From brand overhauls to taking a significant step towards sustainability, here are the most notable ways fashion has transformed itself — for better or for worse — in the past year.

Versace, Gucci, Burberry and more went fur-free

2018 is the year fashion got serious about social responsibility. Gucci&nbsp;announced&nbsp;its decision to ditch fur in October 2017, which created a domino effect the following year: fashion powerhouse brands like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/versace-goes-fur-free">Versace</a>, Furla, Tom Ford, Jimmy Choo,&nbsp;Burberry and <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/chanel-to-stop-using-exotic-skins-fur">Chanel</a> followed suit, each making considerable strides towards a commitment to ethical business practices a la&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/stella-mccartney-launches-bridal-collection-meghan-markle-royal-wedding-gown">Stella McCartney</a>, the OG queen of green luxury.&nbsp;Environmental activists also saw another victory when <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/london-fashion-week-goes-fur-free-for-spring">London Fashion Week banned animal fur</a>, making it the first fashion capital to do so. Will 2019 be the year that the fashion industry says goodbye to fur for good?

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The fanny pack became the&nbsp;new&nbsp;must-have accessory

Just like logomania, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/accessory-trend-2019-fanny-packs-tourist-essential">fashion&#39;s obsession with belt bags does not seem to be waning</a>. In fact, in 2018, the nifty pouch accounted for 1% of fashion accessorie sales, overtaking totes, shoppers and messenger bags. (Fun fact: according to surveys by Lyst, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/gucci-marmont-belt-bag-most-popular-2018">Gucci&#39;s Marmont belt bag</a> was the most coveted of the bunch.) It&#39;s no coincidence that other practical bag silhouettes, such as&nbsp;backpacks and luggages, were also popular, reflecting fashion&#39;s growing&nbsp;preference for&nbsp;utilitarian design.

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Moncler Genius&nbsp;changed&nbsp;the collaboration game&nbsp;

It has been collaborations galore this past year. We saw all our favourite&nbsp;designer labels pairing up to create fashion merch that were instant hits:&nbsp;Moschino x H&amp;M, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/first-look-off-white-x-nike-the-queen-collection-serena-williams">Nike x Off-White</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/the-gucci-x-dapper-dan-collection-is-now-online">Gucci x Dapper Dan</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/burberry-reveals-punk-vivienne-westwood-collection">Burberry x Vivienne Westwood</a> and the 10-strong&nbsp;dream team that was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/commes-des-garcons-holiday-capsule-with-gucci-burberry-maison-margiela-more-launching-6-december">Commes des Gar&ccedil;ons with Gucci, Burberry, Maison Margiela and several more</a>.

Moncler did things differently: instead of creating one-off capsules, the brand launched <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/events-and-parties/new-york-moncler-genius-7-fragment-hiroshi-fujiwara-launch">Moncler Genius</a>,&nbsp;a unique collaborative project&nbsp;where eight other designers including Valentino, Craig Green, Simone Rocha and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/moncler-launches-new-moncler-genius-collaboration-with-kei-ninomiya">Kei Ninomiya</a>&nbsp;reinterpret&nbsp;its iconic down jacket each season. The beauty of Moncler Genius is that it lets the creativity and vision of&nbsp;each designer to&nbsp;truly take centre stage, not just through their&nbsp;distinctive Moncler puffers but also through their&nbsp;compelling installations for <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/moncler-genius-launches-the-next-chapter-at-milan-fashion-week">the&nbsp;Moncler Genius presentations at Milan Fashion Week</a>.&nbsp;

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Rihanna redefined our&nbsp;idea of lingerie&nbsp;

Before 2018,&nbsp;dressing up in pretty lingerie was a privilege that only&nbsp;Victoria&#39;s Secret models or women with their picture-perfect bodies could afford. And then Rihanna happened. Last September, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/rihanna-releases-savage-x-fenty-fall-2018-collection-at-nyfw">the singer-slash-beauty mogul launched her lingerie label, Savage x Fenty,</a> at New York Fashion Week, with the same diversity-driven&nbsp;approach that we&#39;ve seen at <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/beauty/watch-rihanna-makeup-tutorial-video-fenty-beauty-chillowt-holiday-collection-highlighter-palette">Fenty Beauty</a>.

