Alessandro Michele might not have planned for the Eternal City to be cloaked in anthracite clouds nor a ten-hour downpour when the invitations went out for his big homecoming show in Rome for Valentino. But few other designers’ outputs would actually be enhanced by such a moody meteorological intervention.

‘I think that the dark made inside even more kind of poetic and spectacular,’ he shared conspiratorially backstage. ‘The outside was so dark, which is very unexpected in Rome, but it was like the ceilings inside.’

Valentino returns to its roots in Rome

On Thursday evening, the Valentino creative designer pulled the fashion week train into the station, closing the A/W 2026 collections with a show on a spectacular scale staged at the storied Palazzo Barberini. Mere puddle hops from the original Valentino HQ on Piazza Mignanelli, the location was a poignant homage to the brand’s founder, Valentino Garavani, who died in January aged 93 and an ode to the archive he created there.

Home to several exquisitely moody frescoes by Passeri, Camassei and Caravaggio, Michele said he chose the venue for its architectural tension, the result of a heated rivalry between Baroque architects Francesco Borromini and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who each designed parts of the Baroque palace – including its two dramatic staircases.

‘They really represent the beauty of chaos,’ he said. ‘This is almost my job, you know, to make and to create the tension and the dialogue between different things.’

They were themes mirrored in the collection that saw Michele mine the 1980s archive – a period when Garavani was prolific but has seldom been revisited since, said the designer – before massaging its codes into clothes that were empowering in a subtler way.

Shoulders were structured yet softened with cascading silk sleeves for evening or slightly off-centre with a faded floral print for day. Tailoring was jaunty, by way of asymmetric sequinned lapels and belted bejewelled wool coats. Mini dresses were cinched with cummerbunds and worn with the return of the Rockstud pump, and suits were buttoned up with brooches. Meanwhile trousers were pin-tucked, belted and worn with a box-fresh New Balance.

‘It's about Valentino. It's about beauty. It's about the tension between me and the conversation between me and the brand, and kind of a beauty that I'm trying to translate in a very specific, poetical way,’ said Michele.

Case in point, the finale: a backless jewelled jersey dress (100 per cent Michele) in Valentino Red (100 per cent Valentino). ‘I'm trying to always keep a red dress. It means life and richness, it's an intense colour, you know, and the colour is like the code of the brand. It's like the GG when I was in Gucci.’

Rome seems to bring out the best in Michele. Himself a son of the city, few know better than a native how to capture its sartorial idiosyncrasies. It’s a bit high-net-worth heirloom, a bit borrowed-from-your-bestie and wholly Michele's MO. He did it at Gucci during his era-defining tenure that transformed the Milanese house’s fortunes, and he’s astutely developing on it here at a time when Gen-Z shoppers are returning to the new-wave vintage look that Michele has owned for over a decade.

The front-row guests – including Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyla, Colman Domingo and after-party performer Lily Allen – represented its cross-generational appeal, too.

‘I love everything about Valentino, especially Alessandro Michele's Valentino because I feel masculine, sexy, and also, like, a bit of a flâneur, you know what I mean?’ Valentino ambassador Domingo told Wallpaper*.

‘It really makes you feel like you're in a fantasy. You're in a dream. And I think it's supposed to be in this world where things are hard and tough,’ he continued. ‘It’s nice to lean into that, with an art form such as fashion. It feels like, again, we're in a place where we were being lifted up to the heavens, to something bigger than ourselves. And we can do that with art, and we can do that with poetry and science. I think it's so pointed for us to be in a place like this today.’

valentino.com

Valentino Garavani, the founder of Roman fashion house Valentino, passed away on 19 January 2026, it was announced by his eponymous foundation. Aged 93, he was at home in Rome, surrounded by loved ones.

Known for an expressive glamour rooted in his adopted home city of Rome – where he founded the house in 1959, after stints at Balenciaga and Guy Laroche – he would be defined by the bold shade of red (‘Valentino Rosso’) which ran through his collections, as well as his close ties with cinema, dressing leading ladies from Italy and beyond. Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren were some of his friends and muses.

Remembering Valentino Garavani (1932-2026)

Born in Voghera, northern Italy in 1932, his pursuit of fashion began in Milan in 1949, where he enrolled at Santa Maria Institute to study ‘fashion sketching’, before moving to Paris in 1949. There, he would become a student at École des Beaux-Arts, winning the prestigious International Wool Secretariat which led to a job at Jean Dessès, a now-defunct haute couture house known for gowns in chiffon inspired by the draped silhouettes of ancient Greece and Rome. Other roles in Paris would see him work alongside the greats of the day – namely Cristóbal Balenciaga and Guy Laroche.

He would return to Italy in 1959, and to Rome, which would become his adopted home city during his lifetime. That same year, he founded his eponymous atelier on Via Condotti; one year later, he would meet his partner in life and work, Giancarlo Giammetti. A definitive figure in Garavani’s life, they would remain partners until the end. Just last year, they established PM23, a new cultural hub for their eponymous foundation, Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. Opening in Piazza Mignanelli, the original headquarters of Valentino, the first exhibition put Garavani’s creations in conversation with contemporary artworks.

‘Seeing the dresses and artworks together sparked emotions we didn’t anticipate,’ Giammetti told Wallpaper*. ‘It reminded us how timeless beauty can be, and how creativity speaks across decades. It was both a professional and personal journey. It’s emotional. You don’t realise what you’ve built until you take a step back.’

It was in the 1960s that Garavani would establish his name: in 1962, he held his first runway show at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Red, first introduced in his 1959 ‘Fiesta’ collection, would become a signature: he says that he was first inspired by a woman dressed in red velvet at the opera, where he was watching Bizet’s Carmen. ‘Among all the colours worn by the other women, she looked unique, isolated in her splendour,’ he said. ‘I said to myself that if I were ever going to become a designer, I would do lots of red.’

It was also in the 1960s that Garavani would establish a coterie of notable muses, many of them from the world of cinema. These included Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who were all devotees and friends. They would make him synonymous with the burgeoning jet-set of the era, and propel him to fame: alongside his work, he was known for his own glamorous lifestyle, as captured in ‘Valentino: The Emperor’, a 2009 documentary. In it, he prepares for a retrospective of his then 45-year career, travelling around the world in glamorous style, surrounded by a phalanx of staff and his beloved pug dogs. His captivating personality made him a household name (in 2006, he played himself in Devil Wears Prada).

Above all, though, his work was defined by a steadfast pursuit of beauty, eschewing ephemeral trends for a timeless vision of glamour. ‘I think I have succeeded because through all these decades I was always concerned about making beautiful clothes,’ says Mr Garavani in a recent book ‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’. ‘Let’s forget fashion. It goes in other directions sometimes: the grunge look, the messy look. I don’t care; I really don’t care. I cannot see women destroyed.’

He retired from the house in 2008 after his final haute couture show in Paris, briefly succeeded by Alessandra Facchinetti before Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli became joint creative directors. After Chiuri’s exit to go to Dior in 2016, Piccioli then became the sole creative director. After his own departure in 2024, he was replaced by Alessandro Michele, who remains at the house.

‘Touching his creations, I realise that he was very aware of the preciousness of life,’ Michele said of Garavani after his debut at the house in 2024. ‘He made clothes for friends and acquaintances and people belonging to his sentimental world. I don’t think he was working, I think he was simply living.’

Garavani will lie in state at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 from this Wednesday, with a funeral taking place on Friday at Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome.

This has been a watershed year in fashion. A quarter of the way through the 21st century, 2025 saw the industry hit refresh: in September alone, 15 designers made their debuts as creative directors of fashion’s major houses, ushering in a bold new era in style (and, as with any such change, prompting passionate – and oftentimes divided – online commentary).

Here, as selected by the Wallpaper* style team, are the 25 fashion moments that defined the zeitgeist in 2025 – from a viral Marty Supreme track jacket and Saint Laurent’s thigh-high wader boots, to big-name buyouts, runway returns and, of course, all those debuts.

Willy Chavarria made his mark in Paris with a powerful duo of shows

In January, CFDA Award-winning designer Willy Chavarria chose to shift his runway show from New York, where he lives and works, to Paris. A striking first show, held at the American Church on Quai d’Orsay, came just a few days after Trump’s inauguration, with Chavarria – whose runway shows have long been a clarion call for the rights of immigrants and the queer community – soundtracking the show with Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon imploring the incoming president to ‘have mercy’ towards marginalised communities. ‘It was so beautiful, and it fell exactly in line with what we were doing,’ he told Wallpaper* of the speech. ‘I wanted to show that everyone is welcome, and to do that in a church seemed like the most pronounced way of showing queer people, trans people, in this environment where they were the saints’. His sophomore Paris show, this summer, was similarly impactful: it opened with 35 kneeling men wearing white T-shirts made in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a reference to those being unlawfully detained by ICE in the United States.

READ: Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion’s old guard’

Faux fur and shearling took over the runway

Not a moment, per se, though the proliferation of faux fur and shearling on the runway – spanning both the men’s and women’s collections – was one of the year’s undeniable style takeaways (so much so, we even spotted it on the spring/summer runways). ‘When worn, it becomes a heady meeting place of signifiers – luxury, wealth, power, but also protection, armour against the elements, an ancient and primal urge to be swaddled in the spoils of the hunt,’ we wrote earlier this year of the renaissance of fur – albeit in imitation fabrics – which seemed to a response to the tumult of contemporary living. Indeed, at Prada, where co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a collection of ‘Raw Glamour’, ‘fur’ coats – constructed from cleverly manipulated shearling – had strange protusions at the collar or were trapped under plastic. ‘We asked ourselves, what is femininity today? It is a constant questioning,’ said Mrs Prada. ‘It is not my job to be political, but when you open a newspaper – oh my God! Our job is to think about what clothes a woman can wear, about what kind of femininity makes sense in this moment.’

READ: Faux fur and shearling dominated the A/W 2025 runways – these pieces capture the material’s ‘raw glamour’

Alessandro Michele entertained with a showstopping haute couture debut for Valentino

Haute couture was always going to be a medium which suited Alessandro Michele, the former Gucci creative director who now heads up Valentino. For his first couture collection for the house – presented this past February – the Italian designer, known for theatrical runway shows and richly imaginative collections, hit new heights, employing the ‘petits mains’ of the Valentino atelier to create a series of showstopping gowns. In a style typical to the deep-thinking designer, they were explained in the book-length collection notes through the language of philosophy and semiotics – Homer, James Joyce and Italo Calvino were all mentioned – with each gown representing a ‘list’ of words and influences (‘[lists] confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe,’ Michele wrote, quoting Umberto Eco). These surreal lists scrolled across the show’s set on a series of ticker-tape screens as the dramatic looks wandered across the stage, a millefeuille of satin, lace and tulle – eclectic, intricate and, as fashion sleuths showed after the show, rooted in the Valentino archive. ‘To attempt to describe each look – and its multitude of elements – would require a pages-long list of its own,’ we wrote at the time. ‘It was best to simply let yourself be entertained.’

READ: Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for Valentino

Martine Rose held her first gallery show – an ode to Bronski Beat’s radical energy

During London Fashion Week in February, Martine Rose hosted her first gallery show at Sadie Coles HQ, revisiting her 2016 film Everything Must Change – a Sharna Osbourne-shot short starring Bronski Beat frontman Jimmy Somerville. ‘Pop charts at the time I was introduced to Jimmy Somerville’s voice were dominated by gay musicians: Erasure, Bronski Beat, Marc Almond,’ Rose told Wallpaper*. ‘Mainstream pop by out and proud gay men making serious, respected pop music – not tokenistic – which can never be replicated. It was a radical time for music, all about individuality, no stylists, all genuine expression.’ It’s a statement that captures the radical, subculture-infused energy of Rose’s own work: later that year, in June, she staged a one-off show in an abandoned west London job centre, adorned for the occasion in boudoir-style ruffled curtains. ‘I was exploring this new shrunken silhouette,’ she said after the show. ‘Everything feels a bit cinched, a bit too tight, slightly awkward, but somehow still sexy, I hope.’ It is this idiosyncratic approach – at once strange, sexy and real – which has made Martine Rose one of London’s defining voices, doing things her own way for close to two decades.

READ: Martine Rose’s first gallery show celebrates the radical queer energy of Bronski Beat

Calvin Klein returned to the runway with a new ‘sexitude’

In February, Calvin Klein hosted its first runway show since the departure of Raf Simons in 2018 (under him, the runway collections went under the moniker Calvin Klein 205W39NYC; now, they are back to being called Calvin Klein Collection). In one of the year’s first notable debuts, it was former The Row designer Veronica Leoni who took the helm, seeking a mood of sensual minimalism she dubbed ‘sexitude’ – a nod to the pulsing undercurrent of eroticism which ran through the brand’s advertising campaigns and collections in the 1990s. ‘When it comes to sexiness, it’s more like an attitude,’ the Italian designer said backstage. ‘You own it in the way you wear the clothes. I think it’s really intimate being sexy – regardless of the silhouette, the amount of skin, it’s about the confidence.’ The collection came with the blessing of Mr Klein himself, who watched on from the front row. ‘He told me he was happy he had found a new coat to buy,’ she said. ‘I’m really proud for him to feel at home again.’

READ: For her Calvin Klein debut, Veronica Leoni stripped it all back

Fendi celebrated its centenary with a blockbuster show in Milan

2025 was a definitive year for Fendi: not only did it mark a century since the fashion house was founded in Rome, but, after the departure of artistic director of womenswear and couture Kim Jones in October 2024, the beginning of its new chapter. As such, in February, Fendi opened the doors to its newly renovated Milanese headquarters for a celebratory runway show, seeing house scion Silvia Venturini Fendi take the reins for the blockbuster spectacle which included a cast of Fendi muses, past and present. The granddaughter of house founders Adele and Edoardo Fendi, Venturini Fendi started at the house in the 1990s under Karl Lagerfeld, and would go on to head up menswear and accessories, though this was just the second time she had also designed the womenswear line (the first was after Lagerfeld’s death in 2019). Talking to Wallpaper*, she said that it was an honour to head up such a definitive show for both her family and the house – but was adamant this was not about living in the past: ‘I tried to avoid any precise reference because, to me, anniversaries are beautiful, but you don’t want it to be a retrospective or nostalgic’. After presenting a second co-ed collecti on in September, she stepped down from the creative role to become ‘honorary president’. Her successor will be former Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri in a much-rumoured move.

READ: Silvia Venturini Fendi on luxury, lineage and looking to the future: ‘If it reminds me of something we’ve already done, we move on’

Prada agreed to purchase Versace for $1.375 billion

The subject of much speculation and rumour after Donatella Versace stepped down from her role as creative director the month prior, in April, it was confirmed that the Prada Group reached an agreement to purchase Versace after the Italian house was put on sale by former owner Capri Holdings earlier in the year. Agreeing to a deal of $1.375 billion for 100 per cent of the company – well below the initial $2 billion asking price – it marked a definitive move from the Prada Group to establish an Italian luxury conglomerate (The Prada Group comprises Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe; in 1999, it purchased controlling stakes in Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, though they were later sold). ‘We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter for a brand with which we share a strong commitment to creativity, craftmanship and heritage,’ said Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group chairman and executive director, at the time (the deal was completed in December). ‘We aim to continue Versace’s legacy, celebrating and re-interpreting its bold and timeless aesthetic; at the same time, we will provide it with a strong platform.’

READ: Donatella Versace is stepping down as creative director

The Met’s Costume Institute explored the figure of the Black Dandy

In a year which was notable for its slew of fashion exhibitions – from the confection-like gowns of ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ at London’s V&A to a Rick Owens retrospective featuring a lifelike sculpture of the designer ‘urinating’ water into a trough below – the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Costume Institute exhibition in May still demands the most attention. This is largely because of the accompanying Met Gala – the starry event heralds the exhibition’s opening – though it is also down to the Costume Institute’s head curator Andrew Bolton’s eye for finding intriguing subject matter in the Met’s extensive archive. This year, he drafted Monica L Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, to help curate the exhibition, which traced the sartorial history of the Black Dandy from the 18th century to the present day. Titled ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, alongside historical garments, it featured the work – or personal wardrobes – of Virgil Abloh, Andre Leon Talley and Grace Wales Bonner, among others, with set design for the arresting exhibition courtesy of artist Torkwase Dyson. ‘I clocked into how people have fashioned themselves as a manipulation of autonomy and ownership in which clothing is a resistance,’ she told Wallpaper* of the design, which riffed on her signature trapezoid sculptures.

READ: Torkwase Dyson’s set design for ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ at The Met meditates on ownership, charisma and histories

Saint Laurent’s viral knee-high boots heralded menswear’s dark, sensual mood

At Cannes film festival, while promoting queer ‘dom-com’ Pillion – a film which explores a dom/sub relationship between a shy parking attendant and a biker – Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård donned a thigh-high leather wader boot by Anthony Vaccarrello for Saint Laurent. Shown at the house’s runway show earlier that year, it became one of the viral accessories of the year, worn by everyone from Pedro Pascal to Marc Jacobs, and ubiquitous in magazine spreads. Inspired by an imagined meeting between two men who designed the aesthetic of the 1980s – Yves Saint Laurent and Robert Mapplethorpe – the collection captured a mood of dangerous sensuality which ran throughout the season, from Prada’s patchworked leathers to Maximilian Davis’s S/S 2026 Ferragamo collection, inspired by the languid sensuality of Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Vaccarello dubbed it a ‘menacing, seductive elegance’ – classic menswear with an inflection of kink.

READ: Inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe, Saint Laurent’s surprise menswear show captured ‘a menacing, seductive elegance’

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake channelled la dolce vita in Florence

It would prove one of the most memorable show locations of the year: unfolding against a painterly Florentine sky at sunset, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake staged its S/S 2026 show at Medicea della Petraia, a former Medici residence on Monte Morello in the rolling Tuscan countryside. A guest of Pitti Uomo menswear fair, the Issey Miyake offshoot used the occasion to introduce a new roving format of runway show: eschewing its usual place on the Paris Fashion Week schedule (its position has been taken by IM Men, another brand in the Issey Miyake family), it will show in a series of locations around the world in the coming seasons. As such, collections will draw inspiration from local landscapes: here, it was done via an evocative use of colour, utilising hues sourced through trips the design team had taken around Italy (from ’Cinque Terre Yellow’ to ‘Zucchini Flower Orange’). The result was a collection which fused Italian charm with Homme Plissé’s pioneering fabrications: played out in the villa’s winding, maze-like gardens, it was impossible not to be seduced.

READ: With an ode to Italy, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake brings its brand of fashion magic to Florence’s Pitti Uomo

Rick Owens spread the love with a Paris retrospective

‘I’m surprised I got so far,’ Rick Owens told Wallpaper* in a wide-ranging conversation to mark the opening of ‘Temple of Love’, a career-spanning retrospective at Paris’ Palais Galliera. A celebration of the American designer’s singular approach – one laced with both subversion and wit – the exhibition took attendees on a trip from his early years on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1990s (a recreation of his Los Angeles bedroom of the time appears in the exhibition) towards his blockbuster spectacles at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo (indeed, in June, an opening party took place just after his S/S 2026 menswear show, with guests simply having to cross the road from one institution to another). ‘Michèle [Lamy, Owens’ wife] kept telling me, ‘You gotta stop calling it a retrospective!’ She doesn't like the finality – I'm leaning into it,’ he said. ‘A retrospective implies a decline, it makes you think about legacy and mortality and ageing, and how long do you stay relevant, and how important is that? I don't have the answers to any of those things, but I am thinking about them and addressing them publicly.’

READ: ‘I’m surprised that I got this far’: Rick Owens on his bombastic Paris retrospective, ‘Temple of Love’

Jonathan Anderson rebooted his brand – and debuted at Dior

It was a busy June for Jonathan Anderson. Alongside his much-anticipated debut show at Dior – a menswear offering for S/S 2026 presented at Paris’ Hôtel National des Invalides, which astutely reworked formal dress codes – the Northern Irish designer also revealed a rebooted vision for his eponymous, London-based label JW Anderson, which propelled him to renown after it was established in 2008. Doing away with the label’s usual seasonal runway shows, the new vision centres on the idea of the shop: in Paris, during haute couture week, he constructed a simulacrum of a new store concept by architects Sanchez Benton which included not only a fashion collection (a greatest hits of sorts, seeing signature pieces imbued with a greater commitment to craft) but a curation of intriguing objects and curiosities, from ceramics and vintage gardening tools to furniture, art, even honey. 'I like change. I have wanted to change things around for two years now, and finally I feel at one with who I am today and what the brand means,’ he told Wallpaper*. ‘It’s things that I either want to wear or want to live with.’

READ: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut: ‘bringing joy to the art of dressing’

Craig Green returned to the runway – and to Paris

After just over a decade in business, Craig Green remains one of British fashion’s definitive voices – a singular creative force whose imaginative collections transform humble menswear archetypes (workwear, uniforms, biker jackets) through imaginative construction and unusual fabrications, oftentimes evoking sculpture. This year, he made his return to Paris Fashion Week, having shown a year prior in his London studio, and elsewhere via lookbook (Green is one of a handful of designers who seem to be flourishing outside of the typical fashion calendar). The show was one of our highlights of the year: a poetic, free-thinking collection inspired by The Beatles, psychedelics and 1960s bed sheets – albeit in his typically inventive style. ‘Creativity how everything moves forward,’ Green told us in the October 2025 ‘Long View’ issue of Wallpaper*, in which we documented the process behind the collection. ‘You need creative thought for things to progress, and for new things to happen. You have to have the freedom to make mistakes, to create work and not live in fear.’

READ: ‘You have to be fearless’: inside the free-thinking world of Craig Green

Glenn Martens unveiled his vision for Maison Margiela

The task was unenviable: as the new creative director of Maison Margiela, Belgian designer Glenn Martens would not only have to follow the house’s namesake – arguably the most influential designer of recent times – but also John Galliano, his predecessor, whose final collection, which conjured a troupe of contorted dolls on the drizzly moonlit banks of the Seine, was a true fashion epic. But Martens, who comes with a pedigree of his own after zeitgeist-defining stints at Y/Project and Diesel, was more than up for a challenge. His own creatures were sheathed in masks (a nod to a Margiela hallmark, that of anonymity) and appeared pulled through the the walls of history – quite literally, with a melange of jacquards, Renaissance motifs and embossed leather (inspired by 16th-century Flemish wallpaper), evoking the faded grandeur of abandoned stately homes (indeed, the show set was a series of ‘palatial interiors’ printed on crumpled and crased paper). We called it a ‘thrilling’ debut, a task of ‘reinvention and reconstruction – a precarious balance of what to take and what to leave behind’.

READ: Glenn Martens’ thrilling Maison Margiela debut was a balancing act between past, present and future

Fashion East celebrated a ‘rowdy and raw’ 25 years of nurturing emerging talent

In September, Fashion East’s S/S 2026 runway show doubled as a celebration: 2025 marked 25 years of the Brick Lane-based talent incubator, which was founded by Lulu Kennedy to help forge the careers of London’s rising stars. The roll call of names which have passed through its doors is proof of its success: Jonathan Anderson, Martine Rose, Kim Jones, Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner are all alumni of the unique scheme, which has long encapsulated London’s unique brand of young talent – defiantly creative, ‘rowdy and raw’ (as Kennedy herself described in a letter distributed to guests at the show). Taking place at the ICA, this season’s show – comprising collections by Nuba, Jacek Gleba and Mayhew – doubled as a Nike-sponsored exhibition tracing Fashion East’s impressive quarter century through its memorable clothing and ephemera, from Green’s ‘broken-fence’ chestplates to a leopard-print cake by Mowalola. Later in the year, in December, Kennedy and her creative partner Raphaelle Moore collected a Special Recognition Award at the 2025 Fashion Awards. ‘We’re proud to have created a unique space where designers have both the freedom to create fearlessly, and a family unit to uplift them,’ they said.

September’s fashion week saw almost too many debuts to count

2025 was fashion’s big reshuffle, seeing an unprecedented number of designers making their debuts at fashion’s biggest houses – from Dior to Chanel, Gucci to Celine. It was September fashion month, though, that was a true changing of the guard moment, with over 15 designers presenting their first collections as newly installed creative leads. These spanned an energetic and playful debut from Nicholas Aburn at Area in New York (the former Balenciaga designer riffed on the figure of the party girl in irreverent style), Simone Bellotti’s masterful first outing at Jil Sander, which saw him astutely explore ideas of modernity and lightness (staged in the brand’s white-walled Milan headquarters, it was a true clean slate momet), or Pierpaolo Piccioli’s typically heartfelt first collection for Balenciaga (an appearance from the Duchess of Sussex ensured column inches).

