Revenge Dressing. Alaïa SS24

July 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Alaïa collection by Pieter Mulier is hot, sexy, F-A-S-H-I-O-N. In another words, a perfect start of haute couture week, which quite ironically happens in the midst of one of the most tumultuous moments in France’s contemporary history. Taking place over a footbridge across the Seine, the fashion show couldn’t have been more public – a strong contrast to the intimacy of Mulier’s last presentation, which he held in his own apartment in Antwerp. “For me, that’s what it is about,” he declared afterward. “It’s about extremes. You know Alaia is high heels or flats.” The bridge bristles with lovers’ padlocks bolted to its handrails. It seemed an apt environmental accessory to the unabashedly sexualized, latex and visible-thong clad vision of women Mulier was unleashing on the world. “It’s the next step in what I want to say about Alaïa,” he said. “Not fetish – that’s not a good word – but it’s personal obsessions that I wanted to do in a way that other people didn’t. Using latex, using leather in a different way. Creating a silhouette that’s very feminine, but yet quite different than what you see today.”

Kinky fashion has its own long Parisian tradition – there’s nothing new in seeing the proposal of chic bourgeois women in immaculate tailoring who also happen to be displaying underwear. These male-gaze luxury fashion tropes have a 50-year history that goes back as far as Yves Saint Laurent and Helmut Newton. The 21st-century set of questions for Mulier center more on how to handle the empathetic argument that Alaïa always made for glorifying the physicality of womanhood; how to claim it as his own, and make it relevant in his own time. Indeed ‘time’ was the overarching theme Mulier was talking about—in the sense of the time it had taken to mould and tailor the silhouettes and add obsessive details, “like 35 buttons on a coat.” You could see the time-consuming techniques lavished, say, on the opaque-sheer splicing of horizontal bands of strips of leather and gauzy fabric, winding in varying widths down a floor-length dress. The tailoring was nipped to the narrowest of pencil skirts; the taut knitwear engineered to expose the thonged bodysuits that are, of course, Alaïa-central. If you’re looking for a revenge wardrobe, Mulier has it sorted out for you.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Le Chouchou. Jacquemus AW23

June 27, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Simon Porte Jacquemus came to Versailles for his very first date with his now husband, Marco, and had always dreamt of showing at the palace. “A year ago I had a vision and sent an email to Bastien [Daguzan, brand’s CEO] with two pictures of Versailles,” said Jacquemus after the show. “I told him that I wanted people arriving by boat and looking at the collection from the boat.” And that’s precisely what happened yesterday at the Le Chouchou collection presentation. Guests were escorted to the runway on quaint little off-white bateaux, and as we docked, models stepped out and walked in front of us with the palace in the background. The French designer certainly knows how to put on a show. Rather than shoehorning his brand into Versailles, he borrowed the elements of the place that coexist with his point of view, including references to one of its well-known residents, Marie Antoinette. In his most design-driven collection of late, there were elements of the famous queen’s love for theatrics and ballet, the utilitarian language Jacquemus often references, and, surpringly, nods to Princess Diana. Lady Di inspired the ’80s shapes of puffy and ruched silhouettes, a polka-dot dress, and the “big rounded sleeves that,” he promised, “will become a signature of Jacquemus.” There were also tutus worn as is or as petticoats or mini crinolines. From the ballet came the collection’s flat mules and rose-print tights. Cute.

Scrunched-up silhouettes were the show’s common denominator and gave the collection its name: Le Chouchou. “Everything was looking like a big chouchou,” or hair scrunchie, Jacquemus said, “and I think it’s nice to have something super precise that people remember. They can know that it is the Chouchou collection and remember the castle and the puffiness.” He Most compelling, however, was the designer’s inventive tailoring, which at times felt like a callback to his earlier collections. There were the backless blazers like the one he debuted at The Met earlier this year on Bad Bunny, here with cutouts that exposed tutus; a variety of jackets cut and cinched at the waist to friskily accommodate the mini crinolines; and others with one sleeve detached and gathered at the top. Also fun were tutus converted into micro shorts and presented as puffy boxers peeking out of men’s trousers – this was Jacquemus at his most sincere, offering a playful interpretation of royal dressing. It won’t be surprising to see Versailles-core trending on TikTok after this show, together with the existing balletcore.