Models of all shapes, colours and sizes (most notable of them was a very pregnant Slick Woods) appeared at the fashion show, which was&nbsp;more&nbsp;of a performance art piece celebrating confidence and inclusivity&nbsp;than a straightforward&nbsp;runway show selling sex. &quot;It was important to me to push the boundaries, but also create a line that women can see themselves in, &quot; <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/fenty-savage">said</a> Bad Gal RiRi. &quot;I want to make people look and feel good.&quot; Let&#39;s hope that attitude spreads to the rest of the industry in 2019.&nbsp;

Virgil Abloh made history as the first black designer to helm Louis Vuitton

Throughout its 164-year history, Louis Vuitton has only been&nbsp;headed by Artistic Directors&nbsp;that are white&nbsp;and formally trained in fashion &mdash;&nbsp;two things that Off-White&#39;s creative director, Virgil Abloh, is&nbsp;not. That&#39;s why of all the designer reshuffles at major luxury brands that&nbsp;we&#39;ve seen this past year, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/louis-vuitton-names-virgil-abloh-new-menswear-designer">Abloh&#39;s appointment as Louis Vuitton&#39;s Artistic Director of Menswear</a> was the most surprising. The move was&nbsp;a monumental moment in fashion, officially making Abloh the third&nbsp;African-American designer ever to join the ranks of the heads of other&nbsp;French heritage&nbsp;houses, such as Karl Lagerfeld,&nbsp;Nicholas&nbsp;Ghesqui&egrave;re and <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/fashion-awards-2018-winners-clare-waight-keller-gucci-off-white-more">Clare Waight Keller</a>.&nbsp;

It goes without saying that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/louis-vuitton-menswear-spring-summer-2019-runway-show-by-virgil-abloh-in-palais-royal-paris-review-photo-gallery">Abloh&#39;s rainbow-infused&nbsp;debut Louis Vuitton show</a>&nbsp;was a big deal,&nbsp;featuring a diverse cast of&nbsp;models and a star-studded front row that included Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Rihanna and his long-time collaborator Kanye West. The show also underscored the rising&nbsp;influence of streetwear&nbsp;in the world of luxury fashion, something that Abloh&#39;s&nbsp;predecessor Kim Jones helped pave the way for.

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Menswear embraced&nbsp;femininity thanks to Kim Jones

With brands like Jacquemus, The Row and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/hedi-slimane-releases-his-menswear-campaign-video-for-celine">Celine</a>&nbsp;establishing menswear lines, the message is clear: menswear was bigger than ever in 2018, and it&#39;s even expected to overtake womenswear as the dominating market in the next two years. With that said, Kim Jones&nbsp;points us&nbsp;to the&nbsp;new direction that men&#39;s fashion is headed:&nbsp;one that takes inspiration from&nbsp;fashion&#39;s feminine couture past and distills it into elegant and modern&nbsp;tailored offerings.&nbsp;That&#39;s what he presented with <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/dior-homme-spring-summer-2019-runway-show-by-kim-jones-in-paris-review-photo-gallery">his debut Dior Men&nbsp;collection last February</a>, which saw an array of softly-hued and impeccable suits, coats and shirts&nbsp;bearing delicate details like lace, embroidery and florals &mdash; another motif that popped up in Jones&#39;&nbsp;follow-up <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/dior-men-pre-fall-2019-collection-by-kim-jones-in-tokyo">Dior Men Pre-Fall 2019 collection</a>. Mark our words: the future of men&#39;s fashion is pale pink.

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Hedi Slimane transformed&nbsp;C&eacute;line into CELINE&nbsp;

Undoubtedly the most controversial debut of 2018, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/celine-spring-2019-hedi-slimane-debut">Hedi Slimane&#39;s first Celine collection</a> spelled disaster for Philophiles who craved subtle, elegant and wearable&nbsp;luxury. On the other hand, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/celebrities-embrace-the-new-celine-by-hedi-slimane">dedicated fans of Slimane&#39;s glamorous, rock&#39;n&#39;roll-inspired aesthetic</a> &mdash;&nbsp;which he established during his tenure at Saint Laurent and Dior Homme &mdash; had reason to rejoice, especially&nbsp;after Slimane&#39;s two-year absence from fashion.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/hedi-slimane-is-celine-s-new-artistic-creative-and-image-director">The Italian designer&#39;s appointment as Celine&#39;s artistic director</a> also saw the introduction of <a href="http://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/hedi-slimane-releases-his-menswear-campaign-video-for-celine">Celine&#39;s first&nbsp;menswear line</a>,&nbsp;with a signature house fragrance to follow in 2019.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/c%C3%A9line-has-a-new-logo">Missing &eacute;&#39;s</a> aside, Slimane&#39;s takeover opened up a conversation within the industry about the state of women&#39;s fashion&nbsp;today, as well as the (mostly male) figures who lead it. Is the future of fashion female after all? We&#39;ll see in 2019.