Elsewhere, notable debuts included Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe and Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier. And, while these debuts were largely lauded – particularly by critics – fiercer debates broke out online in the depths of Instagram comment sections. ‘I have read some really heinous comments about the work of many designers in these last few days,’ wrote Perfect magazine’s Edward Buchanan, former design director of Bottega Veneta, in a much-shared post. ‘It is not always perfect, and it is not always what you personally imagined it to be. You don’t have to like everything… but why not celebrate and talk about what you love?’

Though in Paris, it was Chanel and Dior which commanded the most attention

There were two debuts, though, which commanded the most attention: Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut for Dior (he had previously shown his first menswear collection in June) and Matthieu Blazy’s opening act for Chanel. Shrugging off the weight of expectation, both collections provided an astute and contemporary viewpoint on the future of two of fashion’s most storied houses – Anderson through a fearless ‘recoding’ of the house’s archive in his idosyncratic style (we said it was a collection of ‘bravery, vision and instinct’), Blazy through a collection of unbridled freedom and optimism (a twirling Awar Odhiang in a gown of kaleidoscopic feathers, the model who memorably closed the show, encapsulated the ‘triumphant’ mood). After Chanel, which marked the end of fashion month, we said that after all of the debuts, it finally felt like a ‘weight had been lifted’. ‘There will be no more anticipation or speculation, no more guessing games or gossip. The designers are in place, and a new chapter of fashion has begun – from there, the hard work begins.’

While Demna marked his Gucci debut with a Demi Moore-starring film

In what proved an astute move, the Georgian designer Demna – previously of Balenciaga – got ahead of the season’s other debuts by presenting his first collection as creative director of Gucci on the first day of Milan Fashion Week, allowing him a moment in which he dominated the narrative (and, of course, social media). Revealed first through a lookbook of Gucci ‘archetypes’, rewritten in his typically irreverent and subversive style (he called it a ‘bold, sexy new chapter’ for the house), it was followed up by a Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn-directed short, premiered at Milan’s Palazzo Mezzanotte. Titled The Tiger, it starred Demi Moore as the fictional ’head of Gucci international and chairman of California’ whose world begins to unravel at a family gathering. Even cleverer? Demna will get another ‘debut’ in 2026 when he holds his first runway for the house during Milan Fashion Week, in February.

READ: Gucci reveals its ‘bold, unapologetically sexy’ new era under Demna

The fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani

In early September, the fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani, an arbiter of Italian style who founded his eponymous house half a century ago, in 1975. One of fashion’s great success stories, Mr Armani began the label using funds made from selling his old Volkswagen Beetle; on his death, he left behind a multi-billion dollar empire spanning not only fashion but homeware, hotels, restaurants, fragrances and cosmetics. To mark his death, after a private funeral held earlier in the month, well-wishers gathered at Milan Fashion Week in September for his final Giorgio Armani show. Originally intended to celebrate 50 years in business, it took place at Brera’s Pinacoteca di Brera, where an accompanying exhibition unfolded in the galleries above. As ever, the S/S 2026 collection – modelled on a cast of Armani models past and present and watched on by muses Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton and Cate Blanchett – encapsulated Mr Armani’s brand of soft elegance, culminating with model Agnes Zogla in a glimmering gown adorned with his face. Afterwards, guests milled the galleries, where the designer’s work took its fitting place amid the great Italian masters – from Bellini to Raphael.

READ: In Milan, the fashion world gathers to say goodbye to Giorgio Armani at his final show

A Virgil Abloh exhibition celebrated his landmark legacy

Just over four years since his death, American designer Virgil Abloh leaves behind a towering legacy – one which was celebrated this September in Paris with the opening of an exhibition at the Grand Palais. Open for just a few days (cue a sold out booking system and snaking queues around the block), the exhibition opened the doors to his prolific archive of objects, clothing, ephemera, furniture and art, displayed across sprawling tables and shelves as if stepping into his headquarters. Indeed, one senses the polymathic designer – who made history as the first Black creative director of Louis Vuitton – would enjoy the exhibition’s approach, which eshewed the behind-glass formality of the traditional museum (only self-restraint stopped you from picking up the objects on display). Titled ‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’, the idea is for it to go on display around the world. ‘This is a true celebration of Virgil's vision and ethos,’ said the late designer’s wife, Shannon Abloh. ‘This offers an invitation to the world to engage and to build upon his ideas.’

READ: Inside the Paris exhibition cataloguing Virgil Abloh’s extraordinary archive

Grace Wales Bonner is appointed at Hermès

In late October, Hermès announced the appointment of Grace Wales Bonner as the house’s head of menswear, replacing Véronique Nichanian who made the choice to step down from the role after a record-breaking 37-year tenure (the longest of any working creative director at a fashion house). It felt long overdue for the British designer. An LVMH Prize-winning designer whose deeply felt collections for her eponymous label Wales Bonner – exploring themes of Black masculinity, migration and luxury – have consistently won plaudits for rich storytelling and meticulous craftsmanship, leading many to question why she hadn’t been chosen for a creative director role sooner (she had been rumoured for roles at both Louis Vuitton and Givenchy which went to Pharrell Williams and Sarah Burton respectively). On social media, there was a rare positive consensus on the decision: in her own post, the designer, who was born in South London to a British mother and Jamaican father, expressed her ‘deep honour’ at being chosen for the role. ‘It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers,’ she wrote.

READ: Lauded British designer Grace Wales Bonner is the new head of menswear at Hermès

1980s ‘architect of glamour’ Antony Price returned to the runway

The fashion critic Alexander Fury – who is an avid collector of his work – has called Antony Price, a British fashion designer who came to prominence in the 1980s, as ‘criminally underrated’. Best known for creating the visual universe of Roxy Music, and staging similarly dramatic runway shows in the decade, the ‘architect of glamour’ made a welcome runway return in November, courtesy of a one-off salon show with London-based label 16Arlington. Staged in the latter’s east London studio, the high-profile cast – from Lily Allen to Adwoa Aboah – prowled the runway in the high-voltage creations, puffing on cigarettes before posing for photographer Felix Cooper. ‘I personally felt Antony never really received his flowers,’ Capaldo told Wallpaper*. ‘To have been able to witness such a legend at work has probably been one of the most incredible and pivotal moments in my career. It's been really magical.’ Sadly, it was announced that Price passed away at the age of 80 on 17 December 2025.

READ: ‘Architect of glamour’ Antony Price makes a high-voltage return to the runway with 16Arlington

Dario Vitale said goodbye to Versace

It was to be one of fashion’s shortest tenures – just a few short months after his debut, in December, it was announced that Italian designer Dario Vitale would be exiting Versace. The former design director of Miu Miu, and the successor to Donatella Versace, the news came as some surprise: Vitale’s debut show at Milan Fashion Week, though divisive, had won over critics and was already being worn by celebrities (Olivia Dean wore custom Versace for a recent SNL appearance, while Addison Rae was also an early adopter). We said that Vitale had ‘stripped back conceptions and ushered in an energetic new vision: sexually charged and ‘reckless’, one that harkened back to the dress codes of Gianni Versace without nostalgia.’ On social media, the announcement came with some disappointment at the way in which designers are given so little time to make their mark: ‘There’s a disturbing pattern across the fashion industry: giant companies, plucking creative directors, placing them on a pedestal, parading them as the future, and then discarding them just as quickly,’ wrote casting director Anita Bitton in a much-shared Instagram post.

In Vienna, there was a chance to see Helmut Lang’s fashion archive for the first time

Though he exited the industry 20 years ago, Helmut Lang’s influence on fashion remains palpable. A definitive figure of the 1990s, he proposed a vision of sensually-charged minimalism and utility which continues to define the way that we dress today. He also changed the way we consume fashion, too: his memorable New York runway shows stripped back the artifice of the 1980s and its elevated runway, drafting friends to walk alongside supermodels, while stripped-back campaigns were captured by a young Juergen Teller. This revolutionary spirit is celebrated in ‘Séance de Travail 1986-2005’, an exhibition which opened in December at MAK in Vienna, which marks the first time Helmut Lang’s fashion archive is on show to the public – from memorable garments to archival film, ephemera, even recreations of elements from his equally definitive stores (Lang donated his archive to the institution in 2011). ‘Looking at Helmut Lang’s store architecture, it became obvious: his stores were all about directing the gaze. This is also what exhibitions need to do, but here it was essential. A photo wouldn’t suffice; you have to experience it,’ curator Marlies Wirth told Wallpaper* of the exhibition, which is designed to immerse you in the Lang universe – all the way down to the floor, which features a seating plan from a runway show.

READ: Inside Helmut Lang’s fashion archive in Vienna, which still defines how we dress today

Marty Supreme birthed the year’s viral garment – thanks to Timothée Chalamet

The Marty Supreme press tour has already come with some memorable sartorial moments – the film’s star Timothée Chalamet and girlfiend Kylie Jenner in matching orange Chrome Hearts for one – though it was more humble track jacket which went viral in December (the Josh Safdie-directed film is out on Christmas Day in the United States). The nylon windbreaker, created by the film’s production company A24 alongside California-based label Nahmias, was part of a merch drop for the film – adorned with ‘Marty Supreme’ and three gold stars, Chalamet has barely taken it off since. Pop-ups in New York and London have seen queues around the block to lay their hands on the $250 jacket – with resale sites selling the garment for up to for up to £4,366 (that’s over 20 times its original price). It speaks not only to A24’s marketing prowess, but also to the rise of movie merch – at the end of 2024, Mary Cleary explored its rise for Wallpaper*. ‘How it will continue to play out is yet to be seen, but one thing is almost certain: movie merch will continue to take over fashion,’ she wrote – and was right.

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

Earlier this month, the Q2 Lyst Index was released – the shopping app compiles the quarterly report through online searches and catalogued social-media data – seeing the Miu Miu boat shoe land at number four on the quarter’s hottest products (fellow top-tenners were a Skims white tank, Adidas sports shorts and the renaissance of the Isabelle Marant heeled sneaker). Miuccia Prada has long had a soothsayer-like quality – recent seasons have seen her sliced-away mini skirts, hanging bag charms, and ballet shoes achieve style ubiquity – and though the boat shoes were first shown in her S/S 2024 show for the Prada sister brand, it has taken a year for them to achieve true virality (Miu Miu released further iterations for Summer 2025).

The boat shoe’s appeal can be broken down by two prevailing trends: first, the rise of low-effort, off-duty footwear (The Row’s flip-flops or spa-style jelly shoes are examples, as is the rise of the Charvet slipper), second, the re-emergence of a preppy uniform (Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior Men collection featured cable-knit sweaters and schoolboy striped shirts, and a similar collegiate mood was struck at Michael Rider’s Celine debut earlier this summer). The boat shoe – traditionally designed to be worn on boats and yachts to prevent scuff marks on deck – has long straddled these two worlds, making it ripe for revival. And, while the Sebago or Sperry Topsiders remain the classical blueprint, fashion’s take on the style is altogether more eclectic – here, the Wallpaper* style team select ten of the best boat shoes of the season, from studded to slip-on, square-toed to two-tone.

There are few names more synonymous with Italian style than Valentino Garavani, a towering figure of Roman haute couture whose vision of La Dolce Vita – much of it in his signature red hue, ‘Valentino Rosso’ – spawned an international fashion empire that continues today.

‘Touching his creations, I realise that he was very aware of the preciousness of life,’ Alessandro Michele, current Valentino creative director, said of Mr Garavani after his debut at the house in 2024. ‘He made clothes for friends and acquaintances and people belonging to his sentimental world. I don’t think he was working, I think he was simply living.’

‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’ (published by Taschen)

An expansive new tome, published by Taschen, is testament to this approach – one embedded in the traditions of Italian life, and immortalised by a slew of Mr Garavani’s friends and muses, from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. Spread over 576 richly illustrated pages, the book – authored by Matt Tyrnauer, director of Valentino: The Last Emperor – is titled ‘Valentino. A Grand Italian Epic’, with contributions from a raft of high-profile names, from Gwyneth Paltrow to Tom Ford.

Laid out in traditional chronological style, the book charts Mr Garavani’s career in fashion – from the opening of his mononymous fashion house in Rome in 1959, following stints at Balenciaga and Guy Laroche, to his retirement in 2007. In between, a wealth of archival material, including sketches, fashion editorials, oral histories and news reports which capture the glamorous world he both built and inhabited: a bevvy of models in billowing Valentino Rosso gowns (and his beloved pugs) surround a blindfolded Mr Garavani on a sun-soaked lawn; other images capture him with movie stars or disembarking private jets, a vision of seductive Cinecittà glamour.

‘The designer’s mantra is: “I always wanted to make women beautiful,” and his inspiration was that of a provincial boy in the drab post-war period going to the movies with his sister and catching the glory days of Hollywood stars in their silver-screen years,’ writes British journalist Suzy Menkes in the book’s foreword. ‘Like the rest of the Romans, he was fascinated by the shiny, Dolce Vita glamour and he gave it classical class . By the time he was touched with the stardust of his own era, dressing the famous who were also his friends, Valentino had become part of the motion picture.’

‘I think I have succeeded because through all these decades I was always concerned about making beautiful clothes,’ says Mr Garavani in the book. ‘Let’s forget fashion. It goes in other direction sometimes: the grunge look, the messy look. I don’t care; I really don’t care. I cannot see women destroyed.’

The book’s release coincides with the opening of the Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, a new institution in Rome led by Mr Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, his longtime partner in life and work. ‘It’s emotional,’ Giammetti told Wallpaper* at the opening of its first exhibition, focused on the Valentino red which defined Mr Garavani’s oeuvre. ‘You don’t realise what you’ve built until you take a step back. Curating this exhibition has been a way to look at our past, not with nostalgia, but as inspiration for what comes next.’

‘Valentino. A Grand Italian Epic’, published by Taschen, is available now from waterstones.com and barnesandnoble.com

It was in 1959 that Valentino Garavani revealed his first collection to instant acclaim in Rome – including a dress, ‘La Fiesta’, in a bold shade of red. Some 66 years later, the singular, Pantone-recognised colour that has defined his prolific body of work ever since is being celebrated mere metres from where his career started.

‘Valentino Red’, the distinct shade of crimson owned and immortalised by Garavani, plays protagonist in the inaugural exhibition ‘Horizons/Red’ at PM23, the new cultural hub founded by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti in Piazza Mignanelli, the original headquarters of the Valentino fashion brand.

Staged across six rooms in the newly restored venue, five themes – defining beauty, identity, emotional landscapes, surface treatment and, lastly, dreamlike surfaces – are explored through the presentation of 50 of Valentino’s most iconic creations, spanning his career from 1959 to 2008, when he retired, alongside 30 works by artists, also dominated by the colour red.

Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti opens in Rome

Among the selected pieces, a tulle haute couture dress from Valentino’s groundbreaking 1959 collection looks out towards Cy Twombly’s Untitled, 2008; a backless crepe gown from S/S 2008 gazes at Clyfford Still’s 1955-D, PH-387 oil on canvas; a taffeta bubble-hem gown contemplates Francis Bacon’s 1983 Sand Dune painting; while haute couture column gowns take in Louise Bourgeois 20-frame compilation, 10am Is When You Come To Me (2006). They are joined by dozens more dialogues.

‘Seeing the dresses and artworks together sparked emotions we didn’t anticipate,’ Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino’s life and business partner, told Wallpaper* ahead of the exhibition opening on 25 May. ‘It reminded us how timeless beauty can be, and how creativity speaks across decades. It was both a professional and personal journey.’

The pair looked to former collaborator Pamela Golbin, who curated the definitive ‘Valentino: Themes and Variations’ exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2008 when Valentino retired, to curate once again.

Given free rein, Golbin selected each of the 50 gowns from the archive and had them meticulously restored to be ready for their new close-up. Faced with the challenge to celebrate Valentino’s legacy as one of the fashion world’s most important couturiers, Golbin wanted to take an approach that matches the originality of Valentino’s designs.

‘There have been so many art and fashion exhibitions in the past when you put a definition onto the dress that the designer never intended to have – so we really wanted to keep as authentic as possible,’ Golbin told Wallpaper*. ‘So while we explored red through art and fashion, it was not fashion and art dialoguing, because Mr Valentino did not dialogue with these works of art and these artists – many of whom died some years back – obviously didn’t know Mr Valentino’s work, so we didn’t want to set up an artificial dialogue.’

The alchemy that happened as a result was a happy coincidence.

‘What was stunning about having them both reply to the same themes is that something did happen between them, perhaps because all of them define one theme, and that is beauty. At the centre of this foundation is that beauty creates beauty.’

Valentino, who recently celebrated his 93rd birthday, was heavily involved in the realisation of the exhibition, said Golbin. He had paid a visit to the space the day before Wallpaper’s private tour, creating a moment for himself and Giammetti to pause for reflection.

‘It’s emotional,’ said Giammetti. ‘You don’t realise what you’ve built until you take a step back. Curating this exhibition has been a way to look at our past, not with nostalgia, but as inspiration for what comes next.’

The exhibition is the first of many at the PM23 space that will serve as a ‘centre of cultural exchange’ moving forward, said Giammetti, adding that the realisation of the space was especially significant for him and Valentino.

‘This space, in the heart of Rome, represents the culmination of a dream – to create a lasting, tangible home for the cultural mission and the activities supported by the Fondazione. It’s about opening the door to the future, offering a space for creativity, for new voices, and for a community built around culture and inspiration.’

It also embodies the pair’s hope for future generations of aspiring creatives, just like they were back when they met in 1960.

‘I hope they stay curious, authentic, and fearless. The world has changed, but the need for vision and courage remains the same. Art and fashion are not only industries. they are ways of telling stories. I hope the next generation feels empowered to tell theirs. If we can inspire even one young person to pursue a path of beauty and purpose, our efforts will have been worthwhile.’

Horizons/Red opens at PM23 on Piazza Mignanelli on 25 May 2025, with free admission until June 11, 2025.

fondazionevg-gg.com

The past few years have seen the listening room – or, indeed, the listening bar – become something of a cultural phenomenon. In London alone, there have been a slew of new openings for vinyl and soundsystem aficionados (Neil Ridley explored the growing enclave of London listening bars for Wallpaper* earlier this year), while in Milan, the Giorgio di Salvo-designed ‘Voce’, a gleaming 330 sq m listening room in the Triennale Milano, was revealed in April. Even Michelin star restaurants are getting in on the act: Wallpaper’s Mary Cleary visited Arkestra in Istanbul, Turkey, where a moody listening room was the brainchild of co-founder Debora Ipekel, a former programmer for Boiler Room and NTS Radio host.

Inside Valentino’s L’Atelier Sonore listening room

Now, New Yorkers have a new listening room opening of their own, courtesy of Italian fashion house Valentino. The space, titled L’Atelier Sonore (the Sound Atelier), opens later this week in the house’s Madison Avenue store, its intimate, midcentury-inspired interior a reflection of creative director Alessandro Michele’s aesthetic vision for Valentino so far (he began his current role in 2024, having previously been creative director of Gucci).

Conceived in collaboration with Italian collective Terraforma and designed by architect Francesco Lupia, the room centres on a bespoke soundsystem, listening ‘console’ and undulating modular velvet seating, on which listeners can recline. The room’s textures – from enveloping floor-to-ceiling curtains to veneered woods – were chosen to evoke ‘avant-garde listening salons... underscoring a commitment to craftsmanship, intimacy, and timelessness’.

Terraforma has also worked with Valentino on a special sonic programme to mark the space’s opening this week ( L’Atelier Sonore opens to the public on 15 May 15 2025). Promising a ‘rich tapestry of international influences’, the eclectic line-up comprises various ‘listening sessions’ helmed by artists and musicians including Laraaji, Lea Bertucci, Laurel Halo, Lizzi Bougatsos, Chuquimamani-Condori, Kevin Beasley, Veronica Vasicka and Physical Therapy. Playing for around 45 minutes using vinyls from their own personal archives, participants will also share stories about the records and ‘[revel] in the silences in between’. The space will remain open to the public until the end of August 2025, with a selection of records played throughout the day, alongside sporadic ‘listening sessions’ with friends of the house.

Valentino, 654 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10065.

valentino.com

To decipher one of Alessandro Michele’s press releases can be a degree-level task: the thick tome left on each seat at the Italian designer’s first haute couture collection for Valentino, held in Paris earlier today, was as thick as a script for a feature-length film. In it, he referenced everyone from Umberto Eco to Homer, James Joyce to Italo Calvino, couched in the language of philosophy and semiotics.

Its essence, though, spoke of an altogether more simple task: that of making a list. Titled ‘Vertigineux: A Poetics of the List’, he spoke of Eco’s assertion that the list is a way to ‘confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe’. To create a couture collection is a daunting task: it represents the pinnacle of dressmaking, and the designer who takes on one of the handful of haute couture houses must work in harmony with the petite mains of the atelier (they are responsible for the hand-construction and embellishment of each of the collection’s looks).

Alessandro Michele’s debut couture collection for Valentino

So in the book’s pages were Michele’s own lists, an attempt to distil the infinity of options that haute couture affords into a framework for a gown: 48 in total, each corresponding with a single look, a ‘feverish’ assemblage of words and phrases from the simple ‘shirt’, ‘ruche’, ‘satin’ and ‘dress’ to ‘dramaturgy’, ‘austerity’ and ‘my mother’. In the show, which took place at Palais Brongniart in central Paris, guests look downwards onto a long black stage, behind which the various words flickered along the backdrop (at the show’s end they jolted and distorted, before reading simply ‘etcetera’ over and over, as if malfunctioning).

It was an apt glimpse into Michele’s approach to the medium, which, like both his debut ready-to-wear collection for the house and his star-making collections at Gucci, was freewheeling and eclectic. An impossibly flared gown, which opened the show, fell away into colourful harlequin diamonds constructed from gathered tulle; others were adorned with enormous peacock feathers, rich layers of sequin embellishment, frothy waterfalls of tulle, plissé capes and tassels, while panniers, Tudor ruffs and plays on Victoriana were a soaring spin through fashion history. To attempt to describe each look – and its multitude of elements – would require a pages-long list of its own. It was best to simply let yourself be entertained.

Michele described this approach (in typically esoteric style) as ‘a constellation of visions… a plurality of interconnected worlds’. ‘Each dress is not just an object,’ he continued. ‘It’s rather the knot of a net of significance, [recalling] eras, cultures and echoes of past stories.’ In its expression of sartorial freedom – always at the heart of Michele’s approach – this was a showstopping opening act.

Follow our coverage of Haute Couture Week S/S 2025.

valentino.com

‘Haute couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality,’ said Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry on Monday morning (27 January), as he opened Paris Haute Couture Week S/S 2025 with a show titled ‘Icarus’. He chose the tragic mythical figure to represent his own ‘quest for perfection’ in the medium, ‘a quixotic struggle, a climb, to reach an ever-higher level of execution and vision’.

Execution and vision are the bedrock of haute couture, which represents the industry’s very pinnacle of craft and making, a rarefied art form, undertaken entirely by the hand of the couture atelier and led by a designer’s singular vision. As such, the week – which is currently taking place in Paris – attracts a glamorous slew of attendees, from Hollywood celebrities to the dramatically attired clients themselves, who travel from all around the world to view the couture houses’ latest fantastical creations (to gain such status, a house must be approved by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, and have a dedicated haute couture atelier of at least 15 full-time employees creating at least 35 looks by hand twice a year).

Coming in the wake of Paris' Men’s Fashion Week, Haute Couture Week S/S 2025 has seen shows from the titans of Parisian fashion – among them Dior, Chanel and Schiaparelli, as well as Armani Privé and Valentino (the latter, on Wednesday, marked the much-anticipated couture debut of designer Alessandro Michele). Here, as the week concludes, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss selects the best shows of the week.

The best of Haute Couture Week S/S 2025

Jean Paul Gaultier by Ludovic de Saint Sernin

As the latest in a series of guest designers to take over Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture line (and if the whispers are to be believed, the last), Brussels-born, Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin titled his S/S 2025 collection ‘Le Naufrage’, which translates from French as ‘shipwreck’. For this once-in-a-lifetime moment, de Saint Sernin, who is known for his sensually charged garments (a recent collection saw him collaborate with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, while perhaps his signature piece is a pair of men’s underwear which laces up along the back), began by thinking about a Seal and Mylène Farmer video in which the pair are lost adrift at sea. As such, the collection, which was full of Gaultier hallmarks (from impossible corsetry to dramatically sculpted silhouettes) had a dishevelled, windswept glamour, played up by the models, who prowled the runway at the house’s longtime headquarters in a theatrical manner. A sailing ship headpiece recalled an archival Gaultier style from the mid-1990s, while an underwear-clad male model in angel wings was a nod to the house’s particular brand of camp. If the rumours that the guest designer project is to come to an end are true, it is a shame: from Simone Rocha to Haider Ackermann, the collections shown under this unique way of collaborating have brought a thrilling new energy to the house. Last night, de Saint Sernin was no exception.

