Paris

Muglerettes On A Mission. mugler AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Mugler brought some drama and bravado to Paris Fashion Week. For autumn-winter 2024, Casey Cadwallader staged a three-act revue show, full of moody curtain drops and a supermodel cast that included Precious Lee, Kristen McMenamy, Eva Herzigova and Farida Khelfa. Curve creating cuts and corsetry, ergonomic body-cons, futuristic fetish wear, that’s 100% modern-day Mugler. From this season’s novelties, the designer included fluttering asymmetric panels that trail as you stride past; in smooth leather or shiny silk they worked to enhance the models’ silhouettes in motion. Tailoring was as sharp as it can get at Mugler, and wide shouldered coats and jackets were worn with padded leather breast plates. Winged hip contours and wired necklines made the clothes look extra-dynamic, as if the Muglerettes were on a mission.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Back To Black. Valentino AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Similarly to Rei Kawakubo, Valentino‘s Pierpaolo Piccioli sent down the runway an all-black collection as a response to our troubled world. While the Comme Des Garçons designer offered some light at the end of the tunnel – a white bridal cocoon dress – Piccioli presented a fully veiled, transparent gown. This super elegant line-up, filled with very fine day-to-day wardrobe staples and simply beautiful, at points austere in silhouette eveningwear, offered no happy end. And just a moment ago the designer would go PPPink.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Overload. Balenciaga AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

“What seems truly rare and finite right now is actually creativity itself,” Demna said backstage at his autumn-winter 2024 Balenciaga show. “I believe that creativity has secretly become a new form of luxury.” As a big admirer of Demna’s work, however, I must admit I found the creativity part missing this season. The collection felt like AI-generated line-up of the designer’s now-trademark style codes, with plenty, plenty of references to Martin Margiela. Of course, it’s not the first time when Demna goes Margiela, but this time I found it quite redundant. Taped clothes, deconstructed dresses patchworked from other garments, square-legged boots, denim pants worn as tops… the list goes on and on. This season’s Balenciaga tribe – gum-chewing, septum-ringed, eyes wrapped in futuristic silicone masks – marched headlong through a digital AI–aided visual cacophony playing on hundreds of wall and floor screens. “Photoshopped into the fake reality, into basically the overload of content that is killing our society, in a way. You know, like TikTok videos,” the designer said of the immersive experience. It did say a lot for the human brain that there could be any attention spared for the clothes at all. Well. I felt absolutely exhausted somewhere mid-show. But maybe it’s the fashion month that hits hard especially during the last days of Paris Fashion Week.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Don’t Bother Me. Comme Des Garçons AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Rei Kawakubo goes back to black. Her Comme Des Garçons collection was simply titled “Anger“. “This is about my present state of mind. I have anger against everything in the world, especially against myself.” Global conflicts, wars that seems to have no ending, general social unrest. Kawakubo seems to be angry at herself for being in the fashion industry, for its schemes and formats, and for being a designer herself. She instructed some of the show’s models to go out and vent, to break the fourth wall that divides the runway from audience. The third model, dressed in black polyurethane exploded-flare pants and a biker-jacket cape, suddenly did a massive clenched-fist stamp of frustration in the middle of the runway. Another model turned and loomed over some people in the front row, confrontationally invading their space with a bow-front pannier skirt. The constructs of extreme historical tropes of femininity – the pileups of rosettes, panniers, bows, and pompadour wigs – seemed to be on the brink of sarcastic self-parody. But then, a bride in white appeared in the show’s finale. Maybe there’s some light of hope at the end of this dark tunnel?

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Wild Things. Andreas Kronthaler Vivienne Westwood AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Wild things were going on at the Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood runway this season. The autumn-winter 2024 show’s bizarrely eclectic adventures in time travel unfolded around some highly entertaining performance art by Sons of Sissy, a trio of dancers and musicians who blended pagan ritual with high camp and impressions of birdsong and weather events – the bum drumming was a particular highlight. With Sam Smith, Lila Moss and Amelia Hamlin on the catwalk, Andreas Kronthaler presented a collection that was inspired by a Giovanni Battista Moroni exhibition in Milan, and also by protective sportswear (jockstraps were seen all over the line-up). Signature corseted gowns with exaggerated frills and ruffles were juxtaposed with super revealing menswear and jersey materials. Grotesque can be fun and intriguing, but sometimes it might get out of hands.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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