Isola Bella. Louis Vuitton Resort 2024

May 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

As a vivid nay-sayer of Nicolas Ghesquière‘s recent work at Louis Vuitton, I will admit it: the resort 2024 collection is BRILLIANT. It’s Ghesquière fashion – intelligent, quirky, high-and-low, time-proof, self-referential – that I love and truly missed for the last couple of years. His resort show yesterday (nearly) happened at the terraced gardens of Isola Bella, a tiny private island in Lake Maggiore that has belonged to Italy’s Borromeo clan for 500 years. Ferrying the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Oprah Winfrey, and Cate Blanchett, plus 1,000 or so other guests to the spectacular venue was quite the feat, but not even the powerhouse that is Louis Vuitton can change the weather. The rain was coming down in sheets, and plans for a sunset show and after-party en plein air had to be scrapped, though an earlier show was staged to create these images. The lake produces its own climate and Ghesquière was much inspired by the watery surroundings. “We started with the idea that the girls were coming from the water, like mermaids of the lake, and they’re transforming to something else,” he said. The explanation tied together a collection of many distinct proposals. Ghesquière tends to think freer and looser when he’s untethered from Paris, but this sci-fi fantasy had the dreaminess of a fairytale. It started with scuba gear featuring fin-like collars and water droplet embellishments. A pair of diving jackets were elaborately printed in a way that conjured both Hokusai waves and the creatures that might be living underneath them. He mixed neoprene tank suits with lavish courtly robes, and paired mermaid-scale sequin skirts with naval jackets. The baroque headgear was custom-made for the show by an atelier in Rome that works for the opera and movies. This was the French house’s first-ever show in Italy (a timely choice given its new CEO Pietro Beccari is Italian) and Ghesquière wanted to pay tribute to the country’s patrimony of craft. Then the mermaids found their sea legs. His everyday pieces included brushed cashmere sweaters in soft pastels that he described as Italian colors, button-downs and “jeans” in embroidered lace and sumptuous brocades, and classically cut coats that topped sequined floral dresses inspired by the island’s plantings.

“By the end the mermaid becomes a flower, but maybe not a flower that exists,” Ghesquière said. That notion produced a group of long dresses in more of those pastel shades that qualified as real news for the designer, who has typically shied away from gowns on the runway at LV. They were delicate and bold simultaneously, a mix of silk, georgette, organza, and lace from their softly draped bodices and pouf sleeves to their sculptural, swingy hems. Who needs mysterious lakes when you have the power of imagination? Who wants quiet luxury when you can have a couture-level cape with water droplet beading or a quilted damask jacket featuring wyvern, unicorn, and other legendary creatures? A captivating, transportive show.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Bizarre. Gucci Resort 2024

May 17, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Gucci‘s resort 2024 might officially own the title of “the most bizarre collection of the year”. It’s gimmick-ness, randomness and out-of-place-ness is sort of criminal… The no-designer period is a hard moment for the Italian brand, that’s for sure. The aesthetic echoes of Alessandro Michele can still be perceived, but there’s no method to all that madness. I think Sabato De Sarno won’t have an easy task with his debut.

Gucci is the latest house to stage a premiere event in Seoul. By now, the West understands the importance of this market, which holds a global influence. But it is no longer enough to simply show up and believe the sales will follow. Indeed, the idea of a show at Gyeongbokgung, the former royal palace where the Gucci show unfolded, induced more than one raised eyebrow among locals. Any Korean has been a hundred times over on field trips, escorting overseas guests, to see the cherry blossoms bloom, and it is the de facto destination for all foreigners shooting music videos, ad campaigns, and short films. The front row was filled with celebrities, both international (Dakota Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Saoirse Ronan) and domestic (NewJeans’s Hanni, IU, Lee Jung-jae). So what did Gucci see of Seoul? Model Sora Choi opened the show in a long black padded coat over jeans, clutching a fetching baguette-shaped bag that appeared again and again (kitted out in crystals, quilted in holographic lilac). There was a blend of bourgeois streetwear and sportswear, such as the bouclé bike shorts with the ladies-who-lunch jacket, cropped to flash the midriff, as well as a standout pale pink chiffon dress with tiered ruffles that fluttered down the runway, which was worn over a black scuba suit. Neoprene was seen as layered turtlenecks that zipped up to the chin, and paired with tweed midi skirts embellished with diamanté crystals racing up the sides. The referential mix of Tom Ford-era at Gucci nods was another move, although very forced. A sateen lilac coat worn by Karen Elson that closed with a red bow resembling the one which closes a traditional jeogori jacket was an elegant take on Korean heritage, as were the surrealist illustrations of pink jello and cat’s paws by local artist Ram Han. These were the finest highlights of this very unfocused collection.

One Night Only. Chanel Resort 2024

May 14, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

For its resort 2024 collection, Chanel took us to Los Angeles – the Paramount Studios lot to be specific. With stars including Margot Robbie, Kristen Stewart and Marion Cotillard lighting up the front row, and a post-show performance by Snoop Dogg, this was a very Hollywood affair. Ahead of Virginie Viard’s show, movie billboards promoting it as a “One Night Only” event went up around town, making an explicit point about Chanel’s embeddedness in LA’s dominant culture (a 30,000-square-foot Chanel store, the brand’s biggest in the U.S., opened on Rodeo Drive last week). As a matter of fact, Viard didn’t look at the silver screen or the red carpet for inspiration, but to what appeared to be a more quotidian example of Los Angeles: the Venice Beach boardwalk, a see-and-be-seen playground for roller skaters, weight lifters, beach bunnies, and epic sunsets. “I thought let’s do Jane Fonda, Cindy Crawford – all our heroines,” she said at the “accessoirsation” of the collection. “There are jeans, a more aerobic feeling; every show is the occasion to do something we’ve never done before.” Viard’s stamp is the more feminine, youthful hand she’s brought to the house since taking over as artistic director in 2019, but the sporty vibe of the collection, with its leg warmers, wedge heel sneakers, running shorts, and swim tanks, plus the occasional skateboard, was something new. Not every look was a success, though. Still, think of it as a Chanel look for a star’s every occasion, including, in a serendipitous bit of timing, Robbie’s upcoming press tour for Barbie, which is shaping up to be the movie of the summer.

Impeccable. The Row Resort 2024

March 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Those The Row outings the Olsen twins bring to Paris Fashion Week are impeccable. They are the peak of sophistication, understated luxury and intriguing tailoring, but as well much-needed moments of serenity after nearly a month of constant fashion influx. They also serve as a reminder that longevity resulting from great design and top-notch quality is so much better and more rewarding than the dumb pursuit after newness – which often in contemporary fashion feels rather flat than truly innovative. To the tune of hypnotic 1979 goth anthem “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen‘s latest offering was presented in a chic hôtel particulier. There was a beautiful opening of all-black looks in the form of The Row’s new coat shape, double breasted, tailored with a wide shouldered ease, a scarf-like panel dropping over one sleeve. Appropriately enough, evening got in on the act too; for some time now there has been the incisive way they’ve been experimenting with all sorts of folding and draping, best seen here on a strapless black ensemble, with sleeves wrapped to cinch the waist. That the Olsens are committed to all manner of creative construction was underscored by so much of that sumptuous outerwear, particularly a (yet another) black coat, masculine and classic in shape, but with the surprise of the shoulder construction was tacked onto the shoulders. Though not everything was dark, dark, dark. Sensational color would appear every now and again: an eau de nil evening dress, magically created out of what looked like interwoven ribbons; a classic clutch coat in vermillion.