Valentino

Anticipation was high for Alessandro Michele’s debut couture collection for Valentino, which was staged in central Paris’ Palais Brongniart on Wednesday afternoon (29 January 2025). ‘48 dresses, 48 lists,’ the Italian designer wrote in the hefty press notes left on attendees’ seats prior to the show, explaining that he was inspired by Umberto Eco’s assertion that the list is a tool to ‘confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe’. Here, he used the list to attempt to harness the infinite opportunities that the haute couture atelier affords a designer (the petite mains who work on the collection represent the pinnacle of dressmaking, with a near-limitless potential for creation). So as the models walked across the long black stage, a stream of rolling words and phrases ran across a screen behind them, from notes on silhouette, fabric and colour, to philosophical musings, historical figures and personal reminiscences. They allowed an insight into the way Michele had designed the eclectic, era-spanning collection, which in his dizzying style shifted between enormous flared gowns, waterfalls of tulle, and showstopping surface embellishment. In his words: ‘a constellation of visions… a plurality of interconnected worlds. Each dress is not just an object It’s rather the knot of a net of significance, [recalling] eras, cultures and echoes of past stories.’ It was a thrilling opening act.

READ: Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for Valentino

Giorgio Armani Privé

‘Creating is my reason for existing,’ said Giorgio Armani prior to his latest Armani Privé show, which marked 20 years of the couture arm of the Milanese house (the line was started in January 2005). The celebratory show also inaugurated Palazzo Armani, a sprawling new residence in Paris’ 8th arrondissement that will house the Privé atelier and studio (a more modern addition to the 19th-century building will also become Armani’s offices in the city). Presented on a pearlescent runway that snaked through the palazzo’s upper rooms (evoking a traditional haute couture salon show), the collection had a celebratory air. Titled ‘Lumieres’ for the way it was designed to catch the light, in typical Privé style it was a collection rich in surface embellishment (here, a shimmering assemblage of crystals and coloured gems), lustrous fabrications, and a fluid line that drew inspiration from Eastern dress. The 90-year-old Mr Armani – who will celebrate a slew of other anniversaries this year, including 50 years of his original Giorgio Armani label – looped the runway to a rousing ovation at the end of the show, arm-in-arm with one of his glittering model muses.

READ: Armani Privé celebrates 20 years with a glittering show staged at the house’s opulent new Paris palazzo

Chanel

Celebrating 110 years of Chanel haute couture, the Parisian house staged its latest runway show on an enormous set of undulating ramps in the centre of the Grand Palais, created by the American designer Willo Perron. From above, they recalled the house’s emblematic double-C motif, but also an infinity sign – a symbol of the house’s status as the oldest couture house still in operation, and the ‘infinite excellence of haute couture’. It also was an assertion of the fact that, despite Matthieu Blazy not commencing his much-anticipated role as creative director until later this year, that Chanel is a house which is more than able to stand on its own (here, the collection was designed by an in-house team, alongside the petites mains of Chanel’s historic couture atelier). Presented in the fresh winter sunshine – which flooded the Grand Palais space through the vast domed glass ceiling, recently renovated for the Olympics – this was a collection of lightness and youth, seeing the team embrace a bolder palette of crimson red, royal blue and purple, alongside the satisfying softness of pastel pinks, greens and yellows. The inspiration, they said, was Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s embrace of colour in the 1980s, which was highlighted in the 2023 V&A exhibition of her work (she is more readily associated with black and white). Indeed, there was something of the 1980s to the silhouettes, too, like a billowing satin cape or a bold shoulder line in the collection’s tailoring, though there was a delicacy to tweed suits edged with folds of tulle and floating organza dresses adorned with feathers. It felt like a breath of fresh air.

Dior

This season Maria Grazia Chiuri stepped through the looking glass for a fantastical collection which drew inspiration from Alice’s journey through Wonderland. It spoke to what Chiuri called a renewed freedom this season, and there was certainly something in the exploration of silhouette – largely centring on a dramatically flared crinoline waistline – which felt like a departure for the Italian designer, whose signature at the house so far has largely been more columnar, rooted in traditions of classical Greek and Roman dress. The A-line shape was derived from the house’s archive – Chiuri has often referenced lesser-known moments in Dior’s history in her collections – seeing her draw inspiration from the flared ‘Trapèze’ line that was designed for Dior in 1958 by Yves Saint Laurent (the French couturier spent a brief two years at the helm of the house after Christian Dior’s death).

It led to a series of richly adorned mini dresses with jutting crinolines that fell away into strands of ribbon adornment or were overlaid with tulle. Suggestions of flora and fauna – echoed in a fantastical show set by artist Rithika Merchant – came in delicate 3D floral motifs on featherweight ruched tulle, while open-fronted tailoring, nipped at the waist, was reminiscent of 17th-century dress. Indeed, Chiuri said the collection had emerged from obsessive research on historical fashion; the aim, she elucidated, was to ‘disrupt the order of time, taking us back to a dimension that belongs neither to past nor future, but to fashion itself and the idea of transformation associated with it’. In this hopping through eras – or, indeed, stepping through the looking glass – Chiuri felt liberated to create perhaps her richest couture collection yet.

READ: Indian artist Rithika Merchant on her fantastical show set for Dior couture

Schiaparelli

The invitation for Daniel Roseberry’s latest Schiaparelli outing was a golden feather, cast in metal, a reference to the Greek myth of Icarus, from which this season’s show took its name. ‘How high can we as couturier’s go?’ said Roseberry, using the close-to-sun allusions to create a collection that paid ode to the great couturiers of our time, among them Yves Saint Laurent and Azzedine Alaia (‘I didn’t want to copy their work; I wanted to learn from them,’ he said). Silhouette was the focus: extraordinary sculpted gowns, darting inwards at the waist and outwards at the hips, recalled the work of Charles Frederick Worth, while others flared under the chest using crinoline-like structures that bounced as the models walked (or, indeed, twirled and posed in a manner reminiscent of traditional haute couture presentations). Elsewhere, equally architectural tailored jackets – replicating the nipped-waist silhouette of midcentury couture – fell away into waterfalls of tulle, while an opera coat worn by Alex Consani was adorned with fronds of feathers and hung seductively off the shoulder.

Roseberry called the silhouettes ‘rigorous’, and there was certainly a new clarity to his vision this season, which began with a series of vintage ribbons the designer had collected from the 1920s and 1930s. Alongside inspiring the colour palette – one of buttery beiges, brown, and mink grey – they also had him considering how such objects of beauty in the past could be translated to the present day. Why, he questioned, does modernity have to mean minimalism and reduction? ‘Can’t the new also be worked, be baroque, be extravagant? Has our fixation on what looks or feels modern become a limitation? Has it cost us our imagination?’ he questioned. Instead, with this collection, he sought to hit new heights, embracing rich adornment and dramatic, over-the-top construction – a recognition of haute couture’s status as fashion’s pinnacle. ‘Haute couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality. It also reminds us that perfection comes at a price. How high can we couturiers go? As high as the sun – and the Gods – allow us.’

While January might typically be a month of piety and abstinence, we have always been proponents of embracing the new year in a more celebratory fashion. Particularly when it comes to clothing – after all, in the year’s darkest months, there is still joy to be had in dressing up.

Here, taken from the January 2025 issue of Wallpaper* – a celebration of a new era of design – photographer Dham Srifuengfung and Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes capture the best men’s and women’s looks from the Resort 2025 collections, which herald the beginning of a new year in style.

The best Resort 2025 fashion

Reflecting a wider shift in fashion, away from the quiet and the beige, the Resort 2025 collections are defined by a mood of nostalgia and eclecticism, with looks made to be mixed and matched with abandon – whether flourishes of animal print or faux fur, pussybows or neckties, or playful combinations, like a classic Dunhill tuxedo worn with MM6’s riff on the carpenter jean.

Each look comes complete with an equally sonic accessory: an assemblage of vintage music devices, from Walkmans and Discmans to dictaphones and iPods. It’s our nod to the season’s free-spirited mood: we imagine these looks as ones to pound the streets in (complete with your own soaring soundtrack) or for letting loose at your very own silent disco.

Models: Giovanna Pinho and Anick Chan at IMG, Valentin Haedecke, Raad Al Gabril and Abdallah El Farjani at Supa Management, Jamie Riselay, Kentha Kirezi and Marcello Chang at The Milk Collective, Zhou at Linden Staub. Casting: Hien Le Casting. Hair: Anna Cofone using Authentic Beauty Concept. Make-up: Faye Bluff at Of Substance Agency using Surratt. Props stylist: Haleimah Darwish. Photography assistants: Emmet Banahan, Ben McManus. Fashion assistants: Lucy Proctor, Leonie Dennett. Hair assistants: Jessica Hau, Lee-Anne Willoux. Make-up assistants: Craig Hamilton, Lily Simmonds. Props assistant: Kash. Production assistants: Archie Thomson, Ady Huq.

A version of this article appears in the January 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.

Earlier this year, Jonathan Anderson described his S/S 2025 menswear collection as one of ‘irrational clothing’ – an embrace of the strange and the unexpected, inspired by the experimental attitude towards dressing he had witnessed among young people at Primavera Festival in Barcelona earlier that summer. ‘The experimentation with clothing among younger generations is incredible,’ he said at the time. ‘The eye has changed.... people want something that is really challenging.’

Anderson is astute with a soundbite, and the idea of ‘irrational clothing’ could equally have been applied to the womenswear collections shown this past month in New York, London, Milan and Paris. By and large, there was a marked disavowal of ‘quiet luxury’, seeing restraint thrown out the window in the pursuit of the bold and eclectic. If sometimes this led to a lack of cohesion – with designers seeming to ricochet between ideas – when it was done well, it made for some enlivening fashion moments. Such was the case at Prada, where Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a freewheeling collection that paid homage to individual style, traversing Prada eras and comprising 49 near-completely different looks filled with colour, texture and shifting silhouettes. A similarly eclectic approach provided transporting collections from Valentino, Bottega Veneta, Loewe and Louis Vuitton, which were among the highlights of the season.

Here, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss unpacks the S/S 2025 womenswear shows, from an embrace of the eclectic to a new mood in tailoring, and clothing where nothing was quite what it seemed.

The season was an homage to individual style

A Prada show is usually a barometer for the season, such is the knack that Miuccia Prada has for shifting the fashion needle, reimagining the familiar in oftentimes electrifying new ways (now, she does so alongside Raf Simons, her co-creative director and another fashion soothsayer). For S/S 2025, a radical new proposition from the pair: the decision to do away with trends or thematics entirely, choosing instead to present a freewheeling and eclectic collection that celebrated individual style. It was a riposte, said Mrs Prada backstage, to the way that the social-media algorithm smooths personal style and siloes us into social-media echo chambers. ‘We are driven by algorithms,’ she said. ‘We like things because people tell us to like them.’ As such, the pair spoke about rejecting the ‘derivative and expected’ for a stream of 49 near-entirely different looks that veered between sculptural high-shine silver skirts dotted with enormous eyelets, leather dresses with BDSM hooks and elements of trompe l’oeil (there were also feathers, bug-like sunglasses, and day-glo anoraks). It made for an enticing visual feast, ‘a Prada for each individual’. ‘We thought of each individual as a superhero – with their own power, their own story,’ said Simons.

Also in Milan, Matthieu Blazy struck a similar mood at Bottega Veneta, which he described as an attempt to evoke a sense of childhood wonder (as such, the animal-shaped beanbag chairs were a reference to the scene in E.T. when the title character hides amid a closet full of cuddly toys). Blazy said that the collection began by thinking about a suited businessman taking his child to school while carrying their pink cartoon rucksack or lunchbox over his shoulder. The collection was full of such juxtapositions, seeing ‘Italian sartorialism’ clashed with playful flourishes, from tasselled wigs to blown-up tailoring and animal motifs. Like at Prada, barely two looks were the same, and it was a definitive statement that luxury fashion needn’t be discreet nor restrained – rather, it should spark joy. ‘[This collection] encompasses the joy of looking, discovering and dressing,’ the designer said. ‘Last season was maybe more contemplative. But at the same time, we need beauty. We need joy. We need this moment for ourselves, and continue to play.’ In Paris, Nicolas Ghesquière felt similarly liberated – his 1980s-infused collection seemed to recall the flamboyant, individual style of the New Romantics, albeit with the designer’s always-futuristic sheen – while Alessandro Michele opened his tenure at Valentino with a musing on beauty that was as richly expansive as his collections for Gucci (he left the Italian house in 2022). Over the collection’s mammoth 85 looks were hundreds of elements, among them ruffles, feathers, polka dots, floral motifs, wide-brimmed hats, facial piercings, ladylike handbags (sometimes worn two-a-piece) and ribbon-tied pumps. Again as at Prada, it was a bold invitation to experiment with clothing – a maxim that defined the season.

Designers reimagined the everyday

Despite its more dramatic flourishes, Blazy’s latest collection for Bottega Veneta was rooted in the idea of everyday style (‘everyday adventures’, is how he described the collection’s mood). As such, objects like the plastic corner-shop bag – here recreated in heat-pressed nylon – were elevated onto the runway, alongside bunches of flowers (woven from leather), brown paper bags (more leather), and shopping baskets (also leather). Such transformations were also applied to clothing: this season, he continued to riff on everyday garments like jeans, crumpled T-shirts and corporate tailoring, albeit in luxurious style. ‘I was interested in the simple acts of fashion that happen everyday,’ said Blazy. Demna, creative director of Balenciaga, is also known for taking disparate objects – like crisp packets, toolboxes and rubbish sacks – and turning them into fashion accessories. This season, though, Demna looked towards archetypal garments, like denim jeans, and radically altered their proportions (his version sat perilously low on the waist). Elsewhere, dresses looked as if a classic trench coat had been tied around the body, while padded jackets were reshaped to recall Cristóbal Balenciaga’s ‘cocoon’ silhouette.

At Issey Miyake, models carried shopping-style bags filled with bunches of flowers, as if on a trounce to the market, while Anderson’s latest Loewe show featured feathered T-shirts handpainted with works by Vincent Van Gogh, including Irises and Sunflowers. Reflecting the designer’s idiosyncratic approach, these were not inspired by encountering the paintings in a gallery, but by the reproductions he sees on tea towels and T-shirts while driving to work each day past the tourist markets that line the River Seine. ‘We get so used to them that they become a kind of high-low culture,’ he said, placing what he called the ‘burned-out’ images in a new context as an attempt to shift the eye. ‘[They are artworks] we are always magnetically drawn to... There’s something that we want to be part of, something, even if we don't understand it.’ The same can be said for Anderson’s collections for Loewe, which continue to intrigue.

There was a tailoring redux

Backstage after that show for Loewe, Anderson touched on the evolution of tailoring at the house during his tenure. ‘Historically, tailoring was something Loewe wasn’t good at for a long time, but I think we’ve been able to do it right, and come up with a kind of signature,’ he said. ‘Tailoring is about the subtlety of the change, and it’s taken me years to understand that.’ His proposition here was a tailored jacket with long, gently flared sleeves and baggy trousers that twisted cleverly towards the waistline. The result was roomy and generous, though the silhouette – a move from a relatively narrow shoulder line towards the more voluminous weight of the trouser – was one of louche elegance. It was proof that tailoring remains fertile ground for designers, something Simon Chilvers discussed in the September Style Issue of Wallpaper*, in regards to men’s tailoring. Womenswear, if anything, allows for even more sartorial experimentation, unrestrained by the still-conservative mores of men’s suiting.

Such experiments were in evidence across the various cities: in Paris, Victoria Beckham turned blazers inside out or sliced tailored trousers down the leg to expose the pocket lining, while another trouser shape sat away from the waistline through clever use of corsetry (in New York, Tory Burch evoked a similar effect on skirts). At Dolce & Gabbana in Milan, jackets were inserted with a Jean Paul Gaultier-inspired ‘cone-bra’ (an ode to Madonna, who sat front row and inspired the collection), while at Emporio Armani, the designer revived his 1980s suit and tie for women with a multitude of iterations of the blazer, including those folded sharply along their front. At Seán McGirr’s sophomore show for McQueen, jackets were cut to evoke the feeling that they were being grasped close by their wearer to protect them against the elements. Though perhaps the most seductive proposition for this season’s tailoring was that at Saint Laurent, where Anthony Vaccarello revived the languid, broad-shouldered tailoring of his menswear collection earlier this year – which was no doubt was inspired by Mr Armani’s tailoring of the 1980s – to evoke the wardrobe of Yves Saint Laurent himself, from a fluid black tuxedo (modelled by Bella Hadid who also wore the couturier’s famous thick-rimmed glasses) to beige and grey double-breasted tailoring.

American fashion was dissected

On the final Tuesday of New York Fashion Week was the first – and perhaps only – television debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Such was the anticipation there were fears that Luar’s runway show, due to take place that evening, would be underattended (it wasn’t: Madonna even made a rare front-row appearance), while those already travelling to London for the next fashion week leg made complicated plans to watch the debate while in the air (they managed, thanks to a BBC iPlayer live stream and aeroplane wifi). Which is to say, the upcoming election loomed large in New York, prompting a dissection of American fashion and what it represents – or what it could represent. Such was the case at Willy Chavarria’s latest show, which saw the designer present an homage to America’s immigrant communities, like those he grew up around in his home city of Fresno, California (Chavarria is the child of an Irish-American mother and Mexican-American father). He did so through riffs on uniforms: hotel managers, farm workers, and employees at electronics chain Circuit City, albeit in his distinct style, which instils a mood of elegance through abundant silhouettes and references to haute couture. ‘Given the time that we’re in – around the corner from a major election – I wanted to shine a light on the people who make this country work,’ he told Wallpaper* at the time. ‘It’s about giving, showing dignity to all of these people.’ Afterwards, guests were given a sticker to remind them to vote.

Other designers looked towards the history of American fashion: Tory Burch continued to reference figures like Claire McCardell, a pioneer of American sportswear, as inspiration for her breezy summer collection, while Tommy Hilfiger drafted Wu-Tang Clan to perform at his latest show, a reminder of the longtime synergy between his namesake label and hip hop music (the show took place on a former Staten Island ferry owned by the comedians Pete Davidson and Colin Jost). Sometimes it took an outsider’s eye: against the backdrop of the gleaming New York skyline in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Off-White creative director Ib Kamara staged his debut show in the city, in part an ode to founder Virgil Abloh’s American heritage. It made for a vivid, continent-swapping collection from the Sierre Leone-born designer, which celebrated America as a cultural melting pot. ‘I have vivid memories of what America, and New York in particular, represented in the collective imagination of Africans: a dreamland of utopias made real, a place of opportunities,’ he said. Also making his debut in New York was Belgian designer Pieter Mulier, who showed his latest collection for Alaïa in the dramatic spiralling atrium of the Guggenheim Museum, swapping from Paris for the season. Conjuring the easy glamour of figures like Charles James, Adrian and Halston, as well as McCardell, it was an exemplary collection that showed the rich potential American fashion history still holds for contemporary designers (it was a show that felt like it had been percolating since his exit from American powerhouse Calvin Klein, where he worked alongside Raf Simons, in 2018). ‘[This collection] is a celebration of an American ideology of dress, and through that of a spirit that can unite New York and Paris – of the body in motion, liberated,’ Mulier said. ‘As Alaïa always has been.’

Sometimes things weren’t what they seemed

Balenciaga’s S/S 2025 show began with what appeared to be lingerie, though on closer inspection was actually a series of nude bodysuits embroidered with bras, knickers and stockings for a playful visual trick. It captured a mood of disorientation which ran through the season, reflecting the menswear shows earlier this year. Back then, Anderson spoke about ‘things not being what they seem’ in his JW Anderson collection (inspired by the experience of hypnotherapy dredging up past memories), while at Prada the designers spoke about the idea of ‘truth and pretence, the real and the unreal’, a response, they said, to a world where these categories feel increasingly blurred. As such, the technique of trompe l’oeil – the illusion of one garment imprinted onto another – continued to be evoked by designers across women’s fashion month, from JW Anderson’s mini dresses decorated with faux buttons and zips, to printed fur collars and belts in-set into trousers at Prada. Meanwhile, at Moschino, simple white-cotton garments adorned with childlike impressions of trench coats and sailor’s scarves. A similarly illusory mood was conjured in pieces that appeared to have a life of their own – or, indeed lived a life already – whether purposely creased garments at Ferragamo, Bottega Veneta or Victoria Beckham, or dresses at Prada constructed with twisting wired seams. Set into skewiff proportions, they appeared to be leaping off the models’ bodies.

Revisit our coverage of New York, London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks.

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.

It was always going to be a moment. Nearly two years to the day, Alessandro Michele showed his final collection for Gucci in Milan, exiting the Italian house two months later. This afternoon in Paris, the Rome-born designer made his hotly awaited return to the runway with his debut collection for Valentino, a so-called ‘Pavillon des Folies’ which mused on the idea of contemporary beauty. ‘When I say beauty, I am clearly not referring to its universalistic, dogmatic and normative mythologisation,’ said Michele in a letter distributed to guests, which included longtime muses Harry Styles and Elton John. ‘I rather allude to that unique capability to deeply feel and connect with something.’

The show took place in the Dojo de Paris, a judo stadium in the 14th arrondissement on the city’s outer reaches. Transformed beyond recognition, the low-lit space featured a scattering of furniture and lamps covered with dust sheets, while the runway itself had the appearance of a shattered mirror. Of that, Michele – in typically esoteric style – said that ‘we are are fragile creatures, constantly exposed to the sense of limit… we tiptoe on mirrors that shatter under our weight… as we walk, no step comes without the risk of stumbling and falling.’ (Like at Gucci, his collection notes were more like a philosophical musing, here quoting Martin Heidegger’s concept of ‘alètheia’, Théophile Gautier and Michel de Montaigne).

Inside Alessandro Michele’s debut show for Valentino

The collection itself evoked the eclectic, romantic – and oftentimes idiosyncratic – design signatures honed at Gucci, though there was certainly an influence from the house’s archive, as well as the bourgeois dress codes of Rome, where Valentino Garavani founded the house in the 1960s. It began with the crunch of broken glass, as out stepped the collection’s first look: a ruffled-hem black dress with a white bib and bows, worn with coloured tights and heeled pumps (bows would be a motif which ran throughout). Elsewhere looks for men and women – a continuation of his co-ed approach at Gucci – spanned romantic, marabou-trimmed gowns adorned with ruffles, louche tailoring and billowing kaftan-style tops. Floral motifs and polka dots featured across the collection.

There were also moments of play and subversion: models wore dramatic facial piercings, which appeared from ears and across noses, even the chin, while a clutch bag was evocative of a china cat. Other accessories included enormous wide-brimmed hats, some with plumes of feathers, and an array of new handbag propositions. Mostly riffs on vintage, ladylike styles – whether top-handle or flap fastening and slung over the shoulder – they came adorned with the Valentino ‘V’ motif, gobstopper studs, or in mock croc. Given his success in revitalising handbags from the Gucci archive, these will no doubt prove popular.

Michele was hired to replace Pierpaolo Piccioli, who exited Valentino earlier this year. As a designer from Rome, Michele felt an apt fit. ‘My first thought goes to this story: to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder it constantly generates, to the very precious identity given with their wildest love by founding fathers, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti,’ he said on his appointment in March of this year, the latter a reference to Garavani’s longtime partner and Valentino co-founder. ‘These references always represented an essential source of inspiration for me, and I’m going to praise such influence through my own interpretation and creative vision.’

‘I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a maison de couture that has the word “beauty” carved on a collective story, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace,’ he continued. This afternoon, he made his own pitch for Valentino, placing a pursuit of beauty at its centre – a vision of otherworldly romance which is entirely his own.

valentino.com

September, so said legendary American Vogue editor Candy Pratts, is the January of fashion. Following a brief summer break after the conclusions of menswear and haute couture – which took place over June and July – Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025 arrives in New York next week on September 6 2024, with subsequent stops in London, Milan and Paris. Think of it as a new fashion term.

The schedule is now set, with a few surprises along the way. Among them, the news that Pieter Mulier will show his next Alaïa collection in the city on September 6, heralding the start of fashion month. It is over four decades since the house’s eponymous founder, Azzedine Alaïa, first showed in the American city, when he presented a collection in September 1982 to an audience which included Andy Warhol and Paloma Picasso. No doubt Mulier – who has garnered plenty of high-profile devotees of his own – will draw a similarly starry crowd. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren will show the day prior with a special show in the Hamptons on September 5. London-based label Cos has also announced a return to New York, having shown last season in Rome.

