With the state of the fashion industry recently being questioned by critics and fans alike, houses seemed to be scrutinised for something authentic, something real, something that has a voice. While maintaining a constant, urgent pace of industrial production is a diktat that few can escape, Paris reminded us, as always, that the reason we are able to dream thanks to design, is purely through creativity. The artisanal process and the artistic endeavour in this – at times – highly alienating industry, is at the heart of its purpose, meaning and sense. Without it, commerce takes the upper hand.
Schön! brings you the houses and designers that, to our eyes, cultivate a unique and artistic approach to fashion, with collections that had us dreaming and were willing us to embark on a voyage for Autumn/Winter 2024.
The art and craft of Dries Van Noten is one that follows no rules in the industry but continues to work its magic with a unique poetic approach to silhouette, textiles, prints and colour. No one masters the elegance of this delicate balance quite like Van Noten, with an Autumn/Winter 2024 collection that was rich with details such as printed sequins, draped pieces, fluffy accessories, extreme fringes and contradictions in textures that elevated everything to an oneiric level. Opening with birdsong against Soulwax’s Edit of Sade’s “Haunt Me,” the show was an enthralling moment of fashion week and one that stands out every season.
Charaf Tajer turned to Ancient Greece for the inspiration of Casablanca’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection, with a show inspired by Björk’s iconic song, “Venus As A Boy.” Toying with this double layering of references, the Casablanca collection reworked pop iconography associated with Ancient Greece into the house’s signature prints, with psychedelically colourful designs on silks.
Taking inspiration from, Eleusis an ancient Greek city, near Athens, where history books tell us that a religious festival was held, with philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Sophocles, and Euripides attending, who all indulged in rites and sacraments enhanced with psychedelic substances like LSD and mushrooms. Beautifully reinterpreted in the designs, this tribute to the origins of Western philosophy, arts, and architecture was a breathtaking moment during Paris’ packed schedule.
The complexity of this Comme des Garçons show was intriguing, riveting, and somewhat unnerving. In all her brilliance, Rei Kawakubo brought out tortured silhouettes, cut in chaotic, geometric forms. Allowing ourselves to be transported by Beethoven, and the intensity of his inherent Sturm and Drang, the models walked aggressively, colliding with lights, guests, and stomping – anger was channelled into the very seams of each design.
“This collection is about my present state of mind,” Rei Kawakubo explained. “I have anger against everything in the world, especially against myself.” Reflecting a status quo in her experimental use of textiles, wildly original forms were topped with what looked like tarry Judge’s wigs – the ultimate judgment, perhaps somewhat disfigured, somewhat askew. Almost as if what we had always assumed was right, was being questioned, and was rendered useless in contemporary society.
Geometricity was taken as a clear exercise of tailoring and design for Junya Watanabe’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection.“I want to express the beauty of the contrast between clothes and sculptures,” he explained backstage. Blurring the curvilinear forms of the human body, Watanabe’s creativity brought abstraction and architectural matter into play, with cloth draped around mathematically rigid structures.
Marine Serre’s brilliantly energetic show was held at Ground Control, a “Thiers Lieu” (a militant, association-based space) that houses street food vendors, independent shops, and activists in an old industrial complex. Taking inspiration from the space, as well as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” the collection toyed with the idea of modernity, routine, communities, and archetypes that occupy contemporary Paris.
With market trollies and silhouettes that seemed to be able to slip into the daily life of a metropolis, Marine Serre brought her universe to life, with her signature crepuscular moon print, bringing urban pieces into an urban context. With a brilliant transversal cast – including the Kate Moss lookalike that had PFW gossiping for days afterwards – Marine Serre signed off a showstopper collection.
It’s no mystery that Paris Fashion Week brings out all the stars, but for the 10th-anniversary show, VETEMENTS pulled out all the stops on the VIP theme. Always toying with the idea of consumer excess, of mass information, of the grotesque nature of fame, VETEMENTS’ Guram Gvasalia exploded volumes, elongating trails and pumping up shoulder pads, reaching extensive proportions.
The cast was as stellar as the showgoers – with Alexander Edwards walking in front of girlfriend Cher, Anwar Hadid, Suzi de Givenchy, Winnie Harlow and Georgina Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo’s wife, all donning the signature VETEMENTS looks. Marcia Cross, a.k.a Bree Van de Kamp, closed the show in a red carpet red sequin gown, bringing all sense of measure to an end. Spectacular and riveting, this is the drama fashion week attendants live for.
One of the original masters of Paris Fashion Week, Yohji Yamamoto’s show works according to poetry and a logic that is exclusively his. Beyond the media game that Paris Fashion Week is, Yamamoto’s crafts a unique approach, that has faithful press and buyers turn up reverently, season after season, to discover his dreamy, otherworldly silhouettes.
As usual, he did not disappoint, suspending time and energy, with a show that started out in silence, with models gliding down the runway, almost as if in a spiritual ceremony. Layers were woollen, thick, and complex cuts brought drama and intricate emotions to each model. A real testament to the 40 years (and counting) career of this fashion behemoth.
For Stefano Gallici’s solemn, gothic second collection as Creative Director at Ann Demeulemeester, the aesthetic was even more streamlined, even more rock: the quintessence of the house was reinvented in slender, ultimate chic form. Speaking of his interpretation of the DNA of the brand, Gallici’s referred to the extensive archive with which he can work to bring his personal voice to the story: “The roots of my idea of what Ann should be lie in the power of indefiniteness, in an ambiguity of dressing, being and behaving that allows the freedom to be as one wants, boundlessly,” he explained.
Toying with the raw energy that has always been an undercurrent for Demeulemeester, Gallici brought vivid form to life, explored material dialogues and unpicked seams to deconstruct. “I feel exposed and fragile, but also protected by the awareness of being utterly authentic in my process,” he concluded. And we were in awe of something that was so personal, all the while being so faithful to the alma mater.
words.Patrick Clark
