With every new season comes the opportunity to reinvent your aesthetic, and now that September is officially here, it’s as perfect a time as ever to zero in on what your style vibe will be this fall. Is it dark and moody, or are you more of a fashion rule-breaker? Are you looking to build out a capsule wardrobe of chic, minimalist staples, or, rather, anything that looks polished while still feeling sweatpants-adjacent?
The trick to nailing any aesthetic? Having some reliable denim in your closet to pull it all together. That’s why we teamed up with H&M to create a guide to deciphering your fall vibe and which style of jeans will help you achieve it. Its latest denim drop offers a wide range of cuts (silhouettes that swing from ’90s low-rise to high-rise skinnies), fits, and sizes ranging from 0 to 26 and XXS to 4XL, with most styles priced between $25 and $30, to boot. Ahead, keep reading to discover your fall vibe and the best denim to match.
The Autumn Minimalist
You take a minimalist approach to fall dressing, keeping your closet stocked with just the essentials, which you’ll mix and match in heavy rotation all season long. You know that any capsule wardrobe requires some classic, goes-with-everything denim, and this pair of mom jeans is it. Not too tight or too loose and hitting right at the ankle, they’re the quintessential everyday jean — not to mention, the higher waist is perfect for tucking in your pared-down favorites like oversized button-downs and soft-knit turtlenecks.
The Moody ’90s Grunger
Darker days, chillier temps, the summer foliage slowly turning brown and dying — fall is a mood, and you live to embrace it. On par with the ’90s revival, you’ll be channeling your inner brooding grunge kid with the trendiest denim style of the season: low-slung, baggy jeans. Preferably, you’ll pair these with an oversized flannel shacket and clunky combat boots or oxfords.
The Unapologetic Pumpkin Spice Latte Lover
You unabashedly love all things fall…as you should! All summer long, you dream of the day you can finally go pumpkin picking while sipping a piping hot PSL, doing so while wearing your go-to autumn uniform: a cozy oversized cardigan, black leggings, and knee-high boots. However, this year, you’ll forgo the black leggings for something a little chicer, like a sleek pair of skinny jeans that provide the same amount of curve-hugging stretch.
The One Who’d Rather Be In Sweatpants
The second there’s a slight chill in the air, you’d prefer to be cozied up on the couch with a good book and your favorite sweats, with some autumnal-smelling candle burning on the coffee table. But when you do need to leave the house and look a little more put together, you’ll reach for denim that’s soft and relaxed, like this distressed low-rise pair with just the *right* amount of slouch.
The Fall Fashion Rule-Breaker
No white after Labor Day? Not in this house. You believe sartorial rules are made to be broken, and you’ll be living in your white denim until the very first signs of spring (and then… you’ll continue to wear it). With an extra-high waist and loose fit, these have an effortlessly cool fit and feel and can be paired with just about anything — be it black loafers and a chunky-knit sweater for day or a corseted top and heels for night.
The Lazy Fall Dresser
Maybe it’s the weather, but as soon as fall rolls around, you just can’t be bothered with getting dressed up. A midi dress with tights? Never heard of her. But you know more than anyone that when a dinner party or a hot date calls for dressier attire (cuffing season is right around the corner, after all), a pair of black wide-leg jeans can look incredibly elegant when paired with the right pieces. Throw on an oversized black blazer and a heeled boot to look instantly polished and put-together, minimal effort required.
The Transitional Outerwear Obsessive
There are plenty of reasons to get excited about fall; for you, it’s the return of transitional jackets. From classic trench coats to leather shackets and silky bombers, you own more lightweight outerwear than underwear and simply can’t wait to bust it out from the back of your closet. But if there’s one style you consider a reliable standby, it’s the denim jacket. Take this one, for example: With dropped shoulders, an oversized fit, and a cropped hem, the classic style gets reimagined with a vintage feel (and an ultra-flattering fit).
