Scene Setting: The show was staged some 5.3kms outside of the centre of Paris, as is customary for the designer. Yellow carpeting covered the vast space, running halfway up the walls and under windows and then peeling down. Guests stood in the middle as the sound of Radiohead signalled the start of the show. At the head of the catwalk a smart yellow sun hovered just above the floor bringing to mind Olafur Eliasson’s installation at Tate Modern in 2003. The light channelled an optimistic futurism – somewhere between the dawn in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the rays setting on a faraway desert.
Mood board: The look was 2000s sci-fi. Models had hands wrapped inside muffs printed with the words: ‘Arrival: the future has begun’ and ‘Solar Youth: they don’t want you to know what you are.’ Long slim coats had ‘RS LAB’ printed on the chest pocket and were worn with metallic high neck tops. Ponchos elongated the line of the body and restricted the arms. A fuzzy coat was laminated down the back; some looks came out smothered in clear plastic.
Finishing touches: Ahead of the show Simons unveiled five iterations of a new ‘Runner’ shoe – an ankle boot with zips up the back and moulded half-trainer heel. News of the project – which will be manufactured solely by Simons rather than with a sports brand – broke a week before via the designer’s Instagram account. The capsule of eight styles will be ‘an investigation of form and function and an exploration of shape, the typical silhouettes of sports sneakers are re-proposed.’ Simons is stepping into the future with a modish, sporty sartorialism.
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Stay in a pastel-hued Puglian palazzo as it starts a new chapterA haven for the design-minded, Palazzo Daniele reopens following a thoughtful restoration by Milan-based Studio Palomba Serafini
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‘As an artist, I’ve never felt more useful than now’: Steve McQueen on his monumental film screening in AmsterdamThe film director on why now felt like the right time to screen a previously unseen 34-hour version of his 2023 documentary ‘Occupied City’, on the façade of the Rijksmuseum
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Seven designers rethinking wood at London Design FestivalAt this year’s London Design Festival, wood proves itself anything but static. We highlight seven designers shaping, colouring, and engineering it in surprising ways
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What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at fashion week, from blockbuster debuts to rising starsThe Wallpaper* style team pick their highlights from the upcoming fashion month, a definitive season as the industry’s major players start their latest chapters, beginning in New York tomorrow
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How Bureau Betak transformed the runway show: ‘Our currency is emotion and memory’Pioneering production company Bureau Betak has masterminded some of the most inspiring runway sets of the last 30 years, dazzling both real-life guests and an ever-growing virtual global audience. Hugo Macdonald meets the people behind the magic
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‘Never copy the past’: how Nicolas Di Felice is taking Courrèges into the futureAt Courrèges, artistic director Nicolas Di Felice is marrying radical thinking, raving and reinterpreted minimalist codes to give the French fashion house a new dynamism. Hannah Tindle heads to Paris to meet the designer
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Glenn Martens’ thrilling Maison Margiela debut was a balancing act between past, present and futureThe Belgian designer made his debut for the house last night with a collection that looked towards medieval decoration for a new expression of opulence
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Art meets perfume in cross-disciplinary fragrance series Nez 1+1Talents from film and fragrance come together to create Ansongo, the latest scent resulting from a creative matchmaking project by perfume revue Nez
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Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expectFive moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
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The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear seasonBetween the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
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‘They gave me carte blanche to do what I want’: Paul Kooiker photographs the students of Gerrit Rietveld Academie for Acne StudiosHeralding the launch of a new permanent gallery from fashion label Acne Studios, the celebrated Dutch photographer’s new body of work praises the bravery of ‘people who choose to go to an art school at a time like this’
