When Nicolas Ghesquière returned to the Cour Carrée at the Louvre last night, ten years to the day after presenting his first collection for Louis Vuitton, he closed, as is customary for the brand, a packed Paris Fashion Week program for fall/ Winter 2024.
The designer, who will be at the helm of the French luxury house for at least another five years, took the more than 4,000 guests of his anniversary collection on a journey into the past and at the same time invited them into a futuristic spaceship designed by the artist Philippe Parreno. The collection was self-referential, offering a compendium of his greatest hits, his well-documented love of science fiction, and fleeting memories of his Balenciaga days. At the same time, she paid homage to the house’s past with silk-print dresses reminiscent of Vuitton’s monogrammed suitcases. The show ended with an ovation for the designer, who still holds on to his unique vision even after ten years, and a visibly moved Nicolas Ghesquière, who bowed modestly and at the same time beamed with pride – knowing full well that ten years at the helm Brands are almost a novelty these days.
The worst kept secret in all of Paris
However, some in attendance barely had time to celebrate or congratulate Ghesquière, because even though Vuitton had officially closed the fall/winter 2024 season, the fashion spectacle wasn’t over yet. By now, the industry knew that the quiet but persistent rumor that had been making the rounds on social media about a surprise Saint Laurent menswear show was true. And so, just days after presenting his latest women’s collection, creative director Anthony Vaccarello followed up with a “secret” men’s fashion presentation.
The show, held at Kering owner François Pinault’s museum, the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, was a much more intimate affair than Vuitton’s larger event, seating only about a hundred people. The invitees were presented with a collection that, much like the Vuittons show, was heavily influenced by the brand’s archive, or rather its founder Yves Saint Laurent himself. The models resembled the late designer if he had been in a relationship with the fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman: 80s power suits with strong shoulders, slicked back hair, glasses.
Over the past few seasons, Saint Laurent’s men’s and women’s fashions have been in constant dialogue with each other, sometimes borrowing shapes and silhouettes. However, this season’s men’s fashion and its heavy emphasis on tailoring seemed a far cry from previous women’s fashion. For women, tailoring largely took a backseat while the focus was on sheer craftsmanship and hosiery. A choice that, while rooted in the brand’s heritage and its first sheer look in 1966, coincides with the opening of the exhibition “Sheer: The Diaphanous Creations of Yves Saint Laurent,” is nonetheless occasioning There was criticism – a rarity in Vaccarello’s tenure at Saint Laurent.
While Vaccarello went back to the 1960s for his women’s fashion, Virginie Viard went back to the beginnings of Chanel for her fall/winter collection. Not only did Viard travel back in time to 1912, when it all began for Gabrielle Chanel, but he also brought the small coastal town of Deauville to Paris. There, in the small town known as the “Parisian Riviera,” Gabrielle Chanel opened her first boutique, where she initially sold hats before launching an androgynous ready-to-wear line for the time. So it was only natural that Viard began her collection, presented on a boardwalk-shaped catwalk, with a hat. What followed was a collection based on sailor uniforms, translated into sweaters, cardigans and long coats somewhere between long coats and peacoats, as well as flowing dresses and jeans, without neglecting, of course, Chanel’s preferred fabric: Tweed.
A tale of two debuts
However, the journey back in time into the archives of a brand was not yet over. For her Chloé debut, Chemena Kamali paid tribute to the French fashion house’s longtime creative director, Karl Lagerfeld, while reintroducing the “Chloé Girl” into fashion, a symbol of the bohemian chic that defined the brand’s image under Clare Waight Keller had determined.
“I want to bring back the feeling I had when I first walked through the doors here 20 years ago and fell in love with the spirit of the Chloé woman,” the German-born, Central Saint Martins-educated designer wrote in hers Show notes. “I want to feel their presence again: their rhythm, their natural beauty, their sense of freedom. She is real. She is herself.”
The “Chloé girl” has grown a little under Kamali, perhaps becoming, as she said, the Chloé woman, and yet her collection not only saw the return of several Chloé muses, both front row and on the catwalk, but also the typical features of the brand’s vocabulary.