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On Sunday, the Bronx was inundated with nearly 50,000 people dressed for a day in the sun. But they weren’t on their way to Orchard Beach or Pelham Bay Park, two of the New York borough’s most popular spots to take a dip. Rather, the bikini-clad crowd headed to Yankee Stadium, where Bad Bunny — the Puerto Rican artist who went from grocery bagger to the world’s biggest pop star in six years — was holding the second of two concerts in New York City for his first stadium tour.
“This album and tour is just a vibe,” Joarly Vasquez told Refinery29 outside Yankee Stadium while wearing a blue mini dress with white platform boots. “I feel like this outfit gives that because it’s carefree. I put this on and felt more confident. It’s giving ‘bad bitch’ vibes.”
This style philosophy is at the heart of the Bad Bunny fandom: Although disparaged by religious and conservative figures in Puerto Rico as “demeaning,” many women, non-binary, and trans individuals find themselves empowered by the artist’s unapologetically sexual lyrics that are as poetic as they are explicit. For example, in “Andrea,” his collaboration with Puerto Rican band Buscabulla, Bad Bunny describes a woman who, no matter what life throws at her, se acicala y se ve cabrona (gets ready and looks amazing). In “Yo Perreo Sola,” Bad Bunny narrates the night of a woman who’s so tired of being harassed at the club, she’d rather dance alone in her mini skirt and Louis Vuitton sneakers.
It’s clear from the style choices outside of the concert that Bad Bunny fans feel inspired to show up dressed exactly the way they are, the embodiment of the song “Yo Visto AsÔ from his third album, “El Último Tour del Mundo”: “I dress like this, I’m not going to change. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to look.” But walking outside Yankee Stadium, even as a crowd of thousands lined up, you couldn’t help but stare. “I actually brought my camera with me, so I’m excited to see what everyone is bringing to the table,” says Monica Patten. “It’s the end of summer and we have to go big.”
That sense of liberation is on full display in every outfit: leather corsets in neon hues, micro mini skirts, a plethora of cut-outs, crochet tops, bucket hats, platform heels, Y2k-inspired arm cuffs, and Barbiecore fashion. Bikini tops were a top trend, too. Brittany Castellano opted for this formula, sporting a white bikini style with green psychedelic-print pants. “I was just trying to match the theme,” she says. “I’m really inspired by what people are wearing today.” Meanwhile, Leslie Soto sported a bikini top paired with a satin skirt, a look influenced by a search on TikTok which is unsurprising: The hashtag #badbunnyconcertoutfit has gathered nearly 4 million views on the app, with fans sharing their outfit ideas, “get ready with me” videos, and the top trends they saw at the concerts.
Others paid homage to the tour by referencing the Un Verano Sin Ti album cover art — a heart-shaped illustration that’s become the symbol of Bad Bunny’s latest era. To echo the artwork, Patten wore a black-and-red crochet top, while TikTok creator Alyssa Gonzalez spotrted a custom-painted pair of jeans, a bikini set, and a red garter belt, which, according to a video on her channel, she made 24 hours prior to the concert. “I always knew in my brain what I was wearing, but I never actually put it together until this morning,” she revealed on TikTok.
On this night, Bad Bunny would become the first-ever Latino to win the Artist of the Year award at the MTV VMAs, a prize he accepted live from the stage at the Yankee Stadium in a speech entirely in Spanish. “I always knew that I could be one of the biggest artists in the world without changing my culture, my language, my slang,” he said. For a generation of Latinos who’ve been told they have to strip their native languages off their tongues to climb to the top, Bad Bunny is a model of cultural pride. As such, the conejitos marched into Yankee Stadium carrying their cultures with them: Puerto Rican flags, baseball caps from the Dominican Republic, bikini tops bearing the Brazilian flag. The night before, when I attended the concert, I sported a T-shirt featuring the face of Puerto Rican salsero Frankie Ruiz and a leather jacket with the Puerto Rican flag on its back, a look that, just as Bad Bunny said onstage during his speech the following night, screamed, “From Puerto Rico to the world.”
