Yahoo Lifestyle K-Way Fall 2025: Happy 60!
One could call K-Way a “dictionary brand.”
It may sound unfamiliar to non-Europeans, but the colloquial word for windbreakers on this side of the Atlantic coincides with the name of the brand that introduced the style 60 years ago.
More from WWD
In the era of branding, ownership of a fashion category is the ultimate achievement.
K-Way plays in that league and used that heritage to mark its anniversary celebrations, with a trifecta of inventive exhibitions as a prequel to the fall coed runway action.
First it linked with other brands whose trademarked monikers have also de facto replaced the common name of the products they offer (Post-it for sticky notes, Borsalino for fedora hats, Chupa Chups for lollipops, among them) and then tasked a range of contemporary artists with reinterpreting those objects into artworks (the funniest being Olimpia Zagnoli’s “chamber of tortures,” with walls decked in Chupa Chups rather than spikes).
The third section, titled “Happy when it rains,” was dedicated to K-Way’s 60-year archives, which served as the starting point for the runway collection centered on the reinvention of three of the brand’s archetypal elements, such as shell outerwear, pockets and capes.
With such a preamble, expectations were high on how the design team would channel all of that into a collection celebrating the brand’s functionality while heightening its fashion quotient.
The answer came via patch-pocketed parkas for men and women, full-skirted technical trenches and cropped Le Vrai windbreakers — the brand’s OG packable outerwear — with over-capes. Outerwear galore mingled with technical cargo pants slightly flared, nylon and wool bond pencil skirts and mid-layer knits, as well as nylon shirt and matching ties for men and women alike. The team also pulled out all the stops parading dramatic nylon gowns, including a puffy-skirted number and a three-layer frock with a trail. Bags were done in collaboration with the French brand Chau.
But as much as this collection showcased the R&D-intensive approach poured into K-Way’s runway collections, there were few fashion thrills.
“For the past five years since hosting our first runway show, we have kept asking ourselves, season after season, if it makes sense to stage one. The compromise we’ve agreed on is to keep doing that when we have a meaningful story to tell,” said chief executive officer Lorenzo Boglione earlier in the day. “We wanted to show the world that K-Way is not just an outerwear brand, but rather that it has a deeper history, rooted in [popular] culture.”
Launch Gallery: K-Way Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Best of WWD
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