Heart Beat. Marine Serre SS24

June 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marine Serre‘s co-ed spring-summer 2024 line-up was pretty loaded with musicians: Teyana Taylor, Noah Cyrus, Miguel, Brooke Candy, and Sevdaliza all walked the show, turning the presentation into quite a star-studded affair. The latest offering was classic Serre, including patchwork graphic pieces, cutout dresses, full patterned outfits, and that signature crescent moon motif. As usual, all garments were made from upcycled, deadstock materials, making the French designer still one of the most uncompromisingly sustainability-forward name in fashion. The collection spoke to the label’s essence of marrying couture elements with sportswear feels, underscored by that familiar wild, haphazard energy that garnered its cult following. Titled “Heart Beat” (with the actual rhythm joining the show’s soundtrack), this fashion show bumped with charisma.

Men’s – Substance. Loewe SS24

June 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Substance” seemed to be keyword for Jonathan Anderson‘s spring-summer 2024 menswear collection for Loewe. The three Lynda Benglis fountains that the designer’s curatorial enthusiasm had brought together for the first time were the first clues. One was tall and looming, another an apparently kinetically charged wave mid-break, and the last low and spreading like an unpruned shrub. Splashes of water erupting from Beglis’ structures inhabited the runway space, making the Loewe show an art experience, not just a parade of clothes. But the clothes were equally transfixing as the liquid-like installations. The garments hewn by Anderson and his team for this collection defined the shape and aspect of the moving human substance within them. By pulling the waistband of his pants up so very high, Anderson said afterwards, he wanted to create a way of seeing this collection that was akin to viewing it from ground level with a fish-eye lens. Coating some looks with crystals that glinted in the skylight sunshine invited you to see another watery parallel with Anderson’s installed artworks. When not obscured by long coats, or three hypersized swatches (complete with hypersized pins) of what looked like chintzy vintage wall upholstery fabric, that looming silhouette was generally undisturbed yet variously expressed. Sparkly polo shirts, chunky knits, argyle sweaters, trench coat shirts, and bonded gray rib knits with rounded shoulders or two dimensional side-tabs were all cropped around the southern reaches of the wearer’s ribcage. Three leather jumpsuits near the end, one pastel pink, latter scarlet, the last black, combined the trouser shape with the upholstery facade into a hybridized silhouette. “It’s always about trying to find contradictions in men and women: like how do you blur all of that? I feel like something in this is very precise in that message, it’s very reduced, very luxe”, Anderson said.

Downdressed. Officine Générale SS24

June 24, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

When it comes to French style, nobody does it like Officine Générale‘s founder and designer, Pierre Mahéo. For spring-summer 2024, the designer “wanted it to be simple, but when it gets too simple, it’s boring, so you sort of need to trick it with styling.” He added: “I didn’t want undressed, I wanted downdressed.” Those sentiments underscored what the collection upheld: a languid fundamentality that wasn’t plain, but truly desirable. Mahéo made a strong case that purity in form can still come with a little flair and dazzle. The beautifully cast show opened with a black-and-white toned palette, and paired tailoring, foulards, and loose, almost pajama-esque shirting. Waistbands were elasticized; socks and garters were knee high – it clashed undone and done up nicely, but fell, impression-wise, on the simpler side of things, which was exactly Mahéo’s intention. The super chic designer also mentioned, in his show notes, that a “cold and rainy” winter in Paris led him to inject a bit of warmth into the mix. Enter ultraviolet and teal tones, tank tops and breezy shorts. Officine Générale is known for elevated essentials, yet this all felt truly summery – like Mahéo was exhaling, and finding a new stride of easygoing magic in the moment. Oui, oui, oui!