Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2024 collections in review
Paris is an immovable feast of bold women, upcycled corsets and an optimistic search for beauty in trying times.
We’ve come to the end of a bloated Paris Fashion Week calendar filled with never-heard-of names to familiar ones, who felt it necessary to make their presentations here. For them, Paris is an immovable feast – especially when all the world’s sort-of media, random KOLs, and assorted flotsam and jetsam of the world’s fashion industry (bonjour, Paris Hilton) have taken it upon their bold shoulders to crash fashion’s champagne buffet.
When names that don’t need to show in Paris do, they only add to the melee and little else, diluting the essence of Paris fashion. For example American labels The Row, and Peter Do, who both showed competent collections, would have made New York Fashion Week more substantial, but their efforts get lost in Paris. Similarly British designers like Victoria Beckham, Stella McCartney, and Margaret Howell could have shown in London Fashion Week and endowed their native city with richer fashion capital.
A STRONG WOMAN
Still recovering from the pandemic of 2020, the EU is now grappling with the tragedy of the Ukraine war, the migrant crisis, cost of living crisis, and overall fiscal deterioration. Enter Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. With her neat erect figure, steely gaze and camera-ready blondness, the wunderfrau is the perfect fit to wrestle Europe’s bigger issues into sample-sized solutions. Von der Leyen seems to be the inspiration for many of the tough-girl styles on the Paris catwalks. These looks can seem formulaic, after endless variants through the season, hung on the minimalism and quiet luxury trends. Strength doesn’t always express itself in grim uniform style. Better designers take this brief, and give us fashion that reflects the complexity of the times, to define a new beauty.
Dior
Well, what makes a strong woman? For Maria Grazia Chiuri, it would be medieval witches, who were feminist rebels of their time, and her stated inspiration. The irony that the show invites VIPs and clients (who must be among the most privileged women in the world) seems to be lost.
Plastered across the Barbie-coloured walls of the show were gigantic statements such as “I Don’t Belong To Anyone Else”, “My Body Is Not A Product” and “I Am Not Your Doll” etc. Today’s feminist, Grazia Chiuri proposes, wears a version of the Dior codes in a somber palette ‒ its renowned tailoring in blacks and smoke and khaki; white shirts and slouchy trousers; pleated skirts and bar jackets; cinched waists; wafts of tulle on graceful gowns. You could read a note of rebellion in some asymmetric looks, shirts and jackets with only one shoulder.
Female empowerment was also seen as a grey denim jacket with burn-mark trim (witches were burnt at stakes?), and a plethora of black net dresses showing off prim bras and panties. The latter item is a Grazia Chiuri signature.
Saint Laurent
A more energetic sort of woman was shown by Anthony Vaccarello in a classic Saint Laurent showcase. Inspired by pioneer female aviators, this supremely elegant collection was grounded in utility and the safari jacket.
Styled with all the 1980s glamour of a Helmut Newton photo (chunky earrings, sunglasses and red lips), androgynous pocketed jumpsuits (Yves himself wore those), crisp khaki pants, cargo-style dresses, V-neck shirt dresses, onesies with huge patch pockets, trench dresses, tunic tops, rounded off with some sheer silk dresses, which were beautifully plain.
It was a collection as fresh and strong as the YSL collection of 1968, modelled so memorably by Veruschka von Lehndorff, who wore the front-laced safari tunic with a gun.
Louis Vuitton
It’s the functionality and modernity that made Nicolas Ghesquiere’s designs feel empowering and his woman strong.
Having shaped Louis Vuitton’s womenswear for over a decade, this latest collection vrooms with confidence and it is a clear expression of his design language and genius. The leather bomber jackets and the varsity blouson, which have become his signature, had 1980s brio. Many of the tops and brass band coats had the bold shoulders, studded double-breasted, and glitter, of that era, worn with high-waisted tapering pants, which come straight out of 1982 – exactly what Sheena Easton would have worn to belt out 9 to 5 (Morning Train). Ruffled skirts and cowled silk blouses, huge hip slung belts, felt like the New Romantics all over again. It was Boy George, Duran Duran and the beginning of the aesthetic that defied gender conventions.
Miu Miu
It takes a designer at the height of her power to express her aesthetics with such clarity and concision. Miuccia Prada has always been about the surprising beauty and charm of clashing unlikely genres, of which this collection is a fine example. The surprising focus is the sports jock, with primary-coloured polo-necked shirts, and brash waist-banded looks, a Tommy Girl with low-rise board shorts. Ingeniously, these gym bunny clothes were then layered with shirts and suiting of a retired academic, and then in turn V-neck sweaters and librarian cardigans. On top of all this, the coup de grace of gold brocade dresses, glitter and gold floral embroidery. “Want it now” can’t begin to express the Miu Miu x New Balance athletic thong sandals, just as nerd-chic doesn’t even come close to describing the originality of this vision.
This collection also marks the return of the Miu Miu man, with Troye Sivan making his runway debut. The entire thing seems to be designed to be genderless and man-repelling, with nary a consideration for being sexy – and if this isn’t liberating, then what is?
DYSTOPIAN MADE BEAUTIFUL
France itself seems to be having her own Heart of Darkness moment. Francophone Africa is in revolt and in coup after military coup, the French involvement and prestige has taken a beating. Mali, Gabon, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, and uranium-rich Niger, are just a few African countries seeking greater independence from France.
The French economy is in decline with low employment rates, and high tax burden. Migrant clashes, violent street protests, and an outbreak of bed bugs in the Metro, are just some of the malaise that ails Paris. But from the ashes of the times, designers have come up with life-affirming visions of beauty, like the proverbial phoenix.
