Margaret. Chanel SS24 Couture

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“He met Margaret on a rooftop, she was wearin’ white,

And he was like, ‘I might be in trouble'”.

Of course, the moment I saw Margaret Qualley stepping out on the Chanel haute couture runway dressed in all-white, I had this Lana Del Rey song on my mind. Dedicated to Jack Antonoff, her friend and long-time collaborator, and his wife, Margaret, the song is an ode to hope and love, and finding answers for big questions in the right time. This Virginie Viard couture line-up, very unfairly hated by most of the critics, encapsulated that mood very well, and was yet another endeavor into a sort of unhinged femininity that isn’t exactly what the mass media keep on expecting from her Chanel. Largely inspired by ballet and the zsa zsa zsou feeling of falling in love, the collection ran from white to fondant pastels and back again. The connection to dance was flickering through the silhouette of a tweed twinset of sorts – a cropped jacket whose matching under-piece was shaped like a leotard. Other highlight: a nipped-waist, full-skirted black coat-dress puffed out on a stiff white ballerina tutu. Then, a pink chiffon dress with a shirred bodice and flyaway, textile-arty bows mixed up in its skirts. The Chanel woman is a girl at heart, but not definitely not because of a TikTok trend, but in a Sofia Coppola-kind-of-way. The finale, of course, was the Chanel bride. She had on a tiny silver-white tunic for a dress with poetic balloon chiffon sleeves and was trailing yards of white tulle as a train. Romantic, decorative, but grounded in a kind of contemporary reality. That’s Virginie Viard’s style all over.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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What’s Hot (24.1.24)

January 24, 2024January 20, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Schiapar-alien. Schiaparelli SS24 Couture

January 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Couture season has started, baby! Schiaparelli kicked of the haute week in Paris with musings on sci-fi and the future. The final result of Daniel Roseberry‘s plunge into all things Alien and Elsa Schiaparelli was, however, more about retro-tech with grand, surreal gestures. Huge funnel-like necklines disguised the face behind screens of lace; champagne-hued ballgowns with silk bows that jutted out near-endlessly appeared to defy gravity; and floor-length beaded fringes that moved energetically as if from Planet Glam all conjured astronomical flourishes of high-art-meets-high-fashion. Elsewhere, silver spine-like bijoux (a nod to Schiaparelli’s 1938 skeleton dress) that sprouted from the back of a black corset paired with a latex skirt and a polished parure, and a perfectly curved cream jacket offered all the alienistic edge a line of space-ready silhouettes could need. The mini-dress made out of discarded technology relics can be read as a comment on tech-waste, a problem that we face globally. But you can also perceive it as a new take on embellishments and embroideries. “Now, the technology I grew up with is so antiquated that it’s almost as difficult to source as certain vintage fabrics and embellishments,” said Roseberry in his show notes. Model Maggie Maurer – an IRL freshly-baked mother – carried a baby doll made from motherboards and microchips. That all might have felt quite too much for a Monday morning, but at Schiaparelli there seems no such thing as restraint.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Stripped Back. The row AW24

January 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

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.