At Wallpaper*, we're always on the hunt for objects, homeware, accessories, fashion and tech that push the boundaries. The Design Drop brings together the month's most compelling finds.

In July: a legacy Italian sofa reupholstered for a new era, a foldable phone rethinking what ‘foldable’ means, and kitchenware finished in an of-the-moment shade. Architecture books rub shoulders with cult fragrances, archive-referencing footwear sits next to hand-cast jewellery, and a fridge gets the kind of finish usually reserved for supercars.

Read on for inspiration, temptation or both.

In 2024, when Acne Studios collaborated with French perfume house Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle to create its first-ever fragrance, the aim was simple: to distil Acne's creative language – avant-garde, cheeky and casually cool – into a bottle.

The result was a suitably unconventional fragrance that blended aldehydes (the synthetic compounds that give perfumes a clean, metallic quality) with a gourmand heart of rose, peach, and vanilla, and a deep sandalwood-and-musk base. It is a fresh, almost laundry-like scent with a delicate, slightly sweet edge; or, as the brand describes it, ‘a neoclassical perfume with an irreverent twist; at once vibrant and comforting, magnetic and radical’.

Now, Acne Studios and Frédéric Malle are expanding their olfactory offering with a bath and body collection meant to be worn in conjunction with the fragrance, amplifying the original scent (which was already celebrated among perfume aficionados for its potent sillage). The Body Wash is a silky lather that leaves a delicate perfume in its wake, while the Body Milk is formulated with hydrating shea butter and natural oils to likewise leave skin baby-soft and lightly perfumed.

For perfumer Suzy Le Helley, creating the Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle perfume and its companion bath collection was an exercise in pushing herself as a perfumer and the industry at large. ‘This perfume is, for me, one of the first aldehydic gourmand fine fragrances on the market, and that is something I am very proud of,’ she says. ‘It is also very unique in terms of performance: it is very long-lasting, very powerful, and has a strong sillage.’

To develop the final scent, Le Helley worked closely with both Frédéric Malle and Acne's Jonny Johansson, both titans in their respective fields, to come up with a product that blended the subversive, niche style of both brands. ‘What I enjoyed most was the freedom and trust that were given to me by both Frédéric Malle and Jonny Johansson,’ says Le Helley. ‘This project allowed me to explore new facets of my creativity, pushing me to experiment and take risks.

‘I wanted it to create a unique comfort zone. It is, first of all, a fragrance for yourself, but we worked carefully on the technical aspects of the perfume, its strength, and its longevity. People who smell it on you should also be transported into your luxurious cocoon of comfort – like a beautiful Acne Studios scarf.’

In 1996, Jonny Johansson and a collective known as ACNE (then an acronym for ‘Ambition to Create Novel Expressions’) distributed 100 pairs of raw denim jeans – recognisable for their red top-stitching – to their community of creatives in Stockholm, Sweden. Thirty years on, Acne Studios, as it became known in 2006, has become Scandinavian fashion’s great success story, with outposts around the world and twice-yearly runway shows on the Paris Fashion Week schedule (Johansson continues to lead the brand as creative director).

A new issue of Acne Paper – itself in its 21st issue – marks this landmark with an ‘Autoportrait’ of the brand, conceived by founding editor-in-chief Thomas Persson alongside a group of international photographers, artists and writers, many of whom have worked with Acne Studios previously. Initially launched in 2005 as a biannual magazine (it would run until 2014, before being relaunched in 2021 in a new, book-like format), the pioneering publication shifted what an ‘in-house’ magazine could be – fiercely independent, Persson drafted the industry’s biggest names, from Jamie Hawkesworth to Paolo Roversi, to shoot its pages, with eclectic interviews encompassing subjects far outside of Acne Studios’ Stockholm bubble (each issue centres around a particular thematic prompt).

Acne Paper Issue 21: ‘Autoportrait’

It is why Persson calls Acne Studios Acne Paper’s ‘publisher’ – a nod to the independence from the brand he has in the role. ‘With Acne Paper, I have had creative freedom from day one,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘I think Jonny Johansson has always approached creativity as a conversation rather than a solitary act. It is not an autocratic process. For him, creation emerges through dialogue – between people, between creative disciplines, and between different ways of seeing the world. Once he has decided whom to work with, he leans into that dialogue and gives creative freedom. I have the same approach with the magazine.’

That said, in recognition of the landmark 30th anniversary, Persson says he thought it would be ‘interesting to turn our gaze towards Acne Studios for the first time’. ‘Historically, since we launched Acne Paper, the magazine has never been about the brand itself; rather, it became a cultural extension of the company,’ he elucidates. ‘Instead of simply looking back, we found it more exciting to reflect on the brand through an exploration of its creative identity as something alive, fluid, and continually reinventing itself. The idea of a self-portrait – or Autoportrait – seemed like a fitting title for the issue.’

For this self-portrait, Persson drafted a group of close collaborators of the brand – they might have photographed a previous campaign, for example – to channel their own vision of Acne Studios’ rebellious creative spirit (the brand is known for marrying a Scandinavian design sensibility with a bolder, countercultural impulse). These include ‘self-portrait’ stories by Jordan Hemingway, Guinevere van Seenus, Malick Bodian and Katerina Jebb, while photographer Casper Sejersen and stylist George Krakowiak have captured pieces from the Acne Studios archive. Interviews include friends of the brand – gallerist Sadie Coles, J Honey Dijon, designer Max Lamb, photographer Viviane Sassen, artist Robbie Barrat and actress Lena Endre.

‘For this particular issue, there were certain photographers we wanted to involve because of their history with Acne Studios, alongside others I had wanted to work with for some time,’ Persson says. ‘It was wonderful to have this combination of old and new friends participating. As a lover of history, two of my favourite pieces are Natasha Fraser’s fascinating history of the Palais-Royal in Paris – where Acne Studios opened its first store outside Scandinavia and which now houses the Acne Paper Gallery – and our interview with the distinguished Swedish actress Lena Endre about the playwright and painter August Strindberg.’

However, it is the cover image, taken by photographer Carlijn Jacobs and starring model Lulu Tenney, that Persson says encapsulates the mood of ‘Autoportrait’. ‘Carlijn had the brilliant idea of photographing Lulu as she danced with a paintbrush, almost becoming a paintbrush herself – in the spirit of Yves Klein, but in rainbow colours,’ he says. ‘Lulu is not wearing any fashion, and the images are a joyful expression of creative freedom, as well as a celebration of the synergy between art and fashion. In many ways, the image is symbolic of Acne Studios... with this issue we wanted [to represent its] creative identity as something alive, fluid, and continually reinventing itself.’

Acne Paper Issue 21 launches 17 June 2026 on acnestudios.com.

Paris Fashion Week culminated yesterday, marking the end of a month-long season of shows that has seen previous stops in New York, London and Milan.

With a nine-day schedule standing at nearly double the length of its counterparts, Paris remains the defining city of fashion month – not least because it comprises shows from fashion’s heavyweight houses, among them Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent (to name just a handful).

After last season’s debuts dominated the S/S headlines, A/W 2026 was about the sophomore show, as designers settled into their positions as creative directors. Without the weight of expectation, we saw some brilliant shows – notably Jonathan Anderson at Dior, Michael Rider at Celine, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe, and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel (all were showing their second ready-to-wear collections).

Here, reported by Wallpaper* fashion & beauty features director Jack Moss and contributing writer India Jarvis, we pick the standout shows that defined the week.

The best of Paris Fashion Week A/W 2026

Dior

Jonathan Anderson staged his A/W 2026 runway show for Dior in Paris’ Jardin des Tuileries, constructing a circular show set around one of the park’s ponds (for the occasion, it had been populated with Monet-esque lily pads, meticulously constructed to look like the real thing), while the invitation comprised miniature versions of the park’s signature green metal chairs. Across the pond’s centre ran an elevated runway, echoing the line of the Tuileries’ Grand Allée, a historic promenade since the park opened to the public in 1667 after a renovation by Louis XIV. It led to a collection about ‘seeing and being seen’, a contemporary imagining of the promenade, ‘[where] a walk in the park becomes a performance’. Cue a ‘panoply of Parisians’ in eclectic, time-hopping attire, from the woozy ruffles of the Belle Époque (here transformed into mini dresses with bouncing trains) to plays on bourgeois tropes, such as fabrics that recalled heritage tweeds, blazers with golden buttons, and shearling jackets reimagined with wave-like hems. What was most striking, though, was a feeling of levity: lily-pad-adorned footwear, polka-dot motifs and crystallised denim were both playful and pretty. ‘Dior has this giant past, and I had to start there,’ Anderson said. ‘Now I feel free to release it from that.’ Jack Moss

READ: Jonathan Anderson’s latest Dior show was a walk in the park

Saint Laurent

A cinematic offering from Anthony Vaccarello unfolded in a simulacrum of a sleek, modernist home; at its centre, a sized-up recreation of a bust that lived in Yves Saint Laurent’s own apartment. Through it strode this season’s Saint Laurent heroine, her heavy-smoked eye and slick, side-parted hair a nod towards Helmut Newton’s Paris Vogue photograph of a model in Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘Le Smoking’ tuxedo on Rue Aubriot in 1975. Indeed, tailoring was central to the A/W 2026 collection: eight trouser suits opened the show, while various other iterations appeared throughout (including Vaccarello’s own riff on the tuxedo, worn by model Loli Bahia, who walked exclusively for Saint Laurent this season and closed the show). Here, the silhouette was sloped across the shoulder and narrowed at the waist – though not constricted – for a riff on the power suit that was more ‘insouciant shrug than swagger’. As a counterpoint, Vaccarello looked towards the ‘troubled heroines’ of Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams, as well as Romy Schneider in the 1971 film Max et les Ferrailleurs (she was this season’s protagonist, he said), to capture an ‘elegance tinged with ennui… the beauty of intimacy and vulnerability’. To capture this mood, a series of slips and dresses came in lace coated in silicone, while enormous fur coats had a vivacious confidence. Jack Moss

Dries Van Noten

For many of us, the stylings of awkward adolescence are best not dwelt upon – after all, who looked or felt their best as a teenager? Evidently, Julian Klausner takes a more romantic view of this impressionable time, but, then again, Klausner was likely a more sophisticated brand of teenager than most. In any case, this was the impression given by his A/W 2026 collection for Dries Van Noten, which was inspired in part by a visit to Lycée Carnot, and the memories of being an adolescent ‘work-in-progress’. The Lycée is a Rive Droite public school with alumni including Gilles Deleuze, Guy Debord, and Daft Punk, and its Gustave Eiffel-designed great hall has been the backdrop for numerous Paris fashion shows over the years – in other words, a suitably rarefied and creatively rich starting point.

The 61 looks at Dries Van Noten asked that most teenage question: who am I going to be today? For the confident moment, a navel-bearing button-up knit with a vibrant silk skirt. When a suit of armour is required, a protective duffel coat that does the talking for you. Or maybe one day the mood might be scholastic – collegiate blazer and pleated skirt, but always, always customised, an embellishment here, a contrasting trim there. ‘Just like a pixelated picture, the more one gets far from that time of endless questioning, the clearer it becomes,’ Klausner said, a metaphor he extended through prints with digitally warped 17th-century Flemish still life paintings. Opulent, mature fabrics and finishings were styled with a youthful irreverence best summarised by the final lines from Gala Dragot’s vocal performance, which soundtracked the show: ‘Don’t be too serious... Wear a collar... Keep it blurry though.’ India Jarvis

Acne Studios

If Dries Van Noten was an homage to the experimental attitude of youth, then Acne Studios marked its 30th birthday year with a collection that declared (as one does at 30): I know exactly who I am. A/W 2026 was an affirmation of the house’s irreverent signatures, such as a revival of the particular 1996 cut of jean that made their name, and photographic elements that nod to the brand’s unconventional marketing style, including the bi-annual Acne Paper.

The setting for this season was a succession of intersecting cuboid rooms that, viewed simultaneously from the end of the runway, appeared like a Josef Albers work made three-dimensional. According to Jonny Johansson’s show notes, this was conceived ‘like an enfilade of salons … the portals marking what has come before, and what might follow’. Where a salon in the Parisian tradition might mean a bringing together of clashing or complementary ideas, at Acne Studios, the determination is to blur those boundaries as much as possible. Standout looks saw cropped aviator jackets worn with skin-tight jodhpurs and desirable point-toe pumps, Prince of Wales check jackets worn over one shoulder, and larger-than-life portraits of art school students, taken by Paul Kooiker, printed onto stiff pencil skirts and draped dresses.

Alaïa

Late last year, just after the completion of the Italian house’s sale to Prada, it was announced that Dario Vitale would be leaving his position as creative director of Versace (he lasted a single, but impactful season), to be replaced by Belgian designer Pieter Mulier. It meant that this season’s Alaïa show, watched by designers Matthieu Blazy and Raf Simons, was to be his last: the swansong of a five-year tenure defined by commercial expansion and critical success (he has also established a coterie of model muses, many of whom walked this final show, and will likely follow him to Versace). Held in an intimate showspace in the former Fondation Cartier – Mulier said he wanted it to recall a 1990s pre-iPhone runway show – the collection itself eschewed his more recent experimental silhouettes in favour of stripping things back to the essence of the house, from simple body-contouring tank dresses to lean tailored overcoats, stretch knits, and peplums and ruffles (the last flourishes rendered in Mulier’s contemporary, streamlined style).

‘This collection is about clothes to wear. What is a jacket? What is a dress?’ he said backstage after the show. ‘It’s basically a vocabulary of the last five years. It’s what I learned at Alaïa, that I’m giving to the next designer. It’s like leaving the keys on the table. At Alaïa, I learned precision, editing and [that] real luxury is not what we all think. It is a perfectly cut jacket.’ Jack Moss

READ: Pieter Mulier delivers a swansong collection at Alaïa: ‘It is a vocabulary of the last five years’

Rabanne

Of all the distinct fashions of the long 20th century, it could be argued that 1940s style is the hardest to reference without veering into the territory of costume. Perhaps it’s because boxy tailored silhouettes and victory rolls are so much associated with the vast canon of British war movies, or perhaps because austerity-driven ‘make do’ dressing is antithetical to contemporary fashion at either end of the high-low scale. It’s a testament to Julien Dossena’s eye, then, that for Rabanne A/W 2026 he incorporated patently 1940s-inspired styles – T-bar heels, tea-dress florals, and clashing knitwear – without evoking even a hint of reenactment.

After all, Rabanne has always been a house noted for its futuristic bent. Unconventional, industrial materials, like metal and plastic, are at its very heart, and remained so this season alongside those more vintage ideas – coming together in a collection that the brand called ‘a little louche’. This take on modernist femininity was told through blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpses of a slip through an unbuttoned blouse, a hint of lace underneath a more conservative skirt, and pussybows left suggestively undone. Dossena told Wallpaper* post-show that the character he wanted to build with these contrasts was that of ‘a resistant woman’, and that for him, there was a suggestion of retro-futurism with the 1940s-derived shapes (for example, hair pulled into sculptural pompadour styles was less Vera Lynn and more replicants in Blade Runner). India Jarvis

Rick Owens

What might the cyberpunk cousin of Marlene Dietrich wear for a night on the town? It’s a question that could only be answered by Rick Owens – whose A/W 2026 collection was an homage to the ‘dignified sequence of her life stages’, all shot through with classics from his own particular design language. Think body parts augmented through prosthetics and sci-fi silhouettes in a post-apocalyptic landscape heavy with dry ice and punctuated by magnesium-bright beams of light. Presenting the collection as the second part of ‘Tower’, which premiered during the men's collections, Owens drew from Dietrich’s qualities of ‘steeliness’ and ‘grit’, and interpreted them as sheath-like dresses, abundant piles of faux fur, and flight jackets.

Just as the German star’s enduring legacy was in part a product of her striking collaborations with Josef von Sternberg, Owens is an artist quick to credit the rich input his work receives from his creative partners. This season, much attention has been lovingly devoted to name-checking the hands through which his raw materials pass – from the third-generation, family-run mill in Como, Italy, which weaves a high-performance fibre called Kevlar (purportedly five-times stronger than steel), to the Veneto-region wash house committed to reducing water waste, which treats industrial indigo canvas. India Jarvis

Loewe

Presented on a bright-yellow runway populated by German artist Cosima Von Bonin’s plush figures of clams, octopi and dogs, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s sophomore Loewe collection was a welcome jolt of energy on the Friday morning of Paris Fashion Week. ‘What is fashion but an open field for endless creative play?’ said the American designers, whose poppy A/W 2026 collection translated their colourful beach-ready debut for the winter months, resulting in a riot of curvy dégradé shearling parkas, 3D-printed slips and shaggy-hemmed dresses with trailing trains. Other elements had a sporting feel – like face-shielding sunglasses, boldly coloured anoraks and chunky riffs on half-zip ski sweaters – while inflatable elements meant garments could be transformed in size and proportion (a lobster-claw-shaped pump, shown at the re-see the following day, will be sold separately).

Such experiments were made possible by the abilities of the Loewe atelier, particularly when it came to leather: bouclé overcoats were made from intricate loops of leather yarn, while the gradient shearlings were treated ‘in the same manner as poodle grooming’. ‘As we began [creating] our second collection, we were struck by a simple truth: for us, the act of making is, at its core, an expression of joy – an intellectual, process-driven pursuit charged with playfulness,’ said the designers. ‘The path taken matters as much as the end result. It is the idea of play as rigorous experimentation and problem-solving, moving between instinct and experience, between a devotion to craft and its endless opportunities for innovation.’ Jack Moss

Issey Miyake

For Satoshi Kondo, the role of designer is as much about relinquishing control as it is wielding it. Knowing when to hold back, not to overstep the mark, to let the materials speak for themselves. This was the credo he brought to the fore for Issey Miyake’s A/W 2026 offering – a characteristically Japanese recognition of innate, simple beauty.

Titled ‘Creating, Allowing’, the collection navigated this specific tension understood by designers through pieces where the artist’s hand was inserted sparingly, never tampering with the true essence of the fabrication, only enhancing. At its best, this looked like expanses of cloth cut with technical lines that left their impression on the negative space, like the wine-coloured single-breasted coat with inbuilt cape that the model held up over her shoulders to exaggerate its rectangular construction. The innate movement of the house-signature pleats was used only intermittently and, instead, dramatically inflexible lacquered washi paper was introduced through breast plates, bodices and belts – creating a contrast between motion and restriction. Kondo’s intention with this was that the most important impact was made through the human frame, by ‘minimising design intervention and leaving the form-making to the wearer's own body’.

As for the space itself, the Carrousel du Louvre was transformed with a layer of silvery sand and ‘finely shredded aluminum foil, [serving] as a device for the interaction between "material", "people", and "clothing"’. This surface became marked and patterned as the models moved across it, another allusion to Kondo’s metaphor of ‘considered disruption’. India Jarvis

Lanvin

This year marks the centenary of menswear at the house of Lanvin – a celebration that filtered into the season’s womenswear outing through nods to the boyish silhouettes that characterised interwar ladies’ fashion. It was a time when overtly feminine curves were flattened into straight lines from bust to waist, creating an elongated, athletic outline that came to epitomise the emancipated New Woman.

Peter Copping, who took the reins at Lanvin in late 2024, imagined ‘a dialogue between generations’, which came together beautifully to meld the concerns of Jeanne Lanvin’s customers in the 1920s with those who shop the brand in the present. What do they have in common? Evidently, a love of opera – gloves were cuffed and elbow-length, and belted opera coats were voluminous enough to be worn over an evening gown, and trimmed with faux fur. They wear hats (Jeanne Lanvin’s first foray into fashion was as an apprentice milliner), with A/W 2026’s borrowing from cloche shapes but with exaggerated sou’wester-style brims. They favour a dash of restrained glamour. If some of the cuts leaned slightly austere, they were countered with an opulence of fabric and finish: hand-embroidered bead droplets, inky velvets, laser-cut fringes.

Lanvin is the oldest French maison still in operation, its HQ still in its original site – therefore, the weight of its legacy must hang heavily over every designer who takes its helm. Its founder insisted on le chic ultime, a phrase that surely needs no translation, and which is no small order. It is a comfort that, for every moment of reinvention it undergoes, Lanvin is still a place that women can go to for guaranteed elegance. India Jarvis

Givenchy

The idea of individual style was a throughline of Paris Fashion Week, one expressed by Sarah Burton with her third collection for Givenchy – the former Alexander McQueen designer’s most liberated outing yet (and, as a result, her best). ‘How can we put ourselves back together in the world we’re living in?’ was the question Burton asked this season, elucidating after the show that she was thinking about the multiplicities of a contemporary woman’s life (as such, it found a companion with the Prada show in Milan, where Miuccia Prada asserted that ‘as a woman, your life is layered – each day demands not only a shifting of clothes, but a richness of identities within yourself’). So there was some typically brilliant tailoring (Burton is known for her prowess in the medium, and has recently brought over her tailoring team from Alexander McQueen), though also more vivid expressions of style – a dress, hanging from razor-thin straps, in bright yellow leather; shimmering leopard spots that burst into tassels; silk T-shirts that had been refashioned by Stephen Jones into headpieces – as well as oversized riffs on carpenter jeans, off-the-shoulder bombers, and high-collared white shirts. ‘I wanted to make it feel very personal,’ said Burton. ‘Each woman is her own person, each silhouette is her own character.’ Jack Moss

Junya Watanabe

Junya Watanabe lets the clothes do the talking. The A/W 2026 collection was accompanied by show notes that came to two single sentences: ‘The Art of Assemblage Couture explores form born from pure creative instinct, free from conventional notions of dressmaking. Through the direct presentation of raw materials, this approach expresses the surrounding social environment.’ This succinct summary belied a frenzy of ideas, which played out over one of the most entertaining shows of the week.

Classic couture silhouettes were fashioned from a mish-mash of consumer goods and mass-produced garments. The opening look, worn by Irina Shayk, comprised a gown in a 1950s prom style, constructed from gloves, with a mesh flounce. A puff-sleeved dress, with a squared neckline and a central slit that showed a silver interior, appeared to be made from a gold Mylar blanket – its creased folds still visible, like it had just been ripped from its packet. Another dress used kitschily patterned curtains, pinch pleats and all, for its full, trained skirt, while its bodice was made from – what else? – scrap number plates.

So far, so Watanabe, but this season offered more in the way of spectacle than just unconventional materials. In a more choreographed display than usual, Watanabe called in the services of Poland-born movement director Pat Boguslawski. He directed a languid yet melodramatic routine for Watanabe’s models, who threw garments onto chairs with tango-inspired passion, and turned their heads with the kind of simpering doe-eyed expressiveness of silent movie starlets. This reference was reinforced through Eugene Souleiman’s hair design, sculpted curls slicked to the foreheads and cheeks in the manner of Josephine Baker, and glam make-up by Isamaya Ffrench – winged, heavy-lashed and sometimes tear-streaked eyes. India Jarvis

Celine

It hasn’t taken long for Michael Rider to define a signature look at Celine: a preppy, uptown-inflected uniform that feels like a vision of Parisian style through American eyes (Rider had worked at Celine previously, under Phoebe Philo, though more recently headed up US label Polo Ralph Lauren). And it has worked: his collections thus far have felt like you could wear them off the runway and straight onto the street, full of clever riffs on quotidian pieces that will no doubt be much copied by lesser brands (they have also been full of great accessories, from abundant charm bracelets to colourful handbags and slipper-like loafers). For A/W 2026, Rider continued his upward trajectory with a show held at the Institut de France amid a series of beautiful modernist speakers in wood and metal, presenting a collection that favoured perennial style over ephemeral trends. ‘Celine is a style: a mix of old and new that feels urgent and dreamy,’ said Rider. ‘Making the things we all dream of finding and wearing.’ And in among this ready-to-wear wardrobe (in the truest sense), flourishes of the playful and the romantic emerged, from enormous sequins and flashes of animal print to feathered headpieces and bold punctuations of colour. ‘Putting on clothes, a look, can change the day – [it can] change how we walk and feel,’ said Rider. ‘I love that.’ Jack Moss

Hermès

Staged on a runway of moss and soil (strangely, a trend of the week, later seen at Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton), Nadège Vanhée’s latest outing for Hermès saw her conjure what she called a ‘liminal realm’ between dawn and dusk, earth and space. It lent the collection an alien, otherworldly feel: models emerged from glowing orbs and looped around the Garde Républicaine show space on an inky runway, which also inspired the clothing’s palette of deep blues, greys and black. Mashing up the equestrian codes that remain at the heart of Hermès – here, sliced-away jodhpurs-cum-cycling shorts, dressage blazers and knee-high leather boots – with lean, futuristic silhouettes, it was a clever hybrid of the past, present and future, a liminal realm of Vanhée’s own. Ostrich and leather jump suits, with contrasting knit sleeves, were the season’s show pieces – the result of the house’s superlative leather atelier, they straddled sex appeal and function – while visible zips added an almost sci-fi feel, running down the front of dresses or slicing across the chest of a jacket. Prints came via AM Cassandre, an art deco artist, and saw clouds intersected by a geometric structure – a reflection of Vanhée’s own juxtapositions between the graphic and the elemental. Jack Moss

Comme des Garçons

A strong Comme des Garçons collection saw Rei Kawakubo find solace in her favoured colour, black, which – save for a brief interlude in bright, candy pink – made up the majority of the A/W 2026 collection. And, while recent collections have seen Kawakubo grapple with tumultuous world affairs, the choice of the colour was not necessarily to represent grief or mourning – instead, the Japanese designer said it captured the expansiveness of the creative process. ‘I have come to realise that, after all, black is the colour for me,’ she said in a typically brief statement issued to the press. ‘It’s just the strongest, the best for creation, and the colour that embodies the rebellious spirit. And has the biggest meaning: the universe and the black hole.’ Indeed, the use of a single colour allowed Kawakubo’s typically provocative forms to come to the fore: this season, pillow-like constructions draped in semi-sheer black tulle, undulating pile-ups of shirred ruffles and tassels, or saucer-shaped protusions that looped around the upper body. Like any Comme collection, it was a Rorschach test – revelling in the unfamiliar, Kawakubo always challenges you to draw your own conclusions. Jack Moss

Balenciaga

Of all the creative directors at the nascent stages of new tenures, Pierpaolo Piccioli might have one of the steepest mountains to climb at Balenciaga. In the 16 years he spent at Valentino, prior to taking this new position in the spring of 2025, he demonstrated a Cristóbal Balenciaga-worthy approach to dressmaking that prioritised proportion and colour. But while Piccioli was sending out breathtaking confections of ballooning silk taffeta at Valentino, Balenciaga the brand was being injected with a new edge, at the hand of Vetements-founder Demna, whose zeitgeist-defining designs were laced with subversion and irony. How to bring the grandeur and romance that are Piccioli’s calling cards, without alienating the new demographic of customers who flocked to the brand under Demna?

For this season, his second collection, Piccioli pinned his hopes on a collaboration with Sam Levinson – the creator of Euphoria, the teen drama responsible for making internationally recognised stars out of its cast, which includes Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Hunter Schafer. Audiences at the Balenciaga A/W 2026 show were treated to a preview of clips from the HBO show’s third series (airing publicly in April), which played on screens across the venue; its interplay of light and dark was found running through the collection, which Piccioli had titled ‘ClairObscur’. The collection itself was a largely black affair, in light-catching high-gloss fabrics, punctuated by the occasional neon-toned print that harkened to Euphoria's colour-saturated visual style. If Euphoria – boundary-pushing, youth-orientated, and ever so slightly contentious – feels more spiritually within Demna’s wheelhouse than Piccioli’s, the High Renaissance references (‘ClairObscur’ is a play on clair-obscur or chiaroscuro, the artistic style beloved by Mannerist painters, which manifests as dramatically contrasting tones to create intense depth) brought proceedings firmly back into Piccioli’s world. India Jarvis

READ: Balenciaga taps Euphoria’s Sam Levinson for A/W 2026

Jean Paul Gaultier

After the shock factor of his debut last season – one which divided both critics and online commentators with its barely-there silhouettes and trompe l’oeil prints of nude bodies – Dutch designer Duran Lantink seemed to hit his stride this season, using his eye for the surreal and the sculptural to create a disruptive cast of archetypes, from the raver to the cowboy. Marlene Dietrich (or, more specifically, a treasured mesh T-shirt printed with the filmstar that Lantink had found in a vintage shop) was one figure on the moodboard, inspiring the clever opening tailoring, which came with jutting folds and sculpted lapels, while also being printed on a dress installed with dry ice (a nod to her favoured vice – cigarettes). The designer said she was a master in subverting tropes: ‘dominant, sexy and graceful, the ultimate hybrid’ – a mood that informed the shape-shifting collection. Tailoring metamorphosed into tech-y sportswear, trompe-l’oeil bodysuits of artist’s dummies were overlaid with lingerie, and puffer jackets became bodysuits. ‘It’s a spirit that suits the house of Gaultier, a place where the world is perpetually turned upside down,’ said Lantink via press notes. ‘Feminine and masculine, inside out, vintage and new, underwear as outerwear, technical and tailored all at once.’ Jack Moss

Chanel

Matthieu Blazy said that his sophomore ready-to-wear collection began with a quote from house founder Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. ‘Fashion is both caterpillar and butterfly. Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night,’ she said. ‘There is nothing more comfortable than a caterpillar and nothing more made for love than a butterfly. We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly.’ It seemed an apt description for Blazy’s own vision for Chanel thus far, one which elevates the quotidien through expressive acts of craft, and finds joy in both the functional and the glamorous. These are special clothes, no doubt (as anyone who has had the chance to see them up close can attest), though they are designed to be worn, not simply exalted. As such, he will no doubt be satisfied by the busy shop floors earlier this week as his debut collection landed (it was an ongoing fashion-week talking point), and more so to see those purchases worn by attendees to the show on Monday evening (and not just by the usual high-spending customers, but editors and stylists alike).

Staged amid a series of vast primary-coloured cranes – Blazy is, after all, still in the process of constructing his Chanel – the designer’s A/W 2026 collection was a brilliant and comprehensive exercise in wardrobing, which, to borrow Coco Chanel’s categorisation spanned the ‘caterpillar’ (roomy blazers, tweeds reformulated into lumberjack-style overshirts, simple jersey dresses), but also the ‘butterfly’. The latter came in an extraordinary stream of lustrous, colour-sturated looks at the end of the show, loaded with embellishment – appliqué flowers, lace and beads – and matched with models’ pastel-coloured or metallic hair. Over the 78 looks, there was a multitude of iterations of the Chanel woman, and the accessories to match (from gleaming metallic court shorts, to squashy crescent-shaped bags that recalled croissants). ‘Chanel is day, Chanel is night. It represents the freedom to choose between the caterpillar and the butterfly whenever you want,’ said Blazy. ‘I wish to create a canvas for women to be unapologetically who they are and who they want to be.’ Jack Moss

READ: Matthieu Blazy’s sophomore Chanel collection is made for ‘women to be unapologetically who they are’

Louis Vuitton

Nicolas Ghesquière staged his A/W 2026 collection for Louis Vuitton amid a show set by Severance production designer Jeremy Hindle, seeing rolling green hills – like those found in pastoral landscapes – abstracted into a series of sharp, futuristic peaks. The collection itself had a similar rationale, drawing inspiration from nature – ‘mountains, forests, plains’, and the clothing traditionally used to live among such elemental landscapes – and reimagining them through a series of Ghesquière’s typically idiosyncratic, time-travelling silhouettes. The idea of expedition seemed a throughline – supersized-wide-shouldered jackets, shearling hats and furry-hooded duffel coats seemed primed for protection, while bags hung on leather staffs like bindles – though there was a ceremonial feel to garments, which recalled traditional rural dress (though, in Ghesquière style, they were mashed up in such a way that the references were hard to place). ‘It is not an escape from our realities, but an echo of them,’ said Ghesquière of the vivid collection, which also featured the ‘urban pastoral’ works of Ukrainian artist Nazar Strelyaev-Nazarko. ‘[It is] a new folklore, for the future.’ Jack Moss

Miu Miu

Miuccia Prada has long interrogated a woman’s place in the world: how they move through it, and a wardrobe that feels reflective of their needs. For A/W 2026, she was thinking about the ‘smallness of the body’ – not in its physical proportions, but in opposition with the vastness of the world around us. It feels like a response to our current era of overload: the runway at Palais d’Iéna was covered in a layer of soil and moss, a reminder that beyond the pomp and ceremony of luxury fashion, we are simply humans living in communion with the earth (as a seatmate commented, perhaps this was her instruction to ‘touch grass’). ‘I am obsessed with the smallness of the body – in a human sense, the contrast between ourselves, our bodies and the vastness of that which surrounds us,’ she said. ‘Who we are, and the scale and magnitude of what we have to face. This collection is not about fragility – there is a confidence, and a strength. But always about a confrontation between a human and the expansiveness of the world.’

