A Fashion Writer Tries on Fall’s Most Extreme Silhouettes
In honor of our latest issue, ELLE continues its partnership with Substack, enlisting some of the platform’s most-followed fashion writers—including Jalil Johnson, Emilia Petrarca, and Laurel Pantin—to pen essays accompanying our fashion shoots. The latest: Liana Satenstein, the sartorial boundary-pusher behind the Neverworns empire.
This past season of tantalizing shape play on the runway has given me anxiety. This nervousness stems from envy: I am most jealous of my friends when it comes to silhouette experimentation. They wear billowing skirts that bloom with each step and itty-bitty jackets that suffocate. Sometimes they’ll go loco and layer a shirt over another shirt and then tie a puffer jacket around themselves like a cutesy Boy Scout knot. Good for them! The furthest I have ever gone is the first-base equivalent of sartorial body tweaking: I’ll delicately cinch my jacket’s belt around my waist and pretend I am a severe, grooving Grace Jones circa 1992. Ms. Jones—and her Alaïa coat—would be mortified. Quelle horreur!
On model, foreground: Dress, Sportmax. On model, background: Blouse, skirt, Ferragamo.
Beauty Tip: Indulge in the fresh floral scent of elderflower and jasmine with a spritz of Dior’s Miss Dior Essence.
All, Duran Lantink.
The truth is, I’m scared of any sort of abstract silhouette. Hell, the Comme des Garçons spring 1997 “Lumps and Bumps” collection gives me hives whenever I look at the random juts. The bulbous Quasimodo padding that starts to gush at the nape and ends at the lumbar region. A zaftig bulge just above the crotch. That ganglion boulder growing from one shoulder. All of these lumps and bumps are just too much for my brain to handle, even on the fantastical runway. And imagine all of that oomph and poof in real life? Me, sauntering around with a bloated saucer exploding from my hip? Forget it!
Gown, Valentino.
On model, foreground: Dress, Stella McCartney. Hat, Stephen Jones Millinery. On both models, background: All, Givenchy.
But the mood is different now than it was almost 20 years ago. Tradition is in the air. Tradwives are the talk of the town. Normal feels en vogue. Even a bit violent. This demented Norman Rockwell take on the universe means that the conversation around who the perfect woman is has entered the lexicon. Does she have soft, pillowy lips? How about bountiful, globular cleavage? Do her curves follow the 36-24-36 feminine formula? Perhaps it’s up to us—and our closets—to shake up the definition. Exaggerated silhouettes can be the spin on snoozy traditional ways of dressing—or thinking—that we need. Freak it. Pervert it. After all, why be standard when subversion is on the table?
Dress, Issey Miyake. Earrings, Fendi.
Top, skirt, Marie Adam-Leenaerdt.
Hooded maxidress, Balenciaga.
It’s time for me to embrace metamorphosis. Fall 2025 gives me license to dabble, as the options are endless—and literally expansive. I can exaggerate my body deep-plane style, or shroud myself like I’m heading to an old-country shiva. This season, there was an Alaïa hooded number with a hooped waist like the rings of Saturn. An elegant Marc Jacobs dress that could enlarge my shoulders like a linebacker meets uptown madame. Or, maybe I could show nothing. Put me in Balenciaga’s Father Yod-hooded cloak à la Eyes Wide Shut and let me live my life, whether I’m bloated or not. Also, note: a little smart looseness at the waist by way of Prada never hurt anyone. Call it a chic funhouse mirror.
All, Issey Miyake.
All, Loewe.
Fall 2025 has taught us that we can make delightful, bold choices by way of a nip or a tuck in our wardrobe. I don’t want to live in a sinisterly boring world. I’d rather turn it all on its head. Maybe I’ll throw on a skirt with a peplum on myself and call it a day. Or, better yet, a bustle and call it a night.
Left: Hooded bodysuit, skirt, Alaïa. Right: Hooded dress, Balmain.
All, Prada.
Lead image credit: All, Marc Jacobs.
Hair by Tiago Goya for Oribe; makeup by Homa Safar for Dior; casting by Clare Rhodes at Casting by Us; models: Caren Jepkemei at Supreme Management, Ning Jinyi at Elite, and Christina Wang; produced by Ben Freedman at Picture Farm.
This shoot appears in the September 2025 issue of ELLE.