As Bad Bunny’s tour continues, this display will surely be replicated in the concerts to come. Even if the warm-weather season is almost over, we can always count on Bad Bunny’s fandom to teach us how to dress for an eternal summer.
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Seam by seam, the future of fashion is taking fold and becoming more size-inclusive. But the embrace of equality on the runways and in stores didn’t happen overnight — it’s what plus-size activists have been fighting for decades, what their years of work have amounted to. The painting is far from complete, but now, a new generation of advocates are flooding it with color.
From models and influencers to magazine editors, designers, and stylists, fashion is being transformed from the inside out to reflect the very consumers it long rejected but now aims to serve — if only to take advantage of the $24 billion market potential. Welcome to the stage: the fat-sionistas.
“I do believe and dream that there is going to be a better industry,” says Ava Hariri-Kia, a model who — alongside names like Yumi Nu, Paloma Elsesser, Devyn Garcia, and more — is creating forms of representation that will have lasting results. “And I’m excited to be a part of that change and see it happening.”
Ahead, Hariri-Kia and nine other trailblazers reflect on how far the fashion industry has come and where it needs to go next.
Picture Perfect
Hariri-Kia never thought she’d be a famed fashion face. But beyond her editorials — which have ranged from Vogue to Calvin Klein — the model hopes to be known for her message: “I want every woman to just feel themselves and exist with no boundary.”
Yamell Rodriguez, a model signed to the btwn in NYC, agrees with this sentiment. “Growing up plus-size, you have these [beauty] ideals that you’ve been brainwashed with, whether from media, family — whatever the case may be,” she says. “I had a lot of self-doubt, experiencing imposter syndrome in the sense of thinking ‘I don’t belong here’ in fashion and modeling.”
Beyond doing what they love, Hariri-Kia and Rodriguez provide levels of visibility that are still considered groundbreaking in fashion today — not only as plus-size models but as an Iranian American and Afro-Latina woman with vitiligo, respectively. “My existence in its entirety shouldn’t be radical,” says Hariri-Kia. “I want to be in this industry as I am, as Hariri-Kia. Not as this tokenization, not as this boundary-breaking woman, but as a model.”
As Hariri-Kia points out, tokenization remains an issue in fashion. Only 51 plus-size models (or 5.09% of total castings) were used at New York Fashion Week in February 2022, according to The Fashion Spot. Of that number, many designers still use one curve model per runway show. All to say: The journey to normalization is far from complete.
“Fat should just be fat in the same way thin is just thin,” Hariri-Kia says. “Beauty comes within the values someone has, not with the way you look.”
This is an extension of the movement that began in 2014 when Ashley Graham and the women of ALDA, a group dedicated to bringing inclusive change to the modeling world, marched into IMG Models with a vision of what fashion’s future could look like; in 2017, it resulted in Graham becoming the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of American Vogue.
“This is the generation of body diversity. It makes me hopeful seeing so many people doing the work to get us where we need to go,” Rodriguez says. “This is not a momentary thing, but something that will become the norm.”
Influencing Inclusivity
“I think about this constantly: What is that next era?” says Jordan Bogigian, social media specialist at Fashion to Figure. “I want to run it.”
In the plus-size space, content creators possess a stronger power than just influencing shoppers to buy the products they wear: They often hold a brand’s hand through the baby steps toward size-inclusivity — advising them on how to expand sizes and authentically connect with consumers like, most recently, Remi Bader did with Revolve’s first extended size collection with the content creator.
“It’s a two-way street, and we’re marching,” says Samyra, a popular TikTok influencer and Harvard graduate. “How can you expect us to feel [accepted] in this space when time after time, you’ve told us you don’t want us there?”
Samyra believes the answer is in influencers having a core role in continuing to help brands not solely expand their sizing, but also to bridge the gap between brands and customers by communicating the needs of the plus-size customer — their desires, their concerns— in a way other traditional methods have failed to do.