As such, the collection segued between moments of strength and intimacy: for the former, enveloping trapper hats, hiking shoes and sporty shearling-lined parkas, for the latter, slip dresses, satin shoes and bejewelled embellishment. There felt something of the 1990s to it: not only in the more minimal looks, which intersected the middle of the show, but in that contrast between glamour and utility (a parka over a mini dress; a studded handbag; a block heel), and also the appearance of Chloë Sevigny, a longtime house muse who first walked for Miu Miu in 1996. She was joined by a coterie of ‘individuals’ on the runway, from models Gemma Ward and Kristen McMenamy to the actress Gillian Anderson, who closed the show. Jack Moss

READ: Miu Miu’s all-star cast for A/W 2026 featured Gillian Anderson and Chloë Sevigny

All change! So could be the motto of the S/S 2026 season, which heralded the arrival of 15 new creative directors at fashion’s major houses – from Dior to Chanel.

It led to a sweeping feeling of freshness and renewal that would define the season, one that Wallpaper* captures in a new series of images by photographer Nicole Maria Winkler and Wallpaper* fashion & creative director Jason Hughes.

S/S 2026’s standount looks in the fitting room

Originally featured in our March 2026 Style Issue, they capture model Valerija Kelava dressing up in a series of S/S 2026’s standout looks – whether the rising Belgian design Julie Kegels’ collaged layers (she said she wanted the collection to feel like it had a life of its own) or a sweeping white gown from Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior collection, delicately edged with flowers.

The setting is a surreal imagining of a fitting room by set designer Kim Harding, Winkler’s longtime collaborator. Within it, we explore the transformative power of a new season of looks. Keep scrolling to shop the story.

Model: Valerija Kelava at Oui Management. Casting: Esther Boiteux at EB Agency. Hair: Moe Mukai using Oribe. Make-up: Sunao Takahashi at Saint Luke using Byredo. Set design: Kim Harding Studio. Digi tech: Anna-Sophia John. Photography assistants: Josh Rea, Elliot Humbles. Set design assistant: Austeja Gokaite. Fashion assistant: Lucy Proctor. Production assistant: Danielle Quigley.

A version of this story appears in the March 2026 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Shop the story

Acne Studios doesn’t have a shiny new creative director to debut in Paris, unlike several other houses, but the Stockholm-based brand still has plenty still to celebrate. Next year (2026) will mark 30 years since the label was co-founded by Jonny Johansson, who has steadily guided the brand with a holistic approach shaped by his scattered interests in art, architecture and contemporary culture. Celebrating the staying power of this multifaceted vision, today he stages his S/S 2026 show inside the 13th-century Gothic church Collège des Bernardins in Paris’ 5th arrondissement. True to form, Acne Studios has once again looked beyond fashion’s tight circles to collaborate with an unexpected artist on the show’s set (past collaborators include Jonathan Lyndon Chase and Lukas Gschwandtner).

This season, the label turned to Brooklyn-based artist Pacifico Silano for the job. Well-regarded in New York’s art scene but little-known on a global stage (with only a few thousand Instagram followers), Silano creates languidly homoerotic works from archival printed matter dating between the Stonewall riots and the height of the Aids crisis. Two facts of his youth have shaped his practice. His parents owned an adult novelty store called Undercover Pleasures in the 2000s, and so niche pornographic titles were somewhat a part of life growing up. However, it was when Silano’s uncle died of an Aids-related illness when he was a young child – a loss his family largely avoided discussing – that he became deeply engaged with America’s mishandling of the Aids epidemic, using his gesturally fragmented work to trace threads of longing, loss and queer legacy left in its wake.

Acne Studios S/S 2026 runway set, a collaboration with artist Pacifico Silano

Working from his Brooklyn studio, in practice this sees Silano re-photograph forgotten 1970s and 1980s ephemera and gay erotica, ignoring explicit content to hone in on small details, such as gym weights on a floor or skin exposed beneath unbuttoned denim. Weaving collective histories into a colour-saturated new present, the resulting works form suggestive meditations on desire, erasure, and the fragility of queer history in print culture. For Acne Studios, the artist has drawn upon his archive alongside newly created works, which are suspended through the stony arches of the church, creating an atmosphere that evokes the moody intimacy of a ‘cigar salon’.

‘This is my first time working with Acne Studios and also my first time dipping a toe in the fashion world,’ he says. ‘Acne Studios has this incredible ability to take something familiar and make it feel radical again, whether it’s denim, tailoring, or a silhouette. That really resonates with my own process because I’m always asking, how can I reframe what already exists so it speaks to this moment? Acne Studios doesn’t treat fashion as just clothing. It’s part of a bigger cultural conversation – about art, identity, and expression. That’s exactly how I approach my work.’

While the artist’s practice is image-based, the challenge of translating his work into a show setting wasn’t as difficult as one might think. ‘I really like to think of photographs as objects of desire, I’m always considering how they can take up physical space,’ he explains. ‘I have been wanting to do an installation of my work with this beautiful dark wood panelling from the 1970s for a couple of years now but couldn’t find the right venue for it. During our first meeting, Acne Studios shared some references that were this exact idea I had been dreaming of. It felt like kismet, like I was supposed to do this with them.’

The artist’s work sets a stage for an S/S 2026 collection that is, the brand says, an exercise in ‘breaking down archetypes’. Grounded in Acne Studios’ core of denim and functional outerwear, this season boundaries between men’s and womenswear wardrobes are blurred to propose a ‘strong, androgyne energy’. Shuffling and twisting wardrobe classics, transposed suit jackets are worn with sharp uniform shirts; lumberjack flannels are tucked into gauzy slip skirts; and couture lace is sliced and stitched into second-skin shapes that play with the meaning of precious materials. ‘Strong, playful, poised and most of all free, these women have been here all along,’ said the brand. ‘Only now, as Acne Studios advances towards its 30th year, they are leading us into the next chapter.’

Silano wanted to create a set that reflected the collection’s states of toughness and tenderness. He hung fabric samples on the walls of his studio and began collaging new works inspired by their eclectic textures and hues, printing these new scenes onto aluminium panels to be installed in Paris. ‘I wanted to create works that balanced stereotypical masculine depictions with more quiet, sensitive and evocative imagery,’ he explains. ‘They might seem contradictory at first glance, but the longer you spend with these works the more you see how they feed off one another.’

With the brand’s birthday approaching, Johansson has been thinking not so much about clothes but – as ever with the unconventional designer – about the constellation of thinkers and creatives who have inspired him through the years. ‘I’ve always felt that creativity is perhaps about being able to see the world in a way you didn’t realise could be seen,’ he said. ‘There are people who can do that to you – they make the world feel different, they stand out and tell you a new story.’

Brought to life with Johansson’s studio team, musical contributions from Robyn and Yung Lean, and Silano’s evocative world-building, the S/S 2026 show is a celebration of this hive of interdisciplinary creation that has long fuelled Acne Studios as it steps into the next decade. ‘This has been an incredible learning experience for me,’ says Silano. ‘It’s made me reinvestigate my archive and my artistic practice through a new lens. I’m so used to working alone in my studio, doing everything myself. To be in dialogue with the Acne Studios team and to create this visual experience together has been incredible.’

Stay tuned for live coverage of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2026

A wild, animalistic mood permeated the A/W 2025 collections, where a frenetic collage of clashing animal prints, slices of faux fur and shearling, and fronds of feathers suggested a need for escape and release. This was the starting point of the cover shoot for the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, an exploration of the uninhibited, subversive glamour which ran through the season, where tropes of luxury were twisted, or turned on their head.

Photographed by Austrian image-maker Nicole Maria Winkler and styled by Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes, the shoot sees model Costanze Van Rosmalen – who made a memorable runway debut at Prada’s A/W 2025 show, titled ‘Raw Glamour’ – inhabit a surreal domestic scene, a hallmark of Winkler’s work (for Wallpaper’s March 2025 Style Issue, she created a liminal apartment complete with disorientating trompe l’oeil wall coverings, part of an ongoing collaboration with set designer Kim Harding).

‘What I find exciting is creating deconstructed settings which emphasise the model’s performance for the camera. It doesn’t feel like her natural habitat but a constructed scene,’ she says. ‘In this instance, the double-height stage resembled a domestic set-up – a living room complete with sofa and TV and a bed on top. In another setup our model Constanze casually speed-walked on a treadmill wearing thigh-high Acne Studios boots – one of my favourite moments.’

‘Faux animal furs and reptile skins were really prevalent this season,’ adds Hughes. ‘For this shoot, I liked this idea of clashing them to create these surreal hybrid combinations, layered up in a single look. They are also textures synonymous with traditional glamour and luxury – we wanted to play with them to create a modern way of dressing up.’

Explore the shoot below.

The September 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

An imagined meeting between photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and couturier Yves Saint Laurent – two men responsible for honing the aesthetic of the 1980s – provided the inspiration for Anthony Vaccarello’s A/W 2025 menswear collection for Saint Laurent, presented in the Tadao Ando-designed rotunda of Paris’ Bourse de Commerce earlier this year. Hanging chandeliers – lowered to just a few feet from the floor – lent the space a moody half-light, inspired by those which hung in the ballroom of Paris’ Intercontinental Hotel, where Yves Saint Laurent held his couture shows from 1976 onwards.

Out of the darkness emerged his protagonist for the season: part-Yves Saint Laurent in ‘bookish’ houndstooth and flannel tailoring, a recreation of his distinctive Parisian uniform, part-Mapplethorpe in the thigh-high leather boots worn atop, inflected with the suggestion of kink that ran through his photographic oeuvre (Mapplethorpe remains best-known for his homoerotic male nudes, which often featured elements of fetish and BDSM-wear, from leather boots, chaps and harnesses to gimp masks and latex). Vaccarello described the collection as capturing ‘a menacing, seductive elegance’, further figured in hefty leather overcoats and flourishes of ‘fur’ (in fact, these pieces were constructed from thousands of meticulously placed feathers).

Dangerous elegance: A/W 2025’s new menswear mood

This feeling of ‘menacing elegance’ ran through the season, with 1980s-inflected designs capturing a mood of dangerous sensuality through moments of leather, denim and western-wear, often clashed with classical tailoring or corporate attire. At MM6 Maison Margiela, tasselled leather gilets and pants looked to have stepped out of a Karlheinz Weinberger photograph; at Versace, slick leather tailoring was worn with silk shirts adorned with animal prints and baroque motifs; while at Prada, an influence of western-wear came in cowboy boots tweaked upwards at the toe, and tailoring made from a patchwork of leather. Playing out amid a scaffold show set designed to evoke the intimacy of a nightclub, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons called it a collection of ‘instinct and passion’.

Here, taken from the cover shoot of the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, a series of these looks is captured by French photographic duo Melanie + Ramon and Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes. Together, they encapsulate the A/W 2025’s dangerous, sensual mood – an invitation to embrace a sense of risk when dressing for the season ahead. Our short film of the shoot, above, plays out to the voice of a young Marlon Brando, as recorded in an early screentest for Rebel Without a Cause (the part later went to James Dean).

Model: Colin O at Tomorrow Is Another Day. Casting: Noah Shelley at Streeters. Hair/grooming: Michael Harding at Blend Management using Davines. Digi tech: Grzegorz Stefanski. Photography assistants: Joe Conway, Jason Colledge. Fashion assistant: Anna Sweasey. Production assistant: Danielle Quigley. Retouching: Courtoisie.

A version of this story appears in the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Afternoon sun cuts across minimalist lines of textured stone, angular display cases and hovering seats, all in very modern shades of pink. There is no mistaking the presence of Swedish fashion label Acne Studios and the telltale cool of its signature shade in the heart of Tokyo’s Aoyama district, where it recently opened its new Japanese flagship.

Clean-lined, monolithic, flooded with light – and instantly recognisable as part of the Acne Studios cosmos – the new store spans a prime corner spot on Omotesando, a longtime architectural playground (it’s next to Prada’s bubble façade, designed by Herzog & de Meuron). Here, Acne Studios expresses its playful, modern philosophy through a three-level space brought to life by the company’s founder and creative director, Jonny Johansson, alongside regular collaborator, Stockholm-based studio Halleroed.

Inside Acne Studios’ Tokyo flagship

The word ‘garage’ doesn’t often feature in the Omotesando luxury lexicon, yet this was the conceptual starting point for Johansson, who was inspired by the idea of a structurally open space with a technical edge. ‘I loved the idea of a little house in Aoyama,’ says Johansson. ‘When they tore down the original building, I looked at its skeleton and thought, actually, let’s turn it inside out – like when you see a garage. I wanted to keep the empty skeleton and have as much glass as possible, so you feel that you’re both inside and outside in Aoyama.’

This idea is mirrored in the stone and glass façade that allows passers-by to see in to the interiors, plus the vast basement level space, with its original lift shaft feature and Japanese plaster walls. Not to forget the softly-textured pink granite stone, which connects spaces both inside and out, flowing seamlessly across floors, walls and – a highlight – two staircases, high and airy, with cleanly minimalist structural lines and smoothly indented handrails.

The aim was to evoke a sense of pink that was not ‘banal’ or ‘naïve’, according to Halleroed co-founder Ruxandra Halleröd. ‘Pink, when painted on the wall, can be quite flat; it’s easy to get tired of it,’ she says. ‘So we started looking at pink as texture and material. That’s how we ended up, after lots of tries, with a granite that becomes more pink when you flame it. People can be quite sensitive to the meaning of pink. It can be girlish or it can be very mature. But the Acne Studios pink is a little vague, which makes it better – I see it more as a pop colour than feminine.’

The store’s atmosphere is rooted further in reflective metal accents, angled mirrors and the dynamism of stainless steel clothing hangers sharply suspended from the ceiling. Deepening the mix is a playful scattering of one-of-a-kind creative touches by longstanding Acne Studios collaborators, including a series of pieces by British designer Max Lamb, ranging from shiny soft leather seats that appear to grow out of walls to tufted carpets and ‘Blob’ chairs in hand-dyed yarns.

Dozens of sharply poetic custom strip-lighting are scattered across ceilings, alongside lit lines cut into metal displays and hangers, as imagined by designer Benoit Lalloz. Surrealist mannequins created by artist Daniel Silver add a further creative layer. According to Ruxandra, key to the atmosphere is the idea of contrasts. ‘Tokyo has a lot of contrasts – the very high tech with the old, and so on,’ she says. ‘This is something we tried to evoke here. The building is very straight with hard materials, and the furniture is very irregular and shiny and a big contrast with the space. It’s also all a little bit unexpected.’ Halleroed co-founder Christian Halleröd adds, ‘Japan is a huge inspiration for us – the quality level and the craftsmanship. Everything starts in Japan.’

One standout Japanese presence is a series of candy-bright ceramic vessels created by artist Takuro Kuwata to mark the store’s opening. An accompanying series of inventive products designed in collaboration with Kuwata includes rainbow reimaginings of the brand’s ‘Camero’ bag and trompe l’œil denim jeans. For Johansson, the new Aoyama store (which replaces their former shop on a nearby backstreet) marks the culmination of a long love affair with Japan, a source of creative inspiration, as well as a key business hub for the brand.

‘I first visited when I was about 18 and I’ve probably been here about 30 times,’ he says. ‘My dad also sailed from Sweden to Japan in the 1960s. It was almost a myth in our family, everything that he told us about Japan, so I have a long relationship with it.’ He adds, ‘We are from a minimalist country, but we are maximalist in the sense that we like to play. Fashion is supposed to be fun. Sometimes luxury can be very excluding. That is what we don’t want to be.’

A version of this story appears in the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

For Wallpaper’s September Style Issue, we slip the surly bonds of stuffy sobriety to embrace the spirit of glamour and luxury that flowed through the A/W 2025 collections, twisted and subverted by the season’s designers. Case in point: Prada, where Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ womenswear collection took an unfiltered look at luxuriousness and femininity under the banner of ‘Raw Glamour’.

There were similar explorations of glamorous archetypes at Miu Miu – notably, the pointed 1950s ‘bullet’ bras – and at Fendi, for which meticulously dyed shearlings were made to appear like fox, mink and sable. The vibe shift is reflected in our womenswear shoot, styled by fashion and creative director Jason Hughes and photographed by Nicole Maria Winkler.

It was a similar story at the menswear shows, which saw garments shot through with a sense of sensuality, elements of which Jason, working with Melanie + Ramon, picked up on for our menswear shoot, capturing a new ‘dangerous’ mood.

Meanwhile, fashion features editor Jack Moss unpacks the trends of the season, and he also travelled to Rome to meet Silvia Venturini Fendi, who, as Fendi celebrates 100 years, has taken on sole creative control following the exit of Kim Jones. In Paris, Hannah Tindle talks to Nicolas Di Felice, who is breathing new life into Courrèges with a sleek, modernist vision influenced by art, architecture and raves.

Taking a peek behind the scenes, design critic Hugo Macdonald profiles production studio Bureau Betak, the creative superpower behind spectacular A/W25 runway show sets for the likes of Valentino, Gucci and Burberry. Danielle Demetriou travelled to Tokyo to visit Acne Studios’ new flagship store in Aoyama, while Hannah Silver headed to Paris to speak to Jonathan Anderson about his new vision for JW Anderson, which also sees him turn art curator (and art dealer).

Sofia de la Cruz chats with Harry Nuriev – a designer beloved by the fashion industry – as he opens his new east London restaurant, Noisy Oyster. And finally, for the latest in our End Paper series, Simon Chilvers delivers a paean to brown, fashion’s most underrated hue.

Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief

On the womenswear cover: Coat (on top), £26,000, by Fendi. Coat (underneath), price on request, by Balenciaga. Boots, price on request, by Acne Studios. Bodysuit; tights, both stylist’s own. ‘No 2’ bar stool, from £3,052, by Eileen Gray, from Aram. Alpaca rug, £4,763, by The Rug Company

On the menswear cover: Jacket, £2,100, by Numeroventuno by Alessandro Dell’Acqua. Shirt, £900, by Zegna. T-shirt; jeans, both price on request, by Celine. Boots, £1,700, by Prada. Necklace, £270, by 886 The Royal Mint. Belt, £289, by Commission

The September 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 7 August 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Dutch photographer Paul Kooiker’s work is unmistakable. Charged with a vague air of the unsettling, his black and white images feel suspended from time itself, as if they could have been shot 60 years ago or just yesterday. Preferring to hone in on body parts rather than faces, figures are abstracted into sculptural forms, limbs rove freely from their owners, and cult fashion items are captured with a cinematic suggestion of kink (Kooiker is drawn to textures like shiny rubber, scratchy hair, and skin-pricking sharp points). The artist’s latest project is, given this particular world, a little surprising.

Opening at the Palais Royal today (26 June), it sees the photographer turn his camera on 42 students from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where he taught photography for 25 years (up until fashion work took over in 2020). Titled ‘2025’, the project marks new territory for Kooiker in two ways – it focuses on a specific moment in time, unlike the eerie timelessness of his broader practice; and it features myriad faces, marking his most extensive portraiture work to date. It was the result of a commission by Acne Studios’ magazine offshoot, Acne Paper, marking the first exhibition hosted within its new permanent gallery space, Acne Paper Palais Royal.

Paul Kooiker turns his lens on 42 art students for the launch of Acne Studios’ new gallery space, Acne Paper Palais Royal

‘They gave me carte blanche to do what I want,’ Kooiker says, speaking over video call just hours after finishing installing the show. ‘I think that's quite strong from a brand, to give that kind of challenge to artists. What I like about Acne Studios is that it's very broad in its thinking – its approach to culture, music, art, design, and, of course, fashion. I enjoyed that this didn’t have to be related to fashion or to the brand itself. It’s just a private project.’

The urge to create something rooted in the present, Kooiker says, came as a response to the heightened and difficult times we’re living through. He wanted to mark this year by capturing the faces of young artists who are bravely pursuing their dreams in the face it all. ‘It was important for me to pay tribute to people who choose to go to an art school at a time like this,’ he explains. ‘That’s also why I chose Rietveld for this project. It’s an international school, people come from everywhere, and it’s known for its anarchistic way of teaching. Students really have to do it themselves.’

After five years away from the university, Kooiker returned to its halls over a series of days, selecting art students at random to shoot in corridors and classrooms. ‘I didn't have a discussion before about who they are or what they study,’ he says of the impulsive process. ‘Afterwards, I would have a little talk with them about which department they are in and what they are doing. But before it was a very quick decision to make a portrait. It's kind of a way of working that I love. I think you get something very honest.’

Gathered side by side in rows, the resulting images recall the feeling of a yearbook or school portraiture. It’s a kind of photograph that feels universal – one that we’ve all likely sat for before – where bright eyed portraits capture the tender point just before adulthood, and everything still lies ahead. ‘I liked playing with this kind of tradition,’ says Kooiker of the format, which he has approached in his arresting, black and white style. ‘These images are always kind of amazing, because they’re so innocent in a way. It's something special.’

When it came to curating the space at the Palais Royal, Kooiker started by requesting the gallery paint the walls a specific tone of grey. It’s the same shade that coats the halls of the university, made famous by its namesake architect, Gerrit Rietveld. ‘It's kind of strange for an art school,’ he says. ‘But his idea was that grey is not finished. Black is a finished colour and so is white – but grey, things can still change. I’ve always thought that was a beautiful idea.’

Guests filled the space yesterday evening for the show’s preview, finding a grounding moment amid the spectacles of the Paris men’s schedule. Forty-two faces gazed into the busy room, frozen in expressions of fresh-faced possibility, defiance and hope, despite the uncertainty of the world they will soon step into. ‘What I hope is that these faces return to you a few days after the show, that maybe it kind of stays in your head after you leave,’ says Kooiker at the end of our call. ‘It's a big thing to ask, but I hope it makes a lasting impression.’

2025 by Paul Kooiker is on view at Acne Paper Palais Royal until 27 July 2025

Read more news in our live reports from Paris Fashion Week Men’s, and our round-up of the shows

When Acne Studios approached Jonathan Lyndon Chase to design an installation for its S/S 2025 runway presentation in Paris, it was the first time the Philadelphia-based artist had ever collaborated with a fashion brand. In fact, Lyndon Chase – despite their proclivity for flowing skirts and acrylic nails – had to Google the Swedish label’s name.

‘I was looking at the vibe, the colour, the textures and attitude of what Acne Studios is really passionate about,’ they tell Wallpaper*. The result was a raucous living room scene, anchored by painted furniture, punctuated by soft, figurative cloth sculptures, and loaded with meaning.

‘I'm really interested in a full spectrum of sensation and emotion,’ they explain. ‘[My work] is about my lived experience as a queer, Black person.’

So fruitful was the collaboration that Acne Studios and Lyndon Chase have returned for more. This week, the artist has fully taken over the brand’s SoHo flagship in New York City – just in time for Frieze Week.

Interspersed throughout the boutique are some 60 sculptures, furnishings and paintings created by Lyndon Chase in their warehouse studio in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighbourhood. Each work sprang from ‘memories growing up, friends, family, my relationship with my husband, past lovers’, Lyndon Chase explains, as well as their hometown of Philly.

Take a voluptuous, human-scale figure, made from a muslin form stuffed with polyester fiberfill, that greets visitors near the store’s Grand Street entrance. ‘It kind of looks like me,’ says Lyndon Chase, but it’s also, ‘someone you could project yourself onto.’

There’s a stuffed cat, complete with a bow and blue eyes; soft busts bedazzled with jewels and hoop earrings; and vintage furniture scrawled with doodles and messages. A crouching mixed-media figure forms the base of a coffee table (a new material experiment in Lyndon Chase’s practice). Even the store’s point-of-sale got a Lyndon Chase makeover of bows, figures and faces.

The work is at once tender and profane; intimate and universal – intentional tensions the artist explores in their work. ‘It's really about humanity and the human condition and taking ownership of your body and love and sexuality,’ Lyndon Chase says. ‘It’s super-important right now to live unapologetically.’

References to the Acne Studios collection are close at hand, too. Lyndon Chase was inspired by the label’s offbeat approach to denim, and designed stuffed sculptures to suit, including hanging, heart-shaped pillows that gleefully evoke floating buttocks. Lyndon Chase was also invited to team up with the brand on a special capsule collection of trousers, T-shirts, a pillow and a blanket. ‘This is an extension of what we did [in Paris],’ the artist explains, ‘this kind of homebody-centred situation.’

Indeed it’s everything that goes on under a single roof that intrigues Chase the most: ‘the ups, the downs, the lows, the friendly, the slutty, the romantic – all of it.’

Catch Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s installation at Acne Studios Greene Street from 7-11 May in New York City, where you can also exclusively shop the ‘Acne Studios Loves Jonathan Lyndon Chase’ collection. Beginning in late June, you can find it in select stores and online.

acnestudios.com

It wasn’t so long ago that the sign of a covetable sneaker was its relative heft, perhaps best epitomised by the Balenciaga ‘Triple X’, a shoe so weighty that each step proved a workout. And, while the supersized sneaker remains ubiquitous – Balenciaga recently added the ‘3XL’ to its roster, and Marni’s collaboration with Hoka was blown-up like a cushion – there has been a shift towards the narrower, slimmer low-pro trainer, defined by its knife-thin sole and lightweight construction.

The ten best low-pro sneakers for men and women

Case in point: the rise of Adidas Original’s ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Taekwondo’ sneakers, the latter originally designed for martial arts in the 2000s, which in their razor-slim design are beginning to compete with the prevalence of the ‘Samba’ (the latter’s renaissance in 2023 was perhaps a pre-cursor to the low-pro trend). On the runway, Prada’s ‘Collapse’ sneaker first appeared as part of a S/S 2025 menswear show which co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons described as capturing a mood of ‘freedom, youthful optimism and energy’ – a mood reflected in the colourful footwear, which had the appearance of being flattened through wear. At sister brand Miu Miu, the ‘Gymnasium’ sneaker was its girlish equivalent (there, Mrs Prada talked about the ‘simplicity’ and ‘clarity’ of adolescence).

Here, the Wallpaper* style team selects its ten favourite low-pro sneakers for men and women, from Abra’s surreal ballerina slipper-sneaker hybrid to colourful 1970s-inspired styles from Adidas, Miu Miu, Prada, Nike and more.

‘A dynamic juxtaposition of two worlds; an exercise in contrasts,’ is how Acne Studios describes its A/W 2025 womenswear collection, which will be presented this afternoon in Paris as part of the city’s fashion week.

Unfolding amid a surreal skyline conceived by set designer Polly Philp, the collection imagines this season’s protagonist on a journey from the wilds of northern Sweden towards the ‘fast-paced energy of the city’.

‘When you grow up in the north of Sweden, you develop a deep connection to nature,’ creative director Jonny Johannsson tells Wallpaper*. ‘The relationship between nature and the city has always fascinated me – it’s the tension and contrast between the two environments that I wanted to convey.’

‘Nature versus city’: inside the A/W 2025 Acne Studios showspace

This tension is encapsulated by the show’s set, whereby a series of gleaming, totemic ‘skyscrapers’ meet woven sculptures, reminiscent of lichen-covered rocks, by design duo Front. Inspired by the landscapes of their native Sweden, Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist – who founded Front in 2008 – say the tapestry-covered sculptures are designed to ‘bring the wilderness in’.

‘Many of our previous works originate from our fascination with nature,’ the pair tell Wallpaper*. ‘We are intrigued by natural forms, textures and patterns. Here, the pieces have been embroidered with “wild embroidery” – just like in nature, you find more details the closer you look.’

The works will double as seating for a number of the show’s guests (‘after all, the most natural and ancient seat is a rock in the forest,’ say Front), while others will watch from bleacher-style seating along the edges of the showspace, which is entered through theatrical velvet ‘curtains’.

The show will also feature another intriguing collaboration: a soundtrack ‘curated’ by Icelandic musician Björk, who reveals a new version of her 1993 hit Human Behaviour (originally produced by Nellee Hooper and Björk) remixed by Helsinki-based artist Exmantera.

Johannsson says that the transporting soundtrack reflects the mood of both the collection and showspace. ‘I wanted to capture the nature and city intertwined, and the contrast between them,’ he says. ‘I hope everyone will appreciate how beautiful the nature is.’

acnestudios.com

Nothing is quite what it seems with the S/S 2025 collections, seeing designers riff on wardrobe staples with illusory tricks – from trompe l’œil to twisted silhouettes and unexpected fabrications. Whether the turned-up hemline of a leather Loewe overcoat – as though perpetually caught in a gust of wind – or a surreal Hodakova shoe, which squashes together a beach flip-flop and high-heeled pump, these are pieces that appear as one thing, but are actually another (a response, no doubt, to our increasingly disorientating digital age). The effect is something like a surreal collage; garments that implore a second look.

S/S 2025’s twisted wardrobe staples

As such, in the March 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper* (on international newsstands now), photographer Nicole Maria Winkler and Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes capture these looks in a surreal interior of their own: a liminal apartment whereby Winkler’s archival photographs become trompe l’oeil wall coverings, or adorn folding screens and chests of drawers. Inhabited by Swiss artist and model Veronika Kunz, the space – which was imagined by set designer Kim Harding – is completed with modernist furnishings, from a Ron Arad bed to an Afra and Tobia Scarpa Cassina sofa.

‘Nicole and I have been friends for many years and have played with trompe-l’œil before, and this story was a further exploration of that theme,’ Harding told Wallpaper*. ‘Delving into Nicole’s archive of still lifes, we created some interesting stand-alone pieces to sit among the set itself.’

Model: Veronika Kunz at Kunz Management. Casting: Ikki Casting at WSM. Set design: Kim Harding Studio. Hair: Sophie Jane Anderson. Make-up: Faye Bluff at Of Substance Agency using Makeup by Mario. Manicure: Sasha Goddard at Saint Luke using Dior. Digi tech: Anna-Sophia John. Photography assistant: Tom Porter. Set design assistants: Matilda Greenwood, Heather Allen. Fashion assistants: Nathan Fox, Rebecca Evans-White. Production assistant: Archie Thomson.

A version of this article appears in the March 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Our comprehensive edit of the world’s best denim brands spans everything from heritage brands to luxury names and independent innovators. No matter what style you are looking for – skinny to selvedge, boot-cut to classic blue – this guide was created to help you find the perfect pair of jeans (or indeed, a denim jacket or Western shirt).

Collated with input from the Wallpaper* style editors, the various labels – which reside around the world, from the denim heartlands of the USA, Japan and Italy, to Sweden, France and the United Kingdom – have been selected for their design credentials and craft know-how.

And, alongside the perennial classics – among them Levi’s, Carhartt, Calvin Klein and Wrangler – we have also chosen those who are pushing denim forward, whether through clever collaborations, innovations in sustainability, or a return to local production. There’s something for every taste.

The world’s best denim brands, according to Wallpaper*

Levi’s

No brand is more synonymous with denim than Levi’s. Taking its name from its founder, Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant to San Francisco who in 1853 hit on the idea of combining copper rivet reinforcements with durable denim to create an ideal uniform for his fellow gold miners to wear, in the nearly two centuries since it has become one of the most ubiquitous clothing brands in the world.

From those first ‘blue jeans,’ dozens of Levi’s original fits were born: the 517 bootcut style associated with motorcyclists and cowboys, the 505, worn by punk musicians like The Ramones, the baggy fit ‘Silver Tab’ that was a favourite of 90s skateboarders, and the twisted-seam Engineered jeans which rose to prominence in the 1990s (and have since had something of a resurgence). In recent years, the brand has continued to innovate with a slew of (oftentimes unexpected) collaborations, including a capsule collection with London brand Kiko Kostadinov, a collaboration with Undercover that saw the Japanese brand upcycle classic Levi’s styles, and an ongoing partnership with Junya Watanabe, who features later on our list.

Available from levi.com.

Calvin Klein

Denim is one of the foundational materials of the American powerhouse Calvin Klein. With the launch of his 1978 denim line, the eponymous designer is largely considered the pioneer of the ‘designer jean’, with provocative campaigns (‘nothing comes between me and my Calvins’) making them a status symbol through the 1980s and 1990s (and all the way to today).

Denim remains a mainstay of the brand, appearing both on the runway as part of Veronica Leoni’s Calvin Klein Collection, as well as part of the brand’s broad offering of jeans and denim jackets. Our highlight? The ‘90s Straight Jeans’, which are straight from the brand’s heyday.

