Fall Fashion Trends, Brought to You by These AA+PI Designers
From bold reds to timeless leather to flowy fall looks, here are some of the looks to try for yourself this season
Words by Vandana Pawa
The fun of fashion lies in the ways it allows us to express our internal selves externally, showing the world around us who we are and what we feel with the help of color, shape, and fabric. As designers and fashion houses take to the runway biannually to show the world what their vision for the season is, the ideas and trends from the creative minds of fashion find their way to our closets. Pumpkin spice season is rapidly approaching, so if you’re still figuring out what your cold weather aesthetic is going to be this year, check out these trends we picked up from the fall/winter 2023 collections of some of our favorite Asian and Asian American designers for some inspiration.
Turning Red
Sandy Liang’s fall 2023 ready-to-wear collection features a few pops of bright reds, including this dress in candy apple red.
Courtesy of Sandy Liang
Each season has its color, and despite Barbie Pink having a major moment in summer 2023, it was evident on the runways earlier this year that red is the dominant hue for the upcoming chilly season. Darker, more muted colors usually dominate collections when it comes to fall and winter, and it seems like autumn has become synonymous with earthy tones for most. However, amongst blacks and grays and browns, bold reds are shining through as the star of the season.
New York-based brand Sandy Liang’s fall 2023 ready-to-wear collection featured a few pops of bright reds, from smaller pieces like bralettes, to entire outfits that went fully candy-apple red. London-based Eudon Choi’s collection had a similar vibe, with a standout red jumpsuit and coordinated three-piece red ensemble stealing the show, perfectly encapsulating the brand’s “masculine with feminine sensibility” energy.
Leather Weather
Trends cycle frequently, but as the years go on it’s clear that leather is timeless, especially for fall. Leather was all over the runways for this upcoming season—but not just in the form of outerwear, and not just in its classic black color. Designers Rejina Pyo and Junya Watanabe both featured leather pieces (one in earthy tones and the other with red embellishments, respectively). While one was more feminine, the other leaned androgynous and was heavily structured.
If you’d rather stick to the more traditional ways of wearing leather, these Asian brands also feature leather jackets that portray a level of effortless cool that every fashion connoisseur strives to achieve in the winter.
Back to Black
Classics continue to reign when it comes to trends this year, which was clear by the amount of black pieces on the runway in preparation for the changing seasons. While there was plenty of daring color found across collections, all-black ensembles by many brands proved that sometimes our clothes really should match the vibes of the season, even if said vibes are a bit dreary.
Sustainability-focused brand Yeohlee showcased a collection that was majorly made up of head-to-toe classic black outfits, with the brand’s ethos focusing on creating genderless pieces that are wearable across seasons. Vietnamese designer Peter Do encourages similar unisex dressing, with the eponymous brand’s designer releasing a collection of entirely black clothing. Shang Xia takes the funeral vibes to the streets, with black shoes and bags to match their similarly all-black-everything outfits.
Drapes and Pleats
A model walks the runway during the Issey Miyake Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2023-2024 fashion show in Paris.
Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
While structured silhouettes often tend to dominate trends for the colder months due to the need for heavier fabrics, it appears that this fall/winter 2023 season is encouraging a departure from this norm. The runways showed a preference for flow over form this year, with drapes and pleats making appearances across designs.
Peter Do utilized the brand’s emphasis on perfect tailoring this season to create intricate drapes of multiple layers that allow for movement of fabric. Issey Miyake’s ready-to-wear collection for the season continued on the brand’s namesake’s legacy of revolutionizing clothing pleats, while also creating innovative silhouettes by layering fabrics across the body in unique ways. Pleats showed up across Indian designer Bibhu Mohapatra’s collection, but the wearable draping of scarves across dresses (akin to the one-shoulder drape of a saree) is likely what we’ll see replicated off the runway.
Published on September 26, 2023