Elsewhere, it will no doubt be the season of debuts: chief among them is the much-anticipated arrival of Alessandro Michele at Valentino, who will show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Eyes will also be on Givenchy, Chanel and Dries Van Noten which – at the time of writing – are each without creative directors.

Here, everything Wallpaper* knows about Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.

Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025: what to expect

New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 (6 – 11 September 2024)

New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 will begin – unofficially – on September 5, as American fashion behemoth (and member of the Wallpaper* USA 400) Ralph Lauren presents his latest collection in an exclusive show in the Hamptons, the beachside Long Island locale which has long played host to the rich and famous. ’The Hamptons is more than a place,’ said Lauren in a statement. ’It’s a natural world of endless blue skies, the ocean, green fields, and white fences, rusticity and elegance with a quality of light that drew artists here decades ago. It has been home, my refuge and always an inspiration.’

The day afterwards, Pieter Mulier will show his latest Alaïa collection in New York, four decades after Azzedine Alaïa first showed in the city in 1982. It will be his second time showing outside of Paris – an intimate show at the designer’s brutalist home in Antwerp, Belgium took place in 2023 – and will no doubt be one of the highlights of the schedule. ’A city close to Pieter Mulier’s heart and the maison’s,’ said Alaïa on Instagram. It will be accompanied by ‘a series of exclusive moments’ which will take place in the city from 6–8 September. Meanwhile Cos – which last season showed at Corsie Sistine in Rome – will return to New York with a show on September 10 in Brooklyn. ‘New York is a dynamic city with so much character – it’s a place of inspiration, full of interesting and creative people,’ says the brand’s design director Karin Gustafson. Another new arrival is Off-White, who under creative director Ib Kamara will swap Paris for New York, showing on the afternoon of Sunday 16 (the title of the show is ‘Duty Free' and will take place at Brooklyn Bridge Park). Nanushka will also debut at the week, showing on the afternoon of September 7.

Elsewhere, expect a continuation of the Tory Burch renaissance as the designer presents her S/S 2025 collection on the evening of Monday 17, while New York stalwarts Coach, Michael Kors and Carolina Herrera will all show during the week. Wallpaper* USA 400 members Willy Chavarria and Peter Do, the latter showing his third collection for Helmut Lang, will round out the schedule, alongside rising names Zankov and Diotima. Tommy Hilfiger has also confirmed a spot on the week’s schedule, having initially been absent. He will show his latest collection at 6.30pm on Sunday 16.

London Fashion Week S/S 2025 (12 – 17 September 2024)

Beginning slightly earlier this season to avoid a clash with Milan Fashion Week (which starts this season on September 17), London Fashion Week will continue its 40th birthday celebrations with a packed schedule comprising the usual slew of energetic, emerging labels amid a smattering of more well-established names. Of the latter, Burberry will remain the chief draw for international editors visiting the city – Daniel Lee will show his fourth runway collection for the British label – while JW Anderson will present another agenda-setting collection on Sunday morning, his usual slot.

Other names showing this season are Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Erdem, Ahluwalia and Aaron Esh, alongside a new edition of London-based incubator Fashion East (participants are yet to be announced). Watch out for Derrick – Luke Derrick’s burgeoning London-based label had plenty of buzz last season for its sleek, contemporary riff on men’s tailoring – and Nensi Dojaka, who returns to the schedule after a hiatus. Feben will also return to London, having shown last season with the support of Dolce & Gabbana in Milan. Look out too for the rebirth of Kent & Curwen, with the British label having been purchased by Chinese golf brand Biem.L.Fdlkk Garment in 2023.

London Fashion Week will also have a new home this season, the central Newgen space moving from Old Selfridges Hotel back to 180 Strand.

Milan Fashion Week S/S 2025 (17 – 23 September 2024)

Milan Fashion Week will run a day longer this season, part of a re-jigging of the fashion month schedule led by Camera della Moda, the week’s organising body. ’I’m very satisfied with this synergetic effort by the four main players on the fashion circuit,’ said the organisation’s president Carlo Capasa. ’[We] had for some time been asking for an extension of the Milan Fashion Week, given its calendar of over 200 appointments.’

As such, the week will begin with Fendi on September 17, the Roman house presenting its S/S 2025 collection at 3pm (this time, the show will take place on a Tuesday, as opposed to its usual Wednesday). Elsewhere, expect a continuation of Prada’s ‘fairytale ravescape’ set which it revealed as its menswear show in June (the house’s womenswear sets usually riff on their menswear predecessors ), alongside similarly blockbuster shows from Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana and Bottega Veneta.

Absent from this season’s schedule is Tom Ford – after the departure of creative director Peter Hawkings earlier this month – and Giorgio Armani, the latter showing in New York off-schedule in October. Also currently absent are MSGM and Blumarine (David Koma will show his debut as creative director next season), while Central Saint Martins graduate Susan Fang will show with the support of Dolce & Gabbana on Sunday morning.

Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025 (23 September – October 1 2024)

No doubt the biggest moment of Paris Fashion Week will be the arrival of Alessandro Michele at Valentino, who will present his first runway show this September (the ex-Gucci creative director’s first collection for the house, titled ’Avant les Débuts’ was revealed in a surprise lookbook drop this past June). ‘It’s an incredible honour for me to be welcomed at Maison Valentino. I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a maison de couture that has the word “beauty” carved on a collective story, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace,’ said Michele in a statement issued after his appointment in March 2024. He will show on the afternoon of Sunday 29.

A number of other houses – among them Givenchy, Dries Van Noten and Chanel – are currently without creative directors. Givenchy is absent from the schedule (the new creative director will likely debut in February 2025), Dries Van Noten is slated to show on the afternoon of Wednesday 25 (it will be the first show since the eponymous creative director exited in June), and Chanel will retain its usual spot on the morning of Tuesday 1 October. An otherwise busy schedule – as has become the norm for the city – will include shows from Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Dior, Saint Laurent, Hermès and more. Balenciaga, meanwhile, will show on the evening of Monday 30, shifting from Sunday morning.

In other news, Paris label Coperni will host its S/S 2025 show on October 1, 2024 at the so-called happiest place on earth – Disneyland Paris. Founders Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer have said the collection will blend ‘magic with reality, paying tribute to the beloved Walt Disney Animation Studios movies of our childhood’. Meanwhile Ganni, the stalwart of Copenhagen Fashion Week, will shift to Paris this season, following the appointment of Laura du Rusquec, previously of Balenciaga, as CEO this past April.

Stay tuned for more from Women’s Fashion Month S/S 2025.

When Valentino CEO Jacopo Venturini spoke to Wallpaper* in 2022 about ‘The New Maison’ – the house’s then-recently introduced fashion store concept, debuting in Jeddah, Madrid, Venice and Shanghai, before larger openings in New York and Paris – he likened the approach to the process of creating an haute couture gown. ‘It’s the obsession with details, care and the intimate relationship with the client – all synonyms of couture that trickle down to the boutiques,’ he said. At the same time, he noted a desire for each Valentino address to feel like home.

‘Maison for me stands for the idea of home, a welcoming place that is associated with intimacy, uniqueness, a client-centric mindset, and inclusivity,’ he said.

’Intimacy and uniqueness’: Inside Valentino Sloane Street

At the time, it was an approach concurrent with the work of Italian creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose work was defined by a pursuit of beauty rooted in Roman classicism, epitomised by his colourful, dramatic and craft-intense haute couture collections. Since, Piccioli has exited the house, replaced by former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who will show his first collection in September 2024.

Prior to that, Valentino marks a new chapter in London this month (April 2024) with the opening of a new Sloane Street store, the latest outpost of ‘The New Maison’ concept. Seeking the feeling of intimacy evoked in the other recent openings and renovations, the store unfolds over four floors, defined by a mood of subtle but enveloping richness: red velvet couches and glimmering mirrored ceilings, ivory and white checkerboard floors in nero and Botticino marbles, and sleek black-marble displays highlighting Valentino’s glamourous array of ready-to-wear and accessories.

Entered through a white-stone neoclassical facade – an echo of the vast New York 645 Madison Avenue Valentino store that opened in November 2023 – shoppers will then enter the main ground floor space, notable for a striking red staircase which leads to the store’s upper levels. Running throughout the store are hits of red, long Valentino’s signature tone, beloved by house founder Valentino Garavani, who exited as creative director in 2008. ‘Red is Valentino’s signature colour and runs throughout; red is not just a colour. It is a non-fading mark, a logo, an iconic element of the brand, a value,’ he said.

Elsewhere, elements of classic Italian design pepper the space. Among them, B&B Italia’s ‘Camaleonda’ sofa by Mario Bellini, created in various colours and fabrications for the space. A fourth floor, meanwhile, is dedicated entirely to private clients, with the red, black and ivory space inspired by louche 1970s interior design. Valentino says this dedication to the individual is inspired by Italian hospitality, with a made-to-order service offering a selection of garments in exclusive iterations.

Valentino, 185-186 Sloane Street, London is open now.

valentino.com

And so it begins again: as the warm early days of June roll in, so too does Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025, a Europe-wide menswear tour with stops in London, Florence, Milan and Paris, seeing designers both emerging and established present their vision for the season ahead.

Beginning today (7 June 2024), the first stop is London: the relatively scant schedule, with just a handful of designers showing over the weekend, serves as sedate warm-up for crowded days of shows in the coming days (accompanied by a new culturally minded schedule of talks and exhibitions). The next stop is Florence for historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo; there, subversive French designer Marine Serre – best known for her sliced-up, upcycled garments and signature crescent-moon print – and British design legend Paul Smith will both show as guest designers. 

In Milan, British designer Martine Rose joins the schedule for the first time, alongside heritage house Dunhill, which also makes the move from London to the Italian fashion capital (both will show on Sunday 16 June). Meanwhile, in Paris, highlights will include Pharrell Williams’ latest blockbuster menswear outing for Louis Vuitton and the final show from Dries Van Noten (the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month).

Here, in an ongoing list, is everything Wallpaper* knows about Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025. 

Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025: what to expect

London Fashion Week (7 – 9 June 2024)

London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary celebrations will continue this June with the event’s summer iteration, which, as in previous years, spans shows from both mens- and womenswear designers (prior to the pandemic, it was exclusively menswear on the schedule). This season, expect a new format from the British Fashion Council-helmed event, beginning with a program of activations at the Institute of Contemporary Arts – including exhibitions, panel discussions and performances – that will focus on highlighting designers spotlighting Black, South Asian and queer cultures. Elsewhere, across London a ‘40 for 40’ schedule will see 40 designers and brands host events across the city, while Soho nightspot Groucho Club will become a ’dynamic activation space’ hosting designers both established and emerging. 

‘The new format is a direct result of the conversations we are continuously having with the BFC community,’ says BFC CEO Caroline Rush. ’We want to ensure we are recognising the business needs of our designers and providing them with a global showcasing platform which is both relevant and beneficial. This iteration of London Fashion Week is a really exciting opportunity to future-proof and innovate the UK’s fashion showcasing capabilities and highlight the city’s point of difference during men’s fashion month.’

Elsewhere, in an intimate off-schedule presentation at his Docklands studio earlier this week (5 June 2024), Craig Green held his first runway show after a two-year hiatus, a heartfelt musing on ‘sons and fathers’. Over the weekend, a handful of other designers and brands will show on the relatively scant schedule, including Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Qasimi and Denzilpatrick. 

Pitti Uomo (11 – 14 June 2024)

Each season, Pitti Uomo – a historic menswear and trade fair that takes place twice yearly in Florence, Italy – selects a handful of international guest designers to show as part of the unique line-up, which sees runway shows held in an eclectic array of venues across the city, from Renaissance palazzos to abandoned industrial lots. Recent iterations have seen appearances from Fendi, SS Daley, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Luca Magliano, while Vivienne Westwood, Raf Simons, Giorgio Armani, Jonathan Anderson and Yohji Yamamoto have all previously shown as part of the definitive menswear event.

This year (see our Pitti Uomo 106 highlights) the first guest designer is Marine Serre, a buzzy French designer known for her sporty, subculture-infused pieces, which often feature reworked deadstock garments and her signature crescent-moon print (the latter, usually adorning second-skin tops, body suits and leggings, have gained her a legion of famous followers, from Beyoncé to Rosalía). Showing on 12 June 2024, she will present a menswear collection at a location that is yet to be announced. ‘I am really excited to present my next show in Florence,’ she says. ’We’re looking forward to bringing the essence of Marine Serre to Florence, mixing craftsmanship our way, and shaking the lines of what’s expected to be, bringing imagination at the service of transformation.’

Meanwhile, British design legend Paul Smith – who has shown at the fair previously – will begin proceedings with the launch of his S/S 2025 menswear collection on 11 June 2024. The choice of Pitti Uomo to show next season’s offering comes from the British designer’s ‘reverence for tailored clothing’, he says, noting that after first appearing as a guest designer in 1993, ‘the return to Florence feels like just the right thing to do’.

Milan Fashion Week Men’s (15 – 19 June 2024)

Highlights of Milan Fashion Week will no doubt include Sabato De Sarno’s sophomore menswear collection for Gucci, where he will continue to hone his elegant new vision for the house, which draws inspiration from the insouciant style of the Italian street. The show will take place on Monday 17 June, a move from last year’s Friday spot. Prada, meanwhile, will present its S/S 2025 collection amid a typically dynamic set created in association with OMA/AMO – Rem Koolhaas unpacked the architectural practice’s 25-year collaboration with Prada in Wallpaper’s March 2024 Style Issue.

Elsewhere, there is something of a British invasion: Martine Rose will show on Sunday 16 June in her first outing in the Italian city, as will heritage house Dunhill, which showed its first collection under new creative director Simon Holloway in London this past February. JW Anderson will also continue to show its menswear collections in Milan, also on Sunday evening.

Rounding out the schedule are Italian stalwarts Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna, Armani and Fendi, while rising Bologna-based brand Magliano will return to Milan after showing as guest designer at Pitti Uomo last season. MSGM, meanwhile, will celebrate 15 years with a co-ed show runway show on the morning of Saturday 15 June. ‘In June 2009, I presented the first MSGM men's collection alongside the women's resort,’ says founder Massimo Giorgetti. ’I would like to celebrate that memory and recreate the same energy.’

Paris Fashion Week Men’s (18 – 23 June 2024)

After the announcement that ex-Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele is set to take the helm at Valentino, replacing Pierpaolo Piccioli, fans of Michele will have to wait a little longer to see his vision for the Roman house – earlier this month, Valentino confirmed that it would not present a men‘s or haute couture collection in June, saving his debut for womenswear fashion week in Paris in September.

That said, an expansive schedule awaits elsewhere: notably, Pharrell Williams will show his third menswear collection for Louis Vuitton, which follows a Western-themed outing for A/W 2024 (a precursor of sorts to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, the musician chose to wear a look from the collection for her appearance at the 2024 Grammys). His last June show, which marked his debut, saw him shutting down central Paris’ Pont Neuf for the extravaganza, while in January he erected an enormous box in Paris’ Jardin d'Acclimatation, complete with a flurry of faux-snow for the dramatic finale. His upcoming show will likely be just as social-media ubiquitous, taking place at 8.30pm on June 18, 2024. Another notable moment will be Dries Van Noten’s final show on the evening of June 22, after the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month.

Elsewhere, expect impactful shows from Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, Véronique Nichanian at Hermès, and Rick Owens, who will reveal whether the move to hosting his shows in his own Paris home – as was the case for his last mens- and womenswear shows – is permanent. Watch this space.

Stay tuned to Wallpaper.com for more coverage from Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.

Just under a week since the announcement of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s departure from Valentino, the Roman house has announced the designer’s successor: Alessandro Michele, former creative director of Gucci, who exited the Italian label in November 2022. 

Michele, who was born in Rome, was one of the names that have circulated in the days since Piccioli’s announcement; having left Gucci, he is yet to have undertaken any other role at a fashion house, and has retained a low profile. This new appointment will see Michele present haute couture for the first time, alongside ready-to-wear for men and women, and will be effective from April 2024 (though his debut will not be shown until later in the year, as part of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025).

‘It’s an incredible honour for me to be welcomed at Maison Valentino. I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a maison de couture that has the word “beauty” carved on a collective story, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace,’ said Michele in a statement issued this afternoon (28 March).

Alessandro Michele is Valentino’s new creative director

‘My first thought goes to this story: to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder it constantly generates, to the very precious identity given with their wildest love by founding fathers, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti,’ he continued, while also thanking Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Valentino’s chairman, and the house’s CEO Jacopo Venturini. ‘These references always represented an essential source of inspiration for me, and I’m going to praise such influence through my own interpretation and creative vision.’

Michele is best known for a transformative tenure at Gucci, which ushered in a new maximal aesthetic infused with a languid romance and informed by eclectic inspirations which traversed eras and cultural touchpoints. Having worked as part of the design team for two decades under Tom Ford and Frida Giannini, his first collection of menswear – originally presumed to be a placeholder role – comprised pussy-bow blouses, fur-lined backless loafers, and 1970s silhouettes and would prove an instant success. Just a year later, in its October 2016 issue, Wallpaper* highlighted Michele as a ‘Game-Changer’, in the years that followed, he went on to transform the house’s financial fortunes and dress a roster of high-profile clients, from Harry Styles to Lana Del Rey.

After his 2022 departure from Gucci, he was replaced by current creative director (himself formerly of Valentino) Sabato de Sarno.

‘For the last 12 years, as a team, we dedicated our time and resources to develop the Maison Valentino brand and business to become a world-class couture house built on the unique heritage and creativity of Mr Valentino Garavani, representing the best world of elegance and beauty,’ added Rachid.

‘The appointment of Alessandro Michele marks another pivotal moment for Maison Valentino. Michele is an exceptional talent and his appointment underlines our great ambitions for Maison Valentino. I strongly believe that with his unique creativity and sensibility, he will continue the elevation of the brand’s everlasting heritage and unique Italian maison de couture identity.’

valentino.com

Pierpaolo Piccioli, the Italian creative director of Valentino, is parting ways with the Roman house after over two decades, it was announced this afternoon.

‘Not all stories have a beginning and an end, some live a kind of eternal present that shines with an intense light, so strong that it leaves no shadows,’ said Piccioli in a statement issued by the house.

Pierpaolo Piccioli to exit Valentino

‘Everything existed and exists thanks to the people I have met, with whom I have worked,’ he continued. ‘I carry this heritage of love, dreams, beauty and humanity with me, today and forever.’

Piccioli first entered Valentino in 1999 alongside former collaborator Maria Grazia Chiuri, having previously worked in Fendi’s accessories department. A successful working relationship with Chiuri – who is now creative director of Dior womenswear – saw the pair take over from Alessandra Facchinetti in 2009, beginning a critically lauded and commercially successful era at the brand (advents like the ‘Rockstud’ accessories range became ubiquitous, and are still produced today).

Though it was Chiuri’s exit in 2016 which saw Piccioli become one of fashion’s leading contemporary voices. An astute use of colour and dramatic, abundant silhouettes – particularly in his haute couture collections – made for some of the most memorable runway shows of the last decade. Perhaps chief among them was a couture show which took place on the Spanish Steps in Rome in 2022, the first time the landmark had every staged such an event. When it came to casting, Piccioli was an avid proponent of runway diversity. He was also devoted to his atelier, with his haute couture collections seeing each dress named after the artisan who created it.

His work during his solo tenure would become a regular fixture on the red carpet and he would take home numerous awards and plaudits, including a Fashion Award for Designer of the Year. Other memorable moments included an entirely pink collection (titled Pink PP, which got its own Pantone colour), while in a dramatic shift – and perhaps in a hint of what was to come – his A/W 2024 collection (seen in our Paris Fashion Week A/W 2024 highlights), shown in February, was entirely black. It will be his last.

‘I am grateful to Pierpaolo for his role as creative director and for his vision, commitment and creativity that have brought the Maison Valentino to what it stands for today,’ said Valentino chief executive officer Jacopo Venturini said in a statement.

A successor is yet to be announced, though Valentino says his replacement will be revealed ‘soon’.

valentino.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

Valentino’s overhaul of an iconic space on New York’s Madison Avenue not only continues its refreshed design direction for investigating a site’s existing architecture, but incorporates a strong cultural element as well. The new three-floor boutique, which is best known for being the longstanding flagship space for Calvin Klein until 2019, has been transformed into a beacon of Italian style, not least from the soaring fluted columns on its neoclassical limestone facade from 1927.

Valentino Madison Avenue: a beacon of Italian style

Spread over a basement, ground floor, mezzanine and second floor, the mammoth 1,142 sq m boutique is a feast for the senses. Visitors through the grand double doors on the ground floor immediately experience the space’s monumental nature with towering seven-metre-tall ceilings and exposed steel columns juxtaposed by a statuesque green onyx display, trompe l’oeil marble carpets and sumptuous red velvet seating. Here, Valentino’s footwear and accessories are put on full display, while a separate jewel-box area clad with red velvet walls contains a taste of the label’s ready-to-wear offering.

A dramatic staircase constructed from a variety of marbles, including red travertine, white Bottinico and black Marquino leads up to the second floor, where the full women’s ready-to-wear collection is found. Defined by giant red lacquered wardrobes and an eye-catching black and white marbled checkered floor, the second floor is very much a continuation of the existing material palette downstairs for a harmonious atmosphere.

In the VIP areas, which encompass a private sitting room and dressing areas, bespoke chandeliers by Roll & Hill, chairs by the French architect Charles Zana and ceramics by Massimiliano Pipolo help to imbue a residential feel. This also extends to the men’s collection floor in the building’s basement, where a sprawling DeSede ‘Snake’ sofa from the 1970s and Mario Bellini’s Camaleonda sofas and poufs from the same era bring warmth to the space.

The New York flagship’s mezzanine floor has been dedicated to art and will present a rotating roster of local gallery presences, starting with the Magazzino Italian Art. The store’s opening coincides with an exhibition of large-scale paintings by Mario Schifano, to complete the ode to the house’s Italian identity.

valentino.com

Haute Couture Week A/W 2023 took place this week in Paris, seeing the historic medium – a couture gown is made nearly entirely by hand, for a singular client’s body – take the limelight as the city’s storied houses showed off feats of craft and imagination in the season’s most dramatic runway shows. As expected, opulent designs, showstopping show sets and a celestial front row all featured.

Alongside the titans of haute couture – namely Dior, Chanel, Valentino, Fendi, Schiaparelli and Giorgio Armani Privé – there was also a new generation pushing the boundaries of the medium. Among them, American designer Thom Browne who held his first-ever haute couture show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his eponymous brand, Paco Rabanne creative director Julien Dossena who was this season’s guest designer at Jean Paul Gaultier, and Demna, who continued his subversive take on haute couture at Balenciaga. 

Here, Wallpaper* rounds up the best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2023. 

Haute Couture Week A/W 2023: the highlights

Fendi

A sense of fluidity defined Kim Jones’ latest haute couture collection for Fendi, featuring elegant draped silhouettes and supple fabrications. ‘This season, we wanted to concentrate on the achievement of fluidity, drape and shape through couture techniques, bringing these elements together with the attitude of today,’ Jones said, noting that inspiration also came from artistic director of jewellery Delfina Delettrez Fendi’s first high jewellery collection. ‘We worked on a template based on Delfina’s high jewellery. If there is no jewellery, the idea is still present through the colour palette and embellishment in the collection; the clothes themselves take on the idea of jewellery,’ continued Jones. ‘Colours come from flesh tones as well as that of stones: black diamonds, rubies, sapphires. There is a play of soft and hard, flesh and stone.’ It lent the collection a feeling of intricacy and rarity: skilled pattern cutting meant several of the garments only had a single seam, while shearlings were cut with delicate Fendi chevrons. The final flurry of looks which closed the show – each accessorised with a ‘jewel box minaudière’ – were perhaps the most vivid expression of craft, their shimmering palettes taking over 1000 hours of handwork. 

Valentino

Pierpaolo Piccioli transported guests to the grounds of Château de Chantilly, a dramatic country home 50 miles north of Paris destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the late 19th century. The Italian creative director titled the show ‘Un Château’, calling such French mansions and castles ’formerly emblematic of notions of elitism and status’ ready to be ‘analysed, questioned, then redefined’. It was a metaphor, he continued, for the art of haute couture, a historic medium which in recent seasons has seemed ripe for reinvention. Not least in the hands of Piccioli, whose tenure so far has been defined by an inclusive, democratic approach which has sought to meld both salon and street (last season’s haute couture show drew on transgressive nightclubs of the 1980s and 1990s). Here, he noted he was thinking about simplicity: Kaia Kerber in a pair of haute couture jeans and white shirt hammered home a desire for reduction. So too diaphanous white gowns which hovered across the body (‘draperies freeze fabric in motion,’ said the house), shimmering monastic capes, and sharply sliced opera coats worn louchly over gowns and tailoring. Of course, the show was not without the liberated flourishes of glamour for which Piccioli is known: giant flowers bloomed around the model’s heads, feathered fronds emerged from opera gloves, while waterfall earrings were studded with gobstopper jewels. ’Simplicity is complexity resolved,’ read a quote from sculptor Constantin Brancusi on the collection’s notes, providing Piccioli’s mantra for the season.

