Long gone are the days of male designers ruling womenswear, and this season’s New York and London fashion weeks are prime examples. Exploring dualities of girlhood, the garment-wearer relationship as it relates to the female body, and stories of British folklore and the complex protagonists of 19th century literature, collections this season were truly by the girls, for the girls.

Smart and thoughtfully researched, detail-oriented and complicated, and empowering to the models and guests alike, New York and London’s shows were on top of the world. From Dauphinette’s Girls, Gods, and Monsters and Tory Burch’s powerful front row to Chopova Lowena’s Girl’s Tear, Girls Tear and Sandy Liang’s cocktail party, we’ve rounded up our favourite SS24 moments from the first two cities of fashion month.

Tucked in the bustling streets of the Lower East Side, Sandy Liang lit up the block on the first evening of NYFW for the intimate cocktail party that mirrored the dreamy aura of her brand. Energy poured out onto the sidewalk, with guests completely distinguishable from the post-work bar-seekers and date night diners. It’s not that the Fall/Winter ‘23 Jewellery Collection launch party had a dress code, but rather that the designer’s brand identity is so strong with a following eager to embody the simplistic yet detailed, feminine, and slightly childlike look themselves. Oversized bows, intricate embellishments, and pearlescent hues were plentiful along the walk from the station to the cocktail event — sparking the realisation that if I could live in Sandy Liang’s world forever, I’d be quite content. Read more here.

“A god, a girl, a monster — within the single span of most days I manage to feel like all three. I’m the monster under your bed. I’m the voice inside your head. I’m the girl you’re dying to meet,” designer Olivia Chen states in the show notes for the Dauphinette SS24 collection, Girls, Gods, and Monsters. “I’m the Monster. I’m the monster. I’m the MONSTER.” An intriguing conversation about life and survival, the collection goes in with a microscope on the habits and rituals that bring a sense of comfort and meaning to loss. With allusions to religion, masculinity, and physicality, Chen examines practices such as hair memorials and cremation with sustainable, upcycled fabrications that breathe new life. Read more here.

Tory Burch is a name synonymous with the female gaze. Both the woman herself and the brand epitomise this idea, and the SS24 collection was no exception. As guests walked into the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation in the American Museum of Natural History, which was designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, an architect known for her environmentally sensitive approach, they were greeted by a sense of grandeur and freedom. “In a chaotic world, we thought about what ‘effortless’ means now.

Clothing that frees up space in your mind,” Burch explained. “This collection is designed to be lived in, to move with you, and to instil a sense of lightness and optimism.” With weightless fabrications and silhouettes highlighting the natural form, the collection featured contemporary adaptations of historically restricting pieces and refreshing surface design. Perhaps the highlight were cow earrings and necklaces, turning the sexist expression “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” on its head. With sounds of Nina Simone playing in the background and the likes of Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Taylour Paige, Emma Roberts, and Uma Thurman in the front row, it was a true celebration.

Working with AI for her SS24 collection, designer Hillary Taymour posed an in-depth discussion on artificiality with the SS24 Collina Strada collection that was as fun as it was thought-provoking. As models walked and danced down the runway, they maintained a singular, haunting expression: all smiles. Wearing joyful styles perfectly fitting for the show’s title, Soft is Hard, it was difficult to look directly at their faces — yet impossible to look away. Almost like a horror film, the magic and madness of Collina Strada was magnetic once again.

There are few designers as intimate as Di Petsa, and her SS24 collection was a beautiful portrayal of the power of such. Telling a conglomerate of love stories, from the self-love between each woman and herself to the physical affection between the dancers, the designer celebrates the idea of unconditional love — found most purely in a baby. She references the story of The Birth of Venus through a visual narrative of healing and acceptance, reworking her signature Wetlook dress in new silhouettes and fabrications to bring her recognisable craftsmanship into a new season.

Drawing inspiration from the Cornish seaside and British folklore, designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons brought discussions of girlhood and emerging adulthood to a West London skatepark. Presenting their SS24 collection, Girl’s Tear, Girls Tear, they showcased looks that evoked the delicate balance between innocence and strength — pairing intricate embroidery and white dresses with leather strappings and superstitious charms — and referenced teenage love with skater boy styles of baggy board shorts, graphic tees, and plaid pyjama pants.

Supriya Lele, the designer behind her London-based namesake brand, has been taking the fashion industry by storm with her carefully considered collections and reflections on growing up as a British woman born to Indian immigrant parents. Looking to her own familial history as well as the broader historical contexts of her two cultures, she merges nostalgia with modernity for a refreshing, timeless elegance that radiates through every piece. This season sees Supriya Lele’s first standalone presentation, and is a marker of how powerfully she has grown from an emerging designer to one with a longevity as strong as her pieces themselves. Modernising personal references such as saris worn by women in her own family, she brings history into the contemporary age and thus creates designs that are as intimate as they are universally adored. Read more from our interview here.

Yuhan Wang’s Fata Morgana pays homage to Thomas Hardy’s 19th-century novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles and the protagonist’s bold and fearless disposition. Where Tess challenged the societal norms of late Victorian England, Wang’s SS24 does the same for the contemporary age — breaking free of stereotypical gendered constraints and offering a dynamic depiction of the modern female experience. Blurring the lines between undergarments and outerwear, she pairs delicate lace with nautical influences and Victorian tiered skirts with hand-embroidered details for a combination of softness and strength that is haunting and empowering all at once.

Natasha Zinko’s SS24 collection, THE CAMP, may have been the most intriguing and powerful of all this season. A poignant exploration of human adaptability, she draws influences from the past, present, and future — deriving the thesis that throughout all of the environmental, political, and societal shifts in history, our survival instincts have never wavered. Whether running by foot from dangerous predators or crossing across borders to escape the Russo-Ukrainian war, people have always had — and will always have — an innate resiliency that allows them to fight back.

As models figuratively trudge through mud, we see a collection visually built off of this idea of grit and motion: cargowear-meets-motorcyclewear leather overalls and oversized pockets, underwear brought outwards as a uniting detail throughout the looks, and oversized baggage that holds all you could need.