The Row‘s appearances on the Parisian fashion week schedules are always slow moments of delight. The spring-summer 2024 by collection makes you truly question all that pointless noise that other brands are emitting to just be noticed for an Insta-second. A selection of the 80 looks for spring, designed and dreamed up by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, appeared on mannequins through an enfilade of handsome hôtel particulier salons on Place Vendôme, punctuated with hand-picked furniture from Parisian galleries, naturalistic floral arrangements, and waiters serving plates of red currants. There was no music; simply an ambiance of calm grandeur suggesting a certain cultivated, very Parisian sensibility. That got perfectly conveyed by the clothes.

The collection was introduced with an explanation that an expanded range of men’s wear yielded pieces that overlapped with the women’s offer. Can you spot the knee-length, black leather trench that reappears throughout the lineup? The leisure shirts with their retro stripes? The jeans that have been skillfully shredded at the knees, enhancing their desirability? Note, too, how the tailoring that seemed intentionally boxy and generous on a female frame is as intentionally streamlined on the male counterpart. Although the designers were absent, their presence was felt across the spectrum of this covetable wardrobe: laid-back layering; intellectual silhouettes; and lived-in looks that might be as basic as a button-front shirt and chinos. For every item in a dressier register – see the hand-embroidered slip dress worn over a gray T-shirt (very Martin Margiela), or the pumps with higher heels – the collection suggested a casual confidence. The lineup was also particularly palette-diverse, as primary hues alternated with pastels – see the bold red high-neck dress and pale pink cashmere polo. An outfit that comprised an outdoorsy jacket, pine green corduroy shirt, and jeans was at once erudite and everyday, as though it conveyed some admixture of vintage inspiration and social studies. New versions of signature bag styles were unapologetically capacious and as faithful to The Row as any logo. We all know that Paris style is ineffable and cannot be reduced to a single archetype. But the studio here can absorb the local culture and benefits from the proximity to manufacturers in France and Italy, where a large part of the collections are made. If a retail location to rival the stores in Los Angeles, New York, and London would give The Row its Paris bona fides, let’s agree for now that the brand has definitely perfected its je ne sais quoi.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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