Balenciaga

‘A tribute to pursuing perfection,’ said Balenciaga of Demna’s latest haute couture collection for the house, presented in the historic salons of 10 Avenue George V. The soundtrack – a reworking of a rare a cappella recording of Maria Callas by musician BFRND using AI techniques and deemed by Demna as ‘sonic couture’ – set the tone for the collection itself, which melded nostalgic gestures of glamour with futuristic technique and a razor-sharp eye for silhouette. As such, a version of an original Cristóbal Balenciaga design (worn by Danielle Slavik, the couturier’s preferred model in the late 1960s) opened the show – black, with velvet flowers and an integrated pearl necklace – providing what the house called a connecting link between ’the past and the present’. 

Subversion, as ever, was central: upside-down sculptural tailoring saw V-neck shaped necklines evoke the hems of archival Balenciaga jackets (the men’s blazers, meanwhile, appeared to be Prince of Wales check wool but were actually Japanese denim), while trompe l’oeil linen garments were hand-painted to appear as fur or snakeskin (the oil paint brushstrokes take up to 280 hours to apply). A slew of extraordinary eveningwear closed the show: actress Isabelle Huppert in a dramatic black gown hand-stitched with shimmering paillettes, Eva Herzigova in a sculpted bustier dress studded with 10,000 individually applied crystals, or artist and house muse Eliza Douglas in a gown-cum-suit of armour. ‘Making clothes is my armour,’ said Demna of the latter, which was CAD-designed, 3D printed and polished with chrome – a spectacular expression of the boundless possibilities of contemporary haute couture.

Giorgio Armani Privé

‘A carnal, seductive, mysterious bloom of red roses,’ described Giorgio Armani of his latest Privé collection, the haute couture arm of the Italian house which shows twice yearly in Paris. As such, the flower appeared across the collection as breathtaking embellishment – whether delicate corsages, rose-red embroidery, or a dramatic cape of red organza blooms – while its synonymy with sensuality and femininity emerged in diaphanous tailoring, elongated gowns or millefeuille layers of transparency. Mr Armani also noted a journey from ‘west to east’ – a reflection of his Emporio Armani menswear collection shown last month in Milan – notably, finding inspiration in the period when Art Deco flourished in China and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. Such motifs appeared across the collection’s closing looks, like a series of shimmering crystal pieces adorned with pagodas, blossom and kabuki-style masks. 

Chanel

Virginie Viard took to the banks of the River Seine for a Chanel haute couture collection she called a ‘portrait of a sensitive yet bold Parisienne’. ‘If we’re in Paris and this time we're in Paris itself, on the quayside. The street and the colourful paving stones call for both sophistication and simplicity,’ said Viard. Such contrasts – the sensitive and the bold, sophistication and simplicity – defined the collection, juxtapositions that Viard said were at the heart of the continuing ‘allure’ of the Parisian woman and her dress codes. ‘Playing with opposites and contrasts, with nonchalance and elegance, is like standing on a line between strength and delicacy, which, at Chanel, is what we call allure,’ she said. As such, musician Vanessa Paradis became the season’s muse, imagined in elongated tweed overcoats cut with a masculine fit, narrow pinstripe trousers and two-tone Mary Jane shoes. A contrasting femininity came in organza and lace dresses adorned with strawberries and blackberries, ruffled blouses and baskets filled with fresh flowers. ‘Handing down emotions, bringing the most unlikely elements together, doing things your own way, just dreaming,’ concluded Viard. 

Thom Browne

A new addition to the week, Thom Browne hosted his inaugural haute couture show at Paris’ Palais Garnier to celebrate his eponymous brand’s 20th anniversary. It was a natural fit for the American designer, whose ready-to-wear runway shows – presented alternatively in New York and Paris – have long demonstrated the sense of theatre synonymous with haute couture, as well as an intricacy of construction (often, he begins with classic tailoring, exploding it into bold new forms). Entering through Palais Garnier’s backstage area, guests took their place on the theatre’s stage before the curtain rose and revealed an auditorium full of cardboard cutouts clad in the classic Browne’s signature grey suit and sunglasses. ‘For one night only,’ said Browne of the collection, which saw him riff on the preppy American uniform ‘through the lens of haute couture’. As such, striped ties and grey suiting, evocative of collegiate uniforms, became trompe l’oeil designs on expansive wide-sleeved gowns, while flush-to-the-body knee-length latex socks recalled American sportswear. Layers of taffeta, intricate nautical embroidery and the final bridal look, meanwhile, recalled the abundance and handcraft of historic haute couture. Browne said he was imagining a traveller sitting in a station watching the world go by; as such, pebbled leather luggage, weekend bags, and a blown-up version of Browne’s dog-shaped Hector bag completed the look.  

Dior

Surrounded by a set designed by Italian artist Marta Roberti – an ode to goddesses and the divine female – Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest outing saw the designer weave a line between past and present with a collection which explored the relationship between couture and the body. ‘Couture evolves according to a liturgical rhythm, where the past is integrated into every beat of the present,’ she said via the collection’s accompanying notes. ‘In the atelier, there are no paper patterns, as the sketched form is morphed into a dress in the image of the imprint, embracing the body’s singularity.’ In a serene palette of white, beige, silver and gold, there was a reduced, near-ecclesiastical beauty to the collection’s looks. Jackets were pleated to recall ‘classical statues and the fluting of columns’, gowns and overcoats had caped overlays, while elements of richness – a demonstration of Dior’s historic haute couture atelier – ran throughout, from delicate pearls and rich brocades to tassels and shimmering embroidered flowers. 

Schiaparelli

Daniel Roseberry said that he looked towards the art world for inspiration for his latest Schiaparelli haute couture collection; each look, he said, was influenced in some way by an artist, spanning 1920s to present day. ‘I wanted to make an impossible wardrobe – impossible not because it’s not wearable, but because it’s so extraordinary, a Surrealist’s interpretation of a woman’s essential closet. There’s a sense of freedom, of disobedience,’ he said, citing artists spanning Salvador Dalí, Lucian Freud, Henri Matisse and Sarah Lucas as informing his thinking this season. As such, the collection had a liberated, eclectic feel – looks were created just days before the show by instinct, rather than meticulously planned for months in advance as in previous seasons – where collars expanded into seemingly impossible sculptural forms, garments were stacked with trinkets or shards of broken mirror, or gowns came in enormous, duvet-like proportions (one was made from a mosaic of 12,000 hand-painted leather rectangles). Sprays of blue paint, edging up models’ necks or across the face, meanwhile, nodded to the work of Yves Klein. ’Going into the unknown, when creative expression and fame feels available to any and all, at least for a moment, we wonder: what can break through?’ said Roseberry. ‘For our maison, it is the power of design, the power of our artisans, and the power of the human hand at work.’

Alaïa

An emotive Alaïa show began with a personal WhatsApp message from Belgian creative director Pieter Mulier. ‘To meet all together on the bridge, just before sundown, when beauty spreads in the city, and colours expand infinitely. Time will tell, always,’ it read, referencing the show’s location – the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge, which crosses the Seine from the 1st arrondissement to the 7th. A musing on temporality – ‘giving time, taking time, less time, timeless,’ began the accompanying notes – the collection itself infused 1940s silhouettes with the contemporary frisson of sensuality which has defined Mulier’s tenure at the house so far. Prim high-waist pencil skirts, buttoned-up dresses, and belted trench coats were reimagined in semi-sheer latex, while accessories spanned pillbox hats, wide waist-cinching belts and leather gloves and handbags, grasped to the chest. As ever, a series of astounding silhouettes showed off the near-unparalleled skill of the Alaïa atelier and nodded towards the work of the eponymous house founder, whether body-contouring semi-sheer gowns which revealed corsetry beneath – a play on the ‘bombshell’ silhouette – or the diaphanous final looks, where intricate folds of fabric emerged from the cuff or hip. ‘On a bridge – between the Maison Alaïa’s origins and its present – figures cross in perpetual motion,’ said the house. ‘Their march set against the eternal human backdrop of an ever-ticking clock – the sound of time, yet also the rhythm of life.’

Stay tuned for more from Haute Couture Week A/W 2023.

Paris Fashion Week A/W 2023 took place in the city this week, its arrival marking the end of a month-long fashion tour that has previously seen stops in New York, London, and most recently, Milan. 

Long synonymous with style and craft – Paris is home to the historic ateliers of storied maisons like Dior, Saint Laurent and Givenchy – the city hosted shows from both established houses and rising names, from home and abroad. 

This season came complete with designer debuts (Ann Demeulemeester and Nina Ricci both have new creative directors in Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Harris Reed respectively), runway returns (Alexander McQueen returned to Paris after showing in London and New York in recent seasons; Paco Rabanne and Y/Project also made a return to the womenswear season) and rising names, like Vaquera, Ester Manas and Weinsanto, which brought new energy to the week.

Alongside were new collections from the wide gamut of designers and houses that have long called Paris Fashion Week home – Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Saint Laurent, Loewe, Hermès, Valentino, Givenchy and Miu Miu among them.

Here, the best of Paris Fashion Week A/W 2023.

Paris Fashion Week A/W 2023: the highlights

Y/Project

Closing Paris Fashion Week for the season, Belgian designer Glenn Martens – who showed a sexually liberated collection for Diesel earlier in the month in Milan – said his latest Y/Project collection had been informed by George Frideric Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga, which he had been listening to throughout its creation. In particular, he picked out the line ‘let me weep over my cruel fate, and let me sigh for liberty from the choral aria, which for him captured not simply pain, but ‘serenity and solemnity’ – words the designer chose to describe the collection itself, which reflected the emotion of the collection’s soundtrack (in English, Lascia ch’io pianga translates to ‘let me weep’). ‘We decided to try and do something beautiful,’ said the designer after the show, describing a continuing focus on technique; here, that emerged in intricately layered denim jackets (the appearance was that of a concertina), sheer gowns over which frayed denim spiderwebbed with the elegancy of traditional embroidery, and intricate hook-and-eye fastenings. Of course, elements of subversion – for which Martens is known – remained, notably in the evocation of Lars Von Trier‘s 2009 erotic horror Antichrist (Lascia ch’io pianga runs over the movie’s prologue) in sliced-up pornographic screenshots which adorned garments throughout.

Miu Miu

Miuccia Prada said that her latest Miu Miu collection was about ‘ways of looking’. ‘I am always interested in how people look at things, their consideration… why people are attracted to certain ideas, why others repulse them,’ said the designer of the collection, which was presented with a starry cast that included musician Ethel Cain, Zaya Wade (daughter of Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union in her runway debut), and actors Mia Goth and Emma Corrin. The latter walked the runway – a raised platform ‘to aid observation’ which ran through the Palais d’Iéna space – in a pair of crystal knickers and a beige turtleneck jumper, setting something of a blueprint for the collection which combined the banal (marl grey hoodies, knit sweaters, classic overcoats) with frissons of glamour and subversion. Like the Miu Miu-branded hosiery which peeked above the waistband of mid-length skirts (some looks saw cardigans tucked into tights for a playful take on layering), or sheer polka-dot dresses which were purposely rumpled and allowed glimpses of underwear beneath (rumpled too was the hair, which was lightly dishevelled, while round tortoiseshell glasses and handbags carried in the crook of the hand lent an eccentric, bookish air). Touches of adornment came in flowers stitched onto sheer knit cardigans and skirts. ‘[This collection is about] how fashion and fashion design can change perceptions, of things we think we know,’ Miuccia Prada added. ‘It’s an invitation to reconsider.’

Chanel

The camellia is a perennial emblem of Chanel, a flower beloved by house founder Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel after purportedly being inspired by a performance of Alexandre Dumas’ La Dame Aux Camélias (she began by wearing silk versions of the flower; later, it would feature in her designs and in the decor of her home). A blown-up version of the flower – which has come to represent a feeling of simplicity and purity intrinsic to the house – appeared in the centre of the show set for Virginie Viard’s latest ready-to-wear collection at Grand Palais Ephémère (a real version appeared on attendees’ seats). ‘The camellia is more than a theme, it’s an eternal code of the house,’ said the designer. ‘I find it reassuring and familiar, I like its softness and its strength’. As such, the camellia adorned several of the collection’s looks, whether woven into the house tweed and adorning an overcoat, blooming across handbags and tailoring as a 3D embellishment or recalled in the plumes of white feathers which emerged from a knitted jumper and skirt. Viard said the collection had a feeling of romance, evoked here not just in the floral motifs, but in the generous asymmetric cut of overcoats and dresses, flouncy skirts and shades of pink which recurred in the latter half of the collection. More masculine elements – wide lapels, elongated and oversized overcoats – provided a counterpoint. ‘The faded colours, the dusky pink, the crafted pieces, the touches of 1960s and 70s, a certain English vibe, the comfortable, enveloping coats, the authentic materials, make the collections more real, and more charming too,’ said Viard. 

Louis Vuitton

‘What is French style?’ was the question Nicolas Ghesquière posed with his latest collection for Louis Vuitton. Staged in the gilded salons on the upper floors of Musée d'Orsay – a former train station and landmark of Beaux-Arts architecture – the space was interrupted with a starkly contemporary set by French artist Philippe Parreno in collaboration with Hollywood set designer James Chinlund (last season, they created a vast ‘monster flower’ for Ghesquière’s previous show at the Louvre). Here, their spiked black runway – its surface recalling paving stones or cobbles – featured a number of speakers, creating a series of immersive ‘sound illusions’ by Academy Award-winning composer Nicolas Becker as the show went on. From honking car horns and clacking heels to the sounds of aeroplanes overhead, it was meant to evoke the feeling of being on a Parisian street – an apt setting for Ghesquière’s exploration of the ‘ineffable magnetism’ of French dress codes, which he said was ‘paradoxical... sophistication with a dilettante’s air’. Indeed, in Ghesquière’s typically expansive style, the collection captured the insouciance and elegance of French style – thrown-on tailoring, cocooning overcoats, ladylike handbags and gloves – opposing a feeling of effortlessness with extraordinary feats of craft (in particular, intricate beading, embellishment and jacquards, which recalled the traditions of Parisian haute couture). Jolts of futurism, a hallmark of Ghesquière’s work, appeared throughout – like a pair of light-up glasses (evocative in shape of a welder’s mask) or the sculptural shape of the collection’s gowns. ‘The maison is a vessel sailing through time, guided by the winds of savoir-faire, technique, discovery and artistic ideals,’ said the collection notes. ‘The French touch never fails to captivate.’

Valentino

Pierpaolo Piccioli titled his latest collection ‘Valentino Black Tie’ – an exploration, the Italian designer said, of the perennial dress code. Here, his desire was to liberate it of connotations with strictness: ‘an instruction can become an invitation… archetypes can be re-imagined, and a power in the familiar can come from its rediscovery in a new context’, he said via the collection’s notes. The nexus of the collection was his teenage daughter, who had recently raided Piccioli’s wardrobe for a suit and tie, which she then wore for an evening out with friends. This mood of experimentation informed the collection’s looks, all of which featured a literal black or white tie: whether worn with a classic buttoned-up white shirt, tucked under a striped jumper or over a draped red dress. As ever, dramatic flourishes of embellishment and craft ran throughout the eclectic collection – comprising both mens- and womenswear – from the usual feathered plumes (adorning a jacket or sprouting from a pair of military-style boots) to cut-outs, shimmering paillettes, or the thousands of crystals which decorated a sheer, robe-style gown towards the end of the show. ‘Signifiers are re-appropriated, transforming into different garments,’ said the house. ‘The tie is untied, unfettered, sliding between the form language of clothes, between day and evening.‘

Akris

Akris continued its celebration of 100 years in business with a show titled ‘A Century in Fashion Part II’ (last year at the Palais de Tokyo the brand presented the opening part with a collection interspersed with archival designs). This time, creative director Albert Kriemler looked towards a formative decade, the 1970s, with a collection which sought to capture the era’s liberatory spirit. ‘An unexpected find in the archive, three boxes of 1970s paper patterns, made me think of a woman’s new sensibility towards freedom of movement and freedom of choice to celebrate the second act of Akris’ 100 years,’ said Kriemler in a statement. In particular, he recalled the year 1972, when his father Max Kriemler stopped making the aprons for which the Swiss brand was originally known and opened an atelier for women’s tailored suits and coats. ‘[He] brought Italian menswear masters and their knowledge of double-face to us. He felt there was a need for change… [for] the woman who moves, a woman with a voice.’ As such, tailoring and outerwear were a focus: whether a raglan-sleeve tweed overcoat, nipped-waist double-breasted or three-button suiting (the latter in golden pearlised suede) or the array of 1970s-tinged shearling coats that sat alongside. Another reference to the era came in the collection’s prints: a 1976 floral motif by Zurich-based silk company Abraham, found in the Akris archive, was reworked throughout. 

Balenciaga

After the house’s advertising scandal in November 2022, creative director Demna said that his latest collection for Balenciaga sought a feeling of reset – a return to his own lifelong love affair with making clothes (a note from the designer recalled having a pair of trousers fitted by a neighbouring tailor as a child; the collection’s invitation was a selection of pattern pieces used to construct a tailored jacket). In opposition to the usual theatrics that have previously surrounded his shows – last season saw a vast pit of mud through which models trudged – the space in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping centre was the neutral colour of toile, a simple twill fabric used to create a sample garment. ‘Fashion has become a kind of entertainment,’ the designer said. ‘But that part often overshadows the essence of it, which lays in shapes, volumes.’ As such, the collection riffed on elements which first brought Demna to prominence at both Vetements and Balenciaga: off-kilter tailoring (here, oversized tailoring had belt loops along the hem, as if cut from a pair of trousers), warped silhouettes (a biker jacket sat high and hunched on the shoulder; other pieces appeared as if a chest plate was being worn underneath), and elements of subversion and kitsch (jeans appeared like another pair had been sewn on top; high-heeled ‘tight’ shoes gave the appearance models were walking on tip-toes). It ended on a stream of couture-level gowns, richly embellished and with amplified rounded shoulders. ‘In the last couple of months, I needed to seek shelter for my love affair with fashion and I instinctively found it in the process of making clothes,’ he said. ‘It reminded me once again of [its] amazing power to make me feel happy and truly express myself. This is why fashion to me can no longer be seen as entertainment, but rather as the art of making clothes.’ 

Lanvin

Bruno Sialelli said that his latest collection was a return to ‘the joy of making, of discovery and rediscovery’. It spoke to a wider mood this season of designers eschewing theatrics in favour of considered design and craft; in the collection notes, Sialelli evoked the words of Swedish-American sculptor Claes Oldenburg as an explanation of sorts. ‘Making things, what fun,’ reads the extract, taken from Oldenburg’s 2012 ‘Still Life Exhibition’. ‘An ordinary grey shelf, that occupies a wall of the studio, lay me in the shelf and let the thirsty eye decide, each one a description of ingredients that have attracted me.’ The collection itself was a reflection of Sialleli’s own preoccupations, his ‘thirsty eye’: elements inspired by the 1940s and 1980s, a rich array of fabrications (velvet, devoré and wool gazaar all featured), and moments of embellishment, like delicate crystal flowers which adorned languidly glamorous dresses. ‘The collection is a rediscovery of French elegance and exuberance,’ said the house. ‘The very soul of Lanvin.’

Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton marked her return to Paris Fashion Week with an in-the-round collection which the designer said drew on the idea of anatomy – ‘human anatomy, the anatomy of clothing, the anatomy of flowers’, each one rooted in the history of the brand, and perennial touch points for its founder Alexander McQueen. It figured in an exploration of tailoring, a series of pin-sharp silhouettes which infused the classic black suit with elements of subversion: Naomi Campbell opened the show in a corseted tailored jumpsuit in black wool barathea (first developed for men’s mourning clothes in the mid-19th century), wide-leg tuxedo trousers came with built-in heels (‘heeled trousers elongate the leg: the bumster in reverse,’ said Burton), and a sleeveless bustier dress had a double-breasted fastening, meant to evoke an upside-down suit jacket. ‘The foundations of fashion, cut on the body and inspired by the body within… the classic subverted, turned inside out and upside down,’ Burton elucidated. Elsewhere, the designer looked towards the evocative shape of the orchid, its form adorning trench coats and dresses, and providing inspiration for the dramatic silhouettes of the intricate ruffled and beaded gowns which closed the show. ‘The most prominent motif in the collection is the orchid, in its rarer forms cultivated but, after the daisy, the most common flower,’ said Burton. ‘It thrives in the air, resists being rooted and grows in the wild. Extraordinarily beautiful and infinitely adaptable, the orchid mimics both predator and prey. In the language of flowers, the orchid is a symbol of love.’ 

Ann Demeulemeester

Ludovic de Saint Sernin said that his debut collection at Ann Demeulemeester – the brand originally founded by its namesake in Belgium in 1985 – was an exploration of ‘authorship and autobiography’, a literary analogy that the young designer extended to the collection’s looks. Each one, he said, ‘was a heartfelt sentence… ideally written with a quill, or a feather: a detail Ann loved.’ Indeed, the feather appeared in the collection’s opening look; crafted from leather, it doubled as a narrow black bra top that ran across the model’s chest (a white version closed the show). The idea of exposure has been explored in Saint Sernin’s work at his eponymous label – he will often feature underwear, or entirely sheer garments, in his collections – here melded with riffs on Demeulemeester’s archive for a stripped-down take on the brand infused with ‘sensuality, silhouette, ambiguity’. ‘Writing a letter is always about the sender just as much as it is about the receiver. It’s an encounter, an exchange,’ said the designer of the anticipated debut. ‘It’s an intro, a preamble, and as such, to be continued.’ 

Hermès

Sensuality infused Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski’s latest collection for Hermès, which she noted was about attempting to capture a feeling of warmth – a mood echoed by the show space, carpeted in deep orange, which had a cocooning effect. The collection began with the designer thinking about hair (Vanhee-Cybulski had cut her own red locks into a bob since last season), particularly in the palette, which spanned shades of red (‘amaranth, falun and fire’), copper, brown, gold and ‘blond’ beige. Oftentimes, these colours made up the entirety of a look  – ‘enveloping and warm, monochrome silhouettes unfold in their winter tones,’ said the collection notes – all the way down to the accessories, including the over-the-knee square-toed boots and satin riding caps which recurred throughout. A rich coalescence of texture defined the collection: shearling overcoats had been cleverly trimmed to give the appearance of fur, beautiful belted trench coats were cut from alpaca wool, while gently shimmering lamé knits lent a subtle glamour. The collection closed on a slew of plissé dresses – perhaps the collection’s highlight – which draped elegantly across the shoulders and sleeves. It made for a collection that spoke to Vanhee-Cybulski’s innate understanding of the intimacy of clothing – one not unlike the relationship one has with their hair. ‘From lanyards to tresses, the clothes come alive, bobbing and flowing with the suppleness of locks of hair.’

Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood

An intimate salon-style presentation – attended by the brand’s close circle of friends, muses and family – marked the first show since the death of Vivienne Westwood in December of 2022. The designer’s inimitable presence was felt throughout the collection’s looks, which saw husband Andreas Kronthaler draw on memories of her life – in particular, her roots in the north of England (Westwood was born in Tintwistle, near Derbyshire; a private funeral was held there in January). ‘In everything we show, I thought of you and where you came from,’ said Kronthaler, who presented garments rich in Westwood-isms – slashed-away tartan, Rococo-style prints and brocade, corsetry, crinolines, tweed tailoring and petticoats all featured in  Kronthaler’s usual eccentric amalgam. Of the latter, he said: ‘petticoat skirts were your absolute favourite… I’ve made some for you, all different, so pretty, so girly, so really woman.’ In an emotive gesture, Westwood’s granddaughter, Cora Corré modelled the collection’s final look: a white lace bodice worn with a pair of tiny sparkling devil horns and a typically towering pair of platform boots. ‘You once said to me that you can take everything away, just leave me my platform shoes because one can’t do without them,’ Kronthaler said. ‘Maybe the most important thing you ever taught me was to put the woman on a pedestal.’

Loewe

Jonathan Anderson’s latest show took place on the eastern edge of Paris in Château De Vincennes, a grand royal residence first built as a fortress in the 12th century and known as a place of sanctuary thanks to its fortified walls. Within those walls, a vast white box had been erected in the central courtyard providing the show space; inside, more boxes in various colours by Italian artist Lara Favaretto, compressed blocks of confetti created in the same process as stomping grapes to make wine. Such was their construction, each came with its own guard – should they be touched, they threatened to disintegrate entirely. 

