Fashion’s feminist movement was just another micro trend — as a new fashion month begins, can things change?

Can feminism and fashion co-exist? Does the latter ever truly serve the former? These are the sort of questions I have been asking myself recently, as we hurl at lightning speed away from the body positivity movement and the industry repeatedly hires men for its top jobs. As senior fashion editor at Cosmo, it’s my role to spot the biggest trends and bring them to you. However, as fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote last year for The New York Times in a piece entitled “Why Can’t Fashion See What It Does to Women?”, the last season of shows included “off-putting, sometimes cruel designs [that] left us wondering about what it all means”. From metal-stretched, gaping open-mouths at Maison Margiela to face-encompassing-fabrics at Courrèges, the vision of femininity for Spring/Summer 2026 felt rather… submissive.

Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2026

With women serving as the face of fashion, it can be easy to forget that the industry is, like most others, driven by profit and dominated by men. At luxury conglomerate-owned fashion houses there are a only handful of women in senior roles — Sarah Burton at Givenchy and Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, with both the newly appointed Maria Grazia Chiuri at Fendi and Meryll Rogge at Marni making their debuts this season. Last year, fashion education platform 1Granary reported that women account for 74% of students on fashion courses, but only 12% of creative director roles. It begs the question — how different could the overall landscape look if those numbers were even slightly more equal?

Givenchy Spring/Summer 2026

As we head into a new season, it’s hard to not feel apprehensive. On top of the creative director gap, women’s bodies, which are so intrinsically linked to fashion, are shrinking. Despite a brief flirtation with inclusivity, the introduction of widely accessible weight loss jabs has meant that thin is once again in. Coupled with the power of social media and the rise of quick, non-surgical aesthetic procedures, it can feel exhausting to be a woman on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Fashion, much like beauty, has long profited off of people’s insecurities. The infamous Fight Club quote comes to mind: “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”. However, despite this, I truly believe that at its core, fashion is about creativity, self-expression and empowerment — things which London Fashion Week, which begins on Thursday, has always championed.

The right clothes can help you feel ready to face the day; they tell the world who you are before you even open your mouth. Looking outside of the mainstream, beyond the algorithm and trusting your own personal style has never been important — in fact, it could even be considered an act of resistance.

Rebecca Jane Hill is the Senior Fashion Editor at Cosmopolitan UK. She has previously contributed to publications including Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Refinery29, The Face, Glamour and Stylist. She started her own magazine, Sister, in 2012 whilst at university. Focused around feminism, fashion and culture, it went on to produce 12 globally stocked print issues, as well as countless events and partnerships. She closed the magazine in 2023.

Rebecca has been an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion since 2018, where she teaches on the Fashion Journalism course. She is a passionate second-hand shopper and is constantly on the lookout for new design talent.