Fan mail: A/W 2019’s outstanding fashion week invitations

Postcard perfection: Karl Lagerfeld took the creative helm of Chloé not only from 1963-1983 but also from 1992-1997. Current creative director Natacha Ramsay-Levi nodded to Lagerfeld’s esteemed heritage, placing a pack of postcards on guest’s seats at the brand’s A/W 2019 show, depicting poignant images of, and quotes attributed to the design behemoth during his tenure at the French house. This included a black and white Frank Horvant-lensed photograph of Lagerfeld and model Carol Labrie, in the Chloé studio in 1970, with the duo both clad in silk floral shirts, and an accompanying Lagerfeld quote from Vogue Paris in 1982: ‘I love fashion for fashion. I love to changed, to diversify, to create lots of looks, lots of styles, not to be myself...be open to all.’

Picture this: There was a scribble-like sensibility behind the a selection of menswear invitations. At OAMC, a cartoonish human form was doodled on the brand’s fold-out poster design, while at Vetements, a woodland landscape was scribbled, complete with a smiling brown bear, pine trees and a passing cloud. Blue belt tip pen pinpointed the date and location of the Sunnei show, a magic marker moment.

Selfie-reflection: On one of the white walls of Loewe’s show space at the Maison de l’UNESCO in Paris, miniature oval-shaped portraits were hung. These dated from the the 16th or 17th century and featured paintings of English, Flemish, French, Italian and Spanish provenance, including a 1650’s portrait believed to be King Charles I, attributed to David des Granges and a portrait  of Mary Queen of Scots, inscribed Maria Regina Scotorum, attributed to Bernard Lens II. Creative director Jonathan Anderson was fascinated by minute details for autumn, and the tiny paintings that inspired his microscopic lens also featured on the brand’s show pack, which offered further insight into each painting’s provenance.

Base layer: For Louis Vuittion’s A/W 2019 catwalk show, artistic director Virgil Abloh erected a New York street-inspired catwalk, with rows of grocery and barber shops, illuminated lampposts, fire hydrants and swirling rubbish. Abloh also emphasised his soft spot for Italian cooking, leaving leaflets on the seats of guests, publicising an imaginary Louis Vuitton pizza restaurant. For his debut show last season, Abloh left a document envelope printed with maps of the locations his globally diverse models were born, plus an accompanying alphabetised list of the ready-to-wear elements of his collection. He repeated this for A/W 2019, with another pamphlet of information, eagerly analysed by intrigued editors.

Hang together: In Paris, womenswear brands bought a new concept to the term hanging out, with a range of invitations that doubled up as handy hanging objects. For the debut show of his brand Rokh, Rok Hwang was inspired by spooky narratives, and looked to 1980s and 1990s films by Spielberg and Gus Van Sant. His ‘Teenage Nightmare’ invitation came complete with a carabiner dangling with a tiny torch keyring (models also carried torches as accessories during the show). For her A/W 2019 show Marine Serre was inspired by the idea of dwellers living underground post apocalypse, creating clothing and accessories from found objects. Her invitation was imagined as a long chain necklace jangling with a mollusc shell and a small flashing light.

Everything but the kitchen sink: There was a utilitarian edge behind a number of womenswear invitations, which doubled up as objects with highly practical uses. Take Jil Sander’s tea towel, with bold stitched edging that nodded to the details in its A/W 2019 offering and Paula Cadematori’s glass bottle of juniper pills, both a fashion month and medical cabinet essential. Hygiene got haute at Isabel Marant, with an invitation imagined as a green bar of soap, while at Versace, the house nodded to the grunge aesthetic of its collection and the sexy safety-pin history of the brand with a packet of golden pins, ready to be fastened to clothing for DIY dazzle. Photography: Aylin Bayhan

Monetary value: Invitations denoted a fantasy for the financial. At Off-White women’s show, the brand’s usual sheer acetate envelope was stuffed with a $10 dollar bill and a €200 euro note. Things were a little more transactional during Paris Fashion Week Men’s, with both the Alyx and JM Weston invitations resembling receipts. The former’s was stamped like a sales slip with the brand’s location venue and show time. JM Weston’s presentation was held at the renowned Cafe de l’Epoque and its accompanying receipt-style invitation was printed with a descriptive poem titled ‘The Waiter’.

Poetic license: Designers are well versed in the literary canon, often referred to specific life and works of writers in their collections. Brands became real book worms for A/W 2019, with Valentino leaving a volume of poems on the seats of guests, featuring romantic verses by Greta Bellamacina, Mustafa The Poet, Yrsa Daley-Ward and Robert Montgomery. Celine’s A/W 2019 womenswear invitation was presented as a hard back volume with a grainy fabric cover, with tearable fold out pages, presented as a series of graphic, colourful posters. Facetasm’s design was a real spine-tingler: its invitation was presented as the spine and front and back cover of a pocket-size book.

Winter wonderland: Two interlinking double ‘C’ Chanel logos etched in ice were printed onto the textured folding Chanel invitation, one which appeared as if sprinkled with a layer of powdery snow. The invitation was an emblem of the winter wonderland – complete with chalets, pine trees and a panoramic apline scene – created at the Grand Palais, to mark Karl Lagerfeld’s final show for the Parisian maison. In a nod to the new history of the house, a Lagerfeld-drawn illustration was tucked into show packs placed on guest’s seats, featuring a scribble of Lagerfeld and Coco Chanel, with the powerful phrase ‘The beat goes on’.