Carhartt WIP

Carhartt WIP’s double-knee jeans are a firm favourite of the Wallpaper* style team, who have the studded-front style in every available colour. Founded in 1994 by Edwin Faeh, the ‘Work In Progress’ division – which regularly ​​collaborates with brands like A.P.C., Junya Watanabe, Nike and more – is inspired by Carhartt’s original workwear designs, which date back to 1889 when the brand was founded in Detroit, Michigan.

Styles like the double-knee jeans are made from heavyweight ‘Smith’ denim and feature utility detailing like double-layering for reinforcement, bartack stitching, rivet details, tool pockets, and a hammer loop. But it's not just the trousers that are noteworthy. The brand also creates denim shirts, dungarees, shorts and jackets, including a denim version of their popular – and much-copied – ‘Detroit’ canvas workwear jacket.

Available from carhartt-wip.com

Wrangler

Wrangler launched in 1947 to create the perfect denim jeans, jackets and shirts for cowboys. These days you're just as likely to see Wranglers worn on the city streets as you are to see them at the cattle range, but the brand’s signature cowboy elements remain the same: flat rivets that don’t scratch a saddle, watch pockets, felled seams for a more comfortable horse ride and seven belt loops rather than the typical five.

In recent years, the brand has expanded its traditional offering to include additions like denim waistcoats and blazers for women, as well as Bermuda shorts and utility jackets for men, cut with the same long-wearing denim and eye for utility as the American brand’s original designs. A 2026 ‘Super Wrangler Jeans’ line reimagines the brand’s classic styles in bolder silhouettes and with vivid topstitch ‘W’ branding.

Available from wrangler.com.

Frame

In a way, the world has Wallpaper* to thank for the creation of Frame denim. Its founders, Jens Grede and Erik Torstensson first met while working at our offices before they went on to serve as editors-in-chiefs of Man About Town and eventually, in 2012, to launch Frame.

With headquarters in L.A. and London's Shoreditch, Frame creates denim that combines the laid-back cool of its West Coast home with the eccentric fashion sensibility of the British capital. The brand is probably best known for its skinny styles that hark back to the early aughts (cuts like the leg-lengthening ‘Alix’ or the high-waisted ‘Le Sleek’) but there are plenty of other styles to choose from including thigh-hugging flares and the voluminous balloon-shaped ‘Bubble’, all in Frame’s brilliant denim, which spans rigid, super-stretch and soft.

Available from frame-store.com

A.P.C.

Founded in Paris in 1987, A.P.C. is known for distilling the essence of French style – effortless, elegant and a touch eccentric – into clothes that everyone can wear. The same goes for their denim offering (their most well-known export) which is made out of rigid Japanese selvedge denim that is designed to mould to your body with wear. The offering is a tight edit that includes a few pairs of unisex jeans, some styles specific to men and women, overshirts, skirts and denim workwear jackets that are a favourite of Wallpaper*, with roomy side pockets and a boxy fit.

The brand has collaborated with everyone from JW Anderson and the late Jane Birkin to ex-Chloé and Louis Vuitton designer Natacha Ramsay-Levi, who partnered with the brand in 2024 to create ‘really good denim and super-great T-shirts’. Speaking to Wallpaper* about the collection, Ramsay-Levi pointed out A.P.C.’s unique approach to the fabric. ‘There's a culture of denim at A.P.C. that doesn't exist elsewhere,’ she said. ‘It's not a fashion item, it goes back to the identity of what denim is.’

Available from apcstore.com

Acne Studios

Jonny Johansson founded Acne Studios with 100 pairs of jeans cut from raw denim with his now signature red stitching. Now, though, the Swedish label is known for its more offbeat styles – notably, baggy fits with trompe l'oeil effects, innovative washes, extreme distressing, and other bold finishes. Wallpaper* favourites include the brand’s ‘1991’ jeans, a loose unisex fit with an adjustable waistband that can be worn below the hips or on the waist, and the ‘2022’ style which comes with a high waist, wide leg and extra long length.

Available from acnestudios.com.

Ralph Lauren

Throughout his long career, Ralph Lauren has almost always been photographed wearing a pair of jeans. That’s probably because the designer, often credited as the godfather of modern American fashion, owes a lot to the fabric (it’s formed the backbone of countless collections) and it owes a lot to him (he helped elevate it from workwear material to luxury status). The brand’s range is, unsurprisingly, vast with its RRL line in particular featuring designs made out of the material and spanning everything from denim waistcoats to striped coveralls inspired by the uniforms of 19th-century engineers. Particularly noteworthy is the brand’s fixed denim with quilt-like patchwork and embroidery, transforming the rugged, lived-in details of vintage workwear with elements of the handmade.

Available from ralphlauren.co.uk

Re/Done

Launched in Downtown Los Angeles in 2014, Re/Done founders Sean Barron and Jamie Mazur wanted to recreate vintage Levi’s denim silhouettes for those who had trawled consignment stores for the pre-2000s fits denim obsessives hunt for. Since the brand’s styles are ‘pre-loved,’ they have the worn-in feel and natural fade patterns of vintage jeans without any of the effort of having to break a new pair in. In 2025, the brand collaborated with stylist and Interview magazine editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg (a true denim obsessive) on a collection of 80s-inspired denim pieces including a unisex pair of jeans inspired by Levi’s 505s, a trucker jacket, and a selection of upcycled Levi’s 505s.

Available from shopredone.com

The Row

The Row has become one of fashion’s favourite brands for designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s ability to perfect the foundations of a wardrobe, like a classic overcoat, white T-shirt and, of course, a pair of jeans. Made in Italy and Japan, their denim is impeccably tailored and buttery soft. Favourite styles include the ‘Ross’ straight-leg for men and the ‘Eglitta' for women, an ultra-slouchy style that, especially when paired with one of the brand’s signature drop shoulder sweaters, captures the elegant insouciance The Row has perfected. The same goes for their loose-fitting denim jackets, which only look better with wear.

Available from therow.com

Still Here New York

Still Here New York’s jeans are designed to be destroyed or, in the brand’s words, ‘ripped, faded, patched, and handed down, capturing moments and holding sentimental value as they wear’. Their styles range from ‘The Childhood’ a high-rise, straight-leg style designed to echo the anti-fit silhouette of your childhood jeans (the ‘Chaps’ edition of this style, with a chocolate suede inner panel, on each leg is particularly noteworthy) and the ‘Subway’, a carpenter-style pant with front-panelling that is available in the brand’s camo-print denim. If you’re looking for a pair of jeans as comfortable as your sweatpants, their newest style, ‘Cool’, is made from their speciality, ultra-soft ‘cloud’ denim and features a drawstring toggle instead of a waistband.

Available from stillhere.nyc.

Arket

If you are looking for well-made denim at a more accessible price point, Nordic high street brand Arket should always be a go-to. Seeing jeans as a garment ripe for ‘continuous reinvention and recreation’, expect timeless 5-pocket styles with contemporary tweaks: case in point, the brand’s ‘Cloud’ cut, a roomy, wide-leg style with a just-low-slung waist that recalls the golden age of 1990s denim (for a snugger fit, the ‘Snow’ has a mid-rise waist with an elongating straight-leg and slim fit). The men’s line is equally varied, ranging from the straight-leg ‘Park’ to the baggy ‘Mist’. Beyond jeans, the brand’s denim shirts, skirts and jackets are surprisingly strong – all are made from 100 per cent organic cotton and pair perfectly together for a double, or even triple, denim moment (which we always approve of).

Available from arket.com.

Junya Watanabe

Throughout his career, cult Japanese designer Junya Watanabe has applied his signature aesthetic, with its voluminous shapes, cutting-edge pattern-cutting and complex patching, to denim. The result is a truly innovative approach to the fabric. His S/S 2025 Junya Watanabe MAN collection was even created entirely out of denim with everything from trousers to tuxedo jackets constructed out of 50 types of denim sourced from Okayama, the centre of Japan’s denim production, and then painstakingly deconstructed and patched by Watanabe’s in-house team. The designer also regularly collaborates with Levi’s, creating collectable reinterpretations of the American brand’s denim.

Available from shop.doverstreetmarket.com

Jacob Cohën

There is a good reason Jacob Cohën’s denim is considered some of the finest in the world. The Italian brand combines the expert tailoring techniques of its home country with the highest quality Japanese denim that is processed without any chemical intervention and undergoes 45 processing stages. The result is luxuriously soft and durable denim that when paired with the brand’s signature flourishes – jewel buttons, crystal embellishments and patches – make for a singular pair of jeans.

The brand has been undergoing an exciting reboot since Jennifer Tommasi Bardelle, daughter-in-law of Jacob Cohën’s founder Tato Bardelle, took over the brand in 2012. With an eye towards expanding the womenswear offering and making the brand even more sustainable, Bardelle has introduced several innovations including a pair of completely compostable jeans.

Available from jacobcohen.com

Loro Piana

Italian brand Loro Piana transforms denim into high luxury. In fact, the brand’s innovative Denim Silk material might make it the most luxurious denim producer in the world. Made from 59 per cent cotton and 41 per cent silk (an astonishing amount considering the material’s delicacy), Denim Silk was developed through an arduous prototyping process between artisans in Italy and Japan. The method they finally hit on is labour intensive – it takes an entire day to produce just 50 metres of the fabric, the equivalent of around 25 pairs of jeans – but creates an airy, soft denim fabric and explains the price tag (which is over £1,000 for a pair of jeans).

Equally as impressive is their ‘CashDenim,’ a delicate blend of cashmere and cotton yarns, woven by Japanese craftspeople using vintage looms. The result is an incomparably comfortable denim that is almost as flexible and soft as the brand’s signature cashmere.

Available from loropiana.com.

Jeanerica

Jeanerica was founded in 2018 by friends Lena Patriksson Keller and Jonas Clason, who worked in Acne Studios’ denim and PR departments respectively before deciding to pool their knowledge into their own denim line. The result is a considered collection of American-style jeans designed from a European perspective.

Favourite styles include ‘Idaho’, a classic 90s low-waist style with a straight fit from thigh to bottom leg to create a slight bootcut silhouette, and ‘Milan’ a 70s flair style with a high-rise waist and jetted pockets to accentuate the wide leg. Also noteworthy is the brand’s ‘Atelier’ series, which sees them collaborate with other creatives to reimagine denim through a new lens. They also collaborated with the Copenhagen-based label La Bagatelle in a collection which featured denim Peter-Pan collar jackets and waistcoats.

Available from jeanerica.com

Superstitch

The Parisian brand Superstich is born out of founder Arthur Leclerq’s obsessive desire to create the perfect pair of blue jeans. That obsession has led him to salvage weaving machines from defunct factories, to carefully study the history of American denim manufacturing from the 1920s to the 1970s, and to work with master weavers in Japan who can operate electric powered shuttle looms that require around the clock care.

The idea is to create jeans that respect the fabric’s workwear heritage. These are jeans that have the same durability against sun, grime and wear as their vintage forebears. They have the same malleability too, eventually reshaping around the wearer’s body to become the perfect pair of jeans for them alone.

Available from superstitchmfg.com

ELV Denim

East London’s ELV Denim crafts womens and men’s styles from 100 per cent upcycled materials. Founded by fashion stylist Anna Foster in 2018, the brand is best known for its signature contrast colour denim which combines two different shades of preloved jeans mid-seam to create a patchwork style. If you’re not sure which pair to go for, we recommend the brand’s best-selling ‘Freya’ cut, a low waisted style with a super slouchy fit across the hips and legs.

Available from elvdenim.com

Kapital

For denim aficionados, few names inspire more reverence than Kapital. The Japanese brand was founded in 1985 by Toshikiyo Hirata, who fell in love with American workwear while traveling around the country as a karate instructor. Hirata’s son, Kiro, joined the business in the early 2000s, expanding its output from meticulous recreations of American classics to original styles with hippy motifs (smiley faces, peace signs, heavy patchwork), Japanese influences (shibori dyeing, embroidered cherry blossoms) and even their own dye techniques like ‘Century Denim’ which sees the fabric dyed with unripe persimmon juice to give it a unique orange-brown hue.

Still, the change of style has never had an impact on the brand’s quality. Operating out of Kojima, Japan's 'denim capital,' Kapital uses the laborious ‘boro’ hand stitch method for all its patchwork and subjects all of its dyes to a rigorous testing process that often requires around a hundred tests to land on the right formula.

Available from kapital.jp.

DL1961

DL1961 is a family-owned brand that wants to ignite a sustainable revolution in denim production. Every aspect of the brand’s denim, from fibre to finished garment, is manufactured in their Pakistan factory, which runs on solar panels and heat regeneration. While a typical pair of jeans takes 1500 gallons of water to produce, DL1961’s take less than 10.

A recent innovation is DL Aura, which blends cotton with Tencel Lyocell, a fibre derived from the wood pulp of beech trees, to create an ultra-soft denim that has a lived-in feel from day one.

Available from dl1961.com.

Unboxing beauty products on Boxing Day? Well, metaphorically speaking, why not?

Here, we take a look back at the pages of Wallpaper* from the past year, reflecting on the make-up, perfume, tools and accessories that defined our 2024.

Unboxing beauty products from 2024, as seen on the pages of Wallpaper*

Chanel lipstick in Wallpaper* February 2024: The Design Awards Issue

In the February 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, we presented a design award to the Chanel ‘31 Le Rouge lipstick’. The lipstick comes in several shades and textures, all created to be housed in a glass case crafted by Japanese artisans and designed by Sylvie Legastelois.

Read the full article here.

MyBlend led mask in Wallpaper* March 2024: The Style Issue

For the first Wallpaper* Style Issue of the year in March 2024, we turned the spotlight on the MyBlend ‘myLedmask’, with its uniquely contoured design slightly reminiscent of Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In.

Read the full article here.

Acne Studios x Frédéric Malle perfume in Wallpaper* April 2024: Global Interiors

We spoke with the creative director of Acne Studios Jonny Johansson, fragrance legend Frédéric Malle and emerging nose Suzy Le Helley about their collaborative work on ‘Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle’ eau de parfum, previewed in the April 2024 issue of Wallpaper*.

Read the full article here.

Bottega Veneta scented candle in Wallpaper* June 2024: The Travel Issue

Bottega Veneta launched scented candles earlier this year, with three different fragrances available in red, yellow and green lava glaze ceramic pots. We captured the brand’s ‘Redstone’ candle on the pages of Wallpaper* June 2024, which contains notes of plum nectar, tobacco and cedarwood.

Read the full article here.

Rimowa vanity case in Wallpaper* June 2024: The Travel Issue

Rimowa's vanity case also made its debut in Wallpaper* June 2024, our annual travel issue. A reimagined 1970s design from the Rimowa archives, the case is robust enough to contain a multitude of products and tools without fear of damage whilst on the move.

Read the full article here.

Fendi perfumes in Wallpaper* July 2024: The Design Directory

In 2024, Fendi created seven exclusive perfumes, inspired by the personalities and memories of close members of the Fendi family. The collection, which we included in the July issue of Wallpaper*, features refillable glass bottles evoking the vocabulary of Roman architecture.

Read the full article here.

Calvin Klein CK One perfume in Wallpaper* August 2024: The USA 100

The August 2024 issue of Wallpaper* was dedicated US creatives, with an accompanying portfolio shot by Inez and Vinoodh. In addition, we looked at 12 American design icons, including Calvin Klein’s ‘CK One’ eau de toilette. First released in 1994, the fragrance remains a best seller to this day.

Read the full article here.

Solid soap in Wallpaper* September 2024: The Style Issue

For Wallpaper* September 2024, the year’s second issue dedicated to style, we celebrated the pleasures of solid soap, including bars from the likes of Aesop, Celine, Diptyque, Hermès and Sisley.

Read the full article here.

Celine Beauté lipstick in Wallpaper* October 2024: Guest Editors

Celine launched its first-ever beauty line in October 2024, Celine Beauté. Designed by Hedi Slimane, who has since left the house in the hands of his successor Michael Rider, the ‘Le Rouge Celine’ lipstick in a shade of red called 'Rouge Triomphe’ made its Wallpaper* premiere in the same monthly issue.

Read the full article here.

Hermès eye and lip pencils in Wallpaper* November 2024: The Art Issue

Hermès’ ‘Trait d’Hermès’ eye and lip pencils were designed by Pierre Hardy and Gregoris Pyrpylis, the house’s creative director of beauty, to evoke a playful stationary set. We captured the collection’s kaleidoscopic colour palette in Wallpaper* November 2024.

Read the full article here.

Bottega Veneta perfume in Wallpaper* November 2024: The Art Issue

Bottega Veneta’s fragrance collection by Matthieu Blazy (now succeeded by Louise Trotter after his appointment as creative director at Chanel) includes five scents inspired by Venice, with bottles blown in Murano glass. Above, is the brand’s ‘Come With Me’ eau de parfum, as featured in the November 2024 issue of Wallpaper*.

Read the full article here.

Dior perfumes in Wallpaper* December 2024: The Entertaining Issue

In 2024, Francis Kurkdjian, the creative director of Dior Parfums took five fragrances from the house’s ‘La Collection Privée’, reinterpreting their notes in ‘Esprit de Parfum’, a new scent range featured on the pages of Wallpaper’s December Entertaining Issue.

Read the full article here.

Dries Van Noten lipsticks in Wallpaper* December 2024: The Entertaining Issue

After taking a final bow on the runway earlier in the year, for the December 2024 issue of Wallpaper* we caught up with Dries Van Noten about his next steps, which include growing the beauty and fragrance arm of his eponymous brand (and spending more time in his beloved garden).

Read the full article here.

If ever there was a time to hone your working uniform it is the autumn, a season which, after the hot and heady rush of summer, marks the moment to pack up your holiday wardrobe and embrace the strangely seductive pull of officewear – a mood of grown-up polish that draws you back to your desk and the routine of the nine-to-five.

This needn’t suggest tedium: the A/W 2024 collections offer an altogether twisted view of city dressing, seeing futuristic and sculptural silhouettes meet unexpected flourishes of texture in a corporate palette of navy, grey and black. Alongside, riffs on the classic overcoat: like Acne Studios’ version in moulded leather, which creative director Jonny Johansson likened to Estonian artist Villu Jaanisoo’s enormous rubber armchairs that were dotted around the runway when the collection was revealed in Paris earlier this year. ‘[It’s] rooted in toughness and human form, leather and denim,’ Johansson says of the full-throttle collection.

A/W 2024’s twisted officewear

Victoria Beckham describes her A/W 2024 collection as taking the silhouettes at the core of her brand and ‘abstracting’ them, often deconstructing them to their essence and rebuilding them into new propositions. This includes office-style tailoring, whereby blazers are redesigned to hang on the front of the body, leaving the back exposed, as one might hold a garment to the body before trying on an outfit. At Sportmax, the wide, notched lapels of a tuxedo are combined with a classic elongated grey coat for statement-making outerwear that need not be removed when you step inside the office.

Meanwhile at JW Anderson and Louis Vuitton, the idea of a sculpted waist is explored in different ways by Jonathan Anderson and Nicolas Ghesquière, two designers who defined the A/W 2024 season with imaginative and intriguing collections. At JW Anderson, a grey sweater has a darted waist for a pinched silhouette recalling tailoring or dressmaking, while at Louis Vuitton, a sculptural jacket comes with the kind of sharp, futuristic line which has defined Ghesquière’s postmodern approach during his ten-year tenure at the house (the A/W 2024 collection was a celebration of the past decade, seeing the French designer revive his archive anew).

In the heart of London’s Square Mile – the financial epicentre of the city – photographer Sasha Marro and Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes capture A/W 2024’s new working uniform as part of the October 2024 Guest Editors’ issue of Wallpaper*, which is on international newsstands now.

Model: Julia Rambukkana at The Milk Collective. Casting: Ikki Casting at WSM. Hair: Chloe Frieda using Authentic Beauty Concept. Make-up: Sunao Takahashi at St Luke using Dior Forever Foundation and Capture Totale Le Sérum. Photography assistants: Fred Barlet, Pablo Gallegos. Fashion assistants: Lucy Proctor, Nathan Fox. Production assistants: Minna Vauhkonen, Ady Huq, Archie Thomson. Retouching: IPP Studio.

This article appears in the October 2024 Guest Editors’ Issue of Wallpaper* available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

The S/S 2025 shows offered a typically transporting array of runway sets and show spaces, which spanned the romantic, the playful and the surreal, alongside the downright cinematic. Like Anthony Vaccarrello’s opulent, monolithic set for Saint Laurent – an enormous gilded circle that hovered over a circular blue runway – made all the dramatic by rain pouring through its open-to-the-elements ceiling.

Other brands drafted artists to create installations to backdrop their shows: there was Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s ‘messy, complicated’ domestic scene for Acne Studios, or Gary Hume’s reimagining of a 1990 work, ‘Bays’, for Daniel Lee’s latest Burberry show in London. Meanwhile, perhaps the most Instagram-friendly moment of the month came at Bottega Veneta, where Matthieu Blazy created a menagerie of leather beanbag animals inspired by a scene from E.T. (read on for the full story).

Here, selected by Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss, are the most breathtaking runway sets fashion month – a celebration of the architecture of fashion.

The best runway sets of S/S 2025

Artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s twisted living room for Acne Studios

‘The idea for this collection started from a twisted domestic scenery. I asked myself whether classic domestic codes could actually be translated into fashion,’ explained Jonny Johansson of his surreal S/S 2025 Acne Studios collection, which reimagined home furnishings – from curtain ties to wax tablecloths – as clothing. Backdropping the show was a ‘complicated and messy’ domestic scene by Philadelphia-based artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase, comprising soft sculptures of lamps, radios and cats, alongside recycled furniture from Leboncoin scrawled with his playful motifs. Evoking a twisted living room, the artist told Wallpaper* that the installation was a musing on ‘emotions and the body, and how they affect the space around you’. Read more.

Bottega Veneta’s menagerie of bean-bag animals

‘I was interested in the power of “wow”,’ said Matthieu Blazy of his latest collection for Bottega Veneta, which was inspired by a sense of childhood wonder, 'the joy of looking, discovering and dressing’. It was a mood reflected in the show space, a menagerie of leather beanbag chairs for guests to sit on – a reference, the designer said, to the scene in E.T. when the titular extraterrestrial hides amid a pile of soft toys in Elliott’s closet. Spanning killer whales, bunnies and foxes, the beanbag design was inspired by Zanotta’s ‘Sacco’ easy chair, with Blazy working with the Italian design company on the unique project. Read more.

Gary Hume’s reimagining of a 1990 work for Burberry

At London’s National Theatre, Daniel Lee looked towards artist Gary Hume – best known for being a part of the YBA movement, and currently showing at Sprüth Magers in London – to create the runway set for his latest Burberry collection, inspired by the artist’s 1990 work ‘Bays’. Originally staged as part of the notorious East Country Yard Show, the work comprises a series of lorry tarpaulins, hung like curtains and slashed to recall doorways and windows. Over three decades on, they were reimagined in medical green, lining the lobby of the brutalist theatre, which was partly chosen for the way it recalls the original concrete industrial space of the 1990 show. ‘I hadn’t touched the pieces in a long time, and so when Daniel asked me if I could participate in his show, I said yes,’ Hume told Wallpaper*. ‘There was a real bond of being two creative people.’ Read more.

Balenciaga’s dining-table runway, inspired by Demna’s childhood

Demna said that this season began with reminiscences of holding fashion shows on his grandmother’s kitchen table in Georgia as a child. ‘My early memories of fashion start with me drawing looks on cardboard, cutting them away and making “fashion shows” on my grandmother’s kitchen table,’ he wrote in a letter to guests. ‘Thirty-five years later, this show reconnects me to the beginning of my vision. It’s a tribute to fashion which has a point of view.’ For the runway set, this scene was blown up to surreal proportions, with an enormous polished dining table – around which VIP guests sat – serving as the show’s runway.

Loewe’s ‘radically reduced’ runway set, featuring a Tracey Emin sculpture

Jonathan Anderson described his latest Loewe show as an act of ‘radical reduction’, an attempt to replicate the ‘eye going into focus’ as your eyes adjust to a darkened room. The show space, constructed in a box in the grounds of Paris’ Château de Vincennes, was similarly spare: a vast white space with a circular runway that ran around a 2007 sculpture of a metal bird on a narrow, totem-like plinth by British artist Tracey Emin. Anderson said he liked the idea of the looks circulating around the sculpture ‘like a sundial’. ‘Caught in a moment of pause, [Emin] encourages us to imagine the bird’s imminent flight, and ultimately its freedom,’ said the designer via the collection notes.

Chanel’s blown-up birdcage, marking the house’s Grand Palais return

Chanel’s S/S 2025 show marked a triumphant return to the Grand Palais, the longtime site of the house’s runway presentations after the Beaux-Arts building was renovated to host the fencing competition during the Paris Olympics. Under the enormous glass roof, the house erected a giant birdcage, complete with the house’s double-C motif interwoven into its design. At the end of the show – which drew on bird motifs, from feather trims to feather prints – the actress-singer Riley Keough was lifted upwards on a swing inside the cage, singing a version of Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ as models took their finale circuit. It was a nod towards one of Chanel’s most memorable ads: the 1991 Coco L'Esprit de Chanel campaign starring house muse Vanessa Paradis as a feathered bird in a cage (though this time, the enormous fluffy white cat was missing).

Louis Vuitton’s raised runway, constructed from hundreds of the house’s signature trunks

There was a hint of nostalgia to the runway set for Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest show for Louis Vuitton, which was staged on a raised runway and lit by a ‘Louis Vuitton Paris’ neon sign, recalling the amped-up fashion shows of the 1980s and 1990s. The runway itself was crafted from what appeared to be hundreds of Louis Vuitton’s signature trunks – spanning an array of eras and styles – all stacked up and hammered together, rising from the floor of the Louvre venue as the show began.

Archer-artist Sagg Napoli creates a fantastical show set for Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest show began with the multidisciplinary Italian artist-archer Sofia Ginevra Giannì (aka Sagg Napoli) marching down the runway, bow in hand, before entering a Perspex corridor and firing shots on target. Carrying on the tradition of Chiuri collaborating with women artists, she had also designed the runway set. It saw the space in the gardens of Paris’ Musée Rodin transformed with an installation evocative of wrought-iron gates adorned with looping texts from the artist, who draws on the culture of southern Italy in her work. Meanwhile, an enormous Big Brother-style eye served as Sagg Napoli’s target – light work for the artist, who also has competed in national Italian archery competitions.

Alessandro Michele’s romantic, dust-sheet covered set for his Valentino debut

Fashion month’s most-anticipated moment took place in a judo stadium on Paris’ outer reaches, entirely transformed for the occasion by Italian design maverick Alessandro Michele, who was making his debut for Valentino after a two-year hiatus (he left his role as creative director of Gucci in 2022). Evoking what Michele deemed a 'Pavillon des Follies’ (which was also the title of the collection), the typically theatrical space saw the designer assemble a jumble of chairs, furniture and lampshades which were all covered in dust sheets, while the runway itself was made from shattered mirror, casting shards of light on the models’ faces. It provided an apt backdrop for Michele’s romantic exploration of beauty. ‘When I say beauty, I am clearly not referring to its universalistic, dogmatic and normative mythologisation,' he wrote in an introduction to the collection. ‘I rather allude to that unique capability to deeply feel and connect with something.’

Saint Laurent’s rain-soaked show space, which paid ode to Yves Saint Laurent’s Marrakech

It was a return to Saint Laurent’s Rue de Bellechasse headquarters on Paris’ Left Bank for Anthony Vaccarello’s latest womenswear show for the house, a location that he had not shown at since his debut eight years ago. The monolithic set, created by Bureau Betak, comprised an enormous gilded circle – open to the elements – under which models walked on a slick blue runway, evocative of the blue used in the Saint Laurent gardens in Marrakech. It was made all the more strking by the fact that the rain was pouring, a final cinematic flourish to the already dramatic mise-en-scène.

Gucci’s setting sun at Milan’s Triennale Milano design museum

Milan’s temple to design, the Triennale Milano museum, provided the setting for Sabato De Sarno’s latest Gucci show, following a menswear presentation in the historic space earlier this year. This time, the designer created an enormous curving runway that looped around the museum’s ground floor, where various ‘rooms’ were designed to evoke a sunset, moving from yellow to orange to Ancora red, the deep oxblood hue that has become central to De Sarno’s tenure. The idea behind the exuberant collection was to capture a moment in time, just as the sun is rising or setting: ‘a moment to seize and live to the fullest’.

Fendi’s futuristic runway set, which came with a final surprise

It was only fitting that what will be Fendi’s first collection of its centenary year (the brand turns 100 in 2025), was celebrated in theatrical style. In the centre of the vast, sound-stage-like space on the outskirts of Milan was an enormous, futuristic white box, into which models streamed after taking their loop around the square-shaped runway. It was to provide a moment of surprise: as the show ended, the box opened up, revealing a tableau of models inside. In their flapper-inspired dresses and nostalgic, crystal-adorned looks, it was a clash of past and present: ‘I wanted something romantic, something with a debt to the 1920s from the 2020s,’ said Kim Jones, artistic director of Fendi’s womenswear and couture.

For more on the latest fashion weeks, see our reports from the Paris, Milan, London and New York S/S 2025 shows.

Though Jonathan Lyndon Chase is best known for their charged figurative paintings and plush sculptures, the genesis point for their creative process isn’t dissimilar to that of many fashion designers. ‘My artistic practice usually starts with a drawing or a sketch and then it sort of ripples out and transforms from there,’ they share over email, a couple days out from the unveiling of their latest large-scale commission. The fashion comparison is particularly apt since the commission in question is for Acne Studios, with the multidisciplinary artist creating the set for the Swedish fashion brand’s show during Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025.

For the set, the artist has created an entirely new series of works, installed both within and on the exterior of a purpose-built box, set in the garden of L’Observatoire de Paris. Riffing on the abiding focuses of their artistic practice, the installation explores the complex relationships between domestic and public spaces, the contested status of Black queer bodies within them, and the imprints they leave as they pass through.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase for Acne Studios S/S 2025

‘What are some ways to create an atmosphere that’s related to private, public, and liminal moments?’ was the question Lyndon Chase asked themselves as a point of departure, noting their keenness to evoke ‘familiar things and people, but also reflect things and people that maybe a broader audience doesn’t see too often’.

Arranged around a central living room scene, fringed by a runway, the installation conjures an almost uncanny sense of intimacy, as if the objects on display had been lifted from a long-lived-in lounge. Vintage settees – sourced from LeBonCoin, the French online classifieds platform – are painted with scrawled numbers, frilled bows and queer Black figures in states of solitary rest, contemplation and raunchy embrace. Among them, plush, jaunty sculptures of cats, stereo systems, jewellery-pierced lampshades and busts of bearded heads stand atop pastel cubes; canvases – some patchworked from scraps of clothing fabrics – feature vignettes of exploding stoves, or are daubed with lurid yellow foam.

Indeed, the context displayed evokes a keen sense of familiarity, but the installation’s real effect lies in the almost eerie specificity of its content. ‘We accumulate all of these objects in our spaces, and they indicate a person's personality. I’m thinking about a body – and the idea of your body’s memory in public spaces. We don’t always get to see what is beneath,’ Lyndon Chase explains of the installation’s affective logic. ‘I’m trying to achieve something that is raw or honest. I want it to feel like and look like something, someone, and someplace real. People are complicated and messy and a person’s living space, I believe, says a lot about them.’

There’s an evident parallel to be drawn, then, with the common though inherently personal nature of fashion. Working in direct response to Jonny Johansson’s latest collection for Acne Studios, Lyndon Chase introduced nuances of dress in the works – ‘The figures are wearing dresses and bows,’ they note, ‘and also many of the fabrics are inspired by the collection as well.’ They’ve also responded to the collection’s material palette, in particular, its denims and satins, which serve as the canvases for a number of the set’s paintings. ‘It’s really cool to channel the materials and the collection into my painting and drawing language,’ they share.

Lyndon Chase’s greatest achievement here, though, is the frank and generous framing that the installation provides for the collection. It’s hard not to view the clothes in a light of tender humanity, prompting reflections on our own inner emotional landscapes and how we come to terms with and express them – whether through fashion, furniture or otherwise. ‘Many of the works are deceptively heavy; although they are soft pillows, looks can be deceiving. In some ways, I’m asking a question about what it’s like to be soft and to carry joy and memories of trauma at the same time; the delights and burdens of existing in a body,’ Lyndon Chase muses.

‘Being a person who lives with bipolar disorder, it has allowed me to really focus on the nuanced relationships to emotions and the body, and how they affect the space around you,’ they continue. ‘I would also like people to consider what they think of good or bad emotions. That can look different for everyone, but perhaps embracing that is necessary to help us understand the complexities of our emotions.’