If not intentional, such a frisson – construction versus deconstruction, perfection and collapse – seemed an apt metaphor for Anderson’s work, which has long teetered on such boundaries. Recent collections at Loewe and JW Anderson have seen a move from surrealism to reductionism in an attempt to distill the essence of his work into its purest form; this season, the designer said, continued this movement with a collection that captured ‘an idea of elementality: one piece, and that’s it, reduced to the bluntest shape possible’. White shift dresses – cut with blunt precision – were printed with blurred Gerhard Richter-style apparitions of other garments from previous seasons (‘a memory that fades or returns’); other pieces had a trompe-l’oeil effect to appear creased or distorted (like one fitted cardigan, which after the show Anderson revealed was actually a sticker). Vivid simplicity defined others: a doll-like flared mini dress came in moulded leather, classic V-neck sweaters and cardigans with gently warped silhouettes, while other garments appeared like a piece of fabric had been picked up and held onto the body by its wearer. ‘[I was thinking about that] childhood thing of wrapping yourself up in a duvet,’ he said.

‘It’s the idea of looking at realities – that in the room it looks like one thing, then we have an audience online that sees it a different way,’ Anderson explained of his pursuit for visual clarity. ‘I think it’s about: how do you get newness when you go in store? It’s my greatest obsession at the moment – how do you make collections that are not for right now but in six months? How do you reinforce a language but not get trapped by a language that you built?’

Victoria Beckham

The invitation for Victoria Beckham’s sophomore Paris show – presented once again in the cloisters of Val-de-Grâce church – featured a photograph of actress Drew Barrymore in a silk head scarf from the brand. The look, Beckham said, was a contemporary reimagining of Barrymore’s role as Edith Bouvier Beale (‘Little Edie’) in the 2009 movie Grey Gardens, based on the 1975 documentary of the same name – an exploration of the eccentric, reclusive lives of Bouvier Beale and her mother, two relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The reference, Beckham said, was a perennial influence on her work; here, she said it was the ‘unpredictable glamour’ of Little Edie which inspired a collection rooted in a new eclecticism for the brand, one of ‘deconstruction, customisation and subversion’. As such, the opening looks featured dresses in a collage-like assemblage of pleats and adorned with feathers (later, these same feathers reappeared as a ghostly print in a final series of looks), while other gowns featured elements of faux hair emerging from their hemlines – a nod, Beckham said, to Brazilian artist Solange Pessoa, who utilises human hair in her works. Deconstructed tailoring, meanwhile, was ‘raw and hacked up’, revealing the process behind its construction for a ‘figurative expression of the brand’s artisanal evolution’. ‘I really wanted to celebrate the art of dressing and how clothes are truly transformative,’ said Beckham. ‘The way [Grey Gardens] has been interpreted in the collection is very considered. The result is an eclectic, elegant and sophisticated character, as seen through a modern Victoria Beckham lens.’

Kiko Kostadinov

A typically eclectic outing from sisters Laura and Deanna Fanning began with research on antique underwear – undershirts, petticoats, knickerbockers – the ‘hidden layers’ which provided the support for women under historical gowns and mantles. Here, these tropes were melded with the Fanning sisters’ eye for off-kilter silhouettes and unexpected colour combinations (in part derived from Kiko Kostadinov’s work at the menswear arm of his eponymous label) for a collection they called ‘a veritable floriège of the unfamiliar, both tough and tender’. Henley-style T-shirts – reminiscent of undergarments – were cut with a wavy layered hem trimmed with narrow ruffles, while a profusion of plissé tulle lent romance to skirts and slip-style dresses, as well as adorning what the duo called ‘stovepipe flares’ (their layered form lent them the feeling of a cargo pant). Accessories provided playful adornment: a ‘bowling/driving/ballet shoe pastiche’ paid ode to Formula One driver Lella Lombardi, while the signature Trivia bag (a recurring street-style staple) was reimagined as both a larger chain bag and miniature charm wallet – no doubt satisfying the brand’s growing legion of devoted followers.

Issey Miyake

An intricately folded square of paper lay on each attendee’s seat at Théâtre du Châtelet, the location for Satoshi Kondo’s latest show for Issey Miyake. The gesture was a nod to the collection’s roots in the shape (its title was ‘The Square and Beyond’), using it as a starting point for a typically innovative exploration of form and silhouette. ‘The collection engages with this rational shape and explores beyond to develop garments of striking, unconventional forms,’ the Japanese brand elucidated. As such, compositions of squares appeared as a printed motif across the collection’s asymmetric, irregular garments, while other pieces saw the square rooted in their construction, like repeating checks which were formed in a process of ‘intentional shrinkage’ giving a raised, three-dimensional texture. ‘Progress, turn and bend, meet up, break off, skip, repeat, extend, expand, and rest,’ an accompanying piece of text said of the season’s experiments. ‘Forms and colours, released from the canvas, now speak of freedom with no limit.’ 

Schiaparelli

Since his installation as artistic director of Schiaparelli in 2019, American designer Daniel Roseberry has successfully modernised the historic Parisian house with haute couture collections that connect Elsa Schiaparelli’s surrealist preoccupations with a contemporary sensuality (they have also gained him a phalanx of high-profile celebrity fans). Yesterday evening marked the designer’s first ready-to-wear outing for the house, ‘a long-planned and critical step in our ongoing revival of Elsa’s house’, said Roseberry.

Seemingly working in reverse, the vastness of his last couture show was swapped for an intimate salon on Place Vendôme with less than 200 guests in attendance (traditionally, haute couture is shown in such a close-knit setting; ready-to-wear tends to be presented in larger spaces). It spoke to a desire to retain the feeling of exclusivity associated with the historic house; indeed, the construction of the various garments – the curved line of an overcoat sleeve, the intricacy of a boned corset, golden embellishments of surreal eyes and noses – would not look out of place in Roseberry’s haute couture outings (and, with prices purportedly in the several thousands, ready-to-wear here is by no means mainstream). Nonetheless, it offered an expansive vision for the house, encompassing denim, padded jackets and tuxedo-inspired tailoring, all with the suggestion of 1980s excess. ‘A wardrobe, yes,’ said Roseberry. ‘But a Schiaparelli wardrobe.’

Rick Owens

Recent seasons have seen Rick Owens look towards the ‘vastness and scale’ of Egypt, where the American designer now spends his winters. ‘Measuring the insignificance of contemporary discomforts against that amount of history comforts me,’ he says of its appeal, taking this season’s collection name from the ancient city of Luxor. It follows the brand’s A/W 2023 menswear collection of the same name shown earlier this year; then, Owens noted there was a ‘bitterness’ to creating a collection as the war continued in Ukraine, though adding that it was fashion’s responsibility remain stalwart and do its ‘sombre best’ in the face of crisis.

The women’s collection had a similar mood: ‘Times like these might call for a respectful formality and sobriety with moments of delicacy as reminders of what is at risk and at stake,’ the designer said, remarking ‘how inspiring dignity in the face of aggression can be’. As such, the collection had a brutal glamour, models towering above attendees on an industrial metal runway that snaked through one of Palais de Tokyo’s interior wings (platform heels were typically vertiginous). The clothes, Owens said, were reduced to ‘the simplest of shapes’: bulbous pads of leather which wrapped around the body, knit dresses sliced to above the thigh and elongated on the sleeves, or sculptural puffer jackets adorned with pink or black sequins (another dress was covered in hundreds of dangling sequins, giving the appearance of feathers).

The soundtrack comprised a new song by Canadian musician Peaches, who became a muse of sorts for the season, at least in spirit. ‘The graphic sexuality in her intelligent lyrics over tight brutal electronic beats helped make a generation of feminist women singers revel in as much sexual control as had been traditionally held by their male musical counterparts,’ said Owens. ’Her scrappy resistance and ferocity is an example more relevant than ever.’

Givenchy

Matthew M Williams continued to hone his vision for Givenchy with a collection that sought the same feeling of clarity captured in his last menswear show in January (the optic-white show space suggested a similar feeling of reset). In that show, Williams talked of a ‘new formality’ which he traced back to Hubert de Givenchy; here, the American designer once again looked towards the house founder and his ‘principles of elegance’. In practice, this made for ‘silhouettes from the past but adapted for the present’: a nipped-waist tailored jacket, for example, might become an abbreviated dress, satin overcoats cut wide across the shoulder for an oversized silhouette, elegant full-length gowns reimagined in contemporary fabrications – from sliced-down-the-front raw-edge leather to sheer body-skimming organza in electric shades of pink and green. Streetwear continued to infuse the collection – its influence, Williams said, was part of ‘the dialogue between Parisian chic and American cool’ that he has noted in recent seasons – in idiosyncratic layers of sweat pants, beaten leather skirts and kilts, some adorned with D-rings and studs. It was likely Williams’ most complete womenswear offering yet, encompassing the ‘confidence, comfort and empowerment’ that the designer said he wanted to capture this season. 

Chloé

Gabriela Hearst said her latest collection for Chloé drew inspiration from Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, a female Baroque painter who was commissioned by the echelons of European society in the 17th century (a landmark exhibition of the convention-defying artist’s work opened in October 2020 at London’s National Gallery). ‘I will show you what a woman can do,’ Gentileschi was quoted as saying on the collection notes, a spirit which informed Hearst’s outlook for the season, embracing the ‘imperative need for women’s stories’. As ever, this was interwoven with the designer’s concerns for the climate, arguing that an increase in women leaders would give new innovation and energy to the field. In keeping with the season’s muse, Hearst noted a Renaissance influence to the silhouettes – a series of tunic-style gowns came with bell or flared sleeves and narrowed at the waist as if held in place by a bodice – here reimagined in black and white, lending a contemporary clarity to the reference. In keeping with Hearst’s sustainable credentials, a low-impact wool gauze was utilised throughout – its ‘ethereal quality a subtle statement of feminine power’ – while other fabrics drew inspiration from Renaissance architecture and highlighted the craftsmanship of the Chloé atelier, like trousers created from an intricate lattice of leather braids or degradé black satin diamonds appliquéd onto wool.

Acne Studios

For his latest Acne Studios collection, creative director Jonny Johansson was thinking about the forest – albeit in the Swedish brand’s typically idiosyncratic style. The show space, created by set designer Shona Heath, evoked the inspiration with a surreal forest of trees adorned with shimmering crystals and strange blooming flora (Johansson said he tasked her to create a space which captured the way a forest is ‘always changing, growing and transforming’). The collection itself reflected the ‘brutal magic’ of the forest and its lore, with elements of distress or decay (several of the pieces had frayed or sliced-away seams), crochet floral adornment and a recurring leaf motif, or the earthy palette, punctuated with ‘toxic’ yellow and pink, rusty orange and a vivid blue reminiscent of Heath’s set. ‘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,’ said Johansson. ‘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. ‘ 

Paco Rabanne

Julien Dossena marked his return to the womenswear schedule – previously he has chosen to show his collections for Paco Rabanne during haute couture week – with a collection which paid tribute to the eponymous house founder who died in February this year aged 88. In particular, Dossena looked towards the friendship between Rabanne and Salvador Dalí – ‘two Spanish visionaries linked by their radical expression… worlds that were at once magical, mystic and mysterious’. As such, the collection featured a series of works by the surrealist artist (with the participation of Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí), here printed across sliced-away gowns; while motifs reminiscent of his works (like a torn open pomegranate, or a golden telephone) also appeared throughout. Elsewhere, Dossena presented a rich amalgam of texture and embellishment: whether the hairy wool lining of a floor-length overcoat (the appearance was that of fur), shimmering tinsel, or leather melded with the house’s signature diaphanous chain mail. The final five looks were archival creations spanning five decades of Paco Rabanne – a testament, Dossena said, to the late designer’s continuing legacy. ‘These dresses signal the innovative craftmanship that will always define the timeless and totemic women of Paco Rabanne.’

Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten’s latest collection came with the simplest of inspirations: ‘the love of clothes… the intimate, tender moments between a garment and its wearer.’ It is an approach which has long defined the Belgian designer’s oeuvre, which has largely eschewed theatrics in pursuit of considered clothing made to exist in the wearer’s wardrobe for decades to come. Though not without gestures of unabashed beauty – Van Noten works with an artist’s eye for colour, form and adornment – figured here in a series of evocative juxtapositions:  ‘large-scale gestures mixed with a focus on the small details… the precious and rarefied with the raw and unrefined,’ as the collection notes described. As such, there was a faded grandeur in layers of washed silks, patchwork brocade, or the raw and undone seams (one floral skirt and dress with hanging threads appeared as if viewing a tapestry from its underside), a contrast to the languid simplicity of the silhouette. ‘The pleasure of fabrics and the life they take on over the years, cherished, used, repaired and given new meaning for today,’ said the house. 

The Row

The considered elegance of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row extended all the way to the pre-show refreshments: plates of broken-up dark chocolate and piles of pears, each one tipped with a drop of red wax on the stalk. The collection itself – presented in a largely unadorned 18th-century mansion on Rue des Capucines – continued to distil the designers’ vision of discreet luxury, figured here in silhouettes which cocooned the body (scarf- and poncho-like adornments recurred through; overcoats were gripped closed in the hand; tailoring was cut with roomy proportions). A sense of glamour came in wrapped off-the-shoulder black dresses and leather opera gloves, while brief flashes of red and orange interrupted the otherwise restrained palette. 

Courrèges

Courrèges creative director Nicolas Di Felice said his latest collection ‘emerged from the curved stance of a body cloaked over a screen’. Indeed, in a now-viral moment from the show – which took place in an optic white box, misted with fog and brightly lit – the first model walked the runway whilst scrolling on an iPhone. The hunched gesture, Di Felice said, informed the collection’s curved silhouette, with garments ‘projecting [their] volume outward to shield the body from the world’ (as such, expansive leather jackets and outerwear were cut wide at the shoulder, their weight tilting slightly forward as if bent over a phone). Soundtracked by a disembodied voice repeating ‘is the sky blue?’, the collection had an air of futuristic ritual in monastic hooded sweaters which cloaked the body and a series of elongated column gowns, worn with vast circular jewellery beneath. ‘A ceremony of light and enlightenment… lighting the way to the other within ourselves,’ described the accompanying notes. ‘Through the dark, through the smoke and mirrors, I see you.’

Saint Laurent

From 1975 to 2001, Yves Saint Laurent showed his haute couture collections on a raised runway in the gilded ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris; yesterday evening, the house’s current creative director Anthony Vaccarello recreated the space, albeit in a vast constructed showspace on the Trocadéro. ‘Making the reference newly relevant, Vaccarello has taken symbols of the opulent period – striking bronze chandeliers and a uniquely shaped runway – and inserted them into a radically contemporary black-box setting,’ said the house. It provided an apt metaphor for Vaccarello’s tenure at the house, which is defined by drawing elements from the Yves Saint Laurent archive and reimagining them in his own sharply contemporary style. This season, in lieu of a specific inspiration point, Vaccarello instead looked to continue to hone what he called ‘the essence of classic Saint Laurent style… a potent mix of precision, emotion and reticence’.

It made for a severity of cut and silhouette – the opening pinstripe skirt suit came with enormous padded shoulders for a dramatic shape which was reiterated throughout (‘it all starts with this gesture’) – combined with flourishes of glamour, like sweeping blanket-like scarves, pussy-bow collars, and heavy golden bangles and cuffs. A feeling of ‘emotion’, Vaccarello said, emerged in a ‘dissolution of gendered exclusivity’, with archetypically masculine garments (the tailored blazer, the tank top, the leather bomber) embedded into his woman’s wardrobe, while the use of pinstripe, tartans and glen plaids took ‘on a timeless femininity thanks to a striking lightness’. As is typical of Vaccarello’s work, a feeling of sensuality infused the collection; plunging tank tops, sheer hosiery and chiffon layers explored ideas of concealment and exposure. ‘The Saint Laurent woman exposes her body when she desires and conceals it if she feels like it,’ said the house.

Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri conjured a mood of femininity for her latest Dior collection, which was backdropped by a vast kaleidoscopic artwork by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos (the carnivalesque work featured lace, embroidery and crochet and was inspired by flowers in the Dior archive; it continues a tradition of Grazia Chiuri collaborating with women artists on her show sets). ‘A re-reading of the 1950s,’ described the house of the collection itself, which begun with Grazia Chiuri looking back to mid-century designs from the house; in particular, she focussed on three women who have become archetypal of French style: Catherine Dior (house founder Christian Dior’s sister, and purported inspiration behind the enduring ‘Miss Dior’ fragrance), Édith Piaf and Juliette Gréco. Each, she noted, subverted feminine dress in their own way; in the collection, this figured in ladylike silhouettes – nipped-waist gowns, flared calf-length skirts and blouses – released from constriction and imbued with new lightness (a feeling of gentle dishevelment came in creased and mottled finishes). The flower also recurred throughout, inspired by Catherine Dior – who sold and traded flowers after her time as a resistance fighter in France during World War II – here reimagined in hazy floral prints and delicate embroidery. ‘At once strong and fragile,’ described the house. ‘This Dior collection is the very signature of a femininity that goes against the grain.’

Stay tuned for more from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2023.

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s tenure at Valentino has been defined by flights of craft and imagination; an astute use of colour; a pursuit of beauty which finds its roots in the Roman house’s beginnings in couture dressmaking. 

A new fashion store concept – titled 'The New Maison’ – epitomises this approach, which has launched in Jeddah, Madrid, Venice and Shanghai, before arriving in Paris, New York and other international locations in the coming year. It has been conceived in a collaboration between Piccioli and Valentino CEO Jacopo Venturini, the vision of which is revealed this week. 

‘A New Maison’: Pierpaolo Piccioli and Jacopo Venturini on Valentino’s new store concept

‘[We wanted] a store concept that was authentic and embodied what the brand is today,’ Piccioli exclusively tells Wallpaper* of this new approach to retail design. ‘A brand that does not change its codes and its identity, but that needs to translate the values of couture into a language connected to the spaces, architecture and design of the store.

‘The concept represents Valentino’s identity as a maison de couture with an interior design which reflects the house’s artisanal approach – an expression of our Italian heritage and savoir-faire,’ he continues. ‘It is an evolution, facing the times we are living in. Physical stores are spaces where you have to portray your company identity.’

Adds Venturini: ‘Maison for me stands for the idea of home, a welcoming place that is associated with intimacy, uniqueness, a client-centric mindset, and inclusivity. Couture, instead, represents mastery, care, creativity, one-on-one relationships, and obsession with details.’ 

Of this artisanal approach, ‘The New Maison’ will centre around distinct elements of craft, undertaken by international craftspeople. These might include Massimiliano Pipolo’s handmade ceramics (which feature in a special film to coincide with the project, The Artisans, which can be watched below), Fabio Cinti’s geometric compositions in brass, or chandeliers by renowned French mobilier Alexandre Logé in sculpted plaster. Furniture includes Mario Bellini’s recognisable 1970-design ‘Camaleonda’ sofas for B&B Italia – here in new bespoke tones – as well as rugs by Milanese carpet-maker Golran.

‘The maison comes from couture, but also from all the stories of the people that have contributed to its success,’ says Piccioli. ‘It was important not only to translate this into a space that represented the richness of couture, but to convey couture as an experience, uniqueness and care. [It is why] there is the craftsmanship of artisans such as Pipolo – who created the doorknobs – or Cinti, who created the brass shelves where the accessories are on display.’

On redesigning the retail experience, Piccioli notes the importance of ‘Italian hospitality’ – ‘a more intimate and experiential approach to make people feel engaged’ – as well as noting that the shopping experience is one dictated by emotion. ‘The same level of values and uniqueness [as our runway shows] needs to be represented in the stores. The fashion show is of course the highest level of image and of the emotion raised within the audience, but we need to have the capacity of translating the same emotion within the store, without creating a predetermined language that weakens it.’

’By conceiving an intimate space with a homey feel, we wanted to put the client at the centre – similar to how one does when entertaining guests add home,’ says Venturini. ‘It’s the obsession with details, care and the intimate relationship with the client – all synonyms of couture that trickle down to the boutiques. The store becomes a place of dialogue, a community for a heterogeneous clientele from longtime loyal clients to new fans.

‘As we continue to evolve the brand towards an increasingly human- and client-centric approach, embracing a more intimate retail dimension and immersive experience, we wanted a store concept that reflected this new vision.’

Piccioli has often cited the importance of individuality in his output for the house; his recent A/W 2022 collection was crafted in the same shade of pink (a new Pantone shade, Valentino Pink PP) in an attempt to highlight the individual personalities of the wearer (other collections have featured models of various ages and body sizes). He hopes that these new stores – each tailored to their location – have a similar feeling of uniqueness.

‘There are no predetermined rules [to the new concept], but rather rules that are rewritten every time in a different way, while maintaining the characteristics which make the spaces familiar,’ he says. ’Each store becomes a new home and an intimate place to welcome individuals, placing human connections at the heart.

‘What I like about our house – because this is how I consider Valentino, a real house – is its consistency with the past that does not preclude evolution. We inhabit the contemporary while staying true to our past, with no nostalgia – only passion.

‘The new store concept sets a phase for a new beginning and widens the culture of couture around the world.’

valentino.com

‘Forever Valentino’, a new exhibition in Doha, Qatar, marks the Italian house’s most comprehensive exhibition yet, leading viewers on a colourful journey through Valentino past and present with over 200 pieces which span its beginnings in 1959 to the current tenure of creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. Held at M7, Msheireb Downtown Doha’s design hub, it also coincides with the continuing birthday celebrations of house founder Valentino Garavani who turned 90 this past May.

‘The title of the exhibition says it all. Forever,’ Piccioli tells Wallpaper*. ‘The value of maison Valentino is timeless, it reveals its authenticity by constantly evolving. 60 years of this experience were made possible by the work of a couturier named Valentino Garavani, whose vision is still meaningful for today. Our conscious heritage has always moved forward, towards the future and the complexity of humanity. This balance moved my aesthetic idea of the exhibition, which is a perspective, not a retrospective, an act of love.’

’Forever Valentino’ at Doha’s M7 hub

‘Forever Valentino’ is curated by artistic director of the New Museum New York, Massimilano Gioni and fashion critic Alexander Fury, in collaboration with Piccioli. The panoramic installation – featuring mannequins by La Rosa, known for its made-in-Italy recycled and sustainable designs – features both recognisable and rarely seen pieces, designed over the years for Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Zendaya, among others. Valentino’s home city of Rome is a particular focus, evoked in the exhibition’s scenography, but also in the pieces themselves which trace the house’s roots in Romanesque design, architecture and la dolce vita.

‘The legacy of Valentino Garavani – and therefore the meaning of Valentino – is to celebrate beauty, in all its incarnations, from every walk of life and every period of time,’ adds Fury. ‘That noble quest, that ceaseless search for and celebration of beauty to better the world is, for me, Forever Valentino.’

The collaboration comes as part of Qatar Creates, a year-round cultural movement aimed at championing arts, culture and fashion in Qatar led by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, sister to the Emir of Qatar, who is tasked with boosting Qatar’s cultural programmes. Earlier this week, the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize 2022 also took place in Doha, celebrating young fashion talent from the MENA region, for which Piccioli was a judge.

Forever Valentino runs at Gallery 1 and 2, M7, in Msheireb Downtown Doha, from 28 October 2022 to 1 April 2023.

valentino.com

Before there was Valentino ‘PP’ pink – the Pantone-official shade that made up the majority of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s A/W 2022 collection and has been a red-carpet fixture ever since – there was Valentino red, the favoured hue of house founder Valentino Garavani, who turned 90 on 11 May 2022. 

‘Red is a colour that is not shy,’ said Garavani, who has been dubbed ‘the last emperor of fashion’ since his retirement from the house in 2008. Immortalised best in Deborah Turbeville’s seminal photographs of Valentino’s 1977 couture collection – whereby a millefeuille crimson gown emerges amid a sea of women in black – the colour came to symbolise Garavani’s bold approach, sensual and theatrical at once (the designer said the lifelong obsession came from watching a production of Carmen in Barcelona as a child, which had an all-red set).

It is fitting, then, that a new exhibition to mark Garavani’s 90th birthday takes place at Teatro Sociale di Voghera, a dramatic 1842-built theatre found in Italy’s northern Pavia region (until 5 June 2022). Taking over the theatre’s circular auditorium – which was renovated in 2018 after nearly three decades of disrepair – visitors will discover works from the designer’s 50 years at the helm lining the various balconies, spanning the 1960s to the 2000s. On the stage itself is a collection of dresses in Valentino red from across the archive, ‘an anthology of styles that have each been able to embody the spirit of their time’. 

