Last year, designers sent 35,581 looks down the runway, with the most recent AW22 womenswear season playing host to approximately 8,192 unique outfits. Given the quantity of clothing on offer, an attempt to read the tea leaves of any season can often feel like sinking into a loose leaf quagmire, with the runes of fashion month multiplying ahead like a hieroglyphic maze. It’s generally accepted that “three is a trend” but considering the sheer number of styles on offer, that metric should really be bumped up a little.

Sometimes, fashion is not so much a “reflection” of society, but a refraction, splintering the zeitgeist into a thousand atomised identities. That might sound as though there’s simply too much stuff to grapple with, but this season, some clear protagonists emerged: hot models started dressing as if they were puny, pubescent school boys; rich women began to take style cues from Oliver Cromwell; others were skewing Eurotrash; even more were angling for a spot on Euphoria; and if the rest weren’t pregnant, they were dressed like batty, childless art collectors. 

With that in mind, we’ve scoured the catwalks for the micro-tends and the macro-themes that are set to dominate the not so distant future. So, from serf skanks to boho babes, click through the gallery below for an extensive takeaway from the AW22 season.