Discover more from Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025.

To visualise the composition of a fragrance, perfumers use an olfactory pyramid split into three parts: the top notes, the heart notes, and the base notes, with each third performing a collaborative dance with the other. This is very similar to the synergistic approach used by Acne Studios co-founder Jonny Johansson and leading ‘perfume publisher’ Frédéric Malle, along with perfumer Suzy Le Helley, to produce the Swedish fashion brand’s first fragrance.

‘I received a handwritten letter from Frédéric, inviting me for a couple of meetings in France,’ says Johansson. ‘I don’t really get handwritten letters that often – nobody does, sadly. It was a beautiful one: Frédéric explains design in poems or words, and you see pictures. I had been wearing his fragrances for years, and I like the experience of collaborating with interesting people for the sake of the people, not the product. Although I will say: I like this product, and I think we did a good job.’

Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle contains notes of rose, violet, and peach skin

Johansson has overseen the creative growth of Acne Studios (founded in 1996 as ACNE, an acronym for Ambition to Create Novel Expression) from its debut producing unisex jeans – Wallpaper* was one of the first magazines to pick up on the brand – to its current status as a multidisciplinary phenomenon known for its irreverent take on impeccably crafted clothes.

So naturally, a push and pull between eclecticism and classicism is what Johansson set out to capture with the molecules of the perfume, entitled Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle. ‘The goal was to make a fragrance that wasn’t too conceptual; it needed to have a classicism but combined with a kitschiness that bounces against it,’ explains Johansson, who began the collaborative process by presenting Malle with visual references spanning from Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 avant-garde film Persona to the ‘white nights’, a natural phenomenon that Stockholm experiences for around six weeks of the summer. ‘And this is what I like about the fragrance,’ says Johansson. ‘It has a traditional sort of weight, but at the same time, it’s quite transparent and light.’

‘When Jonny showed me Persona, which happens to be one of my favourite films, there was this image of Bibi Andersson wearing a crisp white turtleneck outside on an island,’ says Malle. ‘From that image, I wanted to capture something clean, white, bright, yet soft, and translate that into the perfumer’s language. Because this is what I do. I know how to work with perfumers and speak their language.’

Malle, who hails from a long line of artists and perfumers (his uncle is French film director Louis Malle, his maternal grandfather Serge Heftler-Louiche was the founder of Parfums Christian Dior, and his mother was the artistic director of Parfums Christian Dior), began his own venture, Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, in 2000, a project that would give perfumers free creative expression and the raw materials to produce scents of their choosing. Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower by Dominique Ropion are, perhaps, two of the most renowned in the Frédéric Malle portfolio.

‘I usually work with perfumers one-on-one,’ says Malle. ‘I think of Éditions as a publishing house. But then, once in a while, we have a guest star; someone who gives us a different point of view. I did this with Dries Van Noten around ten years ago. Jonny is a good match for us in the sense that Acne Studios is rooted in tradition and modern in its approach. We both make things that are really pushing the envelope and transformative, yet that you also can wear for years and years to come.’

Malle then tapped Le Helley, a graduate of renowned French perfumery school ISIPCA, as the third player in this olfactory trio. ‘The process was like a dance,’ says Malle. ‘And Suzy can dance really well. There was not one moment where we disagreed. And I’m really proud to have been the first person to work with Suzy in this big way,’ he continues. ‘This entire project was a pleasure. An opportunity to push the envelope, work on someone else’s terms, please someone I admire.’

Le Helley is known for combining botanicals and synthetics, and took a similar approach for this project, with the scent’s backbone comprised of aldehydes, followed by rose and violet. It is then underscored by orange blossom, vanilla, sandalwood and peach skin. ‘Many classic rose and violet perfumes are influential to fabric softeners,’ says Malle. ‘And we liked the idea of taking some elements from that, which feels comforting yet a bit utilitarian. There’s a modern sweetness to it that has never been used in a classical aldehydic shape.’ 

Le Helley continues, ‘We discussed how we could evoke softness, like you are wearing an Acne Studios scarf, but the fragrance’s biggest signature elements are the aldehydes: these are what make it very light and bright and give it a lot of energy, contrasting with the floral, powdery elements and the comforting, creamy sandalwood.’

Despite having completed her studies just three years ago, Le Helley relished the challenge: ‘I like that it’s methodical and structured, but at the same time, I have always loved art. Being a perfumer is a blend of these two. I think fragrance today also has a lot of storytelling around it, and for Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle, there is a harmony between the story and the scent. It’s a perfect match.’ 

Acne Studios by Frédéric Malle launches April 17 2024 and is available on fredericmalle.com and Frédéric Malle and Acne Studios boutiques.

A version of this article appears in the April 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

A charred desert of Murano-glass cacti, a damask-curtained boudoir, a simulacrum of an art gallery – this season’s runway sets were an exercise in the theatre of fashion. Here, we select 12 of the very best runway sets and show spaces of A/W 2024 fashion month, which concluded in Paris last week.

Best runway sets of A/W 2024

Saint Laurent

For Anthony Vaccarello’s sensually charged A/W 2024 show, a boudoir-like mood was conjured by the show set, which comprised two vast circular rooms lined with emerald damask curtains. The curtains, said Vaccarello, were a nod to those found in the house’s historic haute couture salon on Paris’ Avenue Marceau. 

Read our review of the show here.

Jil Sander

Designers Lucie and Luke Meier said that this season they were thinking about sound and the way it influences our ’emotions, desires and needs’. As such, the warehouse space on the outskirts of Milan had been transformed into a green-toned ’smooth and immersive capsule’, populated by a series of blown-up cobalt-blue horns.

Read our review of the show here.

Louis Vuitton

Nicolas Ghesquière returned to the Louvre’s Cour Carrée for his tenth-anniversary show for Louis Vuitton, the location of his debut as creative director for the house back in 2014. This time, a dramatic installation by artist Philippe Parreno – made in collaboration with film production designer James Chinlund and sound designer Nicolas Becker – centred around an enormous orb, which crackled and flashed as the show began.

Read our review of the show here.

Prada

A continuation of the menswear show in January, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ latest OMA-designed show set featured a lush forest floor – complete with springs of real water, ferns, grass, pebbles and soil – encased beneath a gridded floor of futuristic clear perspex, to extraordinary effect. 

Read our review of the show here.

Bottega Veneta

Matthieu Blazy collaborated with Cassina to organise a special edition of Le Corbusier’s LC14 Cabanon stool – here in burnt wood – for the 350 guests attending his A/W 2024 show. In the formerly industrial Milanese space, they were combined with a burnt wood floor and enormous Murano-glass cacti to create a ’barren’ desert-like landscape inspired by Calabria in the south of Italy. Together, it provided an apt backdrop for a show celebrating regeneration and resilience. ’In a world on fire, there is something very human in the simple act of dressing,’ he said. 

Read our review of the show here. 

Loewe

The ’small but intense’ paintings of Albert York provided the backdrop for Jonathan Anderson’s latest Loewe collection, which subverted aristocratic dress codes in the designer’s typically idiosyncratic style. As such, it was the largest exhibition of the American painter’s work outside of the United States, where his devoted following included the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 

Read our review of the show here.

Dior

Continuing a tradition of collaborating with international women artists on her show sets, at the centre of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s A/W 2024 runway was a series of sculptures by Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni. Evoking ceremonial figures of women, created from cages of cane, the house said they capture a feeling of ’protection and transformation’.

Read our review of the show here.

Hermès

Hermès’ A/W 2024 show came complete with a downpour: as the show began, rain fell from the ceiling of the Garde Républicaine space, providing a dramatic backdrop to Nadège Vanhee’s latest collection, which was titled ’The Rider’.  ‘Astride a horse or a motorcycle… boldly she rides on,’ said Hermès. 

Read our review of the show here.

Acne Studios

A series of blown-up armchairs and footstools crafted from recycled black rubber tiles provided the centrepiece to a full-throttle collection from Acne Studios. They were created by Villu Jaanisoo, an Estonian artist who lent the existing pieces for the show. ’I was basically deep into a “racing” mode [last year], into everything related to racing, and I stumbled across these amazing pieces,’ Acne Studios creative director Jonny Johannson told Wallpaper*. ‘They symbolise the mood I was trying to create, and they do so in a modern way.’

Read more about the Acne Studios show set here and read our review of the show here.

Balenciaga

At Balenciaga, floor-to-ceiling screens surrounded the runway, an attempt to capture the dizzying feeling of scrolling on your phone. Created by Demna alongside Berlin-based studio Sub, the flashing AI-created images – which spanned photorealistic natural landscapes and glimmering cityscapes before descending into glitchy internet-style graphics – reflected the eclectic nature of the collection, which featured DIY ’one-minute’ dresses made from a collage of other garments. 

Read our review of the show here.

Chanel

The centrepiece of Chanel’s A/W 2024 show was an enormous curved screen which bisected the interior of the Grand Palais Éphémère and played a short film starring Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt as a pair of lovers. Around it circled a wooden runway designed to evoke the boardwalk at the French seaside town Deauville, where Gabrielle ’Coco’ Chanel opened her first millinery store. 

Read our review of the show here.

Fendi

Vast drapes of silk, in various sorbetto-hued tones, divided Fendi’s Via Solari showspace into a series of more intimate ’rooms’ to showcase Kim Jones latest womenswear collection for the house. They recalled those found in Roman statuary, one of the inspirations for this season’s collection in a nod to Fendi’s home city of Rome.

Read our review of the show here.

Welcome to our annual Global Interiors edition and the 300th issue of Wallpaper*. We are immensely proud to be celebrating our triple century, and this issue exemplifies our commitment to bring you the very best in contemporary design and bold new work. 

Our interiors team have assembled a rich selection of emerging talent from around the world. We kick off our global tour with a surreal journey into the picturesque landscapes of Lanzarote, which provide a hyperreal backdrop for a compendium of graphic furniture pieces by both new and established names. 

Other interiors that caught our eye this month include the Rockwell Group’s ‘cathedral of fried chicken’ in Manhattan, and Manuel Aires Mateus’ new concrete creation on the shores of the Mornington Peninsula. We travel to a contemporary country house set amid the rolling South Downs, visit a little-known treasure by John Lautner, the Pearlman Cabin in California’s San Jacinto Mountains, and delve into a house by Keiji Ashizawa in the Tokyo suburb of Aoyama.

We also present a diverse collection of stories, from the significant renaissance of modern African design visionary Jomo Tariku to artist and environmental activist Andrea Bowers’ new work for Ruinart and writer Jonathan Glancey’s visit to an iconic Italian church.

You can discover Design Holding CEO Daniel Lalonde’s vision for nine of the world’s best-known design brands, read about how Samuel Ross and Kohler came together to reinvent the commode, and visit the new headquarters of Studio Irvine, where Marialaura Irvine is carrying on the legacy of her late husband James Irvine, while also establishing a design agenda based on ‘a whispered dialogue’.

Our fashion team have curated their take on the quintessential trench coat, while we explore the making of Acne Studios’ first fragrance, open up Frank Gehry’s foray into handbags with Louis Vuitton, and learn how to make a move on the ultimate chess set.

And finally… it is with a heavy heart for the past, but much excitement for the future, that I sign off this, my final Editor’s Letter. It has been my great honour and privilege to work for Wallpaper* these last 16 years (having joined on issue W*101 in 2007), and I have so many wonderful memories. Thank you to all of my colleagues, past and present, for their unceasing commitment to this enduring and endlessly creative brand; to the inspirational artists, designers and creatives who have graced these pages and brought such joy and beauty to the designed world; to the craftspeople, makers, brands and galleries who champion creativity and strive to make a difference; and lastly, thank you most of all to you, our wonderful readers, who make Wallpaper* so much more than just a brand. It’s a way of thinking and a way of being.

With love to you all.

Sarah Douglas
Editor-in-Chief

The April 2024 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print from 7 March, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

On the newsstand cover (top left), steel chair, price on request, by Hyungshin Hwang. 

On the limited-edition cover (top right), ‘Galho’ coat hanger, BRL6,100 ($1,228), by Guilherme Wentz, for Wentz Design. ‘Species 3’ sculptural object, price on request, by Fredrikson Stallard. ‘Polarity Panel 3’ mirror, €16,500, by Rive Roshan, from Rademakers Gallery

Acne Studios’ creative director Jonny Johansson discovered the work of sculptor Villu Jaanisoo at just the perfect moment. ’I was basically deep into a “racing” mode [last year], into everything related to racing, and I stumbled across these amazing pieces,’ the Swedish designer tells Wallpaper* in the lead-up to his latest women’s show, which took place this evening (28 February) during a busy Paris Fashion Week A/W 2024. ‘They symbolise the mood I was trying to create, and they do so in a modern way.’

The artworks in question are huge, sloping chairs crafted from hefty recycled rubber tyres, which were made by the Estonian artist over 20 years ago, back in 2001. Lent to the brand upon Johansson’s request, these ‘furniture bodies’ sat imposingly in the Paris show space, setting the scene for a full-throttle, biker-inspired collection which the brand describes as being ’rooted in toughness and human form, leather and denim’. 

Acne Studios’ full-throttle A/W 2024 show set

Approaching recycling through the traditions of sculpture, Jaanisoo’s practice involves a manipulation of harsh industrial materials into the silhouettes of gentler organic forms. Slightly unnerving to look at, these have ranged from rubber ducks and homely furniture made from snaking truck tyres, to undulating ocean waves crafted from forgotten speakers and fluorescent tubes. ‘Environmental issues have been important in terms of employing these, but to me, what’s even more interesting is the trace that the former lives have left to the recycled things I use,’ the artist said in a statement released ahead of the show. 

Forever awed by the baroque masters who whittled heavenly figures from cold, unyielding marble, Jaanisoo’s process similarly involves both immense physical effort and a sensitive, prospecting eye. ’What interests me about working with tyres is the certain inner resistance of this material – it requires a lot of physical as well as mental force to shape them,’ the artist says. ‘The resistance that exists in each tyre makes the surface of the sculpture alive.’ For Johansson, it was this living feeling that drew him to the works. ‘Their size, which is of a non-human scale, made me think about nature and animals,’ he says. ‘At the same time, I loved the recycled and industrial aspect of them.’

Johansson has always brought a spectrum of artists into Acne Studios’ orbit. Dipping its pen into everything from advertising to architecture, the brand's start in the 1990s as a multidisciplinary creative collective has shaped something of an outsider approach to clothing design. Marrying influences from subculture and the visual arts with a coolly minimal, Swedish edge, previous projects have imaginatively drawn upon the works of American sculptor Peter Schlesinger, photographer William Wegman and seminal artist Hilma af Klimt, to name a few. ‘Acne Studios has always been about multiple disciplines in the creative field, and I believe that it stimulates the creative process and enriches what you do,’ says the designer. ‘It is inspiring.’

While Jaanisoo didn’t collaborate with the brand beyond lending his artworks to the set, his pieces seem to capture the spirit of the collection, which envisions a powerful woman whom Johansson wryly describes as being ‘fast, with a penchant for speed’. Much like Jaanisoo’s work, the collection plays with the sticky edges where contradictions meet: tough and soft, industrial and organic, familiar and new. ‘This collection is about the juxtaposition of an elevated femininity and a biker attitude,’ Johansson explains. ‘I wanted to look deeper into the archetypal codes of women’s fashion and confront them with the codes of Acne Studios.’

Denim and leather, the core materials of this collection and of underground subcultures like punk and BDSM – rebellious notes of which ring through the looks – have been at the heart of the brand since its genesis. ‘One of our first collections in the late 1990s was quite literally called “leather and denim”; two things that belong together,’ says Johansson. ‘I’ve always related to clothing through subcultural movements. When you want to feel tough you gravitate towards leather and denim; it’s like armour. It always feels right.’

Beyond twists on these two sacred Acne Studios materials, Johansson toughened up hyper-feminine shapes and fabrics – faux fur, girly handbags, and the little black dress – to take on a new, hard-girl edge. Elsewhere, heavy biker jackets, second-skin silhouettes and chrome accessories further played with themes of racing and kink. ‘This season it was about inputting leather into different situations, the way we tend to do with denim,’ the designer explains. ‘It was about taking codes we’re known for and twisting them completely.’ The result is a collection of women not to be messed with – formidably sexy, severe, yet polished in the contemporary way Acne Studios’ designs always effortlessly are.

Approaching what he does holistically, for Johansson a show is never just about the clothes; it’s about expressing a particular feeling, and the set plays no small role in this. Previous seasons have seen the brand transform the Palais de Tokyo into a saccharine pink-carpeted wedding venue – a tribute to Johansson’s own nuptials two decades before – and construct an enchanted forest that fondly referenced the designer’s childhood years in northern Sweden. ‘Like your home tells something about you, the show space can tell you something about the collection,’ he says. ‘The space you are in reflects you or your creation.’

This evening in Paris, among the confronting sculptures of Jaanisoo, this seemed to be a celebration of Acne Studios’ creative history as well as a gritty, complex kind of feminine energy – wild yet sophisticated; tough yet beautiful – though he’d much rather leave it to you to decide. ‘I wanted to bring a sense of scale and size, a moment that’s alive,’ says the designer. ‘But I also don’t want to direct people’s feelings too much. I want them to feel something individual or personal within the space we built.’

acnestudios.com

January marks the beginning not only of a new year, but a new season in style – gone are the winter collections of last year, in are the S/S 2024 collections, and with them the promise of brighter days ahead.

As part of Wallpaper’s Design Awards 2024 issue, we select the winning men’s and womenswear collections of S/S 2024 – and their standout looks – which will define a season of dressing ahead. These span Sabato de Sarno’s sensual new vision for Gucci (the designer called it a ’story of richness and lust... of sweat, dancing and singing’, and is pictured top left), the eclectic oppositions of Dries Van Noten’s womenswear, and Maximilian Davis’ expertly reduced Ferragamo tailoring. 

Winning collections came too from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons at Prada, where they reckoned with beauty and craft, the sinuous lines of Kim Jones’ Fendi, or Matthieu Blazy’s extraordinary riffs on the quotidien at Bottega Veneta (here encapsulated his version of a working man’s tie, recrafted in leather). Or Lucie and Luke Meier’s gently oversized men’s Jil Sander tailoring, adorned with glimmering crystal broaches (pictured top right). 

The various looks are captured by London-based photographer Daisy Walker, and styled by Wallpaper* fashion and style director Jason Hughes. 

The standout looks of S/S 2024, selected by Wallpaper*

Courrèges

Dolce & Gabbana

Dries Van Noten

Acne Studios

Hermès

Wooyoungmi

Ferragamo

Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

Givenchy

Alexander McQueen

Carven

Isabel Marant

Bottega Veneta

Miu Miu

Paul Smith

Fendi

Dior

Prada

Balenciaga

Marni

Valentino

Loewe 

Models: Kerolyn Soares at IMG, Aaron Shandel at Wilhelmina. Casting: Ikki Casting at The Art Board. Hair: Adam Garland using Authentic Beauty Concept. Make-up: Jo Banach using Chanel Les Beiges Winter Glow and No.1 de Chanel Red Camellia Exfoliating Mask. Interiors: Olly Mason. Set build: London Art Makers. Photography assistants: Chloe Yates, Zillah Rauter. Fashion assistants: Kris Bergfeldt, Samela Gjozi. Hair assistant: Annabella Hudgell. Interiors assistant: Archie Thomson. Post-production: Lasso Studio. 

A version of this article appears in the February 2024 issue of Wallpaper* – dedicated to the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2024 – available in print from 4 January, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Dystopian herbariums, destroyed disco balls, serene meadows: this season’s best runway sets were a surreal trip through time and space. From the return of Prada’s oozing curtains of slime to artwork-adorned catwalks – including a smattering of Lynda Benglis sculptures at Loewe – we run through the best-designed show sets of S/S 2024 fashion month. 

Best in show: S/S 2024’s dramatic runway sets

Acne Studios

Acne Studios creative director Jonny Johansson drafted Austrian artist Lukas Gschwandtner – best known for his pillow-like sculptures which evoke the shapes of women reclining in historical portraiture – to collaborate on the Swedish brand’s S/S 2024 show set. Capturing a mood of ‘after-hours liberation’, the ecru canvas-covered space featured an enormous deconstructed disco ball as well as Gschwandtner’s ‘soft furnishings‘ which were scattered about the space. ‘[We were thinking about] soft furnishing that you sink into – you almost become them,’ he told Wallpaper*.

Read the story behind the Acne Studios S/S 2024 set. 

Miu Miu

A new video installation by Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria provided the backdrop to Miuccia Prada’s latest collection, which explored ‘a rationale of beauty today’. Titled Gravity & Grace, the short film featured stunt woman Ayesha Hussain as a pair of ‘archetypal twins’ fighting each other with crossbows and swords in what Al-Maria called ‘an epic battle over POV’. ‘There is a theme of questioning what is real and what is not,’ she told Wallpaper*.

Read the story behind the Miu Miu S/S 2024 set.

Loewe 

Jonathan Anderson once again populated the Loewe runway with a series of sculptures by Lynda Benglis, following a trio of fountains by the American artist that backdropped his menswear show earlier this year. The large, twisting forms in metallic gold and silver were cast from manipulated pieces of clay; in the collection itself, they were reflected by jewellery created in collaboration with the artist’s studio. ‘She doesn’t need to use words, she's using something which is physical,’ Anderson said. ‘There’s something of her that I see in this collection – the attitude, the confidence.’ 

Sportmax

Drawing inspiration from Czech artist Krištof Kintera’s ‘Postnatural‘ works, which depict dystopian imaginings of botanical herbariums, the Sportmax showspace was intersected by a fluorescent-lit glass vitrine filled with colourful tropical flowers and plants. It provided a reflection of the collection’s experimental, science fiction-infused mood: from strange padded forms and sculptural silhouettes to austere white shift dresses recalling medical uniforms. 

Louis Vuitton

The as-yet-unnamed site of a vast Louis Vuitton project on Champs-Élysées – rumours are circulating are that it will be a hotel from the house – provided the setting for Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest womenswear collection. Still a building site, the former art nouveau bank was entirely covered in orange material, with a matching orange runway, grandstand seating and enormous light fixtures. Part of a continuing collaboration with Hollywood set designer James Chinlund, the house describes the setting as ‘simultaneously familiar and new’, a mood of disorientation captured in the era-hopping collection itself.

Prada

Following the house’s menswear show held this past June, Prada’s womenswear showspace – created in collaboration with AMO – saw a stainless-steel runway divided by dripping curtains of slime. ‘An environment of liquid partitions intertwined with elements of industrial architecture,’ described AMO of the setting, which provided the backdrop for a collection of material richness, from featherweight diaphanous dresses to tassel, eyelet and crystal adornment, each a demonstration of Prada’s decades-long commitment to craft. ‘We tried to make the best out of our work, to make beautiful things, for today,’ said Miuccia Prada, who co-creates the house’s collections with Raf Simons. ‘That may sound banal, but it is the truth.’ 

Bottega Veneta

Matthieu Blazy described his fourth collection for Bottega Veneta as a fantastical round-the-world odyssey, ’a journey of transformation and escape’ in which he imagined his protagonist for the season picking up elements of dress from journeys around the globe. The tiled setting – in part recalling those found around a swimming pool – reflected the mood, adorned with a world map playfully populated with illustrated penguins, sardines, crabs and roosters. 

Saint Laurent

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Eiffel Tower at night – complete with shimmering light show – this season’s Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello show set comprised a series of monolithic stone and marble walls and sleek cuboid benches. ‘A modernist set of kaleidoscopic, mineral surfaces, affording views of the Eiffel Tower while highlighting its soft elegance,’ described the house.

Givenchy

Matthew M Williams’ latest collection for Givenchy was staged inside a new work by architect Gabriel Calatrava for the Collaborative Architecture Laboratory. An enormous inverted tent – affording views of Paris’ L’École Militaire at each end – the monochrome white interior was a reflection of ‘the collection’s themes of ease and elegance,’ said the house. Each of the set’s elements was rented or reusable. 

Burberry

Daniel Lee chose Highbury Fields – a historic slice of green space in north London – to present his much-anticipated sophomore collection. For the occasion, a Burberry-check-adorned tent was erected in the park; inside, a series of park benches covered with Burberry blankets provided the show’s seating.

Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri continued a tradition of collaboration with women artists on her show sets this season. For S/S 2024, it was Italian artist Elena Bellantoni, who created a video installation that parodied sexist depictions of womanhood in advertising from the 1960s to the 2000s. ‘It is about breaking out of a semantic grid,’ the house described of the piece, which was displayed on vast LED screens around the space. 

Also see our highlights of the recent S/S 2024 runway shows:
Paris Fashion Week S/S 2024
Milan Fashion Week S/S 2024
London Fashion Week S/S 2024
New York Fashion Week S/S 2024

In 2021, the Austrian artist Lukas Gschwandtner – whose work often resembles design in its inspiration from furniture – showed a series of works titled ‘Pillow Portraits’ at the Maniera Gallery in Brussels. 

Inspired by images of women reclining on chaise longues throughout history – Gschwandtner studying their ‘postures, behaviours, gestures’ – the installation comprised a series of stitched-together canvas sculptures recalling pillows, which the artist would take on and off, their unique forms directing the body to mimic the women in the paintings he was inspired by. 

Lukas Gschwandtner designs Acne Studios S/S 2024 set

‘The moment the sculpture is worn it immediately directs the body to impersonate the corresponding painting or artwork,’ he said at the time. ‘Because the canvas sculptures extract simplified forms from the paintings and art pieces, their historical, class, and gender context becomes more abstract and creates room for personal interpretations and experiences.’

‘Pillow Portraits’ provided the inspiration for Gschwandtner’s latest project, an immersive set for Acne Studios S/S 2024 show, which took place during Paris Fashion Week S/S 2024 earlier this evening (27 September 2023). Conjuring a mood of ‘after-hours liberation’, the ecru canvas-covered set – which also featured an enormous deconstructed disco ball – was scattered with ‘soft furnishings’ by Gschwandtner, ‘a place to lose track of time and inhibitions, with a magical mood of anticipation’, as Acne Studios described in the collection notes. 

‘I met Jonny [Johansson, Acne Studios’ creative director] a few years ago, and we’ve kept in touch ever since,’ Gschwandtner tells Wallpaper*. ‘The directions that the team was aiming for had some of the same details and specifics as “Pillow Portraits”, [where I] pasted the whole Maniera Gallery space in canvas, [reflecting] my pieces, which were wearable pillow sculptures. They basically faded into the soft canvas architecture of the gallery.’

After a series of conversations with Johansson – and when Gschwandtner discovered the designer’s ‘after-hours’ inspirations – they settled on creating a similarly enveloping space, filled with canvas sculptures by the artist, which sit like discarded soft furnishings across blocks of seating erected in L’Observatoire de Paris. ‘[We were thinking about] soft furnishing that you sink into – you almost become them. Each of the pieces also has the function of being wearable. I wanted the soft sculptures to support the lounging body posture in every way possible.’

‘It should be a room within a room which captures Acne Studios’ vision for this season,’ he continues. ‘I like the idea of seeing the canvas space as a silent component, almost a silent partner of the collection. The lounging body language of the audience while being seated is important for this project as each guest almost becomes a portrait of themselves draped on the canvas.’

As for his own connection to Acne Studios, he says he has long worn the essential pieces – like denim, the fabric that remains at the heart of the Swedish label. ’The fact that Jonny sent 100 jeans to friends and family as the beginning of the brand is beautiful,’ he says. ‘It reminds me of testing a prototype that needs to be worn to understand how it works – it’s the same with a lot of my work, too.’

The collection itself saw Johansson draw inspiration from British artist Katerina Jebb’s ‘Physical Evidence of a Woman’, a series of scanned images of the trappings of feminine dress – from a pair of red stilettos to false eyelashes and stockings. Here, they came printed across the collection: ‘These artefacts are something that I feel is almost lost today, they feel dated, yet they are still there,’ explains Johansson. ‘So we used them as prints and subverted them – [it was an] exploration that felt timely with where we are in fashion right now; lines between genders are blurred, there are no labels anymore.

‘The industrial mood this season comes mostly from my passion for denim and the many ways we can manipulate this amazing fabric,’ he continues. ‘It also comes from the idea of a construction site: things are unfinished, a work in progress. I wanted to convey the beauty of that.’

acnestudios.com

What might be found within the four walls of an Acne Studios home? A new edition of Acne Paper – the Swedish fashion brand’s long-standing print magazine – provides an answer of sorts. Across ten chapters – which represent nine rooms and a garden – the 18th issue ‘builds’ a fantasy home within its pages, complete with a priceless collection of furniture, objects and artworks that traverse place and time (from a contemporary table by Rick Owens to cutlery by Salvador Dalí and wall hangings by El Anatsui).

‘I always found certain auction catalogues to be an interesting read,’ says Thomas Persson, the magazine’s founding editor-in-chief, who was reinstated in the role in 2021 when Acne Paper was relaunched after a seven-year break. ’Especially those that are made about someone’s private collection, maybe someone who had a very cultured life but now their furniture, objects and artworks have been put on auction for sale, due to their demise or because they want to sell things off.’

Acne Paper Issue 18: The House of Acne Paper

Part of this fascination, Persson says, is down to the auction catalogue’s juxtaposition of text and images; in the magazine itself, the various rooms come with captions about the objects, as well as ten ‘informal‘ interviews with figures from the worlds of art, design, architecture, performance, literature and interiors. ‘I thought this could be a good starting point for an issue of Acne Paper: to let our imagination run free by putting together a fantasy collection of real objects and have an insightful caption to each object,’ he continues. ‘It sat the premises onto which we could use the magazine to “build” a house.’

To create this house on the magazine’s pages, Persson looked to the Argentinian artist Pablo Bronstein who created the distinct cover – a doll’s house-esque art deco villa with a decorative ‘temple’ adorned by two Pierrot figures – as well as artworks to introduce each of the issue’s ten chapters. These chapters, or rooms, were assigned a different international photographer who was commissioned to capture the room in their own distinct style, ‘taking their cue from art and design, architecture, materials, texture and colour, shape and form’, according to Persson. ’The faces in these extraordinary photographs are the denizens of our house.’ 

‘Like the ballroom scene of the houses of New York and the stage performances of the opera houses of the world, there is a great sense of theatre under one roof,’ he continues.

The photographers include Jordan Hemingway (the entrance), Nikolai von Bismarck (the main bedroom), Sharna Osborne (the kitchen), Theo Liu (the living room) and fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu (the bathroom), among others; interviewees span interior designer Nicky Haslam, performance artist MJ Harper, scent artist Sissel Tolaas, architect Frida Escobedo and more. Persson says that contributors were chosen for their ’artistic expression... and whose interpretation of each room would be very different from each other.’ 

‘Acne Paper has always been an extension of the culture and mindset of the brand as a whole,’ Persson says. ’Although Acne Studios is a fashion brand, fashion is really not the only interest within the company; its founder and creative director Jonny Johansson has a great interest and knowledge about furniture, art and design. Perhaps the best example is the Acne Studios HQ in Stockholm in which a whole vision of extraordinary and unusual ideas about interiors come to play.’

As for the continuing relevance of such print ephemera, Persson is steadfast that publications such as Acne Paper have a unique appeal that cannot be achieved on a ’laptop or iPhone screen’. ‘For every issue we put much effort into the printing, binding and material specifications, something which makes the magazine an object in itself,’ he says. ‘Acne Paper is something to hold, to have in your home, studio or workplace. I have a special affection for beautifully made books and magazine, much in the same way as I love a beautifully designed chair or a lamp.’

The issue’s release on 8 June 2023 will be accompanied by a series of talks at Ladbroke Hall, London, a new multidisciplinary art space of which Acne Studios has recently become a benefactor. Taking place on 10 June, the talks include conversations between curator Lewis Dalton Gilbert and MJ Harper (3-4pm), and A Vibe Called Tech founder Charlene Prempeh and designer and artist Mac Collins (1-2pm).

Acne Paper launches 8 June 2023 and is available to order online.

Ladbroke Hall is found at 79 Barlby Rd, London W10 6AZ.

acnepaper.com

Pioneering British set designer Shona Heath – best known for her fantastical creations that appeared in the photographs of Tim Walker – says that the surreal milieu she created for Acne Studios’ recent show at Paris Fashion Week A/W 2023 began with ‘a crazy melange of images’ presented to her by the brand’s creative director Jonny Johansson.

‘[There was] a crochet shoe, huge turnips, swamp people, sparkles,’ Heath tells Wallpaper* of the eclectic mood board, ideas which she transformed into a show set populated with strange sculptures evocative of plants, vines and trees – here imagined in twists of rope, dripping crystals and woven jute. The crochet shoe was a particular inspiration: ‘That was the catalyst... [but] finding out how to represent crochet was the challenge,’ she says. ‘We used decorative jute carpets and cut the shapes out.’

