Louise Trotter took her time to deeply absorb the Bottega Veneta‘s 60 years of codes and craftsmanship – not rushing last season, but instead offering a substantial collection now. It’s a collection with many avenues for customers to explore once the clothes and accessories reach the stores, from myriad interpretations of intrecciato to an array of ultra-tactile textures. I’ll say it loud and clear: the techniques, the artistry, and the sheer beauty of each individual piece Trotter presented are beyond words. Yet this may also have been the trap she fell into – the collection felt overpacked and overstimulating. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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Carven‘s pre-fall 2025 collection, officially credited to the brand’s studio, is a good-looking transition moment between Louise Trotter’s work at the maison and the brand’s current creative director – and long-time collaborator of Trotter – Mark Thomas. The line-up, offering garments and accessories so wearable and easy-in-approach that it’s hard not to fall in love with their daily allure, is informed by blousy smock tops, wraparound apron shapes and a penchant for fabrics that appear structured to the eye yet soft around the body. One of the dresses with flannel on front and crushed lining in the back reminisces a 1950s couture dress with its strikingly simple, yet chic silhouette. Then you’ve got all the bubbly, t-shirt-inspired dresses and tops, minimal, timeless, versatile. The knits and cashmere shifts are pieces to be grateful for when you need to leave home looking pulled together. Carven became a go-to brand for less is more women who aren’t after The Row’s sophisticated oddness or Phoebe Philo’s contemporary strictness; the brand offers a warmer, cozier approach to minimalism. A madame minimalism.
Louise Trotter‘s Carven is easily one of the best designer-and-brand pairings in a while. The spring-summer 2025 collection, which opened with a minimal dress in shade of champagne and constructed to hover just slightly away from the body, was about sense of an intimate world taking shape in unexpected ways. While the shoes were slippers and puffy mules, there was nothing sleepy about the collection as it beautifully balanced easy nonchalance with sophisticated chic. Trotter – just like Phoebe Philo or the Olsens – understands that dressing women means understanding their relationship to their clothes; her silhouettes are considered yet never overworked. The intriguing ambiguity of a rounded trench on Marte Mei and the extended white tuxedo shirtdress topped with an ample collarless black jacket on Jessica Miller were both standouts. Wherever the Carven woman is wearing these looks (you can imagine them in different circumstances), for Trotter they represent “the quotidian, the rituals.”
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The best indicators of whether a brand is taking shape under a new creative director are not the runway collections, but the pre-collections. Judging by the pre-fall 2024 lookbook, Louise Trotter‘s Carven certainly is on the right path to be your new favorite Parisian brand. “It is not a nostalgic or particular prism of a woman,” said the British designer, when asked how the heritage of Carven informs her approach. “It’s that sense of silhouette and sense of proportion with an ease of today.” Comparing to other designers in Paris who struggle with reviving historic Parisian maisons (think Nina Ricci and Rochas), Trotter isn’t stepping into the trap of the archives. She isn’t pulling out a mid-century dress and trying to make it look somehow relevant in 2024. But she smartly deconstructs elements of Madame Carven’s sensibility, and incorporates them into contemporary Carven. For instance, the 1950s column silhouette is revisited in a tank dress worn over a t-shirt. For pre-fall, the designer is gravitating towards a more masculine wardrobe; think sweatshirt in sheepskin or a technical Prince of Wales trouser. The softly tailored coat that comes in either double-face cashmere or chocolate wool gabardine is phenomenal. “I want to find solutions for her life, as I do for myself,” Trotter noted. “It’s instinctive for me. These are pieces that I appreciate and want to wear.” Other women will, too.
Here are some of my favorite pieces from Trotter’s debut collection for Carven. Last sizes left!
Carven, founded in 1945 by Madame Carven, has finally found a designer that can navigate it in the contemporary times: the hyper-talented Louise Trotter. Her Carven debut collection is one of the biggest highlights of this season. Ahead of her spring-summer 2024 fashion show in Paris, Trotter had voiced her desire to start the brand anew. She indeed delivered her promise, but that doesn’t mean total erasure of the brand’s identity. In its history, Carven was known for distinct, hourglass silhouette. The British creative director references it throughout the new offering via powerful shoulders and nipped-in waists. Throughout the collection’s looks (styled by Suzanne Koller), the designer redefines timeless wardrobe essentials: cinched trench coats, transparent white shirts, elegant black dresses, all contrasted with playful details like over-sized leather poach bags, vibrant shades of sky-blue and mint-green, or beaded embroideries. The new Carven delivers a fresh layer to the eternal myth of Parisian chic, being far, far from a cliché.
Here are my favorite pieces from the collection, which you can shop now!
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