‘It is a metaphor in which Valentino’s women are both actresses and spectators, without differences, all belonging to a global vision that represents a total idea of beauty and femininity in which each subject is on the same level,’ says the brand of the show’s site-specific design. Alongside the archival clothing, various pieces of ephemera are also on display, from studies, sketches and drawings, to newspaper clippings and photographs that ‘depict the time in which the clothes made their debut’.

Garavani’s birthday celebrations continue next month with the release of a special hoody, the proceeds of which will go towards his namesake foundation, Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti (the limited-edition piece is able to be pre-ordered now). A simple black design, it is adorned with one of the designer’s famed quotes, written in Valentino red: ‘I love beauty, it’s not my fault’

INFORMATION

‘Maison Valentino’ at Teatro Sociale runs from 11 May to 5 June 2022.

valentino.com

A literary mood pervaded the A/W 2022 runways – whether American author Ottessa Moshfegh writing a short story to accompany Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s latest Proenza Schouler collection, or at Valentino, a 40-page pink-hued invite created in collaboration with cult Generation X author Douglas Coupland, there was a distinct sense that reading was the activity du jour this season.

Released today on World Poetry Day, the latter house’s new series ‘Narratives II’ continues this literary project, inviting some of the world’s most celebrated authors to submit an original piece of writing which is then laid out into colourful text-only campaign images, evoking – as Valentino describes – ‘a polyphonic conversation, a common quest of building a multi-vocal community’. The 17 participants range across genres and countries, and include Amia Srinivasan, André Aciman, David Sedaris, Leïla Slimani, Michael Cunningham, Murathan Mungan and Mieko Kawakami, among others. Coupland also returns with an extract titled ‘Unopened Mail’.

The loose theme of the project is love ‘in all its forms and meanings’, with each short extract spanning various mediums – some are brief aphorisms, like Slimani’s ‘we all die unknown, but if we have loved, if we have devoted our hearts to another, even for a moment, our lives have counted’, others miniature short stories or fragments of poems, others simply surreal gatherings of words. Valentino said it hoped each writer would ‘experiment in freedom of genre’.

Alongside the campaign, the house will also continue to support independent bookstores in association with Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss’ book club Belletrist, from McNally Jackson Books to Brooklyn’s Café Con Libros – a project first started in the original Narratives campaign, which launched in April of last year (Valentino cites ‘a proactive approach to “giving back” to the community, and the places where literature dwells’). The campaign itself will appear papered across the streets of Soho, New York, as well as in other cities around the world.

The Narratives series continues an ongoing and ever-expanding link between Valentino and the literary world, which first began in 2018. In the years since, projects have included Valentino On Love, featuring contributions from Mustafa The Poet, Greta Bellamacina and Yrsa Daley-Ward, a scholarship for new writers in collaboration with novelist Tomi Adeyemi, and a 2020 campaign by photographer Liz Johnson Artur, accompanied by original words from Bernardine Evaristo, the Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other. 

INFORMATION
valentino.com

The Middle East has become a territory of prized interest for luxury Western labels. In November 2021, Dior’s roving retrospective ‘Designer of Dreams’ exhibition opened in Qatar’s capital Doha, the first show inside the design and cultural hub M7. The same week that month, Valentino presented its debut 15-piece Haute Couture Abaya collection, while Virgil Abloh presented his first museum exhibition in the MIddle East, ‘Figures of Speech’, at Doha’s Fire Station. Brands including Giorgio Armani have touched down in Dubai to present celebrity-studded runway shows. Last week, Boss relocated its Milan Fashion Week show, in favour of a see-now-buy-now show in the desert surrounding the skyscraper-lined city. 

For Italy-based label Taller Marmo – known for its lighter-than-air satin kaftans and asymmetric gowns, that ripple with fringes and ostrich feathers, attracting modest and maximalist dressers alike – its Euro-UEA evolution took place in reverse. Back in 2012, the brand’s two founders, Argentine Yago Goicoechea and Italian Riccardo Audisio, dropped out of the Istituto Marangoni in Milan where they met, disillusioned with their academic studies and the frenetic cycle of the fashion system. The duo decamped to Dubai, with zero design experience and having never interned for another label, where they began creating fluid kaftans, inspired by the jet set style of the 1960s and 1970s, the louche hedonism of Old Hollywood, and the sophistication of Sophia Loren.

Taller Marmo: timeless style for modest and maximalist dressers alike

‘We put our pieces in garment bags and went into the top store selling black abayas and kaftans for Emiratis, asking if they wanted to sell our designs,’ Goicoechea says. The owner said, “OK, let’s try!” We put together our company after selling a couple of units in that first boutique.’ In 2015, the label won the prestigious Woolmark Prize India, Pakistan and the Middle East regional final. ‘It was interesting representing Dubai as an Argentinian and an Italian,' Goicoechea says. ‘But that’s really the spirit of Dubai.’ 

Taller Marmo relocated to Milan in 2016, a decision based on a desire to build its wholesale business. ‘We sold all our furniture,' Goicoechea laughs. ‘Within two weeks of our decision we were back in Italy.’ The label now operates with a small team, is stocked by luxury retailers including Harrods, Matchesfashion and Browns, and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, has seen a staggering eight-fold increase in sales. When it comes to the label’s kaftans – which make up approximately 60 per cent of Taller Marmo’s business and are imagined for Resort 2022 in tropical floral satin jacquard and lime satin moiré – Goicoechea aligns their success with their inherent relaxed elegance. ‘They are very comfortable, but can still look very dramatic,’ he says of the pieces. The collection also includes frothy feather-trim mini dresses and skirts and trousers festooned with fringes.

The brand's success aligns with its focus on key pieces that are tweaked or reinterpreted each season – belted, open-back, draped or created in a new fabric or colourway –  instead of indulging in endless clothing categories. 

‘We consider ourselves more dressmakers than fashion designers,' Goicoechea says. ‘We don't see ourselves that related to the industry itself. We don’t just want to make the hottest or trendiest thing.’ 

Sustainable sneakerheads, rejoice! Prada and Adidas, Chloé, and Valentino Garavani have released low-impact sneakers that use biomaterials, recycled waste, traceable supply chains, and more to ensure that your sneakers are a bit more friendly to the earth they’re walking over. 

Prada and Adidas

Two fashion titans come together to create one great sneaker in this latest launch from Adidas and Prada Re-Nylon. The new, low-impact sneaker sees the iconic Adidas Originals Forum style reimagined in Prada’s groundbreaking Re-Nylon fabric, which is made from recycled ocean plastic and textile waste and can be infinitely recycled. 

Even better? These more sustainable sneakers also come with a detachable Prada mini-pouch just big enough for storing your keys or spare cash. 

prada.com

Chloé

Chloé’s new ‘Nama’ sneaker reflects the brand’s invigorated commitment to environmentally conscious production practices under the leadership of its recently appointed, sustainability-focused creative director, Gabriela Hearst. 

The ‘Nama’ sneaker’s hand-stitched, recycled mesh top is complemented by Leather Working Group-certified suede accents and an ultra-lightweight platform base. By tracing everything from the product’s raw material extraction to its production, Chloé has calculated that production of the ‘Nama’ emits 35 per cent less greenhouse gases and consumes 80 per cent less water than its predecessor, the ‘Sonnie’ sneaker.

The end result is an eye-catching pair of kicks that reflect the brand’s sustainable ethos and its joyful, laid-back aesthetic. 

chloe.com

Valentino Garavani

Valentino Garavani's classic ‘Open’ and ‘Rockstud Untitled’ sneakers have received an environmentally aware update courtesy of the brand’s new ‘Open for a Change’ project. The more sustainable sneakers are made from bio-based eco-leather and a partially recycled rubber sole, while even the laces are made from recycled polyester, and the brand’s trademark studs are crafted from recycled nylon. 

Emblazoned with ‘Open for a Change’ on the side, the new sneakers herald the launch of the brand’s initiative to explore more sustainable materials and techniques in its future designs.

valentino.com

Expedition-worthy, chunky and bold: take a hike with the most wondrous women’s winter boots. When it comes to protective shoes for styling out colder snaps, we recommend something thick soled, rebellious, and ready to wear anywhere. Intrepid inspiration was a focal point of the A/W 2021 catwalks; just look to brands such as Valentino Garavani, The Row, and Khaite which all propose styles that riff on the golden age of alpinism, the statuesque spirit of tractor soles, and bring a modernity to the mountaineering silhouette.

Women’s winter boots: Khaite

The 50mm of these Khaite Chelsea boots gives the silhouette an elevated elegance. Sumptuous suede and contrasting white stitching are also two covetable details that will dial up your winter dressing.

net-a-porter.com

Valentino Garavani

Valentino Garavani celebrated the beauty of the rose for A/W 201. Here, the bloom’s petals make for a gloriously tactile finish, festooned across the upper of these thick-soled ankle boots.

matchesfashion.com

Rick Owens

These tractor-soled Rick Owens boots convey a don't-mess-with-me confidence. Their caramel hue emulates autumnal tones, but will carry you right through into spring.

brownsfashion.com

Hereu

Spanish brand Hereu’s chunky Chelsea boots have an artisanal appeal: just look to the woven vamp of this ‘Alda’ style, which is wondrously tactile to touch. 

matchesfashion.com

The Row

A style that is perhaps best saved for journeys that involve shorter walks, should you wish to retain the boots’ pristine hue. These chunky-soled beige boots are bold in their light shade – we recommend pairing with white denim for monochromatic magic.

net-a-porter.com

Bottega Veneta

Italian label Bottega Veneta’s modern interpretation of hiking boots brings together nylon and leather. These chunky boots fasten with laces imagined in the brand’s signature parakeet green.

net-a-porter.com

Grenson

There are 200 stages to the process of crafting Grenson’s Northamptonshire-made designs. Take a walk in the brand’s ‘Nanette’ hiking boots, which emulate heritage styles worn for alpine adventuring.

brownsfashion.com

Following the opening of the ‘Re-Signify’ exhibition in Shanghai last year, Valentino is unveiling the second chapter of the multimedia experience, this time in Beijing’s SKP South’s T-10 exhibition space. 

Like its predecessor, ‘Re-Signify Part Two’ is curated by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli around four pillars of Valentino’s identity – Haute Couture, the Atelier, the Stud, and the VLogo – and this year will feature an additional room dedicated to Valentino’s newly launched beauty line.

The exhibition juxtaposes objects from Valentino’s archive that exemplify these pillars alongside the work of 18 contemporary artists, including Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Gioele Amaro, Robert Müller, Liu Shiyuan, Cheng Ran, Shen Xin, Xu Wenkai, Amkk, Jonas Mekas, Yeesookyung, Nick Knight, Jacopo Benassi, Pajama, Robert Del Naja, Wu Rui and Alessandro Teoldi.

The result is an immersive dive into the brand’s creative lexicon, from its own iconic symbolism to its external contemporary influences. More broadly, it is also a thought-provoking examination of two topics that have long fascinated the maison – the role of clothing in contemporary culture and the impact of the modern city on our consumption of fashion. 

Take, for instance, two works by the renowned Chinese artist, and recent Wallpaper* contributor, Cao Fei. Her Cosplayers (2004) creates a digital world populated with people in ‘cosplay’, or video game and comic book costumes, and examines the transformative power of clothing and the line we draw between clothing and disguise. 

Also on show is the artist’s Haze and Fog (2013), which uses the vernacular of horror cinema to create a magical city in which people and zombies co-exist. 

In a similar vein, Cheng Ran’s Diary of a Madman is a multi-video installation that distorts depictions of the West’s most documented city, New York, to create a disorienting vision. The work is set alongside four looks of the ready-to-wear Valentino Act Collection, with a drastic black colour palette and punk-inspired aesthetic that complements the gloomy atmosphere created by Cheng’s work. 

Another notable inclusion is the Nick Knight installation Valentino of Grace and Light, which sees various Knight photographs projected onto a range of archive and newly designed Valentino Haute Couture dresses. The result is a new, dynamic look at the Valentino oeuvre that blends the physical and the digital to, in the words of the brand, ‘produce an estrangement that is fascinating and… dreamlike’.

Through these works and more, visitors to ‘Re-Signify Part Two’ will encounter an intriguing interplay between the symbology of an iconic fashion house and the work of contemporary artists. Resulting, perhaps, in a new perspective on the function of clothing in our contemporary society.

INFORMATION

Until 7 November 2021, valentino.com

Physical fashion shows were back with a bang across New York, London, Milan and Paris. Here, we present the best runway sets and venues that stole the show for S/S 2022, from Saint Laurent's womenswear spectacular under the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower, to Prada’s cross-continent and time-zone spanning set up. 

Best runway sets, S/S 2022 womenswear

Dior

Adding to the roster of female artists she collaborates with, womenswear artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri teamed up with octogenarian Italian artist Anna Paparatti on a board game-inspired show set. At the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, a runway was formed from a circle of colourful flooring panels set at various levels, and a backdrop boasted artworks resembling dartboards and roulette wheels, recalling Paparatti's 1960s artworks, which alluded to the absurdities of life.

Givenchy

For his first physical runway show for Givenchy, Matthew M Williams took guests to the Paris La Défense Arena, the largest indoor performance venue in Europe, on the outskirts of the French capital, with a stark, art gallery-inspired show set. Here, Williams bathed his guests in the glow of a cinematic sun, by suspending a monumental oculus from the ceiling of the vast space.

Valentino

Celebrating the café culture of Paris, so enjoyed by many guests for the first time in 18 months, Valentino installed rows of wicker dining seating at its Carreau du Temple venue, alongside a vibrant flower stall. The Roman house's show also spilled inclusively onto the streets outside the expansive indoor location, where models strutted and posed in front of diners and drinkers, seated at the city's inviting bistros.

Prada

Talk about a time zone-spanning, continent-crossing runway show. As guests in Milan installed themselves into Prada's regular Deposito venue at the Fondazione Prada, a location lined with geometric blocks of seating, so another audience was getting comfy at Shanghai’s Bund One. The two shows began simultaneously, and were live-streamed onto screens at both locations, with guests taking in models, in physical or digital form, sporting satin dresses and slouchy leather outerwear that riffed on notions of sexy. (Read more about OMA/AMO and Prada’s 25 years of show sets.)

Saint Laurent

After show films set on sprawling sand dunes and icy glaciers, Saint Laurent returned to its signature Trocadéro location in Paris, illuminated by the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower. Here, models walked across a vast runway in lean and seductive silhouettes inspired by Paloma Picasso, lit up by an industrial wall of spotlights. At the show's finale, a waterfall flooded the catwalk, a stunning feat of nature slap bang in the middle of the city.

Moncler MONDOGENIUS

The label staged its latest Moncler Genius collections as part of an immersive phygital live-streamed event spanning five cities: Milan, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and New York. In Milan, guests watched from a film studio location, as host Alicia Keys appeared IRL, interacting with Shanghai host Victoria Song via a huge screen, and presenting 11 collection films, which were showcased one by one. 

Loewe

Stripping back Loewe’s new show space at Paris’ La Garde Républicaine of ‘bits and bobs’, creative director Jonathan Anderson wanted his S/S 2022 Loewe venue to resemble a ‘blank piece of paper’. This concept allowed the silhouettes in the collection to take centre stage. Here, they entered the stark, pine-swathed show venue from a trapdoor in the ground, a twist on how the viewer usually takes in forms from the feet up.

Hermès

No one cemented the sense of escape served up on the S/S 2022 catwalks more than Hermès, which had a private plane land on the tarmac of its Le Bourget airport show location, an hour from Paris. Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski also worked with French artist Flora Moscovici, who created a series of 6m-high abstract panoramas, drenched in sunset tones, which moved as models navigated a circular show space, sporting easy but infinitely luxurious summer silhouettes.

Rejina Pyo

The London-based designer made a medal-worthy splash for her S/S 2022 womenswear show, transporting guests to the Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre in Stratford. Here, the audience lined the Olympic venue's swimming pool and at the show's social media-flooded finale, members of the Team GB divers made dramatic twists and turns into the water below.

Miu Miu

For guests keen to get back to the boardroom, Miu Miu served up an office-inspired show set where swiveling Eames office chairs lined a snaking runway at regular show location Palais d'Iéna in Paris. The catwalk was neighboured by oculus-shaped screens, which featured two comedic films by Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani that were also debuted as part of the brand's accompanying live stream on social media. 

Jil Sander

In Milan, Jil Sander bathed guests in a monochromatic lilac haze, in an all-purple show set swathing circular stools, the walls and ceiling. The set design offered a tranquil, almost sophorific setting, for creative director's Lucie and Luke Meier to present a womenswear offering reveling in tactile fabrications, architectural volumes and bold patterns, from tiger print coats to fluid deck chair stripe dresses, crochet polo shirts to androgynous tailoring. 

Coperni

Coperni founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant emphasized escapism for S/S 2022, which a collection that reveled in beach-ready silhouettes, suited for sun drenched shores in Ibiza or Greece. To amp up that out-of-office spirit, the brand swathed its runway with sand, lining the entrance to its catwalk space in Paris with 70,000 tall hemp trees, casting a heady scent around guests sat amongst the verdant shrubbery. 

Fashion has flirted with bag shapes both spectacularly sizable and ludicrously Lilliputian. But if recent lifestyle changes have taught us anything, it’s that our accessories should be easy to use. As a result, we’re banishing styles that have Mary Poppins-inspired dimensions or surface areas too miniscule to contain a credit card, and embracing chandbag brands that propose classic silhouettes proportioned to perfection.

We’re sizing up handbag brands creating styles with a streamlined persuasion, which nestle ergonomically under the shoulder. Some, like the Chanel ‘11.12’ bag and the Gucci ‘Jackie’, are updated brand signatures, while others, including the U-shaped Prada ‘Cleo’ and the boxy Hermès ‘Mors de Brides’ are new silhouettes. The ‘Cleo’ nods to minimalist 1990s silhouettes in the Milan label’s archive, while the horsebit-inspired closure of the ‘Mors de Brides’ nods to the Parisian maison’s equestrian heritage.

Classic bags: Cleo bag, by Prada

Nineties fans rejoice! Prada's ‘Cleo’ bag reinterprets a curved shape style from the decade of style that keeps on giving.

prada.com

Mors de Brides bag, by Hermès

The striking hardware clasp of the Parisian brand’s ‘Mors de Bride’ bag draws on its iconic equestrian heritage.

hermes.com

Caro bag, by Dior

The French label’s signature Cannage quilting complements its iconic ‘CD’ clasp in this tactile and classic creation.

dior.com

Le 5 A 7 Hobo bag, by Saint Laurent

The Parisian label’s ‘YSL’ logo is an iconic motif designed in 1961 by Cassandre. Let it nestle snugly under your shoulder.

ysl.com

Triomphe bag, by Celine

The Parisian maison’s label draws on bourgeois motifs, incorporating its signature Triomphe logo within its striking clasp.

celine.com

Roman Stud bag, by Valentino Garavani

Roman label Valentino Garavani has sized up the stud details synonymous with its accessories to striking effect.

valentino.com

Moonlight bag, by Fendi

There’s a bohemian leaning behind Fendi’s crescent-shaped shoulder bag, accentuated with tortoiseshell details and striking stitching.

fendi.com

Shoulder bag, by Salvatore Ferragamo

All hail the pared-back classic shoulder bag silhouette, demonstrated sublimely here by Florentine brand Salvatore Ferragamo.

ferragamo.com

Curve bag, by Alexander McQueen

The London brand’s curvaceous bucket bag style features an eye-catching debossed seal detail. §

alexandermcqueen.com

In partnership with Valentino

In Valentino’s Haute Couture Atelier, inside the rooms of the late Renaissance Palazzo Mignanelli in Rome – where the Italian house’s skilled artisans festoon the finest fabrics with prismatic plumes, piece together folds of daringly hued textiles, and hand-stitch delicate silk and shimmering sequins over hundreds of hours – fashion finds its closest confluence with art. Here, creative constraints are limited, the power of painstaking process and time-honed skill is celebrated and experimentation and imagination abounds in colour, texture and technique.

For Valentino’s Des Ateliers Haute Couture show, Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli was keen to interweave the two-dimensional nature of painting and the three-dimensional folds of fashion across the contours of the human body, creating a profound multidisciplinary narrative immersed in experience and authenticity.

Valentino Des Ateliers: 17 artists and a riot of colour

Extending his community of skilled craftspeople, he invited 17 contemporary artists, from sculptors to painters, curated by Gianluigi Ricuperati, to enter into a dynamic dialogue around dressing: Joel S Allen, Anastasia Bay, Benni Bosetto, Katrin Bremermann, Guglielmo Castelli, Maurizio Cilli, Danilo Correale, Luca Coser, Jamie Nares, Francis Offman, Andrea Respino, Wu Rui, Sofia Silva, Alessandro Teoldi, Patricia Treib, Malte Zenses and with the participation of Kerstin Brätsch. 

The Valentino Haute Couture collection – which revels in riotous colour, from chartreuse to cerulean, merlot to magenta, and voluminous silhouettes and scintillatingly tactile textures – also translates the patina of oil painting and pencil, and the sensuality of bold brush strokes into capes and coats, tailoring and head-turning dresses. 

To showcase Valentino Des Ateliers, Pierpaolo Piccioli looked to the breathtaking brick arches of the Gaggiandre, a former shipbuilding yard in Venice designed by Jacopo Sansovino in the 16th century, which is part of the city’s Arsenale, one of two sites where Venice’s annual art and architecture biennale is held.

Fashion meets art in the Venetian lagoon

Here, as a living and breathing multi-artist installation moving through space and time, male and female models made their way across a geometric runway bathed in evening light that appeared to float on the Venetian lagoon. 

Among creations on the runway, a strapless dress, with a bustier that unfurled like a flower, had been pieced together using 88 different textiles, puzzled with five different abstract artworks by Brooklyn-based Patricia Treib. The design took 680 hours to create. 

Elsewhere, a flowing cape with voluminous sleeves was swathed with expressive scarlet brushstrokes, inspired by New York-based Jamie Nares’ Blues in Red (2004). The figurative pencil strokes of Milan’s Benni Bosetto traced monochromatic draped roll-necks and leggings as intricate abstract needlework. 

Artworks were reimagined within the folds of taffeta, satin and silk, and showcased amongst glittering threads, paillettes and plumes, encapsulated within a singular yet plural vision, an individual yet collective intention.

For curator, writer and essayist Gianluigi Ricuperati, a sense of creative conversation emerged from Valentino Des Ateliers Haute Couture collection. ‘We must imagine Valentino Des Ateliers as a concert for two distinct worlds – painting and haute couture, contemporary art and clothing art – in which each side's own voices listen to each other’s song before pronouncing themselves,’ he says. 

Each distinct voice in the brand’s artistic canon contributes to a sublime synergy between the worlds of fashion and art, elevating the sounds of individual intention into a colour-swathed chorus.

INFORMATION

valentino.com

Slowly but surely, the pleasurable prospect of dressing up again is becoming a reality. But what do you do when all we can remember is how to snuggle into our sweatpants? From cocktail dresses to wedding guest dresses, there's a host of event get-ups for diving into this summer whether you're enthused about something streamlined or keen to show off dramatic and embellished forms.

Here, we present the strongest silhouettes for summer and beyond, from brands including Balenciaga, Valentino and Fendi.

Balenciaga: the chainmail party dress

Encouraged to embrace all out adornment? Look to the French maison's gold linked chainmail dress which will jangle as your get down on the dance floor.

balenciaga.com

Hermès and Jil Sander: the leather dress

Embrace luxurious fabrications after months of simply wearing cotton and jersey. Hermès and Jil Sander recommend minimalist and calf and ankle grazing dress shapes, with sumptuous leather accents.

hermes.com

Loewe: the voluminous dress

Turn up the volume at your first special ocassion. Loewe's two-tone party dresses flirt with dramatic and poufed-up proportions and also features artisanally-inclined knot details.

loewe.com

Emporio Armani: the transparent dress

Embrace the body and opt for gauzy and featherlight fabrics. Emporio Armani's transparent dress is formed from a breezy transparent fabrics, for lighter-than-air luxury.

armani.com

Fendi: the cut-out dress

A cheeky cut-out detal witll turn heads. Fendi balances the coy with the classic, with this elegant knitted dress. Its alluring backless detail is scintillating for show offs.

fendi.com

Saint Laurent: the strapless dress

A strapless dress boasts a couture level of chic. Discover Saint Laurent's sophisticated style, accented with elegant draping and pleating.

ysl.com

Valentino: the floral dress

Floral details always have fine form in spring. Valentino's take on bold blooms has a graphic twist. The Roman maison's party dresses feature precise petal cut-outs. 

valentino.com

As fashion journalists spend another season taking in fashion shows remotely, through a screen, there’s been much chatter behind the scenes regarding how they might emerge style-wise next season, when there’s a chance of shows being staged with a live audience. There’s the suggestion of a new Roaring Twenties, which will see people around the world glammed up as they emerge from lockdown, wearing bold outfits and eschewing loungewear and flat shoes for evening looks and stilettos. There’s also the parallel concept that after a year of yearning only for cosy silhouettes, we may simply never want to dress up again.