Shona Heath for Acne Studios A/W 2023

‘I asked Shona to create a magical place that captured the topography of a dark forest in a way that felt creative,’ adds Johansson about how the collaboration began. ‘I love how forests are always changing, growing and transforming.’

For Heath, the references to nature are ‘acrid and abrasive, but also a bit fun... the scale makes you feel like a child’. ‘I like the crystalline leaves with neon greens; it is most definitely synthetic, but the rawness and crudeness of the ropes and jute bring us deep down into the earth,’ she explains. ‘I think it is somehow quite a hopeful representation of nature, more dreamlike and otherworldly. I wish we had had time to work out what the flowers or the tree sap would smell like.’

The set was a reflection of the collection itself, which Johansson said was about ‘growth and evolution’, rooted in Swedish nature and the topography of the forest (albeit reimagined in fantastical style). ‘Sweden is the kind of place where the city ends abruptly and then the pine forest begins. I’ve always enjoyed the contrast between urban life and nature, the idea that an infinite forest is just around the corner,’ he elucidates. ’With this collection I was thinking about the dark winters we have in Sweden, where there are only a few hours of daylight. I wanted to capture the beauty of the darkness in both the collection and the set.’

Heath says that she saw about ten of the collection’s looks in their raw form prior to the show. ‘They had such a clear story,’ she says. ‘There [seemed to be] two strains – huge deconstructed tailoring which was contrasted with organic spiderweb-like forest-floor dresses, shoes like charred flower buds and great cracked and painterly leather textures. The set pretty much reflects all of that.’

‘Acne Studios always has an immediacy and rawness to the clothes, they never seem overworked, there is such a confidence in the ideas,’ she continues. ‘I tried not to overwork or overthink... I got my 13-year-old son to draw the shapes of the trees, as normally I favour fine and elegant lines. I wanted to do something I wouldn't usually do; I didn't change a line he drew.’

Heath hopes that attendees to last night’s show experienced a feeling of childlike wonder. ‘I want [people] to feel like they are a seed, planted in space, fed by magic rain,’ she says. ’That they could grow into anything.’

acnestudios.com

Join us as we take a flick through the fashion books currently taking pride of place on the Wallpaper* style desk – from visually enticing monographs and photographic tomes to limited-edition titles, they will act as elegant accompaniments to the coffee table or bookshelf of any style savant.

Here, selected by the Wallpaper* style team, a comprehensive guide to the best fashion books – including a lush new tome on the work of Irish designer Simone Rocha, an exploration of how directors dress from indie film producers A24 and a rare monograph from seminal designer Jil Sander.

The best fashion books for style savants

‘Jil Sander by Jil Sander’ (Prestel, 2024)

Seminal German designer Jil Sander’s new monograph, ‘Jil Sander by Jil Sander’, sees her consider an influential career with a kaleidoscopic visual journey through her collections. Hoping to evoke the energy of a runway show, the colourful images are curated alongside designer Irma Boom. ‘The mood of the book is true to the frenzy which overtook us every time we prepared a show,’ she told Wallpaper* in a rare conversation. ‘I knew that I didn’t want to achieve a classic coffee table book, so it was trial and error until we got there. The book packages all the shows into one.’ Read more.

‘Jil Sander by Jil Sander’, published by Prestel, is available from waterstones.com and barnesandnoble.com.

‘Loro Piana: Master of Fibres’ (Assouline, 2024)

Celebrating 100 years in business, Loro Piana’s luxurious new tome, ‘Loro Piana: Master of Fibres’, is a ‘story of excellence, savoir-faire, and passion for the extraordinary, passed down for six generations,’ according to author Nick Foulkes. Recounting the history of the Italian house, which is best known for its work in the so-called ‘noble fibres’ of cashmere, alpaca and vicuña, it takes readers on a journey through the family’s early years as wool traders, all the way to its status as the luxury mega-brand it is today. Part of Assouline’s ‘ultimate’ collection, it is housed in a case covered in Loro Piana Tela Sergio fabric and is entirely hand-bound.

‘Loro Piana: Master of Fibres’, published by Prestel, is available from assouline.com.

‘Simone Rocha’ (Rizzoli, 2024)

A new Rizzoli-published book explores the work of Irish designer Simone Rocha, who since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2010 has become one of London fashion’s most celebrated designers for her romantic, folklore-infused collections which straddle the sweet and the subversive. The lush tome – which draws on Rocha’s publishing expertise, having released numerous zines over the last decade – features an expansive catalogue of imagery, alongside contributions from figures including artist Cindy Sherman, photographer Petra Collins and the critic Tim Blanks. It also pays ode to two eternal influences to Rocha: the artist Louise Bourgeois, and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo.

‘Simone Rocha’, published by Rizzoli, is available from waterstones.com and barnesandnoble.com.

‘O lovely one, girl that fell from a star’ (Dover Street Market)

Róisín Pierce calls her art book ‘O lovely one, girl that fell from a star’ a ‘love note to femininity, creativity, craft, and motherhood in its myriad forms’ – much like the Irish designer’s collections, which weave ancient Irish craft with a romantic vision of womanhood. Comprising a series of images photographed for the project by Jody Rogac of figures like Serena Motola, Frances von Hofmannsthal, Sinead O’Brien and the designer’s mother, Angie Pierce, the all-white ‘pocket book’ (‘a keepsake, a token’) also features interviews and poetry. ‘Imparting their wisdom throughout, their thoughts and views are allowed to flourish, unfiltered,’ says Pierce of the subjects. ‘Among the pages, they invoke the romantic nostalgia of the Gardenia, the sweetness of living in harmony with an uninvited mouse, the joy of being a voice in a choir, and the hope in resistance and revolt. There is no formula to femininity, and this book welcomes its abundance.’

‘O lovely one, girl that fell from a star’ is available exclusively at Dover Street Market Paris (doverstreetmarketparis.com).

‘How Directors Dress’ (A24, 2024)

Indie film production agency A24 adds to its burgeoning imprint with ‘How Directors Dress’, an exploration of the working uniforms of film’s best-known auteurs, from Sofia Coppola to Spike Lee. Comprising a series of essays – contributors include Hagop Kourounian (aka @directorfits), Rachel Tashjian, Lynn Yaeger and more – alongside archival imagery, A24 promise to use clothing ‘to tell exciting new stories about directors, their lives, their movies, and the times in which they were made’. The 256-page book also features a foreword from director Joanna Hogg, and an afterword from legendary Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto.

‘How Director’s Dress’, published by A24, is available from shop.a24films.com.

‘Norbert Schoerner Prada Archive: 1998-2002’ (IDEA Books, 2024)

A new book published by IDEA, ‘Prada Archive 1998-2002’, documents the campaigns photographed for the Italian fashion house by German image-maker Norbert Schoerner. ‘I hear all the time, from art director friends, that [these are] the campaigns they see most frequently on moodboards,’ Schoerner told Wallpaper*, speaking on the legacy of his work with Prada. ‘It's a great compliment, to have had that sort of impact on photography, but by no means could we have anticipated that 20 years later [the campaigns] would have such a ubiquitous presence in visual culture.’ Art directed by Jonny Lu, Schoerner’s clean, hyper-real imagery is collated in the book, featuring era-defining models Angela Lindvall, Freddy Drabble, Mateo Renoir and David Annand. Read more.

Norbert Schoerner: Prada 1998–2002’s first run of 750 copies have sold out, though the book will be distributed to global retailers in the coming weeks. You can sign up at the IDEA Books website to be notified when new copies are available.

ideanow.online

Born in Oasi Zegna: The Book (Rizzoli, 2024)

‘Born in Oasi Zegna’ celebrates the history of the Italian house, tracing its roots back to the Biella Alps in Piedmont, northern Italy where Ermenegildo Zegna opened his first wool mill in 1910. Now designated a natural territory, the locale marks not only the birthplace of Zegna, but also a symbol of its ongoing dedication to the natural world: since the mill’s opening, Ermenegildo would begin planting conifer trees to foster the area’s ecosystem, which now number over 500,000. Combining archival imagery and contemporary illustrations, the book combines dramatic images of the Oasi Zegna landscapes with archival imagery from the house, alongside illustrations by Paolo Bacilieri, Cecilia Carlstedt and Giuseppe Ragazzini. Accompanying texts, meanwhile, are contributed by Italian journalist Chidozie Obasi. Read more.

’Born in Oasi Zegna: The Book’, with texts by Chidozie Obasi, is available now from zegna.com.

Dior Scarves: Fashion Stories (Thames & Hudson, 2024)

’Dior Scarves: Fashion Stories’ grants a closer look at one of the French house’s defining accessories, the silk scarf. A fascination of Christian Dior which has been adopted by the various designers who have helmed the house in the decades since – most recently, current womenswear creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri – the Maria Luisa Frisa-edited tome provides an ’atlas’ of memorable Dior scarves, organised thematically. These include ‘Paris’, ’Optical Effects’ and ’Cosmogonies’, among others, with accompanying photographs by Brigitte Niedermair. The result, says Dior, is ’an enchanting portfolio... a pluralistic odyssey’.

’Dior Scarves: Fashion Stories’, edited by Maria Luisa Frisa, is available now from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Grace Wales Bonner: Dream in the Rhythm (MoMA, 2024)

Last November (2023), British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner was the latest participant in MoMA’s ‘Artist’s Choice’ series, which drafts an eclectic raft of creatives to curate an exhibition of their choice at the New York museum. Wales Bonner’s was titled ’Spirit Movers’, and comprised works which centre on sound, movement, performance and style ’in the African diaspora and beyond’. An accompanying book, published by MoMA, is titled ’Dream in the Rhythm’ and is deemed by Wales Bonner ’an archive of soulful expression’.

‘In this exhibition, ”Spirit Movers”, I was thinking a lot about what becomes embedded into artworks and materials,’ Wales Bonner told Wallpaper* when the exhibition opened. ‘I was thinking a lot about materials that have some kind of past life or the passing of time being evident in artworks. One of the things that has always been fascinating to me is how sound can be captured through different forms.’

‘Grace Wales Bonner: Dream in the Rhythm’, published by MoMA, is available from Waterstones and MoMA Design Store.

Fila: Timelapse (Rizzoli, 2024)

Fila: Timelapse, published by Rizzoli, provides an unorthodox, genre- and era-traversing history of the Italian sportswear brand and its enduring influence. Dreamt up by Italian journalist and fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento, the aim of the intriguing tome is to ’tunnel both past and present into a single, forward-looking vision’ including archival imagery of figures like Björn Borg – the tennis player would put Fila on the map – alongside essays, fiction and poetry from contributors including Charlie Fox, Silvia Calderoni, Jeph Burton, Rahim Attarzadeh and artists Karl Holmqvist and HB Hoyo. A foreword, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Fendi menswear and accessories creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi. Read more.

’Fila: Timelapse’, conceived by Angelo Flaccavento, is available to pre-order from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble (out 30 April, 2024).

Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022 (Taschen, 2024)

Conceived by Midori Kitamura, one of Issey Miyake’s longtime associates, a new Taschen-published book provides a comprehensive guide to the Japanese designer’s innovative and imaginative collections. Visually rich, the book collates the most important moments from across the late designer’s expansive career. including the development of his signature polyester micro-pleats (which would later become Pleats Please Issey Miyake) alongside collaborations with photographers from Yuriko Takagi to Irving Penn. ‘Miyake liked to convey his ideas visually, so we used that framework as our starting point,’ Kitamura told Wallpaper*. ‘Miyake left us with a clear roadmap to follow, going forward. We have and will always carry this map in our pockets as we move forward, always carrying his dreams and his vision into the future.’ Read more.

‘Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022’, initiated and conceived by Midori Kitamura, is available now Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses (Thames & Hudson, 2024)

A new book, Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses (Thames & Hudson), offers an unprecedented glimpse into the dramatic residences of the iconoclastic German fashion designer, best known for his tenures are Chloé, Fendi, and, of course, Chanel. The glossy coffee-table tome features a photographic portfolio of the various homes, from a gleaming Memphis-filled apartment in Monaco to 51 rue de l’Université in Paris, an opulent 18th-century hôtel particular he called home for several decades. Among it all, an extraordinary array of objets and art, a reflection of the eclectic inspirations behind his prolific career in fashion. Read more.

‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses’, with text by Patrick Mauriès and Marie Kalt, is available now from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Gabrielle Chanel (V&A Publishing, 2024)

Gabrielle ’Coco’ Chanel is the subject of an expansive new book published by the V&A to coincide with its blockbuster exhibition on the influential French couturier, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, which opened last September (until 26 February 2024). Titled, simply, ’Gabrielle Chanel’, the book spans her six-decade long career and pays particular focus to the garments themselves, which would mark a liberated new era for women’s fashion.

‘It’s about chic, simple clothing, looking at movement and the body,’ Oriole Cullen, who co-edited the book alongside curating the exhibition, told Wallpaper*. ’These elements she creates – the jersey, the little black dress, the suit – these are the things she comes back to time and again and refines them.’

‘Gabrielle Chanel’, edited by Oriole Cullen and Connie Karol Burks, is available now from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Givenchy Catwalk: The Complete Collections (Thames & Hudson, 2023)

Thames & Hudson’s ‘Catwalk’ series was made for the style enthusiast: each edition turns its lens on a fashion house or designer and documents their entire runway oeuvre, from Prada to Versace. The latest addition is Givenchy, which explores not only house founder Hubert de Givenchy’s tenure – defined by a demure Parisian elegance encapsulated by his seminal gowns for Audrey Hepburn – but those who followed at the house, including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Riccardo Tisci and Clare Waight Keller, alongside Matthew M Williams, who exited Givenchy in 2023. ‘In all its purity, I think Hubert created one of the most complex legacies in fashion, because it reaches far beyond dressmaking,’ explained Anders Christian Madsen, who co-authored the book, to Wallpaper*. ‘It’s synonymous with sophistication and good taste, and those ideas are hard to mess with.’ Read more.

Givenchy Catwalk: The Complete Collections, featuring texts by Alexandre Samson and Anders Christian Madsen, is available at Waterstonesand Barnes & Noble.

Yves Saint Laurent: Gold (Abrams, 2023)

The couturier Yves Saint Laurent was well-known for his bold, expressive use of colour, which included gold, a hue he called ’magical’. ’When reflecting a woman, it’s the colour of the sun,’ he once said. This magpie-like fascination is explored in Yves Saint Laurent: Gold, which provides the accompaniment to the exhibition ‘Gold, les ors d’Yves Saint Laurent’, which took place at Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris in late 2022. It holds up as a standalone book, though, featuring suitably glamourous imagery starring a phalanx of Saint Laurent muses, from Catherine Deneuve to Zizi Jeanmaire.

Yves Saint Laurent: Gold, featuring texts by Yvane Jacob and Elsa Janssen, is available at Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Shoes A-Z, the Manolo Blahnik Edition (Taschen, 2023)

Shoes A-Z, which explores the enormous archive of footwear at The Museum at FIT in New York City, has long been one of been of fashion’s most comprehensive tomes on the history of the accessory. A new edition of the landmark book – which features designs from Ferragamo, Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood and many more – comes complete with three prints by perhaps fashion’s best-known shoemaker, Manolo Blahnik. The limited-edition version – no doubt a collector’s item in the years to come – is completed with a ribbon-fastened portfolio to store the Fabriano prints, providing the perfect gift for any shoe aficionado.

Shoes A-Z. The Collection of The Museum at FIT. Manolo Blahník Edition, an edition of 1000, is available from Taschen.

Christian Dior, Christian Bérard. Joyful Melancholy (Gallimard, 2023)

‘Christian Dior, Christian Bérard. Joyful Melancholy,’ is a Gallimard-published book – created in association with Dior – which charts the couturier and painter’s lives in a unique joint biography. First meeting in the 1920s, the ‘designer of dreams’ Christian Dior and ‘painter of despair’ Christian Bérard became close friends and collaborators despite their contrasting personalities and approaches, with Bérard going on to decorate Dior’s first boutique, Colifichets, on Avenue Montaigne (the design included toile de Jouy motifs, now a house emblem). Alongside images by Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Lee Miller, and Irving Penn, as well as pictures of archival documents and objects, the book is a richly crafted narrative about the pair’s unique relationship. ‘All of Dior is in Bérard, all of Bérard is in Dior,’ says author Laurence Benaïm. ‘This book is not a two-headed biography – it is a meandering in the heart of a history haunted by dreams, affinities, and secrets sewn in the lining of vanishing time.’

Christian Dior, Christian Bérard. Joyful Melancholy, by Laurence Bénaïm, is available now from Waterstone’sand Barnes and Noble.

Thom Browne (Phaidon, 2023)

Thom Browne’s first monograph is released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the American designer’s eponymous label, featuring both original imagery of archival looks as well as explorations of Browne’s theatrical runway shows. Photographer Johnny Dufort has collaborated on the project, while Andrew Bolton – head curator of the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – curates the various looks and provides the book’s introduction. The book is a design object in itself: enclosed in a clamshell box, the Irma Boom-designed tome features Browne’s grosgrain striped ribbon as a bookmark. ‘This is a must-have for any Thom Browne fan,’ says Phaidon. Read more.

Thom Browne: The 20th Anniversary Book, by Andrew Bolton and Thom Browne, is available from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Chopova Lowena: Conversations with Angels (2023) 

Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena – the designers behind London-based fashion label Chopova Lowena – release their third book this July, titled ‘Conversations with Angels’ and starring actress Chloë Sevigny. In it, Sevigny stars as a version of the Snow Queen from the Danish fairytale (here reimagined by poet Precious Okoyomo), one of Lowena’s favourite stories as a child, while the pair’s A/W 2023 collection, inspired by 70s skiwear, appears throughout the Charlotte Wales-shot book. ‘We love creating books because it gives us a chance to completely express our vision in such a meaningful way,’ say Chopova and Lowena. ‘This one was such a special one, working with our long-time collaborator Charlotte Wales and the incredible Chloë Sevigny. It was so exciting to work with Chloë on Conversations with Angels, we are huge fans of her work and it was a dream to work with her.’

Limited edition.

Dior by Raf Simons (Assouline, 2023)

Published by Assouline, a new tome celebrates Raf Simons’ acclaimed tenure at Dior, where he was creative director from 2012 to 2015. Part of a six-part series exploring the Parisian house’s various artistic directors, the book documents Simons’ ‘infinitely contemporary purity’ which married the house’s heritage with a subversive modernity which has defined the Belgian designer’s work since the founding of his eponymous label in 1995. It also explores the passions that Simons shares with Christian Dior – architecture, art and gardens among them – and features ‘dress portraits’ by Laziz Hamani and texts from fashion journalist Tim Blanks.

Dior by Raf Simons, by Tim Blanks, is available from dior.com

Burberry (Assouline, 2023)

Burberry entered a new chapter last month when Yorkshire-born designer Daniel Lee began his tenure at the brand with a debut collection that drew inspiration from eclectic British dress codes (‘you walk down the street and you’re surrounded by people from so many walks of life, all living together,’ he said after the show at London Fashion Week). He also looked towards the British institution’s roots in functionality – Burberry was founded in 1856 to create clothing which would protect its wearer from the country’s unpredictable weather – a heritage which is celebrated with the publication of new book ‘Burberry’ (Assouline). Across five chapters, fashion critic Alexander Fury charts Burberry’s 165-year history for an exploration of ‘innovation, adventure and Britishness’ alongside 200 illustrations. Says Carly Eck, Burberry brand curator, archive: ‘This book, the only one to be endorsed by the brand in recent times, presents a panorama of the company’s extraordinary heritage, which deserves to be widely celebrated. It’s the stuff of legends.’

Burberry, by Alexander Fury, is available from burberry.com.

Macro (Jil Sander, 2023)

The latest in a series of books created by Lucie and Luke Meier in collaboration with international artists and photographers, ‘Macro’ sees the designers unite with Chris Rhodes who captures the brand’s A/W 2022 collection in a number of still-life images. A long-time collaborator, Rhodes reveals the unseen details of the Meiers’ collections – the aluminium heel of a black pump, lapis lazuli stones in a silver necklace, a heart-shaped ornament on a handbag – in the intimate images. ‘Macro is the testimony of a journey, of an idea that adds a different dimension to the purpose of Lucie and Luke Meier’s work,’ say the brand, ‘a suggestion on how design can be unconventionally perceived and displayed’.

Limited edition.

Chloé Catwalk (Thames and Hudson, 2022)

Coinciding with the house’s 70th anniversary, a new Thames & Hudson-published book provides a comprehensive history of Chloé and those who have shaped it – from founder Gaby Aghion to a young Karl Lagerfeld, and the slew of influential female designers who have helmed the house in the years since, among them Martine Sitbon, Phoebe Philo, Stella McCartney and current creative director Gabriela Hearst. Collating over 130 collections and 1,100 looks, ‘Chloé Catwalk’ provides a vivid portrait of the pioneering house that has sought ‘modernity, ease, vibrancy, optimism, freedom’ from its beginnings. ‘All I ever wanted was for Chloé to have a happy spirit and to make people happy,’ Aghion is quoted as saying in the book. It is the latest addition to Thames & Hudson‘s blockbuster ‘Catwalk’ series, this time authored by Lou Stoppard and featuring a preface by fashion critic Suzy Menkes.

Come Stai? (Bottega Veneta, 2022)

Earlier this year, Italian designer Gaetano Pesce created the set – including 400 entirely unique chairs – for Matthieu Blazy’s sophomore outing at Bottega Veneta. A new limited-edition book from the house, launched as part of Design Miami, documents the process. Alongside images of the set’s creation by Stephen Shore and Sander Muylaert, Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews Pesce about the project’s ‘ideation, approach and process’ as well as contributions from Blazy and Wallpaper* Milan editor Maria Cristina Didero. Like the chairs, each cover of the book is entirely one-of-a-kind.

Acne Paper Issue 17 (Acne Studios, 2022)

After a seven-year hiatus, Acne Paper – Stockholm-based fashion label Acne Studios’ cult print magazine – was relaunched last November as a ‘hybrid between a book and a magazine’ across 500 pages. This year, for its 17th issue, the brand says it is taking this idea of a hybrid ‘one step further’ – ‘[it is] part biography, part novel, part cultural art journal, part fashion magazine,’ describe the brand of the latest issue, which centres around a character named Atticus, ‘a fictional personality in the art world who [is celebrating] his 100-year birthday’. Across five chapters, his ‘memoir’ narrates a ‘cultured life’ which sees him journey from a dancer under choreographer Merce Cunningham to a luminary of the contemporary art scene. The biography also centres on Atticus’ relationship with partner Desmond, ‘[reminding] of a time when men who loved men, and women who loved women, were considered delinquents… [and recalling] the dramatic Aids epidemic and the many loved and talented people who perished with it.’ As such, a portfolio in the issue pays tribute to the work of real-life artists Darrel Ellis, Arch Connelly, Jimmy Wright, and Larry Stanton – the latter who will be celebrated in a special capsule collection by the brand – while contributions from contemporary photographers Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Paul Kooiker and an intimate self-portrait series by Ibrahim Kamara are intersected throughout.

Hand in Hand (Fendi, 2022)

Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Fendi Baguette, a new book from the Italian house sees the iconic handbag style reinterpreted by 30 artisans across Italy in a celebration of centuries-old craft – from brocade, embroidery and crochet to works in wood and marble. In the book – titled ‘Hand in Hand’ after the 2020 initiative of the same name which originally tasked the artisans with reinterpreting the accessory – these works are captured by Italian photographer Lorenzo Vitturi and accompanied by texts by art critic and curator Eugenio Viola, artist Aldo Bakker and ‘upcyclist’ Orsola de Castro. ‘It pleases me to work on certain techniques that, to me, seem unchanged – and then to observe how, when working by hand, an error can become a virtue. Indeed, an error can become the idea for innovation,’ says the bag’s original designer Silvia Venturini Fendi in an interview about the project in the book. ‘[It] is a couture initiative, because it presents Baguette bags that will not be replicated.’

Akris: A Century in Fashion Selbstverständlich (Rizzoli, 2022)

To coincide with Akris’ 100th-anniversary celebrations – the house was founded a century ago in St Gallen, Switzerland – a new book, ‘A Century in Fashion Selbstverständlich’, presents a history of the house through the lens of current creative director Albert Kriemler (grandson of Akris founder Alice Kriemler-Schoch). The large-format photobook features a portfolio of vintage Akris styles photographed by Iwan Baan at the 1960s brutalist extension of the university of St Gallen, alongside an essay by Swiss author Daniel Binswanger, comments by Kriemler himself, and archival imagery. ‘Selbstverständlich is the one single German expression [that] best encapsulates the Akris spirit for me,’ says Kriemler of the book’s title, which loosely translates to English as ‘natural’ or ‘self-evident’. ‘It perfectly conveys our aesthetic ideal of clothing, embodying an effortless modernity.’

Dior by Sarah Moon (Delpire & Co, 2022)

A new book from Dior celebrates the Parisian house’s relationship with French photographer Sarah Moon – ‘a delicate ode to multifaceted femininity, sublime in its complexity,’ as the accompanying blurb describes. Across three consecutive volumes, Moon captures pieces from the Dior archives – mostly at Fondation Le Corbusier or inside the archival spaces themselves – creating evocative images which ‘communicate the strength which emanates from the architectural silhouettes designed by Christian Dior and his successors’. Current creative director of the women’s collections Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has continually commissioned women artists during her tenure for collaborations or show-set design, is a particular focus of the tome, with a 38-image portfolio of Chiuri’s work making up the book’s final volume.

The Colors of Sies Marjan (Rizzoli, 2022)

‘The Colors of Sies Marjan’ explores the brief but colourful history of Sander Lak’s cult New York label Sies Marjan, which shuttered in June 2020 after four years in business. The ‘highly personal’ book, as Lak describes, features archival imagery of Sies Marjan with a particular focus placed on the designer’s vivid and unexpected use of colour which was the bedrock of his work (‘Cookie Monster blue’, ‘Baskin Robbins pink’, ‘Lakers purple’ and ‘Post-it yellow’ are all described in the book). ‘The intention of a lot of books about fashion houses is usually within a marketing or PR-filled context, like an anniversary or store opening, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but this was something very different,’ Lak says of the book, which features contributions from artist Elizabeth Peyton, author Donna Tartt, and architect Rem Koolhaas, among others. ‘It was a chance for myself to give this chapter some closure.’

Annie Leibovitz (Taschen, 2022)

Originally published as part of Taschen's Sumo series – in which seminal cultural figures, including Helmut Newton, David Hockney and the Rolling Stones, are celebrated with limited-edition supersized monographs – Annie Leibovitz is rereleased in a new unlimited version. The comprehensive tome draws on 40 years of the American photographer’s work, from photojournalism for publications like Rolling Stone to her best-known celebrity portraiture in Vanity Fair and Vogue, as well as a number of photographs never before seen. ‘This is not a retrospective. It is a kind of potpourri. A roller coaster,’ Leibovitz says. ‘As you go through it, you forget what you saw in the beginning. You’re in another place toward the end.’

The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese (Rizzoli, 2022)

British designer Kim Jones became head of Fendi couture and womenswear in September 2020; his first collection for the house, the following January, melded Fendi’s famed Italian craftsmanship with his own British roots, looking towards the Bloomsbury Set for inspiration (particularly – Virginia Woolf, and her novel Orlando). The link, he said, was the way they were drawn to Rome – to its ancient monuments and Renaissance treasures – a journey he explores in a new Rizzoli-published book The Fendi Set (first released in January in the UK, it will arrive in the US at the beginning of April). Exploring Jones’ relationship with the culture-shaping group of artists, intellectuals and writers, it sees collaborator Nikolai von Bismarck photograph their famed gathering spots – Charleston House, Knole House, and Sissinghurst Castle – before heading to the set of the haute couture show in Paris, and then to Rome’s Villa Medici and Villa Borghese, where the histories of Fendi and the Bloomsbury Set meet. The photographs capture Jones’ own contemporary ‘set’ – Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell among them – alongside original letters, diary entries and excerpts from Bloomsbury members.

GANNI: Gimme More (Rizzoli, 2021)

Ganni girls embody a celebratory, spontaneous, community and eco-aware spirit – one that has been captured within the pages of the Copenhagen-based brand's debut monograph GANNI: Gimme More. The vivid volume, published by Rizzoli, dives into the world of the sustainability-focused, pattern- and print-celebrating label. Look out for a photo essay documenting Ganni's home city, shot by longtime collaborator Ana Kraš; an insightful conversation with the label's creative director Ditte Reffstrup and a vivid visual collage piecing together the brand's raising-the-roof house parties. Laura Hawkins

Versace Catwalk: The Complete Collections (2021)

In recent years, Versace catwalk shows have well and truly broken the internet. For the label’s Milan Fashion Week S/S 2022 offering in September, its campaign star Dua Lipa opened and closed a scintillating runway show, which featured a profusion of its signature motifs: tropical foulard silks, oodles of neon, safety-pin embellishments and a steamy hit of bare skin.

With the release of Versace Catwalk: The Complete Collections, fashion fans can ogle their favourite catwalk collections from the brand – be it the animal-print and power-shouldered silhouettes of the S/S 1983 offering, or the cyber glamour of the S/S 2012 couture show. The volume, authored by esteemed fashion critic Tim Blanks, is paged chronologically and brings together more than 40 years of fashion shows, kicking off with Gianni Versace’s 1978 debut, in a carefully curated edit of some 1,200 images. LH

OBJECT-FORM.FORM!, by Samuel Ross (2021)

Samuel Ross' interdisciplinary mindset – that sees him bridge not only his fashion label A-Cold-Wall* but also his art and design practice SR_A – culminates in Object – Form. Form!, Ross' first major book celebrating the range and extent of his projects and collaborators. Leaf through this visual history of Ross' projects to date, which also features a gallery of short texts by friends, mentors and peers, including Virgil Abloh, Takashi Murakami, Daniel Arsham, Hans Ulrich Obrist and David Adjaye. LH

Vivienne Westwood Catwalk (2021)

Vivienne Westwood vanguards, unite! A veritable treasure trove of images and inspiration, Thames & Hudson-published Vivienne Westwood Catwalk celebrates 40 years of the legendary British designer’s runway collections. Take a coveted seat at the catwalk of over 70 collections and delight in 1,300 looks, that celebrate the historicism-rooted, renegade, punk and environmentalist aesthetic of Westwood. The volume, released in celebration of Westwood's 80th birthday, features an introduction and collection texts by fashion critic Alexander Fury, with contributions by Westwood herself and her partner in life and work Andreas Kronthaler. The book is bound with the brand's iconic tartan, first produced in 1993 and officially recognised by the Scottish register of Tartans. LH

Familiarity (Jil Sander, 2021)

Creative director and husband-and wife-duo Lucie and Luke Meier have collaborated with a cohort of legendary image makers, teaming up with Joel Meyerowitz on Sander's recent A/W 2021 campaign. Now the label has released Familiarity, a limited photographic volume, which sees five image makers, Anders Edström, Olivier Kervern, Chris Rhodes, Lina Scheynius and Mario Sorrenti, personally interpret the the Meiers’ designs. These images offer five distinct visual takes on the Sander aesthetic, which are united by Sander's clothing. The images have been captured inside photographers’ homes and gardens, bringing a sense of intimacy to the photographic series, and a notion of familiarity to elevated fashion. LH

Peter Lindbergh. Azzedine Alaïa (Taschen, 2021)

‘We met in 1979, I believe. Ever since, Azzedine and I are hand in glove. I photographed his collections and I have countless portraits of him,' said renowned German photographer Peter Lindbergh of his longtime friendship with Azzedine Alaïa, before he passed away in 2019. Alaïa and Lindbergh were united on many creative passions: a love for black and the celebration of the female form.

Now, a grayscale Taschen volume – launched in conjunction with the exhibition Azzedine Alaïa, Peter Lindbergh at the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa in Paris – celebrates the creative output of the two artist's, spanning atmospheric settings including the lamp lit streets of Paris and the windswept beach of Le Touquet, and featuring models and musicians including Naomi Campbell, Kristen McMenamy, Madonna and Tina Turner. The book – a must for Alaïa or Lindbergh-obsessed bibliophiles, also features contributions from Fabrice Hergott, director of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la, photographer Paolo Roversi and Olivier Saillard, fashion historian and director of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa. LH

Silicon Valley. No_Code_Life (Rizzoli, 2021)

When Italian label Tod's launched its No_Code trainer project – a line of silhouettes that adheres to technological and fabric innovation, and invites design visionaries to apply cutting-edge ideas to its designs – it demonstrated a synergy with the forward-thinking mindset of Silicon Valley, and its ascendancy of unicorn companies. Now, in celebration of the famed San Francisco location, and the site of spectacular start-ups, the label has launched a Rizzoli-published book which lenses Silicon Valley, in an alternative light, breaks through the venerated veneer of its streets.

