Grey Gardens

Magda Butrym finds pleasure in experimenting and developing her language through exploration of themes close to her heart. She’s also a female designer with a unique design sensibility that joins this season’s growing discourse around the way women are designing for women. The autumn-winter 2024 collection is an unexpected journey: from the cult 1975 documentary “Grey Gardens” to a fascinating revisiting of Polish heritage. Let’s start in the East Hamptons property of the eccentric Bouvier family, where Little Edie’s singular style, characterized by shawls and veils, evolved and became fashion’s ever-self-updating inspiration. The latest collection revisits her iconic looks, like the maxi cardigan cocooning or the shearling coat reminiscent of the oversized fur she used to wear while running errands in her garden. A red, broad-shouldered blazer or double-breasted coat, highlighted with strips of shearling, contrasts with ribbed knits and matching pantyhose, creating a charismatic, off-kilter look. Residing in industrial surroundings, the two models starring in Butrym’s lookbook (shot by Vitali Gewich and styled by Jacob Kjeldgaard) are undeniably elegant, with a hint of madness, yet there is grace and lightness in their unparalleled styles.

With Magda Butrym’s universe, there’s always the return to her Polish roots. The appreciation of Polish cultural heritage is synonymous with the brand’s rose-budding ethos. The collection’s hero accessory – the headscarf – is a symbol of femininity rooted in Slavic tradition. Whether monochrome or adorned with blooming florals, the shawls embrace and safeguard the sacred essence of womanhood. Women are the custodians of ancient wisdom, myths, and legends, passing on entire mindsets to the next generations, nurturing and preserving their heritage and integrity. The headscarf as well evokes the image of Madonna, a maternal figure that stands as a timeless emblem of female empowerment. An enduring example of Polish cultural iconography depicting Saint Mary is the album cover of Maanam’s “Love is Wonderful”. Kora, the band’s iconic frontwoman, performs Miron Białoszewski’s 1956 poem “Carousel with Madonnas”, a vivid portrayal of girls and women having fun in an amusement park, resembling Madonnas painted by Renaissance masters. The urban setting of the autumn-winter 2024 lookbook – two women, two strong characters – can be read as a contemporary interpretation of female self-confidence and self-satisfaction conveyed in the track. The finale look of the collection further explores Slavic traditions and is somewhat an elusive mystery. A fringed, silk bolero jacket paired with a draped column dress and a bejeweled headscarf, all in pure white, a color representing absolute freedom and the possibility of new beginnings. What’s coming next for Magda Butrym? Watch this space.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The autumn-winter 2023 collection was Victoria Beckham‘s most daring offering, ever. At first, it overwhelms with its chaos, and there are moments when you wonder whether each look is a start of a separate collection. But when you realize the collection is inspired with “Grey Gardens”, things start to get clear. It gets chaotic-good. Beckham’s show invitation showed a portrait of Drew Barrymore, reprising her role as Little Edie in the mentioned cult movie. She’s a friend, from when Beckham and her family lived in L.A. “It’s not the first time I’ve talked about ‘Grey Gardens’,” said the designer. “But I don’t want to take it literally. It’s more about being a bit more eclectic, having fun; almost like a little girl playing dress-up.” Checking back to what she did last season, it read as an evolution of the elongated silhouettes she was establishing then, with some gutsier demi-deconstructed tailoring strengthening the line-up. Anyone who still associates Victoria with business-perfect dresses might be surprised, though. There was none of the short-and sucked-in left here: instead, there was a much more relaxed and generously inclusive approach to shape, generally a modernized version of 1930s-ish silhouettes. So too with the tailoring – Beckham’s interpretation of the wide-shouldered jacket, optionally worn as a dress, looked spot on for the season. She didn’t mention the word ‘surrealist’, but that’s how a couple of her dresses happened to read, especially when styled with trimmings of acrylic hair extensions, inspired, she said, by work of artist Solange Pessoa. Who knows, maybe Victoria Beckham will turn into a designer known for free-spirited non-chalance?