Wish-List: New Chloé

Chemena Kamali’s highly anticipated debut collection for Chloé has finally hit the stores, and damn, these clothes are hot. You know, sometimes you’ve got a brilliant fashion show or a look-book, but when you see the clothes separately, there’s just no spark. But in case of Kamali, she really did deliver. These pieces, which are the perfect balance of nomadic 1970s and boho 2000s, carry a sort of authentic patina that you get with vintage clothes that age well.

The designer’s first season at Chloé is her very personal ode to the maison. Kamali knows the history of the brand inside out, because she worked there as a Chloé-obsessed junior designer in the early 2000s under Phoebe Philo’s creative direction, and then again under Clare Waight Keller. She’s really at home here, and you can sense that in the way she so effortlessly revisits the Chloé vocabulary and codes. You have Gaby Aghion’s, the brand’s founder, carefree femininity; Karl Lagerfeld’s bourgeois chic he cultivated throughout three decades of designing at the brand; and the cool-girl spirit that Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, and Hannah McGibbon ignited in the aughts. But Chemena’s clothes and accessories also feel grounded in reality. The designer herself is a working mom, and she wants to make clothes that aren’t only feminine, but wearable. One might say that there’s nothing truly ground-breakingly innovative about the new Chloé. But then we live in post-post-modern world where nostalgia keeps on fueling current aesthetics. And Kamali orchestrates that nostalgia really well. Plus, I really love this brand, and I couldn’t stand what Gabriela Hearst was doing with it for the past few years. So seeing Chloé being Chloé again is just so pleasing.

The best of Chemena’s autumn-winter 2024 collection?