Julie Kegels AW25

Julie Kegels unveiled her Fall 2025 collection; a witty, subversive homage to late 20th-century corporate aesthetics. The 26-year-old Antwerp designer, known for her razor sharp reinterpretations of nostalgia, drew inspiration from Judith Price’s 1980 book, “Executive: Achieve Success Through Taste”, a flea-market find that became her muse. The result? A collection that oscillated between tech-bro irony and high-design sophistication, all while questioning the gendered tropes of power dressing.

Staged in a 17th-arrondissement theater, the show opened with a model getting dressed for the day using a caramel leather lounge chair (a collaboration with Belgian brand HARMO). Eventually clad in a blue button down shirt, grey monogrammed sweater and oversized denim trousers, a nod to Silicon Valley’s casual hegemony. The chair, evoking mid-century modernism, was Kegels’ own design, blurring the lines between fashion and functional art.

The collection felt to me like it was saying, "does ANYBODY like to go to work?" Cleverly cut pieces were showcased with tongue in cheek bags that said "Girl Arriving at Work With Wet Socks". Elsewhere, sharp suiting was undercut by playful kitsch. Corporate logos reimagined as Fair Isle knits and office staples (button-downs, pleated skirts) exaggerated into near-caricature. Kegels’ subtle nod to “male drag” (think power shoulders on silk blouses) challenged the rigidity of workplace dress codes.

Notably, Kegels was the second designer that day (after Stella McCartney’s Stellacorp) to mine office culture for inspiration; proof that the workplace, post-pandemic, remains fertile ground for fashion’s critique. Her collection stood out for its intellectual heft, marrying design history (Breuer, Van Der Rohe) with Gen Z irony. The pièce de résistance came in the finale, a trompe l’oeil jumpsuit mirroring the opening outfit, a cheeky commentary on workplace performativity. The model zips off the jumpsuit and ends the show the same was she began it, in the comfort of her undergarments.

Kegels’ AW25 a commentary on how clothes shape identity in spaces designed to homogenize. As the the finale walked off one thing was clear, in her hands, corporate dress codes aren’t just broken, they’re remade with a wink.