In a typical season, our most-viewed shows list is fairly steady, but fall 2022 was no typical season. Early on in Milan, almost two years to the day after Covid broke out in Italy, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted any sense of post-pandemic return to normalcy the industry was hoping for. The rest of the season was an open question, whether or not designers chose to confront it: What is fashion’s place in a moment of incipient war?

At Balenciaga, number four on our list, Demna originally hoped to address the intensifying anxieties of global warming. But the escalating crisis in Ukraine utterly changed his meaning. Balenciaga’s climate refugees with their leather garbage bags suddenly looked like war refugees. Having fled Georgia as a young boy when Russia invaded that country in 1993, Demna considered canceling the show, but ultimately decided to carry on. “Personally, I have sacrificed too much to war,” he said. “We must resist.” His cinematic presentation, set in a snow globe with models’ long dresses and long hair shuddering in the wind, produced the season’s most stirring visuals, and the catharsis that many of his followers were longing for.

Valentino landed the number two spot, after not ranking last season. What that tells us: There must be power in pink. Pierpaolo Piccioli’s exclusive use of eye-popping hot pink and black divided reviewers, but not Vogue Runway’s readers. Also: There’s definitely power in celebrity. A Zendaya sighting never hurts and the superstar made her only appearance of the season at Piccioli’s show. His Paris venue had screaming fans by the thousands outside to greet her, a site and sound reproduced over and over again this season, with Kim Kardashian turning up at Prada and Balenciaga, Julia Fox at Versace, and the resplendently pregnant Rihanna at Gucci, Off-White, and Christian Dior. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior collection was our number-one most-viewed show of the season. She also had Blackpink’s Jisoo in the front row.

Stars have their appeal, but so do unknowns, and everybody loves a debut. Matthieu Blazy succeeded Daniel Lee at Bottega Veneta and there was much curiosity about what he’d do, having been Lee’s number two. A new entry on this list, his collection was both prettier and more practical than those of his predecessor, but not without the killer accessories that have raised Bottega Veneta’s stock these last few years. The new Kalimero bag was woven in the house’s trademark intrecciato style in one piece with no seams, as were the collection’s thigh-high, stacked heel boots. Miu Miu was another new entry, and it isn’t hard to see why. The low-rise mini and high-rise cropped cable knit sweater from Miuccia Prada’s spring 2022 collection for the label were the definitive look on the streets outside fashion shows this month, and for fall she doubled down, revisiting the silhouette in a sportier vein as well as in biker leather. Emotional resonance and cultural relevance, star power, and fashion that looks definitive and new. That’s what mattered to Vogue Runway’s readers this season. See how the rest of the top 10 most-viewed shows of fall 2022 measured up below.

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Originally posted from “VOGUE” by Nicole Phelps