Abby Bible, a New York City-based influencer — who splits her time between content creation and a corporate fashion job — agrees that collaboration is key to progress. “On Instagram, we can [keep advocating] all we want, but if we don’t have people sitting inside at those tables, it’s not going to happen.”
Bible also notes the importance of representation, particularly for people who have long been conditioned to dress a certain way for a thin-approving society: “In the media, in movies, in television — we still have so many negative body connotations around certain body types or features. There’s so much shame built around that, and people are still so uncomfortable talking about it.”
In this way, Bogigian sees herself as “editor-in-chief,” of sorts, providing style inspiration for people to express themselves that, before trailblazers like Gabi Gregg, Kellie Brown, Nicolette Mason, and Marie Denee — who formed a powerful community during the dawn of social media — was unheard of. “Social media has had a largely positive effect on my relationship with my body because I follow people who look like me and do badass things,” she says. “It’s not news to anyone that we need to democratize the rest of the media in the same way. The era of unattainability is over.”
Next, it’s time for acceptance and body normalization.“I long for the day where being fat on the internet isn’t inspirational,” Samyra says. “When it’s not an admirable fact to be comfortable in a bigger body.”
Editorial Excellence
While fashion aficionados no longer tuck issues of Vogue to bed at night — instead turning to social media creators for style inspiration — designers, creators, and industry insiders are continuing to rely on the traditional media to inform and influence season after season. This is why fashion journalists like Aiyana Ishmael, editorial assistant at Teen Vogue, are intent on holding the industry accountable and pushing the conversation forward in their work.
“If I’m critiquing something, it means I deeply care about it and I want it to be better,” Ishmael says. “Anything I care about, I’m going to strive for it to be better one day.”
Having graduated and made her way to New York City just a year ago, Ishmael’s time at Teen Vogue has been impactful. From crafting size-inclusive roundups to hot-button op-eds, her growing voice is resonating industry-wise, as is her personal style.
“Looking at the runways we go to and fashion shows we see, a lot of designers still aren’t incorporating plus-size models,” Ishmael says. “And if they are, they’ll use the same type of variation of the plus-size model. It’s something I’ve noticed all my life because I’m not a pear-shaped plus-size person [like many of these models].” She notes how media can play a direct role in changing that.
“There are so many exciting things happening every day in plus-size fashion that deserve to be talked about,” confirms Mayra Mejia, freelance writer and former editor at The Curvy Fashionista. “We know that the bigger brands — like Torrid and Lane Bryant — are pillars [for the community]; they’re institutions. But there are so many people out there that want [more].”
Tyler McCall, former editor-in-chief of Fashionista.com, says that while she’s “seen more of a consideration given to plus-size [models and brands], whether it’s inclusion in market stories or coverage of the market,” it’s still not enough. “[Plus-size fashion journalism] is still pigeonholed as its own unique ‘thing’ rather than an issue which impacts a broad swath of the industry,” she says. “I’d like to see more follow-up when brands announce an extension of sizes. I’ve too often seen that big announcement get tons of press, only for the brand to very quietly duck back out of the market in a few seasons.”
Mejia agrees that plus-size fashion shouldn’t be overlooked by mainstream publications: “It isn’t frivolous. It’s foundational. For many, they’ve discovered body positivity and fat liberation through fashion. When it comes to inclusivity, there’s always something more that we can do.”
Styling the Future
While some people are using their voice to push for change in the industry, designers and stylists are working on the inside to make the plus-size selection better: “Retail spaces need to have more accessible sizes,” says Kyeshia Jaume.
She hopes to use her design role at Forever21 — which involves monitoring trends and popular styles, as well as analyzing fit — to communicate to brands what shoppers crave. “Even if it means changing the strap from a quarter inch to three-eighths inch just so that she has a little bit more broad coverage, making sure that button size looks proportionate, adding elastic to something, or changing a detail on the garment to make sure that it’s wearable for the customer — being able to bring that level of change from the inside, even if it’s in little ways, is super powerful for me,” Jaume says.
