Marc’s Swans. Marc Jacobs SS24

February 3, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Although Marc Jacobs presented his latest collection off-schedule, a couple of days before NYFW officially starts, yesterday’s line-up brought hope and optimism to the city’s state of the industry. Jacobs celebrates 40 years (!) of his brand, but the spring-summer 2024 line-up doesn’t read us a retrospective, but rather an exuberant, lively love letter to fashion. Walking tall, strong and gracious, like swans (both, the Central Park ones and the Truman Capote ones), in bouffant wigs, the models and the entire doll-house scene (featuring XXL table and chairs by artist Robert Therrien) felt like some sort of twisted fairy-tale. The collection itself was an exercise in exaggerated proportions. Knit sweaters abruptly cinched at the waist; floor-length mirrored ballgowns – those could definitely be worn by modern-day C.Z. Guests and Babe Paleys; supersized Venetia bags (the 2000s Marc Jacobs best-seller is back, better than ever); fluffy-looking tailoring. This is for the dollllllls! The designer sneaked a couple of references to his finest work (and a couple of Louis Vuitton nods are also here), but he also combined his design language with his subtle signifiers of his ultimate fashion heroes: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada. Jacobs never feared to admit he’s a fashion fan. To the tune of Philip Glass, the show ended dramatically as it started, with the doll-models walking out of open door at the end of the runway into the street. There was no finale – and we got a two-second glimpse of Jacobs before the vast space of Park Avenue Armory plunged into darkness. Here’s to next decades and decades of F-A-S-H-I-O-N!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Back In South of France. Jacquemus SS24

January 29, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jacquemus once again picked a signature, French location for his see-now-buy-now fashion show. I, personally, adore Fondation Maeght: when I visited it a couple of years ago, I was so entranced by the beauty of this art institution I never wanted to leave. Seasons ago, Nicolas Ghesquière of Louis Vuitton chose the Saint-Paul-de-Vence museum and its yards as his cruise venue, and he showed there some of his finest work ever. This place is a perfect location for a fashion show, yes – but only when the clothes match up to it, to all the Giacomettis and Matisses and Chagalls. Or at least build an intriguing, contextual, visual dialogue. I missed that part about Simon Porte Jacquemus‘ spring-summer 2024 collection. The rigid, overly statuesque silhouettes read and felt flat, some looks were even unflattering. The tailoring was just OK, just like the simplistic eveningwear. A pop of fringes here, a bit of leopard print there… it was all Insta-photogenic, but nothing else. A collection that would do much better in a white-cube setting in Paris. Although Jacquemus is repeatedly called a “marketing genius“, I still can’t grasp the connection between this line-up and the Kristin-Davis-as-Charlotte-York promo. And then Kylie Jenner and Julia Roberts in the f-row. Make it make sense.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Unhinged Galliano. Maison Margiela SS24 Couture

January 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The moment the Maison Margiela haute couture show started, it was clear that no other collection we’ve seen this week really matters anymore. John Galliano did the most noble thing a contemporary designer can do: make people believe in fashion again. And confirm that couture is still really, really needed, because it can be the most beautiful, visually striking, inspiring and astonishing form of escapism.

In the last couple of seasons at Margiela, it was clear that Galliano is returning back to himself as a designer. But this spring-summer 2024 couture collection feels like a total release, total encapsulation of the unhinged Galliano – even not from the Dior days, but rather the early 90s shows in Paris under his own name, that stunned with theatricality, pure romanticism and casts of model so authentic you believed you’ve been transported to a different epoque. The scene: under the Pont d’Alexandre III after dark, down rain-soaked steps, with the Seine roiling alongside, a rancid Parisian nighttime joint with bare floorboards, cafe tables, dim mirrors, and a bar overflowing with spent drinks. The runway mise-en-scène suddenly turned into a living Brassai’s 1920s and ’30s portraits of the night-time underbelly of Paris’s clubs and streets. Galliano’s transferences into cutting, ultra-extreme corsetry, padded hips, erotically sheer lace dresses, and wildly imaginative hair, chiffon-masked makeup, and eerie doll-like body-modifications took a year. A year to work on a production that seamlessly mixed film – which played in the mirrors – into the scenario, showing lovers, dancers, and gangsters prowling the banks of the Seine. To make it seem that these strutting denizens, fugitives from fights, or half-dressed from sexual encounters, clutching their moon-bleached coats or scrappy cardigans around them were actually congregating from the riverside and into the club before our eyes. Through some of Galliano’s beautifully delicate hourglass dresses there was pubic hair to be seen through tulle and lace (they were merkins on underwear, but still bound to stir up a storm). Some of his indescribable techniques looked almost like walking paintings, greenish-pink watercolor nudes with blurry dabs for eyes. All the images and impressions from this show will be burned on the mind’s eye for many reasons and many years.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Futurism. Fendi SS24 Couture

January 26, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“I wanted the collection to feel quite graphic rather than romantic because I was thinking about Fendi and how, under Karl, there was always an element of ‘futurism,’” Kim Jones said of his latest haute couture collection. “I didn’t go back to look at what Karl did, but I like to take the essence of it.” This couture collection landed especially well, because Jones didn’t base his concept on a specific Karl Lagerfeld collection that much. This was finally a Jones for Fendi collection, not a dig into the archives. The designer developed trompe l’oeil decorativeness of an unexpected kind, which appeared to be one of the biggest highlight from this very streamlined, sharp collection. “We wanted to do fur, but without using fur or fake fur,” he said. “So we’ve done it with embroidery instead.” Embroidered with miniscule filaments, and sewn in densely overlapping rippling formations, the results are feather-like and feather-light to wear, be it as a coat, dress, or pencil-skirt. There’s also something for the couture-minimalists: the opening look was as spare and reduced as could be, specifically a black, strapless calf-length column Jones called “a box-dress.”

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Crescendo. Valentino SS24 Couture

January 26, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

For spring-summer 2024 haute couture, Valentino‘s Pierpaolo Piccioli opted for the hushed intimacy of its salons on Place Vendôme. The designer’s aim was to emphasize the “sacred process” of couture. But there was nothing quiet about the presented haute garments; this was a full-tempoed crescendo from the first look till the finale. Piccioli’s lineup included the requisite red carpet stunners, but also indulged in a quirky day wardrobe in unusual volumes and colors. Oversize jackets, palazzo pants, scooped vests, fishtail skirts and duster coats came in shades like chartreuse, oxblood, lime, putty, mustard and sage. The designer skipped elaborate embroideries, focusing on silhouettes that require the highest skills of tailoring (and artisan) precision. Small oblong discs were bonded with patent leather to resemble crocodile skin on a glossy green men’s coat, while a barely there chiffon top sprouted tiny white feathers that were actually made from cut organza. “The magic comes from the illusion,” Piccioli said. With 64 sublime looks, the collection offered a dizzying array of options for awards season, including a stunning black velvet cutout dress trailing a long silk chiffon stole.

Piccioli noted that each piece that comes out of his workshop is unique, since no two people execute his sketches the same way – and that’s just how he likes it. “If you don’t project your own experience, your own life, your humanity into what you’re doing, you will never feel the soul,” he said.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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