The Row‘s autumn-winter 2025 outing feels like Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen‘s comfort zone. There’s evidently less experimentation with form and a radical return to minimalism they have already polished to perfection years ago.
The new season images were photographed by Mark Borthwick, whose artful direction of movement and split-frame compositions lead around the season’s more straightforward silhouettes. Some are deceptively simple; see the rounded sleeves of a blouse that ripple down the arms when worn, or the double-layered coat with an exposed lining. Some are legitimately simple, such as the relaxed cuts of several men’s pieces. Meanwhile, tailoring is treated with a fluid touch.
What worries is the Olsens’ obsession with Martin Margiela’s Hermès: they love this moment in fashion so much that they forget the line between inspiration and imitation. And that’s not a very The Row thing to do.
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Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen keep on taking over Paris by storm – a quiet one, but highly impactful. The minimalism they study and channel is reaching unbelievable level of perfection, and nearly every second collection we’ve seen this season is somehow inspired by The Row. Plus, the twins opened their first boutique in town, on the ultra-chic rue de Mont-Thabor, filled with design pearls: dressing-room door by Jean Prouvé that sells on auctions for $101,600, Victor Courtray’s chairs reaching up to $14,000, and Vadim Androusov’s wheat-shaped sconces. The store itself feels like a understated sanctuary, which during Paris Fashion Week was besieged by literally everyone. You could easily spend 30 minutes in the line.
The store opening happened in the same week the Olsens presented their pre-fall 2025 collection. The fashion show had a no-photos policy that some people just couldn’t respect as most industry insiders had a leaked video in their DMs. Lookbook came out a couple of days later, and here’s the thing: the designers are smart about not falling into the hype-trap. They aren’t dramatically voluming up on their creativity just to deliver the clicks; rather, they keep on refining their already-perfect skills in dress-making and tailoring, and also very luxe apparel. Yet there was also a rawer, perhaps more conceptual and lightly experimental edge at work here too; an embrace of where beautiful imperfection could possibly take them. Earthy organza tank, constructed from layers of fabric, over white pants; a gray cocktail dress which looked as though a swathe of raw-edged fabric had been pulled around the body, with a black bodice underneath keeping it in place; and a gorgeous black sheath with a panel which fell in a trail from one shoulder. Sublime.
Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen are in their experimentation mode. No longer bound to uncompromising minimalism they’ve established and refined to razor-sharp perfection throughout the years, they are confidently letting not-that-easy-to-digest edginess to The Row‘s world. Or maybe the most stylish twins in the world are taking a look back at their culture-shifting style from the 2000s? @eljosecriales started that discourse by comparing spring-summer 2025’s grey melange sweater worn over a white ivory slip dress worn over washed blue pants to one of Mary-Kate’s red carpet looks from 2004 that similarly played with layers in a cool, spontaneous, boho manner. That’s the definition of “auto-referential“! Most of the new season offering feels like a very instinctual play with clothes and accessories, never matching or fitting “as it should“, but striking an intriguing balance. Phoebe Philo’s late years at Céline had a similar essence, but the Olsens aren’t copying the British designer as they used to back in the day – they’re doing their own, authentic thing. As they should – they are by now very mature designers, as The Row is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary (the twins started with a t-shirt). And their just-opened shop in Amagansett will certainly sell these plaid shirts, breezy dresses, denim shirts and future-vintage evening dresses like hot buns. Oh, to be awfully rich and buy The Row like daily apparel!
People went wild when they learnt about The Row‘s photo ban at their Paris Fashion Week show. Well, they didn’t know Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen were preparing the most beautiful lookbook shot on film by Jamie Hawkesworth that would do absolute justice to their new season offering. Patience pays. In general, time is a big theme for the Olsens. Their garments are so timeless, their look is simultaneously contemporary and as if from another decade.
For resort 2025, the designers – who are having an seismic impact on other brands – eschewed some of their more intense experiments in cocooning and draping, replacing them with a gorgeously thoughtful ease. That was well represented by the likes of the oversized and all enveloping comfort of two masculine-inflected coats, one black, one navy, and popped by the surprise of their accessories; a knitted hat encrusted with silver metal embellishments with the former, ginormous gold and ebony hoop earrings with the latter. Vintage-tinged hats with character are having a huge comeback, all thanks to the Olsens. That easiness was also evident in the way a burnished tan leather blazer was popped over another, with black lean pants; ditto the perfection of cut and fabric evident in a charcoal gray pantsuit. But things took a bit more of a daring turn, too. The ivory shaggy robe coat, with its richly unfettered texture, secured with a knit sash belt whose tassels had been dyed red, somewhat redolent of north African Berber craft. Another robe coat, in the kind of black plissé fabric Issey Miyake might have used back in the day, had a whole lot of volume without weight. The frayed fronds on a rawly woven ivory dress which slinked its way to the floor, or a fluid black top and pants embroidered with a gazillion shimmering beads, were eveningwear specials. And then, just to bring us back to what always seems to last and last and last, what the Olsens have made their life’s work at The Row, out came a simple gray cashmere sweater worn by Malgosia Bela, slouchy, tactile, desirable, and a pair of simple gray pants, a look accessorized by what looked to me to be their now-classic Margaux bag.
From one side, it’s a great pity The Row isn’t on New York Fashion Week’s schedule. From the other side, their presence in Paris in that brief moment between menswear and haute couture just works so well. Moving their operations here, they surely breathe down the local “minimal” brands’ necks. This season, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen delivered a very stripped back collection that did the talking through sublime tailoring, sculptural silhouettes and a mostly-black color palette. A short, contoured jacket worn with a slim pant and rounded pumps; a dress belted for waist emphasis (and bright red tights for leg emphasis); an ultra-smooth, leaned-out leather jacket; a three-button jacket, wingtip tuxedo shirt and trousers that slightly recalibrate how we envision the brand. Even new bags were downsized and compact. What might this say about where the Olsen are in their lives? An evolving style? A changing relationship with the body? One answer could be that there are considerations towards an ever-changing wardrobe – one that accommodates greater ways of dressing while maintaining maximum ease.
Some The Row pieces that are on my mind right now…
