Fashion in 2025: A Third-Quarter Review

Where the year’s biggest deals, missed moments, and defining aesthetics brought luxury into sharp relief.

The Year Luxury Blinked, and Boldly Consolidated

2025 has been a year of scale and identity. In April, Prada stunned the industry by acquiring Versace, uniting two of Italy’s most storied houses under one umbrella. Analysts hailed it as both a defensive maneuver against LVMH and Kering, and a creative shake-up that could redefine Italian luxury’s future. Meanwhile, LVMH continued to show strength through its Fashion & Leather Goods division, and Hermès maintained enviable double-digit growth. Kering, however, still searches for a post-Gucci solution.

If 2024 was the year of creative reshuffling, 2025 has been about business chess moves. The powerhouses are bigger, but also more cautious, balancing soaring prices with growing pressure from regulators and consumers.

The Met Gala 2025: Tailoring Black Style, and a Missed Moment

The Met Gala’s theme this year, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, felt like fashion’s long-overdue recognition of the craftsmanship, elegance, and cultural impact of Black tailoring traditions. With its co-chairs and curatorial framing, the night promised a showcase of both legacy and innovation. The red carpet delivered, but the story wasn’t complete.

Here at HYDE, we know something about Black style as heritage. Ours is a 386-year-old Black-owned luxury house from Belize, a living testament to continuity, resilience, and craftsmanship that predates nearly every European maison celebrated today. The DNA of this year’s Gala, tailoring, legacy, cultural authorship, is the DNA of our brand, full stop.

And yet, despite our every effort to join the conversation, calls, emails, letters to Vogue, Condé Nast, the Met Museum, even direct outreach to the book’s author and Gala co-chair, the gates remained closed. No invitation, no seat at the table.

It is, simply, a missed moment.

One day, history will record this exclusion not as silence on our part, but as a refusal by the establishment to embrace a story that belongs at the center of fashion. For us, the Gala’s theme wasn’t a costume, it was our truth. And on that May night, the world glimpsed tailoring Black style, but not the full measure of it.

For our community, supporters, and readers discovering us now: that is why HYDE exists. To ensure the next 386 years of fashion history are not only recorded, but written by those who lived them.

What Consumers Really Bought in 2025

Luxury is rarely quiet, but shoppers in 2025 have spoken in whispers that turned into roars. The Lyst Index crowned Loewe in Q1, only for Miu Miu to reclaim the #1 spot in Q2. Both houses leaned into wearable statement pieces, loafers, ballet flats, versatile tailoring, that defined the season. Even The Row’s $690 flip flops trended, proving the appetite for “quiet” luxury is anything but quiet.

Meanwhile, Burberry, Chloé, and COS have been climbing consumer rankings, showing that heritage and accessibility can co-exist in the attention economy.

Runways and Culture Moments

Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton continued to dominate menswear with a mix of Americana, celebrity culture, and viral staging. Valentino, under Alessandro Michele, doubled down on maximalist references and couture-infused ready-to-wear. Couture Week in Paris revealed a balance between escapist spectacle and real-world wearability, suggesting that in times of flux, fashion still dreams, but dreams practically.

Business Models: Resale and Rental, Still Standing

The resale market, led by The RealReal, showed resilience with a 14% YoY revenue increase in Q2, proving that value-minded luxury has staying power. Meanwhile, Rent the Runway worked to stabilize with slimmer revenues but a tighter business model, betting that subscription-based wardrobes still matter in a hybrid world.

Regulation and Sustainability: Pressure Mounts

Europe continued to reshape the industry’s rules of engagement. France’s proposed fast-fashion advertising ban and penalties against “ultra-fast” players marked the boldest governmental move yet. Simultaneously, the EU finalized its forced labour ban, raising compliance stakes across supply chains. Add the coming Digital Product Passport requirements, and 2025 is less about if transparency matters than how fast brands can comply.

So Where Are We Headed in Q4?

2025’s first three quarters have shown us that luxury is no longer just about price or prestige, it’s about cultural relevance, accountability, and control of the narrative. The biggest houses are growing, but the cracks in the gatekeeping are showing.

HYDE enters this final stretch of the year knowing that our story, centuries deep, culturally essential, and creatively restless, is not just aligned with the moment, but ahead of it. If the Met Gala missed it, history won’t.