyoncé’s “Formation” sweatshirts to Justin Bieber’s “Purpose Tour” pieces to West’s “The Life of Pablo” phenomenon. (On that note, consider this our formal apology for making these hats.)We asked actual skateboarders how they really felt about fashion’s appropriation of skate culture during that time. They weren’t super stoked on it.Chokers emerged as the new flower crowns at Coachella.
Photo: Launchmetrics Spotlight
The State of Fashion Week in 2016Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior era began, with the debut of that unforgettable (and very 2016) slogan T-shirt reading, “WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS.”We of course covered the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which famously took place in Paris in 2016. Take a look at all 51 models who made the cast, several of them for the very first time, including: Bella Hadid, Grace Elizabeth and Irina Shayk.Remember “See Now, Buy Now”? And, relatedly, Gigi Hadid’s collection for Tommy Hilfiger? Whose partnership began after Hilfiger said some really wild things about Hadid’s weight?The industry finally started taking runway size diversity seriously in 2016… or so we thought.There were an unusual number of creative directors leaving their positions at fashion houses in 2016 — sound familiar? A trend of three-year stints was emerging and we went so far as to ask a numerologist about it.
Photo: Karl Lagerfeld/Courtesy of Harper's Bazaar
Mert & Marcus/Courtesy of Vogue
2016’s Biggest Fashion-Meets-Pop Culture MomentsTaylor Swift unveiled a “makeover” on the May 2016 cover of American Vogue, sporting a short bob and a subtly grungy look by the designer of the moment: Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent, thereby tricking us all into thinking her style might take a turn for the better. (It did not.)The 2016 Met Gala theme was “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology.” Here’s who made our best-dressed list, from Poppy Delevingne to Kristen Stewart to Zendaya, bowl cut and all.Ye, then known as Kanye West, did… many, many things in 2016, including holding the fashion industry hostage on Roosevelt Island for a Yeezy fashion show and covering the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar with wife Kim Kardashian.Rihanna and Puma launched their full-fledged Fenty Puma by Rihanna collection with runway shows at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks.
Fenty Puma by Rihanna Spring 2017Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Fenty x Puma
For the surprise drop of “Lemonade,” Beyoncé tapped a team of 36 stylists (led by Marni Senofonte) to dress a star-studded cast in fresh-off-the-runway designer fashion that had people talking for weeks if not months.It was a big year for celebrity stylist Monica Rose, who dressed the Kardashian/Jenners and seemed poised to become the Rachel Zoe of the social media generation. But her spotlight burned out pretty quickly.Amid her final year as First Lady, which included several excellent fashion moments, Michelle Obama attended a state dinner wearing a stunning white gown by a then-up-and-coming New York designer: Brandon Maxwell.There was a lot of controversy around who would, or would not, dress Melania Trump as First Lady.
Photo: Snapchat/@kylizzlemynizzl
2016: the Year in BeautyAfter (literally) breaking the internet with a late-2015 Lip Kit drop, Kylie officially relaunched Kylie Cosmetics in partnership with Shopify, and still ended up breaking Google Analytics at least once. Shopify gave us some numbers on how quickly Kylie’s drops sold out throughout the year:Nov. 9, 2016: Holiday collaboration with Khloé Kardashian sold out in six minutes.August 4, 2016: Kylie Birthday collection restock sold out in one minute.August 1, 2016: Kylie Birthday collection sold out in one minute.July 26, 2016: Kyshadow bronze palette sold out in one minute.July 20, 2016: Kristen & Maliboo lip kits sold out in eight minutes.April 1, 2016: Kylie lip glosses sold out in 37 minutes.We investigated the mysterious overnight success of makeup brand ColourPop.K-Beauty began infiltrating the U.S. market in a big way.The year’s most in-demand, viral beauty products included Pat McGrath glitter lip kits, Drunk Elephant moisturizer, the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer, Glamglow masks, Glossier Boy Brow, Sunday Riley’s UFO oil and, of course, Kylie Lip KitsNot washing your hair was a big thing, so we had a writer try it.
Teen Vogue’s December 2016 issuePhoto: Sean Thomas/Courtesy of Teen Vogue
Media Shifts, Retail Struggles and Other 2016 Industry NewsThe Jenners and Hadids weren’t enough to halt the decline of print media, and publishers like Condé Nast and Hearst put their consolidation strategies into practice — a process that would continue for years to decimate editorial teams and upend the fashion media job market.As Millennials gained spending power and pushed shopping online, while malls went empty and department stores floundered, and investors fueled the rise of DTC models, legacy brands and retailers were forced to rethink everything. 2016 was a year of fashion rebrands: Abercrombie & Fitch turned itself around, J.Crew ditched the Jenna Lyons aesthetic, and Stuart Vevers finally got young people to care about Coach again, to name a few. Meanwhile, department stores pulled out every marketing trick in the book in pursuit of relevance.The #GirlBoss era began showing cracks when Sophia Amoruso’s company Nasty Gal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.The late Vivienne Westwood chose the Fall 2016 fashion month season to rename her Gold label after her longtime design partner and husband, calling it Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood.Tory Burch got engaged to her now-business partner and third husband Pierre-Yves Roussel, who was then chairman and CEO of the Fashion Group at LVMH.”Elle on Earth,” a writer’s scathing, angry takedown piece targeting Elle Magazine, was a hot topic of industry chatter for a good chunk of 2016.Legendary street-style photographer Bill Cunningham passed away.Lemaire began its partnership with Uniqlo and its designers provided me with a harsh dose of reality by explaining that, trying to look French is not very French.H&M’s big designer collaboration in 2016 was with Kenzo, then helmed by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, who were also the co-founders of Opening Ceremony, which was still open.Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede launched Good American and brought in $1 million on its first day of release, making it the biggest denim launch in history.Fashionista is the leading online destination for current and aspiring fashion and beauty industry professionals. Reach businesses, students and consumers alike with our range of digital offerings.
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