Season after season, fashion designers find themselves surfing the same wavelength, with the same set of hyper-specific references mirrored on separate runways. Perhaps there’s a mole going between the ateliers, or maybe designers meet in secret like a college of cardinals electing the next pope – expelling white smoke from the rooftops of Avenue Montaigne whenever a new hemline or misshapen objét has been cast as the season’s protagonist. For SS23, we saw identical twins, sand-strewn runways and anthurium flowers; there were anamorphic handbags and wearable art; 80s power shoulders, sweat-crinkled outfits, and runway gimmicks.

Increasingly, these are the kinds of things that have been designed to travel well on the feed, with brands not only locked into some sort of telepathic communication, but into a month-long SEO battle. Paris Hilton must close! No, FKA twigs must close! Wait, Bella Hadid should close and we’ll spray-paint a dress onto her naked body in real time!!! None of these things are necessarily bad – celebs have been trundling down the runway for decades and for god’s sake let’s have a laugh – but they are symptomatic of the runway’s lean into entertainment and the traffic-driven demands of the internet. See also: crisp bags at Balenciaga, Minnie Mouse heels at Loewe, and Gizmo sliders at Gucci. 

Below, we round up the silliest trends rising from the SS23 season.