For Silicon Valley. No_Code_Life, Tod's enlisted Iranian-American photographer Ramek Fazel to document the daily goings on in Silicon Valley. For 10 days he roamed its roads, armed with a Rolleiflex, shooting diverse portraits and panoramic views, from aerial shots of lengthy highways to employees armed with colourful Google-branded tote bags. The result is a colourful and multifarious presentation of Silicon Valley existence, rooted in reality, instead of millennial-infused myth. LH

Craig Green x Jack Davison (Limited edition at Dover Street Market, 2021)

In March 2021, London menswear designer Craig Green teamed up with photographer Jack Davison, on a poetic S/S 2021 visual set of images that captured Green’s sculptural, utilitarian and headpiece-accented designs. Now, in celebration of the project, Green and Davison have launched a print media extension of the collaboration, encompassed as a limited set of four riso-printed and saddle-stitched self-cover books, accompanied by Tyvek sheet posters, printed in a spectrum of colour variations. From midday tomorrow, 13 May 2021, a mere 30 sets of the books will be available, for free, for the public to collect from Craig Green’s space at Dover Street London. LH

Pucci (Taschen, 2021)

One designer who had the ability to imbue escapism into every garment was Emilio Pucci. The Italian designer was a doyen of dramatic, pattern-splashed clothing, which also had a boundary-pushing comfortable appeal, and was sported on the ski slopes and in the chicest summer resorts. Now, a Taschen released tome celebrates the history of the print-swathed Pucci dynasty, in a volume brimming with archival images, sketches and eye-catching ephemera. Pucci, features accompanying text by fashion critic Vanessa Friedman and is wrapped in a tactile fabric cover, with a selection of archive prints abounding in abstract swirls and tropical blooms. LH

Her Dior: Maria Grazia’s New Voice (Rizzoli, 2021)

During her creative tenure at Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri has made feminism an integral part of her aesthetic expression, collaborating with revolutionary female artists including Judy Chicago and Tomasina Binga and creating silhouettes that explore the multi dimensional facets of womanhood. Now, a new publication by Rizzoli New York, brings together a host of female photographers, including Wallpaper* contributor Brigitte Niedermair, Nan Goldin, Sarah Moon and Laura Coulson, in a visual exchange exploring female identity.

‘Seeking a dialogue from the outset with these women artists, writers and activists, they themselves at times distant from me and from fashion, was party and parcel of my focus on the reasons and the situations that I believed we urgent, and that I wanted to put at the heart of my creative process,’ Chiuri explains in the volume’s Introduction. LH

Stazione Termini, Lookbook 2009-2021 (Drago, 2021)

Niccolò Berretta has been drawn to the anthropological bravura of August Sander and Diane Arbus since he first started taking pictures. ‘I see their work as a sort of catalogue of human beings yet with the search for the mysterious,’ he says. In 2009 he began taking photographs of some of the one hundred and fifty million passengers that pass each year through Rome’s Stazione Termini. Now 490 of them have been brought together in a chunky book published by Drago.

The first edition includes a glossy wraparound featuring models striding the streets of Esquilino in the 15th rione wearing REDValentino’s Spring/Summer 21 collection. Between the covers, we see couples dressed in matching shiny puffa jackets, a cigar smoking man in a finely tailored navy suit, stickered suitcases, knitted leg warmers, and sunglasses pushed up onto people’s heads. ‘I do not go beyond the mirror they see themselves in every day,’ Berretta says in the introduction. This is more than just a record of quotidian style, it is an archive of a city and its people in flux. ‘An integral part of this visual process is the environment: the advertisements, the construction sites, the cars, the street signs, the scenography that speak to their time. The subtitle Lookbook 2009-2021 is an ironic reference to the world of fashion in which everything is fleeting, fast and almost does not exist.’ Dal Chodha

MSGM 10! The (in)complete Brand Anthology (Rizzoli, 2020)

The vibrancy, pattern and eclectic flavour of Massimo Giorgetti’s MSGM is synonymous with modern Milanese design, and in celebration of the label’s tenth birthday, the brand has released a Rizzoli-published monogram, majestic in colour and warmth. The volume, which is visually inspired by a fanzine and was art directed by Giorgetti himself, features a mix of fashion-focused and personal memories, from his dogs Pane and Coda to effusive editorial images. With contributing texts from friends and collaborators including Maurizio Cattelan, super stylist Katie Grand and journalist Charlie Porter, this is a must read for any MSGM enthusiast. LH

Images (Jacquemus, 2020)

Simone Porte Jacquemus understands the transportive power of Instagram. The designer has long used the medium to convey the sun-drenched seduction his brand reflects, associated with the sand-lined shored of Southern France. During lockdown the designer even shot S/S 2020 digital campaign images with Bella Hadid, Barbie Ferreira and Steve Lacy, showcasing the uplifting results on the social media channel. Now, in his second publication to date, Jacquemus has released ‘Images’, a book of his favourite 321 Instagram images, edited down from the 85,041 pictures he has stored on his phone. The publication is a soothing snapshot of summer, boasting beachside shots, architectural and food close-ups and Jacquemus-clad portraits. They capture the energetic, warm and downtime-focused essence of the brand, whether you’re browsing the book from a sun bed in its founder’s beloved hometown Marseille, or city-bound on the sofa. LH

Sicily (Jil Sander, 2020)

We’re all in need of a touch of escapism right now, and lucky for us, Jil Sander’s Lucie and Luke Meier have just released a sun-kissed pictorial road trip around Sicily, lensed by photographer Olivier Kervern. The analogue amalgamation was first presented back in February at Milan Fashion Week at the brand’s Via Sant’Andrea exhibition space, and the sleek volume also serves up a series of portraits depicting the brand’s A/W 2020 offering. While road-tripping may feel out of reach, Sicily will feel out of the way enough when this book is held in the palm of your hands. LH

Sportmax (Assouline, 2020)

This Assouline-published volume by Luke Leitch and Olivier Saillard offers a pleasingly pictorial stroll through the five-decade history of the sports and casual wear-focused label Sportmax, founded in 1969 by Achille Maramotti. Sketches and advertising campaign images abound, highlighting the boldy saturated shades that define Sportmax’s aesthetic and capture the style signatures of the creatives who anonymously worked on the brand’s collections, including Nanni Strada, Jean- Charles de Castelbajac, Odile Lançon and Guy Paulin. LH

Prada Catwalk (Thames & Hudson, 2019)

When it comes to a Prada catwalk show, fans of the Milanese label delight in decoding the various archive Prada-isms which appear in each collection, be it S/S 1996’s icky ‘Formica’ prints, S/S 2000’s tessellated lipstick pattern, a heavy brown shoe or a pleated knee length skirt. Now, a new tome houses all of the brand’s catwalk collections in one place, from Miuccia Prada’s debut A/W 1988 runway offering, with its schoolgirl simplicity and utilitarian tailoring, to her S/S 2019 collection, boasting bourgeois takes on its signature nylon fabric, chubby Alice bands and swathes of grunge green satin. The Thames & Hudson published volume, written by fashion critic Susannah Frankel offers commentary on each collection featured, and boasts over 1,300 illustrations, making it the perfect printed tool for Prada fans everywhere, vying to decode the designer’s famed aesthetic, her obsessions and eccentricities and the brand’s boundary-breaking sensibility. LH

Chanel: The Impossible Collection (Assouline, 2019)

It’s fitting that this clamshell-cased tome, measuring nearly fifty centimetres in length, is purchased with a complimentary pair of white gloves. For ‘Chanel: The Impossible Collection' is a bookshelf treasure equal to the house’s signature bouclé tweed suit or its 2.55 handbag. This enormous edition is a tribute to the famed Parisian maison; its glossy pages are packed with fashion show shots, magazine editorials, newspaper cuttings, illustrations and portraits. As part of the volume, author and fashion critic Alexander Fury has also selected 100 iconic looks that represent the house, from the Little Black Dress to the day suit. ‘Let them copy, my ideas belong to everyone, I refuse no one,’ Gabrielle Chanel told The New York Times in January 1971. It’s hard to refuse this book too. LH

Fashion Central Saint Martins (Thames & Hudson, 2019)

Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo, Wallpaper* October issue guest editor Hussein Chalayan: some of the most lauded, experimental and innovative designers in the world began their fashion lives in the hallowed halls of Central Saint Martins in London. Fashion Central Saint Martins – published by Thames & Hudson and edited by the school’s programme director of fashion, Hywel Davies, and Cally Blackman, lecturer in fashion history and theory – takes a bold, collaged and archival amble through the art school’s fashion history, which began in 1938, when six years after its fashion school was founded by Muriel Pemberton, it began teaching fashion design and drawing.

Its colourful, cut-and-paste pages are divided into decades, allowing the reader to party alongside the school’s Blitz Kids Eighties alumni, like journalist Hamish Bowles and John Galliano before touring into the 2010s, the era of Craig Green, Charles Jeffrey and Molly Goddard. Expect pages packed with unseen student work, essays from guest writers including Sarah Mower and Judith Watt, and intimate insight into the student lives of some of fashion’s most important figures today. LH

Legaspi: Larry Legaspi, the 70s, and the Future of Fashion (Rizzoli, 2019)

‘It’s me fetishizing him through a fanboy filter’ says Rick Owens of the subject of his latest Rizzoli New York release, dedicated to the work and aesthetic of 70s unsung design hero Larry Legaspi, who created pioneering looks for musical behemoths including KISS, LaBelle and George Clinton. Owens’ men’s and women’s Glam Rock-ready A/W 2019 collection was also dedicated to the designer and featured sinched streamlined tailoring, platform boots and plenty of stage-ready make-up.

For the first ever book documenting LeGaspi’s work, Owens had unprecedented access to his partner’s archives – Legaspi died of Aids in 2001 – and the book is an amalgam of archive backstage imagery, tour posters and sketches, interspersed with newly Owens-lensed images of LeGaspi’s designs, alongside commentary from Patti LaBelle, André Leon Talley and Pat Cleveland. ‘Larry introduced a camp ferocity to the mainstream and helped set a lot of kids like me free,’ Owens adds. We urge you to get introduced too. LH

Rumpled satin sheets, shell-encrusted candelabras – Acne Studios celebrated ten years of showing in Paris last night with a ‘twisted wedding party’, an all-pink set providing the backdrop for a S/S 2023 collection that revelled in the kitsch archetypes of romantic nuptials. 

‘It’s the ten-year anniversary for us in terms of showing in Paris, and I thought that maybe we should be reflecting on that,’ says founder and creative director Jonny Johansson of showing during Paris Fashion Week S/S 2023. He originally brought the Stockholm-based label to show in the city as part of a collaboration with Musée de la Mode in 2012 (the S/S 2013 collection featured scans from the museum’s archive by artist Katerina Jebb). 

‘The most iconic event I could come up with is the wedding. For me, it’s the kickstart to a lot of aesthetic choices – what’s the most interesting event that people are used to participating in, to celebrate something?’

Selecting Palais de Tokyo for the occasion – ‘an emblematic Paris institution’ – the show space was rendered entirely in pink, a colour now synonymous with the label (the particular shade found on its shopping bags and store designs is referred to as ‘Acne Studios pink’). ‘I thought it was interesting to work with a colour that was so unpopular, at the time no one liked it, everyone called it “millennial” pink,’ says Johansson. ‘[We wanted to] take it out of that context, do the opposite of everyone else and actually celebrate it and use it as part of our DNA.’

The shell-covered candelabras were created in collaboration with London-based nail artist Sylvie Macmillan, whose other-worldly manicures – often featuring surreal embellishments, from plaited loaves of bread to miniature sculpted fragments of Michaelangelo's David – have seen her collaborate with numerous fashion labels and publications, as well as musicians Arca and Rosalía. 

‘A couple of summers ago I did a month-long project making shell- and obsidian-covered candelabras and selling them to raise money for charity. They were all relatively small tabletop ones made from shells bought off eBay or donated by friends and family who had their own collections,’ she explains. 

‘Business with nails continued as usual, so the candelabra project came to a halt until I got a call from Acne Studios; someone from their office had seen my work, which I was surprised about considering the candelabra Instagram account only has about 300 followers. Working with Acne Studios gave me the opportunity to elaborate on the designs I had created before, working at a much bigger scale, with totally different structures and shell species.’

She says that the candelabras’ shapes are designed to evoke coral – ‘I wanted the shells to appear as if they had somehow grown out of the piece or clung to it.’ She adds, ‘I looked at the way that barnacles and limpets hold to rocks and shipwrecks. Shell-embellished pieces are nothing new, though the shells are normally applied in a relatively formulaic way, I wanted to do the opposite.’

The party was completed with Acne Studios’ take on the traditional wedding band, ‘avant-harp’ collective Leya & Eartheater. 

‘I wanted to put a spin on the classic, kitschy wedding, referencing everything from the tablecloth to the chandelier, the wedding-night bed sheets, the bride’s shoes, the bows, and the cute flowers,’ says Johansson of the collection itself, whose own nuptials took place almost 20 years prior (presenting his S/S 2023 menswear collection earlier in the year, which also was inspired by the wedding ceremony, he said he regretted wearing a classic black suit).

‘There is something cute, kitschy, sweet about weddings,’ he says, noting he still feels pressure showing in Paris, ten years on. ‘But also something serious and vulnerable.’

Rue Saint-Honoré is one of Paris’ most storied addresses, best known for its trail of upscale boutiques – the definitive names of French fashion lined up for shoppers seeking the utmost in luxury. In some ways, Acne Studios – founded by Jonny Johansson in Stockholm – seems incongruous to the neighbourhood, where tomorrow (23 June 2022) the brand will open a 1st arrondissement store after a comprehensive renovation. After all, the Swedish label was built with a distinctly independent approach, beginning with just 100 pairs of jeans, created for friends and family, back in 1996. In the years since, despite expanding around the world, the label has retained this countercultural spirit. 

Inside Acne Studios Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris

It is why the store’s design – created in a collaboration between Johansson and Barcelona-based firm Arquitectura-G – began not in Paris, but the Rålis skate park in Stockholm’s Marieberg district. Johansson had found himself there waiting for a friend, fascinated by the design of the park, which is built under a vast concrete bridge in order to stop rainwater pooling in the various bowls and ramps. 

‘I find it a poetic spot [and] it reminds me a little of Paris because there are so many bridges in the city,’ says Johansson. ‘I wanted the store to feel like you were sitting under a bridge. I like the idea of a secret society, a subculture, existing under the arches, and I thought it was a good way to think of Acne Studios as a brand on a big fashion street.’

As such, Arquitectura-G looked towards Saint Maximin stone – the golden-coloured limestone definitive of traditional Parisian architecture – to achieve a similarly monolithic effect. Sourced from a quarry just outside of Paris, the stone extends from both interior to exterior, and across the walls, floor and columns (the brand says the effect is one of ‘infrastructure’, and a nod to the buildings in the city made from Saint Maximin, including the Louvre, Place de la Concorde and several of the city’s bridges).

‘The store originally had two floors that weren’t connected at all,’ say the Arquitectura-G team over email. ‘We planned a cut-out on the intermediate slab so the whole store works as a continuous space, with a double-height area. The columns are now two floors high – the space is nothing but the area under, or next to, this stone structure.’ On the corner site, large floor-to-ceiling windows keep a connection to the street, something which was important to the architects. ‘[It] takes the soul of the city and brings it inside the store,’ as they describe, as well as giving light ‘top billing’ in the airy space. 

Such nods to neighbourhood are part of Acne Studios’ intention when creating new stores, an attempt to make its outposts encapsulate the brand’s design language while retaining a local flourish. ‘I think the idea is to reflect the location or space where we actually are, where we are acting, and reflect on that in what we do,’ says Johansson. ‘Then it’s also about asking, where is the brand now? It’s a reference to where we are at the moment, a time capsule for what we are doing.’ 

‘Soft blobs’ (as Arquitectura-G describe) by longtime Acne Studios collaborator and furniture designer Max Lamb will intersect and contrast with the sharp lines of the stone space, while Benoit Lalloz will once again provide lighting – this time, wave-like constructions that reflect the architects’ sweeping bespoke staircase, which extends up towards the second level. ‘It channels both the classic elegance of Paris and the countercultural currents that infuse Acne Studios,’ say the brand of the design. 

Johansson says he wants to reproduce the feeling of entering the Helmut Lang store on the street when he was a teenager (the outpost closed in 2006).

‘There were wooden eagles, which he had carved himself, and a Jenny Holzer installation in the store, too,’ says Johannsson. ‘It was so impressive, I was just really inspired to go inside.’ No doubt for a new generation, Acne Studios Rue-Saint Honoré will have a similar effect. 

INFORMATION

Acne Studios 219 Rue St Honoré, Paris, opens 23 June 2022.

acnestudios.com

The interior of Acne Studios’ Stockholm headquarters – which was refurbished in 2019 – revels in a profusion of textures: shaggy, hand-tufted rugs, handblown glass, concrete, glossy leather, and areas that play with proportion, like sunken fireplaces and coffee tables. For the label, a holistic, comfortable, working-meets-living environment is key, with its HQ populated with seating that scales corners, welcoming cherry-red sofas in libraries, and hand-carved cafeteria seating. 

For the Acne Studios A/W 2022 womenswear show at Paris Fashion Week on 2 March 2022, the brand brought a sense of comfort to its show space. The label lined the floor of its minimalist, optic white-walled set at the Lycée Carnot in the 17th arrondissement with sunken spaces, resembling living rooms, to house its audience.

Indulge in home comforts with Acne Studios A/W 2022 runway show

Here, guests nestled into rectangular living room set-ups of different scales, sitting on raised benches swathed in a retro fake fur carpet, formed from a melange of brown and beige tones. From these sunken salons, editors and buyers surveyed the Acne Studios A/W 2022 womenswear offering – one revelling in the handmade and homespun, layered silhouettes, denim, floral brocade and metallics – as models took to the minimalist white catwalk that surrounded the seating. The fake fur fabric is set to be given a second life, destined to be reused in upcoming collections and donated to the Parisian fashion school, Studio Berçot.

The Acne Studios A/W 2022 show also featured a surprise live performance, with guests serenaded by electronic musician Suzanne Ciani. Widely regarded as ‘America’s first female synth hero’, Ciani was one of few women pioneering electronic music innovation in the 1970s. It was all far more entertaining than sitting in your own living room watching comedy reruns on TV. 

For more on the collections, see our Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022 report, which is updated throughout the week, as the shows happen.

INFORMATION

acnestudios.com

Mid-pandemic and post-Brexit, most of us have become far more familiar with the ins-and-outs of our postal service. Bouts at home have led to an appetite for online purchases, a new allure in Amazon Prime and the fleeting adrenaline rush of opening an anticipated parcel. It's a fitting metaphor for our times that Glenn Martens held Y/Project's A/W 2022 show at Paris Fashion Week Men's in the cavernous warehouse of a DPD depot, where delivery vans could be seen lined up, ready to roll out packages to Parisian homes, straight from the catwalk. 

Louis Vuitton's A/W 2022 show – the final chapter of men's artistic director Virgil Abloh's bildungsroman – had more of a fairytale flourish, with the label erecting a quintessential surburban street lined with sky blue ‘dream houses', with red rooftops and inviting, warmly-lit windows. Virgil Abloh's first show for the Parisian maison eight collections ago, featured a rainbow catwalk recalling The Wizard of Oz's Yellow Brick Road, a symbol of a fairytale path about to be trodden, traced by not only Abloh's footsteps, but those of his diverse collaborators. This emotive setting, which showcased Abloh's final collection for the brand, completed by Vuitton's design team after his tragic passing in November 2021, was an emotive emblem of a dream fulfilled, the final familial location of a boyhood dream, which ended with him joining one of the world's most prestigious luxury brands. And it was journey marked over eight collections by coming-of-age symbols: a bouncy castle, a build-your-own-kite kit, a paper aeroplane. 

Elsewhere, influences on the A/W 2022 menswear season in Paris were encyclopedic, including surrealism and sleaze, New Wave cinema, and chronophotography. But the city was not exempt from the complications suffered by the schedules at Pitti and in Milan, in the wake of rising Omicron infections in Europe, with the week in the French capital being marked by a quieter presence, with collections presented both physically and digitally. Still, the season saw the first Paris runway show of London designer Bianca Saunders, and welcomed womenswear shows from Paco Rabanne, Y/Project and Alaïa. Despite the circumstances, a swathe of A-listers were still in attendance - just look to the front row of Nigo's debut show for Kenzo, flanked by Pharrell Williams, Tyler, the Creator, Ye and Julia Fox. Over the week, they were treated to Rick Owen's riff on sleaze; elfin-inspired accessories; and a celebration of slouch and surrealism. And in this special report, we've collected the very best highlights from Paris Fashion Week men's A/W 2022.

Paris Fashion Week men’s A/W 2022: 9 key takeaways

1. Embrace the eclectic

There was plenty of room for personal interpretation on the A/W 2022 catwalks, as designers embraced eclectic flourishes and finishes. At Acne Studios, founder Jonny Johansson took inspiration from a cartoonish floral button, the foundation of the brand's collection, resulting in a fancy dress box of designs, like sequinned shirting and textural abstract knits, patchworked trousers and crushed velvet blazers. For Bluemarble's Anthony Alvarez – who presented his debut show on the Paris schedule – the New York-born designer, who has Fillipino, Spanish and Corsican heritage, went on a whistle top world tour, drawing inspiration from the sails of Filliipino vinta boats, and seeming to stop off at skateparks, snowboarding runs and hippy trails. Models sported a mix of bright patchwork jackets, tie-dye track tops, frilled pyjama shirts, and baggy jeans, worn with fake fur-sprouting slip-ons, pointed knitted hats and reflective sports sunglasses.

2. Make mine a large

If Milan Fashion Week Men's made a case for large-scale silhouettes, Paris pumped up their proportions. Tel Aviv-based Hed Mayner was taken by ‘capricous' silhouettes, that provide space between the wearer and clothing, the wearer and us. A fine grey chalk stripe double-breasted blazer, with voluminous slouch-shouldered proportions, was paired with a slim trouser, and a puffy, pointed-lapel tan leather coat layered with pants which would pool on the pavement. Technical ponchos offered tent-like protection. And quilted Liberty print scarves swathed the body.

3. Swat up on your cinema and surrealism

‘Going along the streets of Nottingham, a rather dark town, I was struck by this really bright Jean-Luc Goddard film poster,' explained Paul Smith, in a collection preview of the cinematic New Wave tones that inspired his A/W 2022 offering. The designer – who presented a live collection film, streamed from Paris' Chamber of Commerce – thought back to the directors that inspired him in the Sixties, referencing not just Goddard, but Fellini and François Truffaut. ‘With Goddard, you might have a shot with no colour, juxtaposed by a red balloon,' Smith said of the bold Technicolour that peppered the collection, which featured raspberry tailoring, glitch-print bowling shirts and checked outerwear. A chevron motif, seen in quilted coats and intarsia knitwear, nodded to the zig-zag floor in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, while outerwear silhouettes evoked the ‘Director's jackets' that Smith used to sell in the early Eighties. Smith even created his own Hollywood starlet print - featuring the visage of a woman tesselated across overcoats and shirting.

‘What is real today? Perfection is fabricated, imperfection is erased, illusion and displacement are the coordinates,' read the opening lines of the Loewe press release – which accompanied a collection that riffed on ‘nonsensical' silhouettes, twisted, shrunken and surrealist shapes, and dramatic reinterpretations of archetypal wardrope pieces. T-shirts and shorts protuded with hula-hoop proportions; transparent coats, seemingly made of rubber, were imagined in see-through leather, or featured an imprint of a buttock in golden paint; outerwear was punctured with metal sink strainers; t-shirts and body suits were printed with trompe l'oeil figures. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly catalysed questions regarding reality, as many of us have hunkered down inside, spending more time online, honing our digital personalities. And at Loewe, things are not what they seem. A Flamenco bag has a bottom formed from a conch shell or is shaped into a slouchy boot. Jackets are worn as shorts, knitted roll necks are rendered impossibly impractical, with inbuilt gloves swathed in dangling streamers.

4. Elf yourself!

Admitedly, an unexpected accessory trend on the Paris catwalks was unveiled: an intriuge in elf-like footwear. At Acne Studios, this came courtesy of beaked toe fishing boot. Ditto seen at Y/Project, with the brand's signature slouched thigh-high boots finished with a gently curling toe. Hed Mayner also made a case for a gnomic buckled shoe. Yes, a literal toe-curling trend. 

5. Take note of tapestries

At the crux of Virgil Abloh's design DNA was a desire to reframe codes and symbols, bring new value to cultural, social and political signifiers, and design with a boyish charm, untampered by adulthood. For his final A/W 2022 show for Vuitton – Abloh had sought to bring new life to two paintings, The Painter's Studio (1855), by realist Gustave Courbet, and 1914's Souvenir d’Italie by surrealist Giorgio de Chirico. These were translated into rich tapestried silhouettes, like trenchcoats, cargo pants and hoodies, in an aim to cement Abloh's continued exploration of ‘originality, provenance, reference and self-reference'.

Hermès' Véronique Nichanian was also taken with the symbolism of tapestry, staging the French maison's A/W 2022 show at the Mobilier National in Paris, against a series of resplendent wall hangings. She was fascinated by the idea of giving them new character, by models assimilating with their backdrop, becoming ‘part of the landscape in which the collection’s energy unfurls, and in which figures and clothing come into their own.' Against these tapestries, Nichanian created dandyish silhouettes, more rooted in a modern elegance and authenticity than dandyish figures of the past, typified by Beau Brummell or defined by Baudelaire, sporting trenchcoats in crispy technical canvas, printed silkscreen printed blousons, compact cotton serge cargo pants and driving jackets in Porosus crocodile.

6. Collaboration is key

In his exploration of archetypal silhouettes, Y/Project's Glenn Martens has reinterpreted the classic designs of a host of brands, including Ugg, Fila and Canada Goose. On the A/W 2022 runway, the brand unveiled its latest collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier. The latter has enlisted Martens to explore his famed silhouettes, a profject which has already seen Sacai's Chitose Abe take up the roving seasonal creative director role. Martens transformed the cult trompe-l’œil prints from Gaultier's S/S 1996 collection (the original body illusion pieces pop-up on 1st Dibs and Vestiaire Collective), which have become cult items in Gen-Z's obsession with Nineties fashion, into figurative nipple and bare-chest revealing vests, dresses and tailoring.  

Dior also added another hotly-hyped accessory to its collaborative cannon, in its team up with Birkenstock. The latter German footwear brand, which in recent years has celebrated sellout ‘1774' collaborations with luxury brands like Jil Sander, Valentino and Proenza Schouler, unveiled new styles on Dior's catwalk, riffing on the signature Boston and Tokio mule. Dior's haute grey and black styles in suede and felt – which complemented the comfort-focused hues in its A/W 2022 collection – have a robust rubber upper, industrial hardware buckle and feature delicate floral embroidery. After all, Monsieur Dior himself was famously green-fingered.

7. A lightbulb moment

Paint tin bags at Louis Vuitton; totes made from framed still life paintings at Casablanca; sink basket details at Loewe: everyday items were used to transform A/W 2022's silhouettes. Rick Owens had a lightbult moment, looking to the illuminated installations of American minimalist artist Dan Flavin, creating antler-like demonic headpieces, which also nodded to the helmets of Ancient Egyptian gods, and illuminated the designer's take on male sleaze. Owen's idiosyncratically dark collection, which looked to the underbelly of the male pysche, featured torso-exposing industrial chanmail vests, ballooning padded gilets that turned into face-concealing balaclavas, strong Pagoda-shouldered jackets and glam rock platform boots. The look was heavy and hardcore, riffing on draped Couture shapes and sportswear, a decadent dive into Owen's apocalyptic aesthetic. 

Our physical lives have become inextricably linked to the digital, and it's a point that JW Anderson illuminated at Loewe, with silhouettes that shone on the runway with LED lighting. Body suits, wool coats and trenchcoats twinkled with fairy lights, the sleeves of double-breasted coats were illuminated with a warm glow, and conch shell accessories shone with light. Illumination was projected from the body, like a phone constantly lighting up with notifcations from a pocket.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake was also inspired by illimunation for autumn. With a collection film, directed by Kyotaro Hayashi, the Japanese brand looked at the structure of a tent as its inspiration. One element of the offering, ‘Lantern', presented pastel-drawn printed silhouettes inspired by a bulb glowing from inside a tent, featuring ponchos and relaxed suiting with abstract patterns in orange and ocean blue.

8. Wave ‘hello' to womenswear

9. And...relax!

There was a sublime softness to silhouettes on the A/W 2022 runway, with brands taking some of that working from home hygge into the upcoming season. At Dior, Kim Jones looked to the lineage of Monsieur Dior – whose birthday on 21 January was the same date as the brand's show – bringing a sublime insouciance to its founder's famed 1947 Bar Jacket silhouette, imagined in seemingly chalk-etched tweeds, Prince of Wales check and even stone-wash denim. Jones also celebrated the maison's most loved hue – trianon grey – and teamed pared-back tailoring with slouchy trackpants in grey marl, chocolate and snowy white. The brand's Birkenstock collaborated cemented the collection's laid-back, luxurious lilt. 

Jil Sander also used the word ‘comfort' to describe its A/W 2022 offering, a luxurious, fabrication-focused collection, featuring enveloping suede and Japanese wool coats which secured around the waist with silk scarves, or swathed the body in mohair leopard print and striped tweed. Lucie and Lukie Meier employed artisanal flourishes, accenting tailoring with scarves and soft vests in floral crochet velvet and bringing flashes of bold colour in orange and turqouise.

A common style trick over the last 12 months has been to throw a tailored blazer over a tracksuit for a impromptu Zoom meeting, or to pop a smart layer over loungewear when nipping outside for essentials. Now that there's more opportunity to embrace elegant dressing codes, an elevating women's jacket should be the top item on your shopping list. Here we present the brands for bolstering your smarter spring mood, whether you're easing back into office life or simply sitting en plein air.

Lanvin: Hit the right buttons

Lockdown has made us more aware of life's smaller details. Lanvin's elegant double-breasted jacket accentuates the body with eye-catching mother-and-daughter motif buttons.

Paul Smith: Hot under the collar

Months at home put you in a more relaxed state of mind? Layer up in a sleek textured shirt, as demonstrated by Paul Smith's luxurious leather design, which also features a handy front pocket.

Max Mara: Coffee-break colours

The chicest way to celebrate your first coffee outdoors? Complement your cappuccino with your clothing, courtesy of Max Mara's smart, organically hued blazer. This silhouettes scores office-worthy style points, even if you're only sitting in the park.

Petar Petrov: In good sport

If you're unsure you'll ever separate yourself from sports-inspired comfort, Petar Petrov has the ease-fuelled answer. The Viennese brand's sleeveless leather anorak speaks of luxurious yet laid-back style.

Paco Rabanne: All dressed up

Glam has been perilously low on our style radar. Keen to inject some going-out inspired chic into your wardrobe? We suggest sporting Paco Rabanne's double-breasted coat as a mini dress.

Louis Vuitton: Buckle up

Bring some belted bite to your blazer with Louis Vuitton's waist-cinching buckled jacket. This silhouette has a futuristic, deconstructed silhouette, a fitting way to embrace today's new world.

Chanel: Stay in touch

Jacket, £1,950; shirt, £1,450; trousers, £950, all by Fendi. Photography: Alexandre Guirkinger. Fashion: Benoit Martinego. Originally featured in the May 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*265)

With social distancing limiting our sense of touch, tactile fabrications take on a new importance. Chanel's bouclé jacket revels in the maison's signature fabric, accentuated with beaded embellishments.

Boss: The palette cleanser

Spring calls for palette-cleansing colours. Draw attention in optic white silhouettes, like Boss' minimalist duster coat. The simplest way to avoid grass stains? Carry a picnic blanket when embarking on a sit-down sortie.

Gucci: An exotic escape

If an exotic escape feels like something of a pipe dream, let tropical prints and motifs take your fancy instead. For spring, Gucci's casual button-up jacket shows an affnity for the eye-catching pattern of snake skin.

Hermès: Make it minimal

Look to Hermès for an incredibly elevated take on 1990s minimalism. Sometimes pared-back silhouettes have the most power, as demonstrated by this zip-up leather coat, which is conceived in the finest of fabrications.