“Part of being an ethical brand is centering inclusivity. You can’t really be ethical if you are exclusive,” she says. “Ethical fashion is especially important to plus-size people because we come from a place of being treated as less than, so that’s even more of a reason why we need to be committed to not marginalizing.”
And exclusivity has never been so out of fashion.
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Six months after Russia’s invasion set off an unrelenting conflict with global implications, war remains the new reality in Ukraine. According to the New York Times, 5,587 civilians are confirmed dead, while the number of refugees has surpassed 6.6 million. The conflict has split up families, stranding some Ukrainians in war zones and sending others west across the country or into Europe to seek safety.
The war has also threatened the future of the country’s fashion industry. A new generation of Ukrainian brands flourished in recent years and drew international attention as trade with Europe eased. They benefited from their home country’s high-quality and low-cost manufacturing. But now, Ukraine’s designers face stalled production, destroyed factories, and delayed shipments of fabrics and customer orders. The country’s economy is suffering, too. The World Bank estimates it will shrink by at least 45% this year.
Despite the instability, Ukrainian brands are getting back to business. They are led by resilient designers, working through their fears to provide jobs for their teams, raise money for Ukraine’s people, and preserve the country’s vibrant creative communities. “In the beginning, it felt like such a silly thing to do — to produce clothes — like who needs fashion when your world is on fire?” said Olha Norba, co-founder of activewear label Norba, who has been living between London and Zurich. “[But] I think it’s very important now to give [Ukrainian] people jobs.”
Many fashion brands were able to resume production in Ukraine after the invasion, even as they dealt with slow shipping carriers, early curfews, and incessant air sirens. Others remain abroad, with employees working from various parts of the world. All have found a larger international audience for their brands as part of a growing global effort to support Ukrainian businesses through the war.
“Our label will always say, ‘Made in Ukraine,’” says designer Anna October.
Sleeper
When Sleeper’s co-founder Kate Zubarieva left Kyiv before the Russian invasion in February, she knew she might not be able to return home a few weeks later as planned. “I was kissing the wall [goodbye],” she says from Berlin, where she is currently based. She and co-founder Asya Varetsa, who is Russian and now lives in Copenhagen, launched the popular loungewear brand, known for its feather-adorned pajamas, out of Ukraine’s capital in 2014. They have since moved production to Istanbul and use Zoom to communicate with employees now spread over Europe.
The uncertainty and fear brought on by the war have sharpened their focus and raised their ambitions, says Varetsa. The brand is expanding into more ready-to-wear categories like workwear and updating its branding. “We’ve been getting the biggest orders in our history since the war,” she says. Zubarieva believes the worst of the war is yet to come but maintains that one way to fight back is to remain creative and joyful. “We have to be happy every day,” she says. “We always believed in this at Sleeper, but now it’s our routine.”
Katimo
For Katimo co-founder Katya Timoshenko, the memories of the first days of the Russian invasion are a blur. “It is impossible to describe the horror that we all experienced,” she says. All work on her modern and minimalist womenswear brand came to a stop for more than a month.
In April, the Katimo team resumed production on the delayed spring 2022 collection. “Dresses were sewn to the constant sounds of air raid alerts,” Timoshenko says. “I consider it very symbolic — each item is filled with the spirit of freedom and strength of the Ukrainian people.”
While Timoshenko initially evacuated to Western Ukraine, she is now back in Kyiv and is passionate about keeping her business in the country despite the war. With that goal in mind, Katimo’s shop and cafe have since reopened. “I don’t want anything but to work,” she says. “We want the whole world to know about the bravery, strength, and talent of the Ukrainian people.”
KseniaSchnaider
When designer Ksenia Schnaider returned to her apartment in Kyiv at the end of March for the first since the invasion, the dishes that she and her family had left out on the February morning they evacuated were exactly where they had left them. According to Schnaider, after a “long and dangerous” journey, the designer reached Germany, staying in more than a dozen apartments along the way. Her brand, beloved for its avant-garde denim creations, stopped operating for weeks. Donations from industry friends and customers, as well as projects like an upcoming collaboration with denim brand DL1961, kept the business afloat.