Striking zombie apocalypse presentation aside, with wall-eyed models staggering out like the undead in a South Korean zombie flick, through scads of acid pink smoke, this was a standout collection from Owens. If ever any Owens collection can be described as commercial, this was it. Shapely siren dresses – in leather, worn with motorcycle jackets some cropped, some oversized, but all with pagoda or bicycle seat shoulders – were all convincingly rugged but elegant. Some boleros had a collar that framed the face, like the corpse flower. Then came swathes of blanket wrapped comfortingly over dresses, or piled on toga tops, then the parachute dresses, like angels had fallen to an earth scorched by war. Pure poetry.
Balenciaga
You can always depend on Demna for thought-provoking theatrics and this show did not disappoint with its red-carpeted stage, with vast velvet curtains.The stunt-casting was also a talking point, featuring fashion insiders, including fashion critic Cathy Horyn, pioneer fashion blogger Diane Pernet, and plastic surgery enthusiast Amanda Lepore, amid Demna’s friends and family, which made the show touchingly biographical.
The show opened with Demna’s mother in a many-sleeved black raincoat and was bookended with Demna’s boyfriend in a traditional lace wedding dress – veil included. In between, other zany persons wore the usual oversized outerwear and trousers, boulder-sized shoulders, delivery worker gear, shrunken hoodies and bath robes, wobbling along on cartoon-big trainers.
His particular genius is for taking something banal and by deconstruction, make it extraordinary – like the shopping bags, plastic tablecloth dresses, “passport” wallets, court shoe clutches, and athletic sunglasses worn upside down.
Maison Margiela
There’s always something hilariously defiant about John Galliano’s romantic vision, and this collection is no different. This is how a displaced royal might dress – or a political refugee: Paper lampshade hats, scuffed cloven-toed oxfords, corsetry unbound and disintegrating, debutante dresses unhinged and hiked up with plastic tape, gowns completely undone and backwards front. Starting rather sedately with Chaplin’s Little Tramp suits with flyaway collars, the collection soon became a stream of the distressed runaways who were nonetheless refined and beautifully dressed – in a ballgown made out of the plastic of refugee tents, or strips of safety vests tied into a rakish cocktail hat. Mismatched belts cinch the coats of Edwardian era, a remnant of an inherited wardrobe; oversized pants look like something scavenged from a landfill.
LES ART DECORATIF
Another way that designers deal with the troubling present is to turn the other way and not engage with current affairs. It is an escapist alternative, and an introspective way too, by looking inwards and backwards in internal dialogue with their own house codes.
Valentino
If you can make a stately white lace convincingly sporty, than you can do anything. And this is what Pierpaolo Piccioli did for Valentino. Paired with a Birkenstock sandal, and never with a whiff of the retro, the focus is a stiff embroidered flower or seagull lace, cut out into a dress or tunic or cape. This was shown amid other elegant tailoring styles, perfect in proportion and craftsmanship.
Schiaparelli
The American couturier Daniel Roseberry reimagines everyday wear as extraordinary masterpieces with lashings of the decorative arts on his creations.
Wardrobe staples like a white shirt, a trench, or a coat are bedecked with bijoux, and lots of gold. Noughties model Shalom Harlow opened the show in a mini coat dress with exaggerated shoulders and Schiaparelli’s beaded Measuring Tape motif running down one lapel; and Kendall Jenner closed the show with a bustier dress covered entirely in red lacquered nails of the manicure variety, and a 1950s bouffant. Heavy gold embellishments, in embroidery, supersized accessories, and body jewellery, decorated polished looks, classic suits and even denim — all with a twist (a keyhole here, a padlock there, a trout, an evil eye, a protruding peplum). Even a canvas sneaker had golden toes.
Of course this is Roseberry’s rather literal tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli. He even brought back the iconic Lobster Dress of 1937, Schiaparelli’s collaboration with the artist Salvador Dali. Several pieces were encrusted with this crustacean, including a huge gold lobster hanging from the neckline. Oh, and there was a big gold crab clinging to what can best be described as a black teddy embossed with a trompe-l’oeil rib cage. There are fans of this type of drama.
Chanel
Virginie Viard impressed with her best ready-to-wear collection to date, and this on top of her glowing report card: Chanel’s 2022 sales report showed a 17 per cent increase on the previous year. There was a relaxed relook (again!) at Chanel’s house codes, to whit; rather lovely tweed items (caftans, capes, pajama pants and jackets) in clear petal colours; denim jeans and tunic tops had a relaxed Riviera air; the footwear told half the story, with a thong sandal, and then a slingback flat, and ballet shoes that were beyond must-have.
The collection was inspired by the life of the high-born artist Marie-Laure de Noailles. It is hardly surprising that Viard would find inspiration in de Noailles – Viard herself is a high-born haute bourgeois, despite looking like a weathered hippie. Aside from the air of ease and some nautical-striped knitwear, the collection was less vintage Riviera postcard, then Blackpink’s Jennie, who was in attendance.
And just like that, fashion has ended yet another cycle for the year, and as we bid the fashion circus goodbye, we must also bid farewell to Sarah Burton, who has shown her last collection for Alexander McQueen. Burton had worked long and hard since she became creative director in 2010, honing her not inconsiderable talent while keeping the spirit of McQueen alive and kicking for 13 years. In fact, Burton had made McQueen very much her own, softening his male gaze, yet preserving the fiercely acute tailoring, the moulded leathers, and the historical romance.