Peter Do: Utilitarian attention

For the more adventurous of dressers, consider the apron your new take on outerwear. Peter Do's version is sumptuous in its tactile finish, and should be worn to reveal a flash of flesh.

Bottega Veneta: Craft flair

A hand-crafted finish will draw attention, whether you're sitting outside on a terrace or sauntering through a city street. Bottega Veneta's denim jacket features a delicately crocheted hooded detail, fusing sportswear with sophistication. 

INFORMATION

A version of this article first appeared in the April 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*264) – available to download here

Buy less, buy better has been a popular mantra in recent years, and one which at Wallpaper*, we’ve always aligned with. It’s a phrase which has gained more momentum in 2021, as the pandemic has encouraged us to rethink the frenetic pace in which the world lives and consumes. We recommend investing in wardrobe classics, which when created from upcycled fabrics and yarns, are not only timeless they’re environment saving too. Here are the brands for bolstering your sustainable shopping spirit.

RE/DONE

LA-based label RE/DONE revolutionised the denim market with its range of upcycled vintage jeans, transforming discarded silhouettes from brands including Levi’s, Hanes and Bass. Now, the label has focused a little further down the leg, with the debut of its first sneaker, a sleek sporty style that nods to Eighties and Nineties silhouettes. ‘We wanted to recreate the nostalgia behind essential cult classics in a way that feels both luxury and authentic to RE/DONE’s commitment to responsibility,’ says co-founder Jamie Mazur. In line with the brand’s sustainable mindset, the trainers are created using a new recycled material made from discarded bottles, 100% recycled leather and suede alternative, recycled rubber and even zinc-free eyelets. RE/DONE is the first and only label with access to this new leather alternative, and now you can be too. 

Selfridges Designer Studio, Westminster Fashion students

A true fashion enthusiast known for her exuberant personal stye, Yasmin Sewell explains, ‘I’ve always given away or sold clothes. My wardrobe isn’t actually very big as I try not to hoard and tend to pass things on. I love the idea of refreshing and clearing.' While looking for a designer to employ to upcycle some of her existing pieces, she got talking to Liliana Sanguino, Course Leader of MA Menswear at University of Westminster. It was a lightbulb moment. ‘We wanted to set the students a challenge with regeneration and sustainability at its core,' says Sewell. She opened her wardrobe up to seven Westminster University students back in March, and this summer, while in lock down, they reworked iconic pieces into new, reimagined items. 

Guangyu Li created an apron and watering can from a Balenciaga apron dress designed by Demna Gvasalia. Catherine Hudson worked with layers of draped tulle to re-fashion a Natasha Zinko sailor blazer, working in charged crystals. Wesley Stuart Hartwell reworked an oversized Acne crepe shirt into a new intricately pleated version. ‘Then Wesley took an old Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga blazer I’ve had for 18 years, and with so much care and without cutting anything, took the whole thing apart and remade it into a blazer and waistcoat with top stitching,' says Sewell. 

The work of seven students - Wesley Stuart Hartwell, Catherine Hudson, Sankim, Guangyu Li, Georgia Wilson, Zoli and Yunn - will be on sale at Selfridges as the first installment of Rechargex7. 

The Series

From patchwork shirts to DIY denim, The Series’ Ella Wiznia crafts her splice-and-dice-centric clothing using upcycled fabrics. In a bid to encourage a show fashion mind set, she also custom creates a series of styles which are made to order, including daisy-motif or colourfully patterned tank tops, crafted from vintage crochet. Now, the New York-based label has launched a series of puffer jacket styles with padded eco-value. The colourful and graphic silhouettes are created from upcycled sleeping bags and comforters, sent in for outerwear reinvention by customers themselves. Got an unused patterned sleeping bag you’d love to sport yourself? Each puffer jacket takes 3-4 weeks to create, and Wiznia plans to create ten styles per month. Time to box up that bedding.

Vee Collective 

Chances are, you’ll be staying indoors in safety this weekend, but for a host of risk-taking skippers, Sunday marks the first day of the Vendée Globe - the only sailing race round the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance. Participating in the race is German sailor Boris Herrmann, part of racing squad Team Malizia, which was founded in 2016 by Pierre Casirgahi, Vice-President of the Yacht Club de Monaco. It was Hermann and Casirgahi who sailed Greta Thunberg emission-free across the Atlantic Ocean to New York's UN Climate Action Summit in New York.

As Hermann takes to the seas, he’ll be well stocked with a swathe of sustainable weatherproof bags, courtesy of Berlin-based accessories company Vee Collective. The eco label operates with a host of environmentally-conscious practices, creating verstaile bags using recycled nylon, and transporting its products via sea, to reduce carbon footprint. For Hermann’s ocean trip, the brand has designed a series of lightweight and protective duffle and tote bags, upcycled from waste Malizia sails. We suggest you stock up when you next take to the high seas.

Acne Studios

‘We wanted to do something positive with our excess materials, which we have left over after production in the factories we work with in Asia and Europe,’ explains Acne Studios Jonny Johansson of the brand’s newly launched Repurposed collection, which sees deadstock fabrics transformed into new pieces. For the first drop, the Swedish brand has taken materials from a tailoring and denim factory – located closely to each other geographically – and repurposed black denim, leather, tweeds and zips, into spliced and diced tailoring, shirting and jeans. The refined collection revels in fabrication, with a blazer formed a patchwork of tweeds and tailoring fabrics, and celebrates the graphic ways in which materials can be reconstructed. ‘I love that the collection feels very purposeful, like these pieces have a reason to exist. It’s very positive in the intention behind the collection, and also in the design.’

Emporio Armani

‘Yes to Recycling’ was the phrase emblazoned on the walls of the brand’s brutalist Teatro Armani space at the opening of its A/W 2020 runway show. The sustainable slogan was a nod to Emporio Armani’s R-EA capsule collection, an offering of monochromatic urban essentials, crafted using regenerated, recycled and organic materials. The collection features snuggly quilted outerwear, cropped tailoring, backpacks and berets, peppered with the R-EA logo. Pieces are crafted using a wool from the Prato region of Italy, made from local pre-consumer textile scraps, plus recycled nylon and polyester, created from waste including fishing nets and plastic bottles. It’s a yes from us.

Ellery and Duran Lantink

Last year, burgeoning Dutch designer Duran Lantink collaborated with famed London boutique Browns, cutting and shredding the retailer’s surplus warehouse stock and transforming these fabrics into unique pieces. Now Lantink has embarked on his first collaboration with a single brand, working on a limited edition capsule collection with Paris-based Ellery, which sees 150 archival garments, from sequin columns dresses to trench coats, reworked into new designs. ‘Throughout the entire process, the greatest pleasure for me was watching Duran bring the pieces a new, positive energy,’ founder Kim Ellery says of her idiosyncratically fluid and architectural designs, which have been given new flounce and form. The offering features a herringbone coat frothing with flamenco ruffles, and a loose shirt with a sleeve sprouting accordion pleats. Adds Ellery, ‘With his hand came new work, garments both unique and precious.’ 

Levi's

‘Repair, Reimagine, Recycle' are the buzzwords behind Levi's latest sustainability-focused initiative, newly launched at its Levi's Haus concept store in central London. The upcycling-focused space allows customers to bring their favourite time-worn denim in-store, where expert tailors will patch and stitch it into shape, invest in deadstock jeans which have been dip-dyed into unique colourations by textile company Indigowares, or purchase items, from tote bags to bucket hats, which have been spliced and diced from waste denim, sourced from Levi's collections and customer donations. ‘While recycling technologies continue to be improved and refined, we can make an impact now by encouraging consumers to rethink how they shop. Old is new, and that’s the future,’ says Richard Hurren, vice president of retail, Levi’s Europe, of the initiative. 

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Just days before the opening of Paris Fashion Week, new Covid-19 restrictions were implemented in France. Bars and restaurants in Marseilles were shuttered. In Paris, drinking spots were ordered to close at 10pm and gatherings of more than 10 people were banned in public places. The final city to host the S/S 2021 shows with the most sizeable schedule has been beset with travel restrictions – from the 14 day quarantine required of returning UK citizens, put in place in mid-August – to the announcement that those arriving in Italy from France are subject to a Covid-19 test. But for the City of Lights, and the epicentre of the French fashion industry, estimated at creating one million jobs and €150 billion in direct sales each year, the shows had to go on, if at least in largely ‘phygital' form.

French fashion behemoths including Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton staged live physical shows, in venues including the top floors of former department store La Samaritaine, which has been shuttered since 2005, and the rooftop of the office skyscraper Tour Montparnasse, while brands including Balenciaga, Thom Browne and new-to-the schedule Wales Bonner devised innovative collection films, featuring in Browne's case, a trio of Olympic athletes. When a week before in Milan, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada debuted their co-creative collection via a live stream, so Matthew Williams also presented his first collection for Givenchy online, teasing out his debut designs days before on Instagram.

Maria Grazia Chiuri may have presented a softer Dior silhouette for spring – inspired by enforced ease with which we are living our lives – but she didn’t go soft on the set design of the maison’s show, which was live streamed for the first time on TikTok. Inside a socially-distanced tent at the Jardin des Tuileries, Chiuri enlisted Italian visual artist and writer Lucia Marcucci, to create 7-meter high stain glass collages, that sprung up in 18 illuminated columns, inspired by the 2011 artwork ‘ Vetrata di poesia visiva’. Collage has a visual resonance with Chiuri, and she uses the art form as a tool to convey her feminist methodology. For the brand’s A/W 2018 show, she pasted the walls of the brand’s show space with provocative magazine covers and slogans, in a collection which nodded to the student protests in Paris in 1968.

If Dior is defined by the cinched in silhouette, Chiuri relaxed this rigour for spring. Models sported loose gauzy gowns, dressing gown shape jackets, easy tuxedo trousers and utilitarian cagoules. While her silhouettes were made for our at-home habits, details had an escapist élan, incorporating nomadic tie-dye, tassels, crochet and faraway florals. Designs for social-distancing, but still with a dream.

If anyone was going to respond to the practicalities of Covid-19 with technical tenacity it was Coperni. The label has its finger on the pulse of contemporary life, incorporating the digital experience into its design DNA. For S/S 2021, founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Valliant developed ‘C+' a protective technical jersey developed using Swiss technology, which is lightweight, moisturising and anti-bacterial. This fabric – which is immersed in silver ions – was incorporated into streamlined designs, which worked to enhance the body, not restrict it, like elasticated trousers and loose buttonless shirts. The collection, shown on the roof of Paris’ tallest skyscraper, also featured wet suit leggings and technical blazers, with easy zip fastenings.  

Face masks and visors have entered the global accessory lexicon, and for his sophomore outing for Kenzo, creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista tapped into this phenomenon. Inspired by an early 20th century photograph of a man wearing a structural 3D mosquito net and cap (complete with a hole for his pipe), he created silhouettes which spoke of soft protection. Models walking outdoors at the Institut National des Jeunes Sourds, wore mackintoshes and gauzy archival floral print cagoules, paired with beekeepers hats, some of which had transparent coverings protecting not only the face, but cocooning the entire body.

In 2020, the world accelerated in line with Marine Serre’s apocalyptic design vision, with proposes sustainable silhouettes for battling climate change, and environmental and social chaos. These mediate somewhere between sportswear and couture. In ‘Amor Fati', a film directed by Sacha Barbin and Ryan Doubiago, she presented a cinematically impressive sci-fi fantasy, with a circular narrative hooked around a laboratory, a natural landscape and an underground water-world. Serre’s cast sported balaclavas, Black Panther-centric berets and body suits, arming themselves against upheaval with recycled moire harnesses and holsters.

There’s also an apocalyptic armour behind Rick Owens’ designs. In recent seasons, the label’s creations have drawn on the garb of glam rock stars and mythological Aztec gods. For spring, Owens streamed a show from a piazza in front of Venice Lido’s casino – the spot where he spends his summers, and also the city where the term quarantine originated, when during the Black Death, infected ships arriving in the port where isolated for 40 days. An apt allusion to our times, the collection was titled ‘Phlegethon’, referring to one of the rivers in the Inferno described in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Owens equipped his hell dwellers in jackets with bulbous shoulders, fluid gowns, leather hot pants, platform thigh high boots and face masks. Uncharacteristically optimistic hues of creamy pink, banana yellow and candy apple red nodded to Neapolitan gelato. In his show notes Owens said, ‘I might just be getting into a taste for the lurid that an undercurrent of threat and dread can inspire.’ 

Pepto Bismol pink was also a colour favoured by Kiko Kostadinov’s Laura and Deanna Fanning, who for S/S 2021, evolved the label’s womenswear lexicon, experimenting with both Victorian and 1970s shapes, in bold hues and textures. Standout were hand craft-focused shirred and smocked dresses, which pucker and crinkle around the body, retro wide-collared tailoring, and an update of the brand’s curved Louis heel, embellished with colourful crystal beads and accentuated with Gladiator ankle straps.

Wales Bonner showed for the first time on the S/S 2021 schedule, but her collection – presented in ‘Thinkin Home', a sunset-drenched film by Jamaican artist Jeano Edwards – was the second in a three-collection spanning exploration of the diasporic connections between Britain and the Caribbean. While A/W 2020’s ‘Lovers Rock’ considered the British Jamaican community in the 1970s in London – inspired by Bonner’s father’s family, and photographs of teenagers hanging at Lewisham Youth Club, ‘Essence' explores the early 1980s origination of dancehall music in her grandfather's home country. Bonner looked to the style of Augustus Pablo, the Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer and musician, and her collection sung of dancehall vibrancy and sleek British smartness, featuring stripe caftans mixed with tailoring, and fluid knitwear and bold patchwork corduroy. The collection also continued her collaboration with Adidas Originals, on slimline shell suits and colour blocked tees.

‘Psychedelic optimism’ is how Acne Studios’ Jonny Johansson summed up the brand’s S/S 2021 collection, designed to celebrate the possibilities of life experienced on pause. Looking to astrological elements as optimistic symbols, the Swedish brand collaborated with the LA-based artist Ben Quinn on a series of star prints layered over organza tunics. Johansson also honed in on luminescent fabrics, finding illumination in pearlised cotton, metallic threads and iridescent paper, and celebrating fluid and diaphonous silhouettes, with handcrafted details. Akris’ Albert Kriemler also found inspiration in phosphorescence, namely the light-emitting sculptures of Imi Knoebel. He collaborated with the German Minimalist on a series of fluorescent and vibrant creations that nodded to the artist’s graphic and colour-focused oeuvre, including caftans and relaxed dresses and chic tracksuits. ‘A Knoebel line, colour or form is instantly recognisable as its own. It represents what felt very right for this moment,' Kreimler explained. ‘Something designed today should not be obsolete tomorrow.'

There have been diverse opinions regarding the return to the physical show format, and one designer content with finding alternative methods is Jonathan Anderson. For the men’s shows back in July, he devised a ‘show-in-a-box' concept for his eponymous label, and for Spanish house Loewe where he is creative director, containing interactive runway show-inspired ephemera. At Loewe, the label's S/S 2021 men’s design was imagined as a grey canvas index card box – conceived in collaboration with M/M (Paris) – packed with fabric swatches, a record, and a pop-up show set, inspired by Duchamp's ‘Boîte-en-valise', a box the artist carried in a suitcase with miniature monographs of his own work.

For S/S 2021 womenswear, Anderson broke out of the boundaries of the box, creating a ‘Show-on-the-wall', an artist's portfolio featuring S/S 2021 looks, accompanied by an interactive selection of ephemera, encouraging its receiver to immerse themselves in the collection's elements, as the viewer would at a physical runway show. Eagerly Instagrammed add-ons included a roll of wallpaper designed by Anthea Hamilton, plus a border roll depicting spring's voluminous and architectural shapes – enhanced with plumes of taffeta, ruffles of broderie anglaise, glittering knots and XL pleats – sent with Loewe monogrammed scissors, a canvas tool bag, paintbrush and glue. 

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski also placed focus on the printed form, sending out a collectors' item scrapbook to accompany Hermès’ physical show, with atmospheric images lensed by creatives including Wallpaper* collaborator Katrien De Blauwer. The maison’s accompanying collection was a masterclass in seductive minimalism. Body suits with cut-out backs were paired with knee length skirts in the supplest leather, crisp trousers styled with bandeaus, while shawl coats featured rolled up collars that unpoppered into scarves. The colour palette was rich and restrained in tones including caramel, sorbet yellow and scarlet. The most luxurious house shoe for spring? The Hermès clog, complete with an ‘H’ detail leather upper.

Paul Smith – whose beloved British brand celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – immersed himself in his personal history for spring. The designer – who swapped a physical or digital show for a lookbook and walk-through press appointments in London – was inspired by over 30 holiday photo albums, featuring snapshots of himself and wife Pauline. ‘We designed it over the phone!’ Smith laughed of the creative process behind the soothingly optimistic collection which features easy zip-up jackets in stripe tailoring fabrics, silk skirts and beach shorts emblazoned with enlarged archive rose prints, plus unconstructed tailoring. A double-breasted jacket with tactile prick stitch detailing, was inspired by the retro shapes Smith spotted on trips to Havana. ‘If people have been wearing sweats and tees all year, we ned to ease them back in,’ he said of the soft shapes.

There was also a nostalic nod behind Miu Miu's spring offering, which featured super sweet girlish silhouettes, like tracksuit tops paired with retro briefs, stripe halternecks and tennis skirts, knitted polo shirts and micro minis shimmering with plastic pailettes. It spoke of the innocent joy on dressing up and was sublime in its celebratory tone.

Designers used the downtime experienced during global lockdown to reconsider the core values of their brand. In fashion cities across the world, labels have presented pared-back or streamlined collections, with fewer looks and more focus. This concept resonated with designer Satoshi Kondo, who, troubled by the sheer number of shipment boxes used to transport Issey Miyake's last A/W 2020 offering from Tokyo to Paris, conceived a collection so compact it fitted into one. S/S 2021 features a number of shrink-inspired silhouettes that nod to the brand’s prowess in fabric development and innovation, from a technical parka and poncho which can be folded into a garment bag, to zig-zag knit patterned tops and dresses that can be rolled into a shape of a sponge. 

Y/Project’s Glenn Martens also presented a vision which evoked the ‘essential meaning’ of the experimental brand. Celebrating the versatility of its hybrid silhouettes, an accompanying ‘How to wear’ film showed how pieces could shaped, with the incorporation of zips and poppers. At Schiaparelli too, Daniel Rosenberry’s third collection for the house was focused on ‘essential silhouettes in the best fabrics’ that assimilated the hand-focused flourishes of haute couture, like trouser suits in the brand’s signature hot pink with Rorschach test-centric prints, Delphic gowns and chain-embellished shirting. These silhouettes were anything but shy, and were paired with hammered gold jewellery with nose and keylock details – surrealist symbols of the house.

While few were physically able to attend Paris for the spring shows, brands chose to celebrate the city itself. At Ami, the brand held its first show on the womenswear schedule, on the bank of the River Seine. In a more seductive spin than previous seasons, models sported dresses with cut-outs at the décolletage and check pencil skirts paired with string vests, inspired by Nineties evening wear. The urban landscape also inspired the soundtrack to Paco Rabanne’s pared-back physical show at Espace Commines, which bought a relaxed, daytime ease to the brand's disco-centric shapes. Nostalgic noises, that were silent for so much of this year, accompanied the collection, like dogs barking, police sirens honking, cars indicating and bike bells jingling.

The fashionable flaneur was also a focus. In a digital film presented as a music video, Balenciaga's S/S 2021 models stomped towards the Place Vendôme and along the Seine in the dark, miming to a synthy take on Corey Hart’s electro pop hit ‘Sunglasses at Night,’ sporting chainmail dresses and hybrid sportswear, fluffy heeled hotel slippers and wraparound shades, naturally. Rokh’s Rok Hwang was also fascinated with the concept of walking outside at night - a pastime we’ve all appreciated in recent months - recalling teenage wanders with friends when living in Austin Texas. The brand’s cinematic show film, set in an otherworldly location, featured modern flaneurs in fighting forms, including ruffled and tartan Victoriana dresses layered with leather harnesses.

For his debut at Givenchy, 1017 ALYX 9SM founder Matthew Williams teased out snippets of his S/S 2021 showcase a week before on Instagram, posting low-fi close-up images of chains and padlocks, lensed by Nick Knight. Hardware was essential to the designer’s vision, which was revealed in a surprisingly low key lookbook, with metal elements designed as a luxurious interpretation of the much-coveted logo. Williams looked at the codes of the historic couture house through a Gen Z-centric streetwear lens, featuring sleek, architectural shapes like square shouldered leather capes paired with gauzy bejewelled gowns, severe tailoring and tube dresses with seductive exposed backs. Williams nodded to previous creative directors, celebrating the tenure of Alexander McQueen with animalistic accessories, like sandals with curving horn heels and caps with knobbly antlers, and to Riccardo Tisci, in a hardware-focused revision of the graphic Antigona bag, beloved of supermodels in the Noughties. Referring to the collection as a ‘sampler’ of things to come, William’s Gen-Z fans will be fixated on what is next.

Chanel is one of many red carpet labels that has lost out to countless cancelled occasions this year, although Julia Garner and Shira Haas did opt to wear the brand to the Emmy’s first ever ‘phygital' awards show. With a typically insouciant mindset, creative director Virgine Viard was attracted to the off-duty attitude of an actress before a photocall for S/S 2021. In the show's press release she spoke of women with ‘their attitude a little out of sync with the outfits they’re wearing’ – a feeling many people have experienced this year, dressing up for visual dinner parties and on-screen events. Models walked against a huge Hollywood-inspired Chanel sign – the letters of the house erected with huge scaffolding – at a physical show inside the Grand Palais, sporting fluid asymmetric dresses, power shouldered skirt suits, sequin bermuda shorts and slogan t-shirts inspired by neon lights. The show celebrated cinematic escapism, one of which was rooted in reality.

Also intrigued by the codes of dressing today, John Galliano dissected the haute couture shapes and techniques used in Maison Margiela’s Artisanal collection, creating ethereal, finely crafted and avant-garde creations which were presented in ‘S.W.A.L.K 2', a Nick-Knight directed sequel to the brand’s video in July. The 40 minute film flits between fitting scenes in the label’s studio, and a sprawling estate in Tuscany, where Galliano’s models dance the tango, offering extensive insight into the creative process behind creating a collection.

Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière was also fascinated by the concept of ‘in between garments' that reflect the on-pause lifestyle of today, somewhere between suiting and sportswear, at home clothes and ones for dreaming of going out. Usually showing in various areas of The Louvre, from its IM Pei-designed Cour Marly to its underground Pavillon de l’Horloge, the label decamped to the top floor of La Samaritane, the LVMH-owned department store which has been shuttered for refurbishment since 2005. In a physical and digital presentation blend, the Art Deco architecture and Art Nouveau frescoes were offset with green screen elements, which showed snippets of Wim Wenders ‘Wings of Desire' to audiences at home. Ghesquière's ‘stylistically vague' shapes featured 1980s power suiting, chainmail mini dresses and slouchy knitwear. Silhouettes appeared elegantly thrown on, like boardshorts paired with a long duster coat and a ‘Peace’ slogan tee. The show summed up a season that navigated the online and physical realms, creating clothing which caters to today's much changed lifestyle, one which shows no sign of settling come spring.

With social distancing measures in place, and human touch an ever infrequent feeling, physical interaction with our canine companions have never felt so special. It turns out too, that Acne Studios has a penchant for puppy love.

In celebration of the brand’s A/W 2020 collection - which features canine illustrations courtesy of British artist Lydia Blakeley - the label has enlisted fellow Swede Anders Edström to lens a series of portraits of its staffers with their pet pooches.

The portraits – which were shot in the Brutalist Stockholm headquarters Acne Studios’ opened last winter – feature a range of the brand’s team and their dogs, including Edouard Schneider, gobal communications director and his miniature daschund Pumba and digital merchandise assistant Amanda Dharma and her pug Kwaito. They have been styled in the label’s doggy-inspired A/W 2020 designs, which include daschund-emblazoned denim and greyhound detail polo necks.

‘A while ago I became a dog owner myself. Ever since then I’ve started to notice the ‘dog people’, walking, being and dressing…For this collection, I wanted to highlight and credit that subculture for all the inspiration it has given me,’ says Jonny Johansson, creative director of Acne Studios, of A/W 2020's inspiration.

‘Pumba is a mini phenomenon, he’s loving, vivacious and charming. I didn’t even want a dog at first but now I’m not only in love – I’m obsessed,’ adds Schneider of his much adored daschund. We just might be addicted too.

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To access the boardroom of Acne Studios’ new ten level HQ in Stockholm, guests and employees of the 20-year-old Swedish label must use a separate lift to shoot them up to the spacious sixth floor. For this secretly accessed area – with its sunken fireplace, stark straight-lined interior architecture and angular eaves – was once the private residence of the former Czechoslovakian Ambassador. Floragatan 13 – an imposing brutalist masterpiece, completed in 1972 by Jan Bočan and named by Acne Studios after the street it is located on – was first conceived as the Czechoslovakian Embassy. Aptly, co-founder and creative director of the brand Jonny Johansson uses a cryptographic analogy to describe its architectural overhaul. 

‘The building has a strong aesthetic itself,’ Johansson says, of the space, which has a stark façade, constructed using bush hammered concrete and glass infills. ‘Then we sort of cracked the code of how to redesign it, and it went smoothly.’ This code cracking meant working in collaboration with Swedish architect Johannes Norlander, and taking the utopian ideals behind brutalist architecture, to create an interactive, inspiring and holistic environment, based around the concept of an ideas-flourishing fashion school. This includes four sleek design and production floors at the heart of the building, an inviting ground-floor library lined with shelves of reference books and winged Helmut Lang sculptures, and a basement level canteen, housed in the embassy’s former cinema. 

The school concept is not just a nod to the experimental and interactive energy Johansson hopes to bring to the space. The creatives behind the HQ’s accompanying furniture and fixture design read as a visual honour roll of past collaborators who have worked on previous design projects with the house. British designer Max Lamb has created entrance room seating hewn from hunks of rusty Swedish granite, tables in tactile pewter and carved wood and hand tufted rugs in oceanic hues. London-based artist Daniel Silver has pieced together abstract collages, patchworked from surplus Acne Studios fabrics, and French designer and light artist Benoit Lalloz has created astonishing handblown lamps, in bulbous sugary pink tones, that illuminate the space in tessellated grids. 

British designer Max Lamb created a retail concept revolving around polycarbonate elements with gold accents

Natural materials-focused Lamb has worked with Acne Studios on a number of retail projects, including the brand’s Madison Avenue boutique, which opened in Manhattan in 2016. The space featured organically shaped bronze furniture and graphic columns hewn from semi precious stone. For its new HQ, Johansson enlisted Lamb to create a Viking graveyard in its entrance, with monolithic seating and benches, formed from slabs of Ivo granite, red granite and black Bassalt, resembling crooked tombstones. The boardroom’s wooden meeting table, with a tactile chiseled surface, appears like a medieval roundtable. ‘The first time I managed to do some stonework for Acne was in Milan in its Brera store which used the same granite as was clad on the outside of the original façade,’ Lamb says. ‘We’ve given the graphic, brutalist structure of this building some warmth with these more irregular organic shapes.’

Warmth is indeed integral to the building's interior design flourishes, which with their abstract and bulbous shapes, colourful hues and raw finishses, bring a vibrant contrast to the building’s original mathematical design. ‘I just remember standing outside of our old office and just not wanting to go in,’ Johansson says of the original moment he decided to find a new home for Acne Studios’ HQ, over three years ago. Now, we think he'll be hard pressed to leave. 

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Rochas: A car mechanics garage overgrown with plants played host to designer Federico Curradi’s second menswear collection for Rochas. Models descended a metal staircase onto the concrete floor in a series of light and layered looks with an artisanal bent. Breezy longer length jackets with military details were slung over jersey vests and slouchy trousers, while crumpled silk unbuttoned shirts were nonchalantly tucked into baggy board shorts. Elsewhere, sloopy hand knitted jumpers, one with a deep V neckline and another with a flora motif, and a pair of paint splattered jeans and shirt further suggested an artists wardrobe. Porcelain charm necklaces, floppy sun hats and suede espadrilles accessorised the look.

Nanushka: Set in a tranquil courtyard secluded from the busy outside street, pieces of furniture and sculptures, created in collaboration with Studio Betak, lined the space. Designer Sandra Sandor described her second full menswear collection as ‘bohemian minimalist’. The clean lines of a high shine vegan leather jacket framed a striped soft linen shirt, while a pair of lightweight cotton drawstring trousers were juxtaposed with a sharp cropped blazer. The easy and elegant mood continued with a translucent printed robe nonchalantly thrown over a silk jersey vest, and a striped knitted polo casually tucked into fluid track pant-like trousers. Floppy sun hats and fisherman sandals competed the high summer look.

Thom Browne: The École des Beaux-Arts played host to Thom Browne’s theatrical S/S 2020 show. On entering guests were greated by a line of models standing like statues encased in oversized suit carriers. Then James Whiteside, American Ballet Theatre’s principal dancer, took to the catwalk pirouetting and leaping in a high-cut tutu and trompe l’oeil blazer leotard. The suit carriers were then pealed back one by one to reveal the models wearing Ivy League inspired sports suits consisting of a neat seersucker jacket and matching shorts with attached cod pieces. More sports references followed, shoulder lines were extended resembling American football uniforms, while fabric made basketballs appeared caught in voluminous crinoline cage pants.

Acne Studios: Creative director and brand co-founder Jonny Johansson presented his S/S 2020 collection in a plush carpeted room. Models brushed past audience members through narrow rows in a collection that embraced experimentation with art school gusto. Unexpected fabric combinations collided in a transparent acetate jacket with jacquard lining, while multiple strips of ribbon were latticed together to make a pair of trousers. Elsewhere, a jumper and coat of mashed up knit techniques came with heavy fringing, and an iridescent shirt grew a crochet panel at its bottom. The craft-like spirit continued into accessories – earrings were inventively made from chains and cable ties, and cuffs had threads that hung down over the hand.

MYAR: Designer Andrea Rosso takes vintage military garments and amends them using artisanal techniques to create unique pieces. For S/S 2020 he looked to the island of Hawaii and its culture for inspiration. Classic Hawaiian shirts were fused with dead stock army garments and camouflage fabrics and reworked into a series of tailored pieces. An upcycled jacket came lined with a tropical shirt while another carried a patchwork palm motif on its back. Elsewhere striped Telnyashka T-shirts from the Russian army are printed with hibiscus flowers, and block colour patch pockets disrupt exotic prints. For the first time the story and customisation process behind each garment will be fully revealed by scanning the QR codes thermo-applied inside each piece.

Ann Demeulemeester: Designer, Sébastien Meunier, set sail this season in collection awash with sea fairing troupes. Models strode through a mist filled room to an upbeat soundtrack. Traditional sailor uniform codes ran throughout – jackets came with tarnished gold buttons and angular lapels that enveloped the shoulders, trousers were wide and worn half mast, billowing shirts had lace up fronts and sides. Elsewhere, fisherman net tops clung to the body and lightweight canvas coats resembled ship sales. Oversized duffle bags that tied with thick ropes, wader-like boots and a single pearl earring completed the look.

GmbH: Designers Alexander Huseby and Serhat Isik presented their S/S 2020 collection at the I.N.J.S. building. Guests sat outside facing the lush gardens as models walked the stone terrace in a series of sleek and powerful silhouettes. The designers continued to develop their take on modern tailoring – strong shoulder jackets and sculpted waist overcoats featuring statically placed harness-like straps had a regal about them. Body hugging tops and billowing silk shirts covered in an Evil Eye print were teamed with tailored wide leg trousers. Elsewhere, contoured denim shirts where tucked into hip hugging jeans with the fly zip exposed. In addition, shoes with an overlapping strap were cleverly made by an Italian supplier from apple pulp. Mirrored eye shaped sunglasses and belt bags completed the collection.

Officine Générale: Pierre Mahéo is a designer not concerned with the seasonal whirlwind of hard and fast trends, choosing instead to quietly build on his brand aesthetic. For S/S 2020 he was in full holiday mood, thinking about the Italian island of Ischia and a high summer wardrobe. Softly tailored blazers and neat bombers were teamed with board shorts and flat front trousers cropped at the ankle. Pyjama-style shirts came with pipping around their edges or covered in a tiny mosaic print. A lightweight longer length jacket worn with an unbuttoned plaid shirt, jeans and sandals exuded a casual elegance.

