What do you think about the past decade in fashion? Or rather, how do you go about thinking about the past decade in fashion? To offer some perspective on the period since System launched, in the spring of 2013, we paired up a selection of writers, editors, commentators and creatives. People whose experience of change could perhaps combine the micro and the macro.

Tim Blanks & Cathy Horyn
Loïc Prigent & Eugénie Trochu
Tyler Mitchell & Ferdinando Verderi
Samira Nasr & Hanya Yanagihara
Imran Amed & Luca Solca
Susanna Lau & Bryan Yambao
Angelo Flaccavento & Alexander Fury

Some began attending Paris Fashion Week back in the 1980s, others only in the past five years. But their respective pathways towards fashion’s upper echelons have more or less coincided with the introduction into the industry of smartphones, social media, selfies, megabrands, clickbait, Kim and Kanye, cancel culture, cruise shows, greenwashing, going viral, sportswear, streetwear, TikTok, K-pop, podcasts, AI, and the metaverse. Not forgetting the announcement, this spring, that LVMH boss Bernard Arnault is now the wealthiest individual in the world.

There was much to discuss.

So we encouraged free-flowing conversation, starting with the topic of Paris Fashion Week, but inevitably twisting and turning towards broader threads of discussion about the industry’s evolution. Generous with their time – for which we’d like to thank them – the participants spoke with System in the days, weeks and months following the presentation of the Autumn/Winter 2023-2024 season at Paris Fashion Week.