The First Big Trend of the Season Is Already Clear

And everything else you need to know about New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks, including the major designer debuts and the party of the month.

There’s so much going on in the next four weeks, between the Super Bowl; the continued rollout of awards season, culminating in the Oscars on March 2; and whatever shock and awe President Trump unleashes, that it’s hard to imagine how fashion shows will carve out any space in the attention economy.

As if on cue, the ready-to-wear season, which begins this week in New York before rolling on through London, Milan and Paris, is raising the stakes. Not only will there be major designer debuts (the kind that could change how you dress), but also high-wattage events and, just as significantly, a huge trend that has already emerged. Here’s what you need to know.

Back in 2016, Gucci, under the direction of Alessandro Michele, made the revolutionary decision to combine its men’s and women’s lines rather than presenting separating shows, as was traditional. Before you could say “runway revolution!” other brands jumped on the dual gender bandwagon. It made both narrative and economic sense. After all, the sexes do not exist separately. (They don’t even shop separately.) So why should their clothes be shown separately?

Well, it turned out, because women’s wear tends to be so much more eye-catching than men’s wear — so much sparklier, so much wackier — men’s wear ended up with the short end of the marketing stick. Presto: After a few seasons, fashion houses, including Gucci, began to revert to the old ways, the better to get more attention for the men’s lines. Not all of them, of course, but enough to make the move feel like a fad, rather than a systemic sea change.

Now the pendulum has changed course. Even Gucci is rethinking its decision, and this season Sabato De Sarno, Gucci’s creative director, will open Milan Fashion Week with his first combined show. The debuts of Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein and Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford will also showcase dual gender shows, as will Simone Bellotti’s Bally show (possibly his last, as rumor has it he may be moving to Jil Sander), not to mention Fendi.