Byredo: On the wooden floor of a Parisian sports hall, Byredo’s creative director Ben Gorham fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a professional basketball player by recreating a NBA backdrop to introduce his new Byproduct concept for S/S 2020. The designer worked with Stockholm-based tailor A.W Bauer & Co. to create ten suits inspired by basketball players’ style of the early 2000s, basing the cuts of the long blazers and trousers on their athletic body shape. Similarly, the Byproduct sneakers nod to the basketball aesthetic while being assembled in a patchwork of leather waste from the brand’s handbag products.

Namacheko: A narrow multicoloured curtain lined corridor was the setting for Namachecko’s S/S 2020 show. Models brushed by guests in tailored and knit ensembles. An update on the black suit opened the show – its jacket moulded to the body with panels and an elongated patterned knit emerging from underneath. Overcoats came spliced together, their top halves in a bold block colour the bottom patterned with small glass-like tubular rods appliquéd on top. These were teamed with shirts, their extended collars reaching a sharp point, and nylon knitted longer length tank tops. Narrow leg trousers with stirrups were worn over derby style shoes with a crochet rubber toe cap. Four oversized jumpers made of woven striped knitted bands closed the show.

Wooyoungmi: The invitation to the show – a white cassette tape – hinted at the vintage reference to the collection. The Seoul/Paris label channelled the energy and drive of City Pop, the musical genre shaped by the long-reigning post-war optimism in the 70s and 80s in Japan. The jazz, new wave fusion soundtracked the yuppie era when clothes were bold and punchy. Holiday shorts were matched with smart jackets; utility tailoring came in nylon. Hawaiian sunsets inspired acid dip dye denims and were printed over short sleeved shirts. Silver dolphin and palm tree charms, worn in the ears and high around the neck on chains, were made in collaboration with Korean jewellery brand, Portrait Report. The muse was young and sun-seeking.

Pierre Hardy: This season Pierre Hardy looked back at some of his most successful shoe styles and reworked them for now. The designer continued to push his signature sneaker in new directions, this time colourful leather and knitted panels where spliced together for graphic effect, while their moulded angular and sweeping soles were decreased in size to modest proportions. On the flip side a classic Chelsea boot and Derby shoe were given an optical update in pure white. Elsewhere, a suede trekking sandal came with Velcro fastening straps and rubber grip sole, and a hiking inspired boot with padded upper and chucking laces running up its front made their debut.

Dunhill: Models marched purposely out of a fine vale of smoke onto a high shine metal catwalk. The pounding electronic soundtrack intensifying with each look exit. Elegant volumes ran throughout – generously cut double breasted jackets that fastened with a single button hovered around the body, liquid satin trousers sometimes layered under shorts were worn with leather hotel slippers or heavy duty gold toe capped shoes, billowing elongated silk shirts came printed with classic images of the Dunhill Jermyn Street store or house logo. Elsewhere, a soft black leather tracksuit, lean blazer with sharp lapels and midnight blue poncho added a touch of danger. Safari-like jackets were cinched at the waist with long trailing belts, and lightweight wool coats cocooned the wearer. Oversized briefcases with lizard details and quilted attaches resembling a classic car interior complete the collection.

OAMC: Designer Luke Meier presenter his S/S 2020 collection in a spacious auditorium encased in huge diaphanous sheets of white muslin. These floating panels acted as a serene backdrop to a collection of restrained modern menswear. The silhouette was light and layered – a billowing lightweight anorak floated effortlessly over an elongated top and baggy trousers, while voluminous board shorts where layered over elongated sock boots. Elsewhere, boxy tailored jackets and utility shirts were heavily pressed with harsh crease lines, and diagonal ribbed knits addeded a graphic rigour. Quilted rucksacks and totes appeared like fluffy pillows, with some featuring watercolour motifs. The brand continued its collaboration with Adidas Originals with the Type-04, a cut-away technical sneaker.

Vetements: The show was hosted inside the two-floor McDonald’s on Paris’ Champs-Élysées. The clichéd, everyday setting made a perfect backdrop to the brand’s cynical, pop approach to clothes. The guests all sat sipping filtered cola as the scent of fries permeated the air. The clothes were textbook Vetements; police uniforms, tracksuits and ‘Black Friday dress’ were all riffed on and turned inside out, corporate logos revamped. Biker denims, crushed pinstripe suiting, repurposed football jerseys – archetypal ‘clothes’ repurposed into fashion. The recognisable forced into your face. It was frenzied and fabulous.

Eytys: Swedish brand Eytys is best known for its shape shifting footwear. Recently they added RTW and this season they made their Paris presentation debut with a full blown collection. Big and baggy was the mood with 90s RnB style notes – wide leg slouchy jeans hung on the hips, while fluid silk shirts were worn left open. Cargo pants came in washed denim with the usual side pockets switched to the front. A graphic printed zip up anorak and MC leather jacket added some hip hop swagger. Sneakers with bumper car soles, cowboy boots with heavy duty treads and pumped up sandals kept the volume at max.

John Lobb: This season artistic director Paula Gerbase presented her S/S 2020 collection on a series of specially commissioned sculptures. New styles includ the ‘Foundry’ sneaker – taking inspiration from 1920s sportswear silhouettes from the Lobb bespoke archive, the five panel upper uses a technical nylon canvas and a hardy cross grain leather for the first time. Appearing in the brand's classic house palette of russet, turquoise and grey, the colours allude to the oceanic tones of the Cornish coastline. In addition, three expertly crafted unisex sandals made there debut – the ‘Cross’ is a city sandal with criss-cross straps and an open toe, the single buckle ‘Stratton’ features a toe and back strap, and the ‘Beacon’, is a double buckle slider, which nods to fastenings of Lobb’s signature ‘William’ style. Each is available in a black or white colourway, in the newly developed cross grain calf, with rubber or leather soles.

As a recurring theme in their work for Jil Sander, Luke and Lucie Meier once again took nature as a driving force of their spring 2019 collection, which comes in a colour palette of neutral hues, ranging from almond to sky blue and sage. Left in their raw appearance, the minimalistic shirts and dresses are made out of natural yet sturdy fibres, such as leather and canvas, while skin-tight knits and soft draped skirts also leave freedom for the body to move naturally. A human touch then comes to enliven the jumpers and shirts, through pencil sketches of a nude female form hand embroidered on the pieces, emphasising the refined and delicate spirit of the collection.

Acne Studios

Dance is the main inspiration behind Acne Studios’ SS19 collection. Fluid silhouettes in sheer jersey accentuate a dancer’s movements, while more voluminous pieces are worn over the light slip dresses and tank tops after a rehearsal in the studio. Creative director Jonny Johansson used graphics and prints from old ballet posters patched onto T-shirts and blouses, while pencil drawings of grand opera houses create a toile de jouy effect on leggings and long shirt dresses, enhanced with golden lamé. Drawing on the legendary Swan Lake ballet, Johansson created a print which at first glance seems to be watercolour waves on a white canvas. The pattern then takes form of a swan motif, also reflected in the swan-shaped crystals adorning the garment. 

Plan C

Debuting the first collection for her own label Plan C last September, Caroline Castiglioni – heir of the Marni dynasty – introduced an aesthetic of timeless staples mixing feminine elements, such as ruffles, sundresses and crochet, with oversized silhouettes from the men’s wardrobe, to celebrate a strong and self confident silhouette. There is also something very personal about this collection found in the naïve artworks printed on sweatshirts and clutches which came courtesy of Castiglioni’s young daughter Margherita. Representing her brother Filippo and friend Bianca, the two characters were brought to life from paper to garments making them quirky, fashionable friends to carry around.

Roksanda

Inspired by the work of artists and architects, Roksanda looked at how their art goes beyond their main discipline to influence other crafts around them. On top of the list stood Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s tapestry, murals and ceramics, which had a direct impact on the hand drawn feminine artwork used as a common thread throughout the airy dresses and colour block cotton tops. ‘Our own interpretations of his abstract illustrations are applied in several techniques from hand embroidery to patchwork dresses, and the same emotive figures appear again screen printed onto silk scarves and knits,' explains Roksanda. ‘These studies of the female form are part of my commitment to exploring the art of feminine recalibration.'

Simone Rocha

Born from an Irish mother and Chinese father, Simone Rocha drew on the second half of her heritage, and especially her experience in Hong Kong, to compose her summer collection. Flower brocades and embroideries punctuate the bubble hem gowns with puffball sleeves, giving volume to the overall romantic flair. The real focus of the garments however sprung from ancestral references such as 16th-century Chinese ladies from the Tang dynasty and vintage portraits of concubines Rocha found in a market in Hong Kong. From these images, the London-based atelier created red and gold illustrations traced onto the delicate silk dresses, while elsewhere, artworks were directly printed on the whole garments. A delightful mix of East and West. §

AMI: Alexandre Mattiussi brought a piece of Normandy, the designers childhood home, to Paris this season. Mist filled the air as models strode down a wild grassy hillside dressed for a weekend hike in the countryside. A nylon parka with its sleeves rolled up was nonchalantly thrown over a deep v neck jumper, while Cuban collar shirts where half tucked into high-hemmed lean trousers and board shorts. Chunky socks were worn with Velcro fastening sandals and knitted peaked beanies topped off the look

Cerutti 1881: Creative Director Jason Basmajian’s collection for Cerruti 1881 saw the designer look to Japan for inspiration and the introduction of a new relaxed silhouette. Models meandered through a telegraph pole lined catwalk with cables hanging overhead and neon signs flashing reminiscent of a Tokyo street at night. Softly tailored jackets and pajama-like trousers came in a slightly crumpled linen and silk blend fabric, while Bermuda shorts were high waisted with an Obi belt fastening. Elsewhere, a diaphanous windbreaker breezily floated around the wearers torso and a slouchy putty suit with fine gauge knit and sandals perfectly summed up the easy mood.

John Lobb: Artistic director Paula Gerbase looks to the Cornish heritage of the footwear brand’s founder each season, for S/S 2019 exploring the countryside around Minions, the highest village in Cornwall. Oceanic hues and organic fabrications abounded throughout the men’s and women’s offering, which featured an evolution of its ‘barefoot’ tensile construction, its sneaker, double-buckle and Derby shoes. The ‘Holt’ a limited edition Oxford shoe, with three eyelets chevron hand stitched details, was designed by Lobb’s Northampton and Paris Bespoke workshops, in celebration of Saint Crispin, the Patron Saint of shoemakers.

OAMC: Designer Luke Meier forged forward this season taking OMAC on a trip into the future. A loosely cut jacket in lightweight silver foil floated effortlessly around the body, while an elongated lab-like coat in pale grey carried a sophisticated sci-fi elegance. Generously cut shirts with bonded seams and cropped trousers in coated cotton offered an interesting play on proportions. Elsewhere, an oversized hand knitted jumper with hanging loose threads and a watercolour print derived from satellite images added a human touch. Heavy duty military inspired boots with chunky soles grounded the look.

Jil Sander: Luke and Lucie Meier’s second full menswear collection for Jil Sander continued to update the brands minimalist legacy with a new boyish charm. The classic Sander uniform of a three button, notch lapelled, tailored black jacket over a neat plain white shirt was present and correct but this time a voluminous web knit cardigan was casually thrown on top and wide leg board shorts completed the look. A generously cut garment dyed parka and washed khaki bomber took their lead from military pilot jumpsuits, while heavy duty military inspired sneakers and boots helped balance the clever play on proportions that ran throughout the collection.

Golden Goose Deluxe Brand: Hot on the heels of their new Florence store opening, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand presented a skater inspired S/S 2019 collection. A roomy cotton windbreaker was teamed with floral print board shorts, topped off with a bucket hat emblazoned with a retro version of the brands logo, while a faded blue denim jacket covered in patch motifs was doubled up with matching jeans. Elsewhere, boxy short sleeve shirts, new interpretations of the brands classic graffitied sneakers and rucksacks with a compartment to hold a skateboard completed the look.

Undercover: Designer Jun Takahashi made his long overdue Paris menswear catwalk debut for S/S 2019 by presenting not one but eight collections. In a moodily lit subterranean space in the depths of the Palais De Tokyo eight distinctly dressed tribes walked menacingly in gangs. Highlights included the ‘Vlads’, a black clad group of neo goths dressed in lean three-quarterlength jackets and bombers emblazoned with stark white photographic prints inspired by the new wave band Bauhaus, in contrast ‘Zoruge’ were an eccentric brunch who wore colourful slouchy cardigans over tees printed with old kaiju movie monsters, topped off with berets and polka dot neckerchiefs. For the show finale each gang paraded with their leader carrying a flag decorated with its very own insignia.

Études: The creative collective headed by Jérémie Égry, Aurélien Arbet, Nicolas Poillot and José Lamali delved into Americana for inspiration this season. Cowboys, Ivy League and the early years of hip-hop were all mixed up in a collection that managed to avoid the usual clichés. Baggy suede fringed trousers were team with a sober white shirt and oversized blazer, while blown up collegiate lettering was emblazoned on a basketball shirt and pair with western style jeans. Elsewhere, a painterly print on two silk blouses was provided by LA-based artist Henry Taylor, and a classic bandana motif was blown up to cover a matching shirt and trouser look.

1017 ALYX 9SM: Designer Matthew Williams made his Paris catwalk debut with a confident co-ed collection that seamlessly fused a streetwear swagger with high fashion know how. Models marched forwarded in lean leather trousers and jeans teamed with diamanté-studded bodysuits, voluminous shinny nylon windbreakers and sharply tailored jackets. Some looks were shrouded in netted tent-like coverings offering a super protective layer. Cross body bags came with the designers signature industrial hardware, while backpacks were oversized and angular. The show also included Williams’ first collaboration with Nike on a collection of sneakers.

Officine Générale: Pierre Maheo is a designer not concerned with the seasonal whirlwind of hard and fast trends, choosing instead to quietly build on his brand aesthetic. For S/S 2019, he continued to refine items from the Officine Générale lexicon: Military-inspired jackets and neat bombers were teamed with flat front trousers cropped at the ankle. Slim cut indigo jeans were doubled up with a faded blue denim shirt and blazer. A softly tailored suit in seersucker worn with thin leather strap Greek sandals exuded an air of casual elegance.

Ludovic de Saint Sernin: Designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin's third collection saw models dressed in slinky androgynous separates lined up in a sun drenched courtyard. A cropped jacket and lace up jeans appeared in premium Japanese denim, while small denim discs were linked together to make a vest. Elsewhere, relaxed yoga pants were teamed with a gauze bandeau top, while a slinky yellow ribbed jumper with wide neckline was worn on its own. Handcrafted ceramic pendants and charm belts dressed the look.

Mackintosh 0004: S/S 2019 marked Kiko Kostadinov’s final collection for the British heritage brand, one renowned for creating the rubberised Mackintosh in 1823. In his four seasons collaborating with the label, Kostadinov has explored archetypal workwear silhouettes and emphasised the brand’s renown for creating innovative fabrics, and for S/S 2019 he took inspiration from an image of artist Richard Serra tossing molten lead at a wall as part of his ‘Splash’ series. Welding silhouettes appeared throughout the collection, with protective coats spliced with industrial snappers, heavy-duty trousers in a patchwork of Arte Povera-inspired sea greens and browns, and long tunics and jackets ruched and cinched at the waist.

Sacai: Stacks of speakers bound together with hi-vis tape stood at the centre of the Sacai catwalk. Electronic beats filled the air as models dressed in designer Chitose Abe's signature hybrid garment combinations weaved in and out of blasting sound banks. Pendleton’s South West American blankets were melded with fragments of sportswear and military clothing. The work of tattoo artist Dr Woo was applied as embroideries to deconstructed sweaters, voluminous outerwear pieces and bags. This season sees Sacai collaborate with Nike on a collection of sneakers launching in January 2019.

Balmain: The immediately recognisable opening cords of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ signalled the start of the Balmain show. What followed was a full on glitzy homage to king of pop. Creative director Olivier Rousteing paid tribute with a series of tees spelling out Balmain on there front in the typography from the classic album cover, while soft leather jackets carried wide shoulders and nipped in waistlines reminiscent of the one Jackson wore in the ‘Thriller’ video. The house’s signature all out embellishments appeared on crystal frogged sweatshirts and bombers, while shredded denim jeans were teamed with cropped stone encrusted tuxedo jackets. White socks and black penny loafers made this a full MJ moment.

Thom Browne: Models dressed as garden gnomes walked out wearing tailored waders in grey marl. Throughout the show they mowed the grassy set, occasionally stopping to hand out flowers to the sound of David Bowie’s 1967 song ‘Come and Buy My Toys.’ The collection delivered on Browne’s celebrated brand of wacky savoir-faire – whale prints featured on wide shoulder coats, fine lines of pearls became a new pinstripe on suiting. Traditional summer stripes and checks were rendered in fur. Standout was an asymmetric stripe double breasted overcoat in pastoral green. As Bowie sang: ’You shall own a cambric shirt/ You shall work your father's land/ But now you shall play in the market square/ Till you'll be a man.’.

Ann Demeulemeester: The label's designer, Sébastien Meunier, explored transparency in a collection of light sheer layers in classic Demeulemeester black with ivory. Models walked in wide brimmed hats covered with flowing gauze to disguise their faces, a black rose clasped in a lace gloved hand hinted at a mourning procession. Billowing sheer shirts and tunics came with layered ruffles skirting around the edges. Elsewhere military jackets appeared tightly belted at the waist and were worn with skinny trousers and heavy boots, while long ribbons hung loose from outfits.

Wooyoungmi: A matching jacket and shirt in ‘glam yellow’ pays tribute to the 1974 Terry O’Neill photo of a self-styled David Bowie. Creative Director Katie Chung said backstage that her S/S 2019 collection is more about the next generation of Bowie fans than the man himself. ‘It’s about the people who have taken inspiration from him – the brand has always been a big fan.’ The Korean label, who design the catwalk collection from a studio in Paris, play on the androgynous, romantic and bohemian. Pointed-down shirt collars from the 1970s are added to tailored jackets. Skinny deconstructed jeans are pieced together with cuffs at the ankle. ‘This collection is a mix of what’s happening now in Asia. Boys are dressing themselves in makeup, wearing earrings. It’s real. And I really believe in it.’

Lemaire: Pushers of effortless cool, Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran will reveal in September their full S/S 2019 collection, in a show combining both menswear and womenswear. It is a move that makes sense for a brand as cerebrally chic as theirs. For men, S/S 2019 features the roomy volumes, softly tailored shapes, crunchy cotton twill and sharp denim for which they are so revered. New are two collaborations: lightweight, lace-up sneakers with French footwear brand Veja and a neat, four-piece capsule with British label Sunspel. Talking through the collection, Lemaire remarked that he could never quite find the perfect pyjama suit in black. Et voilà! He’s gone and made it himself.

Acne Studios: S/S 2019 is playfully dissident. ‘I wanted to experiment with the definition of garments. What would happen if, when you described a pair of jeans, you were actually talking about a blouson? It was the beginning of a new set of archetypes, around which we built a wardrobe that plays with the idea of misinterpretation,’ Jonny Johansson, Creative Director of the quirky Swedish fashion label said of his latest collection. Technical jackets are tailored as operatic tuxedos in feather light nylon; an M-1965 field jacket is redone as a city coat. Standout is a chartreuse linen suit with real swag.

Brioni: Nina-Maria Nitsche showed her second men’s collection for the label in a series of immersive tableaus. Core are the summer suits with a lighter shoulder structure, chic pyjama tuxedos and fresh white seersucker tailoring. The wardrobe brings the refinement of sartorial tradition into real-life situations. Formal, evening and casualwear are photographed by Anne Schönharting on Brioni men including sports journalist Gérard Holtz, architect Matteo Thun and gallerist Sam Pratt. The 70-year-old artist and craftsman Hisao Hanafusa is shot wearing a black shearling windbreaker and jeans. These diverse characters are the focus of the season.

Yohji Yamamoto: For S/S 2019 he brand makes a case for layering, with a good range of fluid dungarees, wide legged pants and cut out tailoring all in black. The ersatz yearning for more colour during the spring summer seasons has waned; those faithful to a more monochromatic existence cannot go wrong with Yamamoto’s elongated-crotch trousers and cut-away coats. S/S 2019 riffs on military themes with uniform details like formal pocket flaps. Straps are multiplied and added to tailoring for decoration. Zips are left open, exposing white shirts, or bare skin. Artist Suzume Uchida returns for a second season; her vintage-style illustrations of women feature on a long, animal printed shirt.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Roos Quakernaat's website

‘It was time to take a fresh look at everything we did with denim,’ explains Acne Studios’ creative director Jonny Johansson of the Swedish brand’s decision to relaunch its denim line earlier this month. To mark its new 'Blå Konst' range- meaning ‘blue art’ - the brand have opened an equally masterly outpost in Shibuya, Tokyo, entirely dedicated to its new selection of men’s and women’s styles.

‘Blå Konst is a very personal project for me,’ says Johansson, who first moved into fashion design over a decade ago, when Acne Studios, then a creative agency, designed 100 pairs of raw denim jeans for its friends and family. ‘It was important to debut the concept in a place that was special,’ he adds. Like each new denim style that is created from scratch, the new 68m2 store features interior finishes exclusive to the space. Bright accents, including a sky blue carpet and an iron staircase painted signal red, are juxtaposed against metallic furnishings, like reflective stainless steel cubes, gold metal baskets and rails.

Juxtaposition is central to Acne Studios’ retail aesthetic. In its Max Lamb-designed Madison Avenue flagship, which opened last November, the space included bronze furniture and gold accents, contrasted against organic custom-made rugs which were hand-dyed in Lamb’s London studio and hand-tufted in Sweden. This interest in contrasts is highlighted in the Shibuya store too. Two Doric lamps created from NSEPS material, hang above the shining surfaces. They also accentuate the grainy canvas fabrics and speckled materials used in Blå Konst’s accompanying accessories offering, made up of every day totes, backpacks and and trainers.

This sense of the everyday, intrinsic to the idea of denim, is echoed in the store's inclusion of rotating vertical metal blinds and office-like overhead strip lighting. Outside, the facade of the store boasts a blue neon sign with a more stand out message: ‘we are here’. It highlights the second arrival of a brand that marked its initial entry into fashion with a ubiquitous yet utterly distinct item. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website

ADDRESS

1-10-8 Jinnan Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 105-0041

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Mood board: For Acne Studios’ A/W 2017 show, Jonny Johansson bedecked the ceiling of the Pavillon Cambon with an undulating wire mesh sky, which flickered from gold to silver like an electrical storm. The show opened with Laurie Anderson’s experimental recording Bright Red, comprising distorted spoken word lyrics overlaid with instrumentals. Unusual fabrications and an avant-garde soundtrack echoed Johansson’s interest in a choose-your-own aesthetic narrative, with a collection that featured reworked garments with DIY details, like patchwork leather coats, fluid dresses with fringed and rough hand-stitched finishes and silk-plissé floral tailoring.

Best in show: Championing individuality, Johansson reinterpreted tailoring shapes, turning shirts and blazers back to front. Mannish blazers, in leather and tailoring fabrics, were worn backwards, the structured shape also featuring in long fluid dresses, the sleeves finished with rows of buttons.

Finishing touches: Hand stitched finishes and patches, and back to front styling echoed Johansson's preoccupation with more naive conceptions of craft, and this was also reflected in his accessories. A lesson in pottery class perfection, jewellery included hoop earrings – irregular and oversized – and chunky bangles, moulded in clay, and then crafted in metal and colourful enamel.  

Acne Studios’ Jonny Johansson is sat at the back of the vast amphitheatre inside the Faculté de Pharmacie of Paris Descartes University. He’s deep in thought. Georges Papazoff, a teacher of art history, is in the middle of delivering a four-part lecture, which explores the connection between self-portraiture and the selfie. But Johansson hasn’t gone back to college; the lecture is part of his brand’s A/W 2017 menswear presentation.

‘This is a bit of a statement for me to do this,’ Johansson says. ‘I felt a panic last season because everybody is doing so much and I wanted to slow things down. This is about trying to give something that’s not loud.’ Using images from Ai Weiwei and Velázquez to Lucian Freud and Yves Klein, Papazoff explains that pictures, photographs and images deal with human thinking. And so too does fashion.

Johansson had been in conversation about this staging for almost a year with lighting designer and show producer Thierry Dreyfus. ‘Jonny and I always think about how can we bring humour into the presentation,’ Dreyfus said backstage. ‘How can we bring something nearer to the people and for us to not be seen but still evident?’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website

Acne Studios' stores are ‘small personal time-stamps’, says Jonny Johansson, co-founder and creative director of the Swedish brand. For each location, Johansson calls upon a different architect, designer or artist to make their mark on the brand’s aesthetic – whether that’s Sophie Hicks in Seoul or Bozarthfornell Architects in Stockholm.

For the brand’s new flagship on Madison Avenue in New York, British designer Max Lamb created a furniture concept revolving around polycarbonate elements with gold accents and aluminium fittings with electrostatical gilding. ‘I always aim to work with creative people that I feel inspired by in some way’, says Johansson. ‘I prefer working long-term with different artists that are active in the world of art and architecture, not just fashion.’

Lamb regularly creates furniture that borders on art, and utensils that are made with labour-intensive techniques. He has also explored newfangled materials, such as man-made marble. For Johansson, it’s the often-unexpected results that make these collaborations worthwhile. ‘I enjoy seeing what they come up with. The surprise element for me is important.’

Sculptural bronze furniture are dotted around the store, while the structural pillars that stand in the space are scattered with semi-precious coloured stones. An organic touch that offsets the space’s signature gold accent is the custom-made rugs. Made of yarns hand-dyed in Lamb’s studio in London, and then tufted at Kasthall in Sweden, they are all different as the result of each tufter working with one yarn until finished – letting the material determine how the rug unfolds.

With women's and men's ready-to-wear, denim, bags and accessories on offer, the store is akin to a gallery in the sense that it is fully wrapped in glass to allow complete transparency; apart from a golden aluminum partition that divides the public front and private back area. ‘I like juxtaposing materials like that’, says Johannson. ‘It’s more about the combination of the materials and the feeling you get from combining them, rather than the materials themselves.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website

ADDRESS

926 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

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Mood board: Did somebody say Ibiza? Not exactly, but Acne creative director Jonny Johansson wrapped his models up in enough blanket dressing to cover an entire hippie island from spring to summer. Shapes this season were completely unfurled from their usual complexity as Johansson channeled a new chill vibe in unstructured knit garments that hung off the models like draping carpets.

Best in show: Tunic and wide trouser combinations looked great in Acne's new earthy knits, but the coolest pieces were the new jumpsuit silhouette with a dropped crotch that was cut from ethnic carpets and Berber blankets.

Finishing touches: Flat driver and dancer's shoes were encrusted in dime-sized coloured crystals, adding a jazzy sparkle to the neutral palette, while wood print shoes had a built up curved sole like the arm of a chair.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Hermès: Renown for its luxurious goods and eminent handbags, the famous maison's latest collection – proposed by Véronique Nichanian for the menswear line – were utterly stupefying in their expert finish and unequivocally French mood. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Dior Homme: Set in the midst of a sprawling mass of rollercoaster tracks festooned with coloured lights, Kris van Assche's catwalk was said to be a direct replica of a ride that once stood at Sinksenfoor Antwerp, a traditional Belgian fairground. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus: Transparency and pageantry were the message of Rei Kawakubo's S/S 2017 collection. A raft of tailoring was layered with fine gauze, longline cardigans underneath or PVC trench coats on top, models milling about the raw concrete runway. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Berluti: Instead of a traditional fashion show, Berluti chose a rather more active stage on which to showcase their new wears: a poolside party. A rather fitting touch, considering they debuted their new lifestyle collection. Alongside skipping ropes, dumbbells, beach rackets and a set of boules, the label’s signature hide was also hand-stitched around a football which models kicked around in a friendly match. Photography: Antonio Camera. Videography: Courtesy of Berluti

Black looks: In the new season’s monochrome, Louis Vuitton, Jil Sander, and Kenzo (pictured clockwise from left) opted for sleek, jet-black invitations. Louis Vuitton’s was debossed with its iconic monogram pattern; Jil Sander sent a soft, matte invitation with the event details embossed in a contrasting shiny black; while Kenzo’s came in the form of a mock concert ticket

Antonio Marras: Like a paper matryoshka doll, the ever-playful invitation from Antonio Marras was a decidedly meta affair – an illustrated paper envelope within an envelope within an envelope and so forth eventually revealed show details

Dries Van Noten: London-based illustrator Gill Button hand-painted no less than 1,200 invitations for Dries Van Noten’s A/W womenswear show after being discovered by the Belgian designer on Instagram. The collection – and invitations – nod to Italian heiress and muse Luisa Casati

Pattern power: Fashion powerhouses Salvatore Ferragamo, Versace and Bally went big and bold for their womenswear outings in Milan, commanding our attention with a graphic array of patterned invitations

Iris van Herpen: On the other end of the spectrum, Dutch designer Iris van Herpen aroused our curiosity with a tiny, pea-sized glass vessel. With careful tinkering we were able to coax the presentation details out, printed inside on a thin, plastic tape

Dior Homme: This season, creative director Kris Van Assche dipped into Dior’s floral archive as well as a black-and-red plaid that wouldn’t go amiss on the hip skater crowd, who were foreshadowed on his poster invitation

Anya Hindmarch: The English designer announced her London womenswear show with a diabolically difficult, all-silver riff on a Rubik’s cube (a few frustrating/gratifying hours were admittedly spent attempting to solve it). Set designer Stuart Nunn later brought this motif to life on the runway, creating a backdrop of illuminated surfaces based on 8-bit graphics and Rubik’s cubes, of course

Gucci: We opened Gucci’s mysterious invitation box for its menswear show with baited breath. Inside, it revealed a striking trio of scientific glass slides each adorned with its own specimen from Alessandro Michele’s Gucci garden, including a snake and bumblebee (a nod to European nobility and Rome, where the Italian house is based and also where the insect is carved into buildings all over the city)

Monochrome medley: It was a simple matter of black and white for Salvatore Ferragamo, Margaret Howell, Neil Barrett and Aquazzura, who all posted boldly monochromatic invitations to our letterbox

Prada: As ever, the guarded Miuccia Prada revealed nothing ahead of her Milan show. Instead, we were left tantalised by an off-white paper booklet with a concertina binding, slipped in a ghostly, semi-translucent acetate envelope

Metal heads: A metallic trend emerged among this season’s invitations, including a delicate, gold foil iteration for Palm Angels’ menswear show (left) and a creased, silver foil backed by cardboard for jewellery label Ambush

Paul Smith: Keen-eyed, longtime followers of the eponymous British designer might have recognised the glossy, red apple motif that appeared on his womenswear invitations from London’s salon and Paris’ runway show. Sir Smith, in fact, had first used it in 1982 and his recent collection took a bite out of his past endeavours

Art and soul: The Technicolor brushstrokes were flying as Paul Smith, Marques’Almeida, Céline (poured tinted rubber technically), and Hermès all jumped on a painterly trend for their respective show invitations this season

Acne Studios: There was no telling what to expect from Acne Studios’ show thanks to its poster invitation, illustrated with two wildly different scenes. Were we in for a psychedelic romp in Paris or something more darkly seductive?

Rick Owens: The American designer announced both of his A/W Paris shows on matching, soft leather invitations

Givenchy: Riccardo Tisci heralded his show with a black-and-white poster pin-up, painted over with a powder pink hue

Material matters: Luxurious swathes of suede and felt won out many of the invitations this season, including (pictured, from top) Victoria Beckham, Marni, and Jimmy Choo

3.1 Phillip Lim: It was only fitting that the American designer would send out a boxed bamboo invitation with the show details printed inside on a glossy, lacquer-red duplex card, framed with a black border. As it turned out, his A/W outing was infused with plenty of references that included Japanese craft and kimonos

Fendi: The Italian house announced itself – quite literally – with a white duplex card featuring its name playfully adorned in a lemon yellow felt inside a comic speech bubble

1205: The elusive Paula Gerbase gave nothing away ahead of her menswear debut in London thanks to her minimalist acetate invitation

Zest sellers: Several houses heralded their shows with a bold tangerine or vivid orange, including (clockwise, from top left) Marques'Almeida's paint-streaked offering; MSGM's fabric-pressed card; Miu Miu's soft suede invitation; and Carven's graphic poster

Edun: The label adorned its womenswear invitation, the runway and closing looks of the show with a design from Ethiopian Grammar by artist Wosene Worke Kosrof. The Ethiopian sculptor/painter is best known for his interpretations of Aramaic script; here, he conjured a pastiche of phrases like 'mother love' and blended it with the Amharic alphabet on duplex card