TOTie a towel around your waist after a shower: who has never done it? A simple and immediate gesture, which today turns into a viral trend: credit to Balenciaga And Demna. The designer, always at the forefront in riding the wave of fashion provocations, has made the undisputed protagonist of the collection Resorts 2024 an original towel skirtalready reconfirmed also in the line for spring summer 2024.
The skirt Towelpresented in different shades of greyhas just landed online for the pre-order. This was enough to make it popular on social media: identical to a cotton towel, it closes like a wallet thanks to two internal buttons.
Come out with a towel, not just from the shower
In the campaign shots, it is worn by the models and contrasting patterns on the trousers. The price of this must-have sponge accessory? 695 euros. The idea – commercial or ingenious, depending on your point of view – divides the public. But the designer is not the only one to have bet everything on the towel skirt today as yesterday.
An image of Balenciaga Resort 2024 with the towel skirt (Photo: Spotlight Launchmetrics).
Yes, because what might seem like a product explicitly designed to create hype it is also the latest version of one of the strongest trends of 2023 – and not only. The sponge passes in no time from the shower to the wardrobesabove all in the form of a skirtto wear as beach cover-up in summer and how winter layer. And she also takes on, today as yesterday, other, very original guises: mini dresses or desirable accessories.
Mini dress or towel skirt?
To focus on the skirt that mimics in every way the appearance of a towel, too Chanelin the collection Spring-Summer 2024. The legendary tweed it becomes a long skirt or a beach towel to wear over the shoulders like a cape. And if the last one Coco beach is dotted with sponge backpacksit is impossible not to think about the past, and specifically about the legendary collection Spring-Summer 1996where a very young Claudia Schiffer captured the spotlight in a pink logo sponge suit.
The Chanel SS24 long skirt that resembles a terry towel (Photo: Spotlight Launchmetrics).
It’s not terry, but it still mimics that familiar gesture of getting out of the shower covered only by a towel, the most divisive mini dress of the last collection Spring-Summer 2023 Of Prada. A sleeveless sheath micro dress, slightly gathered at the hems, just as if it were a travel towel. Made of satin, it is the quintessence of luxury, with a price of almost $3,700. But in the common imagination it only brings to mind some famous scenes in the towel of Sean Connery and Bond Girl in tow in the old 007 films, from Thunderball Operation Thunder from 1965 to Agent 007 – You Only Live Twice (1967).
Prada’s SS23 mini towel dress, but in satin (Photo: Spotlight Launchmetrics).
Yesterday and today, the sponge is trendy
Going backwards, the towel trend like piece to wear it is central to the last one co-lab signed by TeklaNordic home textile manufacturer, e Jacquemus. The models hug each other under the maxi sheets, and the partnership sells out in a short time. The extras at the fashion shows in the past towel skirt they are almost impossible to count – just mention the most iconic: the striped sponge dress from the latest collection Bottega Veneta by Daniel Lee (Spring-Summer 2021).
An image of Jacquemus and Tekla 2023 (Photo: Jacquemus).
But also the sponge micro skirt worn à la Sean Connery from one of the models of Ludovic de Saint Sernin for Spring-Summer 2020 and the green mini towel dress by Acne Studios Spring-Summer 2015.
Ludovic de Saint Sernin SS21 outing in towel skirt (Photo: Spotlight Launchmetrics).
From the bathtub to the red carpet
The most visible precedent? Coincidentally, it’s actually signed Balenciaga. Already for the Autumn-Winter 2022/2023 collection, Demna had dressed the models with a terry cloth, worn like a blanket. A stunt soon followed in the corridors of the Ritz in Paris, host of the aforementioned fashion show, by Kim Kardashianon the second skin effect playsuit and high boots.
Even from the bathtub to the red carpet, the step is short. Who knows if the businesswoman remembered her colleague’s memorable exit Rita Ora to MTV Music Awards 2017in a hotel bathrobe on the red carpet complete with a towel on her head like Fiona Volpe – well before the controversy that has engulfed, in recent times, Chiara Ferragni. In short, fashion has no intention of throwing in the towel…
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