Few designer debuts have made the impact that Chemena Kamali’s first collection for Chloé did.
As soon as the last sheer, breezy silk georgette dress made its way down the Paris Fashion Week runway back in February, the industry declared that “boho chic” was back, with Kamali as its steward. (In the days that followed, searches for Chloé on Lyst were up 91%.) The Richemont-owned brand embraced the response, of course, moving quickly to harness the momentum around its new designer. It had Sienna Miller—an icon of the original look—on deck, sitting front row at the fall 2024 show and having access to those early samples (she wore the brand to the 2024 Met Gala, then to the Cannes Film Festival). It aligned itself with Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” era, as well as of-the-moment actors like Sydney Sweeney and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Under Kamali, Chloé also emerged as a favorite suit maker of U.S. presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
It isn’t a fluke. The designer started her career at the brand when Phoebe Philo was creative director, and later returned in 2012 to be Clare Waight Keller’s design director. Kamali’s sophomore runway outing, staged on Thursday, was among the most highly anticipated shows on the Paris Fashion Week calendar. Naturally, Miller was there once again, seated next to Anna Wintour, along with Juliette Lewis, Diane Kruger, Liya Kebede, and more.
“Chloé is not a passing moment; it is an eternal state of mind guided by instinct and optimism,” Kamali wrote in the show notes. “What matters to me is the feeling and intuition that guides this very personal, intimate, and sensual way of dressing.… The mood is light, weightless, sensual, and joyful.”
Spring 2025, which she titled the “Freedom Collection,” opened with a sheer white jumpsuit, its puffy sleeves cinched at the upper arm and its legs ballooning like pantaloons. A long-sleeve sheer bodysuit followed, then a sheer lace bralette with high-waist capri bloomers. This trio set up the foundation of the Chloé summer wardrobe: voluminous sleeves, playing with both see-through and opaque fabrics, and, yes, lots more bloomers—a callback to the ’70s, courtesy of the brand’s archives. Consider them the ruffle blouse of this season.
The muted color palette was meant to feel “sun-faded, rinsed, and worn-in,” while the breezy, lightweight fabrics gave the sense of “floating and flying,” per the show notes. (The vibe is very “Alexa, play ‘Everything Is Romantic,’ by Charli XCX.”)
The lingerie touches of those opening looks informed the lace trim on square necklines, the bubble hems on high-low dresses, the oversize slips, and the sheer bralettes and tops layered underneath boxy jackets and suiting in the collection. The ease with which the clothes floated between categories—intimates, ready-to-wear, inside, outside—embodies what works about Kamali’s Chloé: When it seems like your wardrobe has to do so much, her offerings don’t feel overwrought or overcomplicated.
The only prints in the collection were a lone flamingo on a swimsuit-like one-piece and a hand-painted floral made up of roses and peonies, which is another archival find, from 1977. The accessories echoed the carefree energy of summer: The jewelry and bags incorporated a mix of chains, broken shells, sea-washed stones, crochet, and raffia. Kamali cosigned the laced ballerina look we saw in Milan at Ferragamo, and threw in jelly shoes for another playful bit of nostalgia. “There is a spontaneous joy to this collection, a liberating expression of total freedom,” the designer wrote in the show notes.