While searching for new factories in Turkey and Portugal this spring to resume production, Schnaider’s manufacturers in Ukraine told her they wanted to keep working. And even though doing so is risky, logistically challenging, and difficult, Schnaider says, “we are doing it [anyway].” (The entire pre-spring collection was produced in Ukraine.) Now that the brand resumed production, sales allow her to donate to military funds “almost every day,” she says.
In September, she will present her spring collection in Paris as part of a Ukrainian designer showcase. Once her refugee status in Germany is confirmed, Schnaider plans to travel back and forth from Kyiv for work. “The future is really [uncertain],” she says. “I can plan only my next week.”
ElenaReva
Elena Reva’s apartment in Kyiv was shaking from nearby explosions when she woke up on the morning of February 24. Like many of her countrypeople, she quickly moved to get to safety in the Western part of the country, before ultimately leaving and making her way to Hungary and, now, Munich. “We left everything — home, our relatives, our friends, our usual life, and our beloved country,” says Reva, who started her tailored womenswear line 10 years ago.
Two months after the start of the war, when the conflict in Kyiv had quieted down, her partners back home got back to work. “We try to keep production in Ukraine, as this is a long-established team, this is my second family,” she says. Before the war, Reva’s home country accounted for most of her label’s sales. Now she is pivoting to a focus on international clients. “The world is, more than ever, open to Ukrainian products.”
Anna October
After the invasion, designer Anna October made the difficult decision to relocate to Paris, where she will present her spring 2023 collection as part of the city’s upcoming fashion week. Following the move, October wanted to get back to work as soon as possible. “We have to continue what we are doing and defend our beliefs and country,” she says. “I am definitely self-healing through creating, it makes me feel better.”
Many of October’s employees left Kyiv also, moving to Western Ukraine or other countries, including Estonia, where the brand has an office. But she has been able to keep producing her collections in Ukraine, where she has worked with a community of women who have hand-knit some of her pieces for close to a decade. “We have always had a community,” she says. “And we luckily can keep it this way, so our customers will feel the warmth of their hands while wearing our knits.”
Bevza
Designer Svitlana Bevza made her way to Portugal with her children after the invasion, with the idea to get closer to manufacturers that could produce her popular womenswear line, Bevza. But even though some of the factories she worked with in Ukraine before the war were destroyed, she was still able to produce most of her fall collection there. “A lot of people from the textile industry don’t really want to leave the country,” she says.
This year, Bevza designed two pendant necklaces in honor of Kyiv’s 1,540-year birthday, one of which features the symbol of the underground metro, which transformed into a bomb shelter during the attacks. “It’s a reminder that somehow our city metro saved a lot of lives,” she says.
Looking forward, the designer admits she has no idea if she will still be living in Portugal six months from now, or if her team, which has mostly returned to Kyiv, will need to relocate again. Regardless, her focus is on telling the story of Ukraine’s culture in her collections, which sell mostly to an international clientele. (She has been showing at New York Fashion Week since 2017, and plans to return this fall.) “There’s a lot of Ukrainian symbolism always hidden or retold in some modern way in our collections, and it still will be,” she says.
Norba
When the war started, co-founders and sisters Helen and Olha Norba were in Milan for what was meant to be a three-day trip to show the fall collection of their versatile activewear line intended to be worn in and out of the gym. Olha, who has been living between London and Zurich, has yet to return home to Kyiv. Her sister and parents recently returned from Europe, and many of her employees are already back home, too. The label is working with new manufacturers in the capital and recently finished designing the spring 2023 collection.
“It was very challenging in the beginning to focus… you have no creative energy at all,” Olha says. “You feel frozen and caught up in all these emotions, like fear and anger and anxiety.” She meditates regularly now to manage her anger about the war and access her creativity. “You feel so helpless, but all you can do is to do your work and provide some workplaces for people, pay salaries. You have to continue.”
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