Welcome Back, Jenny Humphrey: The Glamour of Chaos Returns to the Runway

By: Megan Waddington 

Among the New York Fashion Week shows, 7 For All Mankind stood out. When a certain walk and a show make this much noise across social media, you know an influence on trends will soon occur. “Welcome back, Jenny Humphrey” was plastered across my mind while watching the show: festival wristbands stacked on a silk glove, bags on top of bags, messy hair tucked into a dramatic roll-neck, slinky babydoll dresses with tights and costume jewellery. This is undone chic and chaotic glamour, tied into an idea that strutted down the runway in stilettos.

This show didn’t just delve into the garments but conveyed a deeper idea of the characters behind the clothes walking the runway, who is she? Where is she coming from? Where was she rushing off to? She’s curated yet messy, playfully elegant; this too-muchness is exactly the vivacity we need in fashion right now. The untamed, magnetic energy encapsulating the show made you want to know who she is, and what’s her story?

7 for all Mankind’s newly appointed creative director, Nicola Brognano, created an aura around the models, giving every piece a personality that let the clothes speak for themselves. 

“It has become very easy to think about girls like Mary-Kate Olsen or Kate Moss or Sienna Miller around the 2005, 2006 era, they are super chic, but they have this kind of nonchalance inside, which is very much the attitude of the collection,” he said.

Is there really such a thing as too much, or has the reigning clean-girl era convinced us into thinking this is too much? Fashion has been kept in a formatted line of slick backs and workout sets for a while now… bring back a casual heel and the messy chicness that keeps individuality so vibrant. Wear the shoes. Buy the heels. Stop saving the outfit for “someday.” Fashion is meant to be lived in, not stored away.

Indie Sleaze and Jenny Humprey. 

With brand ambassador Chloë Sevigny seated front row, it was clear that the influence of indie sleaze permeated the whole show. A kind of hungover glamour that wasn’t a curated trend, but rather a vision of messy nightlife, cheap cameras, American Apparel ads, and a chaotic mix: thrift and designer, sexy and careless, ironic and sincere. Most indie sleaze icons were photographed accidentally. Sevigny looked the same on a red carpet and outside a bodega at 2 a.m. She influenced designers like Marc Jacobs; they styled toward her, not the other way around. She was the reference file, and having her there meant cementing the idea of this era returning. Indie sleaze clothes are a chaotic mix of shiny, sheer, thrifted, and slightly ill-fitting pieces, layered carelessly and worn like you didn’t try, even if you did. This “accidental” mix-and-match of high and low chaos layering is exactly what Nicola Brognano achieved with the accessories and clothing.

Love her or hate her, Gossip Girl’s Jenny Humphrey remains unforgettable, and this collection might as well have called her name. Her style (and, controversially, her character) has always been one of my favourites, and the looks clearly echo her later-season era: messy, dark, and effortless. The silhouettes feel sexy yet slightly undone, the attitude confident but chaotic, as if everything was thrown on after a late night rather than meticulously styled. It’s that precise tension between luxury and edge that Jenny embodied so well.

The Year of the Horse (walk) 

Model Summer Dirx’s early 2000s reminiscent runway stomp in a slinky dress paired with Ray-Bans and a bag draped on her arm solidified that this show was going to be something talked about. For Vogue, she mentioned, “There’s probably a lot of people saying my walk was too much or too messy, but really do think that the character they wanted me to play was too much and too messy”

“I just hope that there’s a space in the future where these really dramatic characters can exist in a high-fashion market.”

Her walk carried the show far beyond the runway. Clips of her moment spread rapidly across social media, creating a third space where audiences collectively interpreted the collection. The excitement wasn’t driven solely by the garments, but by the return of a model personality recalling an era when figures like Gisele Bündchen became instantly recognisable through distinctive walks such as the commanding “horse walk.” The walk: a long-striding, forward-driven gait with a natural bounce and pronounced hip sway that projected athletic confidence and sensual power. 

Today’s runway direction often subdues individuality in favour of presenting the clothes, yet the viral reaction proves that fashion's meaning is no longer authored exclusively by designers. A collection may be shown once, but it is experienced thousands of times in circulation.

The response to 7 For All Mankind suggests a shift: audiences aren’t looking for flawless styling as much as they are looking for life and excitement that came from attitude, from a character mid-story rather than a look fully resolved, allowing viewers to project themselves into it and continue the moment beyond the runway. Encapsulating a moment and an era, returning not just a fleeting look.