Almost every look began in one way or another with the idea of a blouse, which was considered a favorite piece of the company’s founder, Gaby Aghions. Romantic, nostalgic blouses and sheer dresses with ruffles and flounces took center stage in Kamali’s collection, paired with hip-hugging trousers and short shorts and knee-high boots. To top it all off, Kamali brought back the ‘Paraty’ bag, a trapezoid-shaped crossbody bag with gold hardware that was first introduced in 2008 under then-creative director Hannah MacGibbon and will take Chloé back to the days of ‘it bags’.
While Kamali’s debut was met with huge acclaim, another debutant of the season had a rocky start to his creative endeavors at a renowned house. Sean McGirr, who had the complicated and thankless task of becoming the first designer without a personal connection to the namesake to succeed Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, looked back at the brand’s archives but didn’t quite rise to the challenge. The allusions were certainly there: traces of McQueen’s 1995 collection The Birds, compressed silhouettes, certain cuts, mainly in menswear, were sharp. Compared to Burton, McGirr also brought a certain harshness back to the brand, although this has become a bit heavy-handed given the changing times and the fact that the brand that once struggled to make ends meet is now owned by a luxury conglomerate. if not outright felt out of place.
That’s not to say there isn’t potential in McGirr’s vision, especially as it continues to be refined over time. Following in Lee McQueen’s footsteps is no easy feat, but perhaps it’s worth remembering that he, too, divided opinion, primarily early in his career. If the negative reviews and public outcry are any indication that history will repeat itself, then perhaps McGirr’s second collection will prove the naysayers wrong.
Just as you should never judge a book by its cover, the industry should have learned by now not to judge designers by their first collection at the helm of a brand. While Stefano Gallici’s debut for Ann Demeulemeester last season didn’t draw criticism like McGirr’s, it was only his second collection that proved how well he understands the codes of the house and the woman who built it. The young designer has found a formula that works, referencing the archive without repeating it ad nauseam. This season, Gallici showed more of himself, clearly underlining his deep commitment to the brand, for which he has worked as a menswear designer since its incorporation into the Antonioli Group in 2020.
His Fall/Winter 2024 collection explored the fine line between roughness and fragility. He presented layers of chiffon, georgette dresses and flowing lingerie elements and contrasted them with biker jackets, structured cuts and a touch of grunge romance. This was accentuated by unruly hair and heavy boots, giving the impression that the Ann Demeulemeester women are not fragile, even if the fabrics they wear might be.
Fashion is blowing up the internet
When talking about designers who have found their formula, it is almost impossible not to mention Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant from Coperni. The pair, who have previously spray-painted Bella Hadid’s dress on the runway, have made a name for themselves as fashion’s mad scientists and this season was no exception as they created a new version of their existing ‘Swipe Bag’ from scratch – literally. The latest model’s material, which unfortunately stole the show, was borrowed from NASA to create a wearable bag that’s 99 percent air and just 1 percent glass.
This unusual material became an instant hit on social media – a phenomenon the brand should be very familiar with by now. This season, however, it wasn’t Coperni who literally, if not the Internet, at least broke Instagram, but Miu Miu – and for good reason.
Miu Miu, always Prada’s little sister but by no means less powerful, mixed childhood and adulthood this season, resulting in a whimsical clothing mix that combined ladylike clothing with youthful experimentation. Cocktail dresses, extravagant furs, pearls and simple cap sleeves, Mary Janes and wool stockings met mini hemlines, jeans and shoes reminiscent of Doc Martens, but the concept didn’t end there. The casting ranged from familiar faces, from models like Gigi Hadid and Vittoria Ceretti to more mature women like actresses Kirstin Scott Thomas and Ángela Molina, underscoring that Miu Miu is ultimately not just for girls but for women, much like Signora Prada himself.
While Instagram’s roughly two-hour outage, which left users unable to use the Meta-powered social media platform, most likely had nothing to do with fashion week or Miu Miu, it was a break from the overwhelming crowd Content after a record-breaking 108 shows in just under ten days may be exactly what the doctor ordered at the end of an extensive fashion month finale in the “Big Four”.