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Daniel Lee became the new Creative Director of&nbsp;Bottega Veneta

If Lee had <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/daniel-lee-replaces-tomas-maier-at-bottega-veneta">replaced Tomas Maier</a> before <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/celine-pre-fall-2018-last-collection-by-phoebe-philo">Phoebe Philo&#39;s departure from C&eacute;line</a> (and fashion altogether?), his move might not have made as many waves as it did. As it turned out, his experience as&nbsp;the former Director of Ready-to-Wear Design at C&eacute;line meant that <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/bottega-veneta-pre-fall-2019-collection-by-daniel-lee">his first Bottega Veneta collection</a>&nbsp;was cast under the spotlight, especially by those eager for a new luxury fashion brand to turn to after Slimane&#39;s aforementioned takeover. Thankfully, the British designer delivered: satin&nbsp;blouses, finely tailored jackets and sensual slip dresses all echoed Philo&#39;s minimalist approach&nbsp;with an Italian twist.&nbsp;

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Riccardo Tisci ushered&nbsp;in a new chapter of&nbsp;British fashion

Evidently, 2018 saw no shortages of&nbsp;reinventions at heritage fashion houses.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/riccardo-tisci-is-named-burberry-s-new-chief-creative-officer">Riccardo Tisci became the new Chief Creative Officer at Burberry</a> in March, ending&nbsp;Christopher Bailey&#39;s 17-year reign at Britain&#39;s biggest fashion house. The Italian designer showed a diverse&nbsp;collection of 134 looks <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/burberry-spring-summer-2019">for his first Burberry show</a>, catering&nbsp;to everyone from the working woman and&nbsp;the tailored gentleman to the girls and boys with street-luxe&nbsp;sensibilities. Aside from broadening Burberry&#39;s appeal across generations, Tisci also launched <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/burberry-b-series-december-2018">the &quot;B Series&quot;</a>, a line of&nbsp;limited-edition unisex pieces that are released through&nbsp;streetwear-style&nbsp;flash&nbsp;drops. And let&#39;s not forget that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/burberry-reveals-punk-vivienne-westwood-collection">he teamed up&nbsp;with legendary British designer Vivienne Westwood</a> for a punk-inspired capsule for his first Burberry collaboration. With all the buzz around it, there&#39;s no&nbsp;doubt that Tisci&#39;s Burberry will continue to conquer in 2019,&nbsp;one shade of beige at a time.

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Raf Simons exited Calvin Klein&nbsp;

After two years as Chief Creative Officer of Calvin Klein, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/raf-simons-is-leaving-calvin-klein">Raf Simons&nbsp;abruptly stepped down</a> from his role last week. The American brand&#39;s disappointing sales under Simons were apparently to blame, despite the fact that <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion-week/calvin-klein-205w39nyc-spring-2019">Simons&#39;s&nbsp;collections</a> had a good track record in the eyes of fashion critics (the Belgian designer&nbsp;even <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/cfda-awards-2018-winners-raf-simons-supreme-kim-kardashian-and-more">bagged three CFDA awards</a> for his work at Calvin Klein). Naturally, we&#39;re all wondering who will fill the gap that Simons has left at Calvin Klein, but also at New York Fashion Week.&nbsp;With his celebrity status, Simons&#39;s shows&nbsp;kept New York on the fashion map,&nbsp;despite the departure of several key American-based designers such as Alexander Wang from the NYFW calendar&nbsp;in the last two years. Simons&#39;s absence will undoubtedly be felt, but it just might be the trigger for a new era of American fashion in 2019.

The 10 Biggest Changes That Shaped Fashion in 2018

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