Mood board: Grandmothers have been on designers’ mood boards for spring. In London, Richard Malone celebrated his family matriarch, a feisty working class seamstress who inspired his creative output, and in Milan, Arthur Arbesser looked to a discovered box of his grandmother’s fabric swatches, gathered over decades. After a men’s and women’s season in autumn, celebrating the work of 70s unsung design hero Larry LeGaspi, and an accompanying Rizzoli print release, Owens looked to the life of his Mexican grandmother for S/S 2020. His shows often coincide with poignant political moments; for example, S/S 2019 women’s Babel-inspired offering when Christine Blasey Ford was providing testimony against Brett Kavanaugh. ‘The debate over a border wall made me more conscious of who I would be separated from,’ Owens explained. This week, the Democrats announced a formal impeachment inquiry into the American President Donald Trump.
Finishing touches: There was something strong, regal and resplendent about the offering, which was imagined in Owens’ usual neutral tones, with pops of pink and gold – a nod to the colours employed by Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Models resembled futuristic goddesses, clad in sequin kaftans and sculptural mantles, sharp-shouldered jackets, slashed tube skirts and pixel-like metal headdresses, which evoked costumes in Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction drama Metropolis. Owens’ futuristic sense was also seen in Aztec graphics emblazoned geometrically on the back of capes, inspired by Josef and Anni Albers’ abstract Bauhaus interpretations of Aztec monuments.
Scene setting: Owens staged his show in his usual open-air location, next to the fountain of the Palais de Tokyo. His vision was ethereal and dreamlike, aimed at recalling ‘Fantasia-era Disney,’ and as the show began, men and women dressed in monastic robes lined the fountain, dipping nets into the water and swathing the setting in bubbles.
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Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
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Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
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Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spotHeritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
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Palace unites with Rapha to celebrate inaugural Tour de France FemmesMarking the first time women will compete in the historic cycling race since the late 1980s, this new collaboration sees Palace Skateboards and Rapha create uniforms for both on and off the bike – including an ‘outlandish’ pair of Crocs
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At home with Rick OwensAs California-born fashion designer Rick Owens is named one of the Wallpaper* USA 300 – a celebration of creative America – we revisit our conversation with Owens in the run-up to his S/S 2023 menswear show last year
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Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022: Chanel to Miu MiuIn this extended report, Wallpaper* updates you live from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022 shows, with rolling coverage as runway events unfold
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Scene-stealing runway sets from S/S 2022 womenswear showsFrom giant roulette wheels to Olympic diving boards and multi-city synchronized extravaganzas – our pick of the best fashion show sets from S/S 2022 womenswear
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Paris Fashion Week A/W 2021: discotheque chic to apres-ski sleek -
Walk this way: navigating S/S 2021's Paris Fashion WeekHow the City of Lights looked to the sartorial realities of our much changed lifestyles
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Louis Vuitton A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's -
Chanel A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