As in New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week before it, Milan's designers mused on these concepts for autumn, creating collections and tying together 2021 trends that swung between romp and relaxation, extravagance and ease. Authenticity was also integral to a host of Italian brands, conscious that when consumer attitudes shift towards spending once more, people will be keen to buy from brands with long-lasting aesthetics. 

This concept was paramount to Kim Jones, who presented his heritage-nodding debut women’s collection for Fendi, following his first, Bloomsbury Group-themed haute couture collection for the Roman house earlier in February. Jones looked to the archival designs of Karl Lagerfeld, who was creative director of the house for 54 years, and the wardrobes of the five Fendi sisters, with a collection brimming with elegant, ladylike and luxurious silhouettes. Think cappuccino, khaki and midnight-tone slip dresses, tuxedo jackets, tailored coats and body-hugging knits, in luxurious fabrics including marbled silk, double cashmere and organza, and adorned with details of the past, such as Lagerfeld’s ‘Karligraphy’ monogram and the embossed stitching of the brand’s ‘Sellaria’ bags. The show’s accompanying set, an evolution of its haute couture set-up, also alluded to the past, featuring F-shape transparent vitrines, with crumbling columns resembling Roman artefacts inside.

Max Mara’s signature camel tones have reinforced its reputation for timeless, trend-subverting dressing, a concept that resonates strongly today. For the brand's 70th anniversary collection, creative director Ian Griffiths celebrated the classic house tones with an offering of elegant yet easy Italinate pieces, such as caramel teddy bear-fur coats, outdoorsy quilted gilets, loose knits and pleated skirts. Griffiths also applauded the ascendant nature of the women that wear his clothes (back in 1951, in contrast, the brand's founder intended them for ‘the wives of the local notaries and doctors'). In a playful twist, the collection referenced the stylings of the British aristocracy off duty in the British countryside, featuring flat caps, foulard headscarves and oversized retro sunglasses.

Brunello Cucinelli also celebrated natural tones, broadcasting his brand's show live from its home village Solomeo. The offering luxuriated in creams, beiges and browns, featuring relaxed yet sumptuous silhouttes, including 1980s-inspired suiting, textural knitwear and robe coats.

Post-pandemic, as people consider their fashion choices, many will desire eye-catching silhouettes that still retain the ease of lockdown dressing and the luxurious nature of its fabrics. For A/W 2021 Loro Piana considered this requirement, with an offering that catered to work, leisure and beyond. Think shearling coats, uniform-centric knitted two-pieces, sharp overcoats and double-layer parkas in a spectrum of rich hues, from bottle green to chocolate, merlot to mustard.

This sense of comfort was also reflected by Tod's Walter Chiapponi, who served up a collection of soft, bourgeois-meets-sportswear shapes, including frilled puffer jackets, jumbo-corduroy trousers, padded dresses and pleated skirts. Similarly, Missoni drew on movement and the comfort of its knitwear heritage, creating sparkling-stripe pleated dresses and chevron-stripe knitted flares and cardigans – for looking and feeling good in.

For Prada's Milan Fashion Week menswear show back in January, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons mused on the restrictions encountered during the Covid-19 era, as well as the liberation from conventional routine that lockdowns have also brought. The brand's women's show evolved this concept with an offering that considered polar opposites, and ‘the point between simplicity and complexity, elegance and practicality, limitation and release'. In the same OMA-conceived show set (myriad graphic interconnected rooms lined with tactile fake fur) models sported pieces that alluded to Simons’ and Miuccia's design canon, like oversized nylon MA-1 bomber jackets with retro jacquard linings, faux fur and sequin wraps clutched around the shoulders. Standard dressing codes were subverted, with tailored peacoats imagined in paint-box hues, body-hugging evening gowns replaced with knitted all-in-ones and conversative tailored skirt suits spliced to reveal the body. There was an exuberance and ostentation to the collection, which shimmered with paillettes among shaggy faux fur and bold upholstery prints.

Where Prada subverted and played with the parameters of dressing up, so No 21's Alessandro Dell'Acqua celebrated them in all their going-out glory. Dell'Acqua is clearly ready to shake off his sweatpants and, for A/W 2021, created a collection that swapped bedroom comforts for something a touch more boudoir. For women, there were fringed dresses that revealed lace knickers, leopard-print pencil skirts and stomach-baring sweaters. Dell’Acqua brought together ultra-mini 1960s skirt lengths, shrunken peacoats and platform shoes, and paired them with grungey separates, like plaid shirts that were slung on top of revealing bodysuits.

At MSGM, Massimo Giorgetti also made a case for going-out gear, with a collection that celebrated the underground nightlife of Milan, featuring latex pencil skirts and puffer jackets, rib-knit velour dresses, paint-cracked denim and holographic roll-necks, all in vibrant tones. Dolce & Gabbana, too, was in the mood for club-kid fashion. While the brand's A/W 2021 menswear collection nodded to the exuberant e-boy fashion made famous on TikTok, the women's kaleidoscopic offering addressed the e-girl, and abounded in 1990s raver silhouettes, with graffiti-splattered puffer jackets, foil jeans and shaggy leopard-print knitwear. The collection also alluded to the body-cinching shapes that Dolce & Gabbana was renowned for in that decade, with ruched dresses, bodysuits and form-flattering, double-breasted jackets.

Across fashion cities, designers have mused on the new requirement to create clothing to be viewed digitally, through a screen, rather than in person. At Marni, Francesco Risso's imaginative runway shows – resembling other-worldly greenhouses or forestscapes formed from paper – are a way of welcoming his fans into his art-inflected, ecclectic world. For A/W 2021, he used Instagram to invite show watchers to three Zoom events, a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here, he presented clothing that was a hyperbolic, larger-than-life interpretation of designing for digital, with oversized puffer jackets swathed in shaggy fake fur, crochet two-pieces and tie-dye knitwear. Ruffles, ruching and multicoloured prints, along with bags blown up to XL proportions, appeared larger than life no matter how small the computer screen. 

In 2020, Giorgio Armani was the first designer to cancel his fashion show on the final morning of Milan Fashion Week, due to the increasing threat level of Covid-19. As regions around Milan began to close their borders, journalists travelling home or straight on to Paris began questioning their safety and considering the reality of a European lockdown. On Giorgio Armani’s A/W 2021 catwalk, there was a fluid relaxation to the silhouettes. The collection includes relaxed suiting in velvet and explosive floral jacquards and gowns in wispy transparent fabrics. There was an optimism in the bold blue and turquoise hues that accented the offering, which riffed on powerful 1980s tones. 

The 1980s was a decade that also inspired Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli. He referred to his decision to stage his A/W 2021 show in the empty auditorium of the historic Piccolo Teatro di Milano, which has been shuttered since the pandemic hit, as ‘punk’. This attitude was echoed across a solemn, largely monochromatic collection that featured ultra-short ‘scissored’ skirt lengths, shirting and slick tuxedo suiting. Elsewhere, DIY and punk elements came in spliced knitwear, slashed into Argyle shapes or cut out into floral motifs; stompy biker boots festooned with rose petals; and boxy, studded accessories. The austere nature of the collection was emphasised by models walking to the sounds of the Milanese symphony orchestra. 

Salvatore Ferragamo is a label familiar with operating during hardship. Its founder famously innovated with materials due to resource restrictions during and after the Second World War, incorporating tree bark, hemp and fish skin into his shoe designs. For A/W 2021, creative director Paul Andrew was focused on shapes and fabrics for a new world, presenting Future Positive, a science fiction-inspired film, with ultra-modern menswear and womenswear silhouettes. Andrew looked to a range of cinematic references during the collection's development, including Gattaca, Until The End Of The World, and The Matrix. Suiting was deconsctructed and bold, outerwear imagined in transparent plastics, metallics and leathers, and footwear had a motocross-meets-astronaut feel. Andrew innovated with materials across the collection, which included accessories made from upcycled pre-consumer offcuts and recycled pre- and post-consumer wool and cashmere, a dress made from recycled polyester, and footwear soles formed using pre-consumer TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) and metal-free leather tanned with plant-based materials.

Sportmax also operated with futuristic intent, looking at inspirational female figures across history, spanning statues of mythological figures and Annie Lennox, to create a forward-thinking fashion statement. The brand's collection featured models striding in parachute-volume taffeta gowns, The Matrix-worthy leathers and sparkling silver dresses, paired with shield-like sunglasses and thick soled wader-centric boots. 

Ferragamo dedicated its collection ‘to all those who must walk' – citing its founder – ‘at a time when we must be united in our determination to reimagine, rebuild, progress’, it summed up the impetus behind Milan Fashion Week A/W 2021 as a whole.

Designers in Milan – with a substantial reduction of international visitors – held a fashion week of sorts, with a mix of real shows and virtual presentations, all of which were streamed on their websites and via their social media platforms, in a bid to connect with their international clients. For those actually attending (I counted just two editors from France, a handful from Germany, six from the UK, and no one from the US or Asia) it was all about masks, hand sanitiser, temperature checks, self-declaration Covid-19 forms, very last minute changes to shows from real to digital or from digital to real and location changes. As for the clothes, as a rule Italian designers are collectively wishful that S/S 2021 is nothing like the summer before it.

Fendi kicked off the week’s proceedings with a significantly sized down runway show, which marked Silvia Venturini's final solo outing, before KimJones joins the creative helm of the brand next season. The mood spoke of sophisticated comfort, with models including Penelope Tree and Cecilia Chancellor wearing floaty shirts printed with shadows of windowpanes, snuggly duvet coats and buttoned dresses in quilted upholstery satins.

The N°21 show, held in the brand's own Garage Ventuno showspace, was a marker of how fashion shows operate during Covid-19. In place of the usual benches chosen to get as many bums on seats as possible (until now, there was always room for another guest) were stacking chairs spaced around two metres apart in a diagonal format. If clothes are being designed for our new less social lives, founder Alessandro Dell’Acqua created good looking knits and sweats amongst the looks, but matched with marabou incase you get the urge or chance to dress up.

Dolce & Gabbana’s purpose built Metropole show space can seat more than a thousand, but its S/S 2021 show was reconfigured to seat 300 on rich brocade cushions. Unlike a show with a 1000 guests, it was effortless to get in, with temperature checks and hand sanitising stations plus guidance on how to leave after, similar to new disembarkation rules on aeroplanes, sector by sector. A little like the famous Ford Model T motto ‘any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black,’ the message here was you can have anything you like as long as it's patchwork. This meant macro or micro silhouettes from mini dresses to caftans, signature sartorial tailoring through to highwaist jeans and sneakers imagined in brocade, lace, carré silks and denim. The brand covered all options for a summer of going out or staying in, depending which way the pandemic plays out.

Max Mara chose to show in the cloisters of the courtyard of the Accademia di Brera, and guests sat spaced apart on cubes, the preferred seating choice of the week. Protective Cloisters – of which Milan has many fine ones to offer – were to become the venue of choice seen also at Boss, Ports 1961, and Salvatore Ferragamo. Amongst the tailoring and coats that Max Mara is famous for, creative director Ian Griffiths interwove appropriate pieces for our changed lifestyle, like strong knits, raglan sleeve sweats, parkas, and sporty silhouettes made from thermo bonded lightweight technical jersey. After long periods spent at home the message was a clear: clients now expect comfort as well as style.

For his digital Emporio Armani presentation, Giorgio Armani hired directors Leandro Manuel Emede and Nicolò Cerioni to film ‘Building Dialogues', a seven minute film shot over three days outside the company’s offices adjacent to Armani/Silos and across the road at the Tadao Ando show space. Its architecture – which is almost entirely pale grey – formed an appropriately background for the collection.

Back in February, on the last day of Milan Fashion Week, Giorgio Armani, alone, decided to hold his fashion show behind closed doors and asked everyone already invited, even his VIP clients who had flown in to Milan expressly for him to watch it from their homes or hotel rooms. This season he streamed Giorgio Armani's show online and on Prime time Italian TV (adding around a million extra viewers). And with a larger audience in mind (who may find the average 12 minute show length somewhat short), it was preceded by a 20 minute ‘house made’ documentary called ‘Pensieri Senza Tempo' or ‘Timeless Thoughts', with archive footage of Armani fashion from 1985 onwards.

I watched ‘Building Dialogues' from the Armani/Hotel which reopened in July. Some luxury hotels, such as the Park Hyatt, have been shuttered for almost six months. It was also in my room where I watched the Prada show. It was odd to be in Milan and watch a show broadcast from three kilometres away and not actually be present. This was the highly anticipated debut collection of dual creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. Shot in a yellow carpeted and curtained room designed by OMA/AMO, models walked followed not by the eyes of guests but only the articulated robotic cameras. The show was followed by a Q&A session where Prada and Simons answered questions submitted from the public via social media, discussing topics around the importance of novelty, collaboration and what defines Prada-ness. The session was a much more comfortable and civilised way of learning about the collection than popping backstage for a bun fight to speak to the designers.

For his second season at Tod’s, creative director Walter Chiapponi opted to stream ‘The Song', a film directed by Antoine Asseraf shot at Casa Villa Necchi, where the protagonists including Karen Elson and singer Okay Kaya dressed up in suede, denim and frilled dresses and connected with each other over imaginary Zoom calls or face time links.

Sunnei – who just announced a new investment from Vanguards – celebrated Milan's summer spaces, inviting guests to the Lido of Milan in the north of the city. There, guests stood on designated circular markers inside an empty swimming pool (sheltering from rain with umbrellas) watching models wearing relaxed tailoring, caftans and loose dresses in the brand's signature bold hues.

Amidst Covid-19's new reality, designers are all looking for appropriate methods to show their collections. Francesco Risso, creative director of Marni, pulled off an most extraordinary feat, casting 48 members of his creative community for ‘Marnifesto', a film spanning locations from Tokyo to Dakar, with each model wearing one look from the collection that had been remotely fitted with the aid of video and local seamstresses. All 48 feeds were mixed live in New York, with each model setting out at the same time, filmed on a smart phone by their boyfriend, girlfriend or roommate at home, on the metro, in the supermarket or on the street. As I watched it at 4pm in a Milan cinema, Risso was sitting there too, seeing it for the first time. He'd gave up his creative control when he sent of his S/S 2021 pieces, passing the freedom of self-expression to the cast.

Moschino’s Jeremy Scott worked with The Muppets creator Jim Henson to create ‘No Strings Attached’, a fun and perfectly executed 40 look fashion show modelled by puppets, set in a tiny filmic couture salon set to schmaltzy classical music by Michel Gaubert. 

For Salvatore Ferragamo, creative Director Paul Andrew turned to film director Luca Guadagnino to produce a short film set in Milan. Although the men’s and women’s ready-to wear-and accessories were the focus, it was equally a homage to the city and its architecture. ‘Life in Technicolor', picked up the vibrant green, mauve, yellow and lobster in the collection and accessories, but also illustrated hidden colours found in the city.  The 40 looks featured in the film were also shown on the runway in the rounded cloisters of La Rotonda della Besana, the Florentine houses usual venue, albeit with a substantially reduced number of guests.

At Versace, the label presented Versacepolis, a show streamed live with everything aside from the usual audience (the brand decided a week before to run the show with no physical guests). Everyone participating from set builders to producers, models to hair and make-up artists, plus Versace staffers, had all been tested by the company as negative for Covid 19. The show, featuring both men and women was full of joyous colour and print. Stand outs were the pleated looks, plain or printed, with some sculptural ruffling nodding to Roberto Capucci. This was a very confident message. The brand is hoping their clients have reason to dress up next summer, those décolleté bra topped dresses are a little too saucy for Zoom.

The Ports 1961 show, held in the warm autumn sun of the cloisters of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia was intimate for very few but filmed for a larger audience. Karl Templer wanted this collection to be tactilem ‘as touch is forbidden now and everything is on screen’, and with its classical references, spring was all about embrace and touch. Templer is optimistic about people still finding pleasure in dressing up.

Valentino is based in Rome and traditionally shows its men's and women’s ready to wear and couture collections in Paris. Exceptionally this season it came up to Milan to show in a metal foundry in the north of the city. This show was inside, with a small crowd in a enormous space, but safety was key so all guests (who all turned up in masks) were given a new FFP2 mask and asked to wear it for its duration. We were treated to a sound track performed live by Labrinth, while creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli offered plenty to like for real life including exclusive Valentino 517 boot cut jeans made in collaboration with Levi’s, which will surely get everyone wearing the styles again come spring, whether we have to stay at home or not. Piccioli paired the jeans with oversized mannish shirts in chiffon, taffeta and lace and accessorised with the new macro Rock Stud bags and shoes. There were of course some more dressy pieces including fluid long dresses and a chocolate brown slinky sequinned cape-shouldered and ribbon-sleeved dress. Even you don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to see sometimes its great to dress up just for you.

The pandemic may have put paid to physical fashion shows, but July saw an outpouring of creativity and ingenuity as designers and brands turned to other channels to present their S/S21 menswear and haute couture collections. The challenge to create designs and gure out new methods of showcasing them also occurred during lockdown, with teams collaborating remotely via Zoom and on socially distanced shoots. The big democratising upside of digital fashion weeks that started with Shanghai in March is that everyone worldwide has a front-row view. This week also sees the launch of RUNWAY360, a new digital platform launched by the CFDA to showcase New York Fashion Week S/S 2021 which will debut collections using a host of different formats, beginning with Jason Wu and concluding with Tom Ford.

Out of this year's chaos and seemingly impossible circumstances, fashion has been shot into digital space and it is proving a fascinating journey. The shows did go on, with designs featured on avatars (Ralph
& Russo, August Getty Atelier), in 3D animations (Botter, Louis Vuitton) and in delightful mini films that blend real and fantasy worlds. Iris van Herpen cast Game
of Thrones’ Carice van Houten in her Escher- in infuenced multifaceted film, with hyper-real close-ups of fabric and embellishments.
At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri enlisted film director Matteo Garrone (Dogman, Pinocchio) who created a schmaltzy fairytale short,
 Le Mythe, that saw nymphs frolic in CGI bucolic landscapes and encounter the collection in the form of miniature gowns that arrived in a portable ‘maison’ carried by bellboys. The piece was bookended with real footage from the couture atelier, featuring the petites mains making couture gowns
at 40 per cent scale, echoing the miniature mannequins that Christian Dior created to promote collections in 1944.

Meanwhile at Maison Margiela, John Galliano and Nick Knight collaborated on
 a thrilling film spun out through teaser
clips on Instagram to promote the Artisanal collection. It features models swaggering and posing in painterly chromatic compositions, like otherworldly spectres in dramatic silhouettes. You could call it hallucinogenic haute couture. Knight also worked on a film to accompany Valentino’s collection, debuted at a live show at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. 

Some presentations were punkish and DIY – Boramy Viguier’s spinning lookbook images overlaid on a Dadaist collage background – and others, airy and lyrical. Issey Miyake’s choreographed ‘show’, entitled Meet Your New Self, blended free-form dance sequences with fantasy ights across cityscapes and animations of blooming fabric houseplants made of the brand’s signature Pleats fabric. The lm was directed by Yusuke Kobayashi, with digital e ects by Whiteboard Ltd. 

While fashion creatives are acutely aware of what they are missing – the emotional and storytelling impact of IRL fashion shows – and editors and buyers yearn for the group experience and the tactile examination of collections, eyes have had to be opened to new alternatives. Just as football teams adjust to the reality of empty stadiums, fashion is adjusting to displaced realities. 

‘The pandemic in all its awfulness has allowed people to step off the treadmill and address how they want to express themselves creatively. The question of showing a collection through any means except for
a catwalk has stimulated invention,’ says Knight, who set up Showstudio as a hub for fashion filmmaking some 20 years ago. ‘The medium of the catwalk show really came into being in the 1940s. The fashion business is
 a different beast today, yet the show system has not changed and there’s a big disconnect. ‘I have been working with models on Zoom shoots,’ he says. ‘The make-up artist might be in LA, the stylist in Jamaica and I “direct” the web camera, working with the available light in the room. It’s thrilling and just as creatively demanding as working on set. I am a rm believer in using everything that comes to hand, whether that’s an iPhone or a thermal camera or a security camera or a 3D scan, or an X-ray – these are all tools like charcoal or oil or a pencil. Art has come out of the gallery and lm out of the physical “set”.’ It is strange, he adds that while fashion is a cutting-edge art form, the show system ‘has been so wedded to the past’.

During lockdown, Knight masterminded a CGI avatar of Kendall Jenner for Riccardo Tisci at Burberry. It started with Jenner photographing herself at home, with Knight creating a digital Jenner body using a model in a motion-capture suit, and was set against a minimalist architectural background in CGI resembling an empty pool. Burberry will be staging a live show in September outdoors but with no spectators. 

As brands turn to animation, CGI and VFX, there are learning curves on both sides. Creative digital studios might be whizzes at building immersive AR worlds for gaming, but rendering the lustre, embroidery, and detail of an £80,000 haute couture gown, and translating the ‘dream’ of fashion into movement and setting demands new skill sets, processes, deep pockets and patience. ‘There are a lot of similarities between a digital atelier and a couture one. We replicate seams and cuts so the clothes move in tune with the body, as the materials would IRL,’ says Leanne Elliott Young, co-founder of the London-based agency, Institute of Digital Fashion. ‘Yet brands often have no idea of the application involved, the timelines or the processes. The current crisis has acted as an accelerator.

Tuning into a digital experience would have been a massive ask for consumers, buyers and press; now we have found our audience much more open,’ says Young, who with co-founder and digital artist Cattytay is working on a series called Tinnitus for LA- based August Getty. The designer, an activist within the LGBTQ community, describes it as ‘a modern biopic, a bold alternative to the tired narratives of couture, a series not a show, a new world not our old one.’ The project will be introduced through social media, web and press as a series over six months. Says Young, ‘Strategically we built in a level of intrigue and a narrative with crescendos and characters. The characters and landscapes are beyond our realities, very fitting for a brand that is thinking beyond seasons. The viewing is no longer con ned to old hierarchies of front row or backstage, or the limitations of live streaming. This is a democratised viewing portal.’

Digital showcases can also be nostalgic. Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, co-founders of the Botter menswear label, commissioned animation studio Trappist Monk to create a game featuring their character, Aqua Novio. ‘My first experience of virtual worlds was through Nintendo. We wanted to recapture some of the excitement of choosing your player and the outfit,’ says Botter of their amicable cartoon figure, who tries on out oufits with the click of a cursor. ‘The most important thing about fashion is to express emotions and put out something new, but you can’t compare these digital pieces to a catwalk show, which is when you invite people into your world with music and real emotions. It is a complement,’ says Herrebrugh, who also presented a short  lm shot in the atelier with two models.

At Louis Vuitton, Virgil Abloh likewise embraced a sense of playfulness. His cartoon The Adventures of Zoooom with Friends saw stowaway characters bursting out of shipping containers and gamboling through the sites of Paris in Abloh’s sunny clothes. The ten- minute work married FX animation by Re ieknow, of Fashion Figure Inc, with 3D modelling, texturing and scenic visuals. To note: the credit list, spanning studios, styling, casting and visual effects, was longer than the IRL fashion show equivalent. Such animations are not a budget option. It takes two days just to render a couture look on an avatar, and a suite of software tools. ‘We analyse the fabric weight and drape against the  esh and calculate this exact detailing when simulating the collision between garment and digital human,’ says Cattytay of digitisation’s painstaking process.

For its avatar-driven couture presentation, Ralph & Russo worked with Seoul-based digital design studio VSLB. Tamara Ralph’s idea was for a cyber model called Hauli (meaning strength and power in Swahili) to pose in front of the Seven Wonders of the World. Says Sarah Schmidt, VSLB’s CEO and founder, ‘First, we built the avatar body with the precise body type for haute couture and set the poses and created the textures for the skin, eyes and hair. Next, we modelled the base shape of the garments to the avatar in a T pose. From the T pose, the avatar was animated to the final pose to simulate the look. Fabric textures followed, while jewellery and accessories were created in dierent software. Each piece was brought as a raw file into the final rendering software, where we textured the look. Each back plate received special lighting settings to enhance colours.

The digital reinvention of the show might have been considered ‘counter-cultural’ ve years ago. Now, the medium appears a viable alternative. It’s also friendlier to the planet than physical shows and shoots, with their elaborate sets and vast teams that, along with the audience, y into fashion capitals from all over the world. The Fashion Innovation Agency at the London College of Fashion is working on a project with experience creation studio Helo, AR pioneers Rewind, and design agency Twin Studio. ‘The shift is being brought about by necessity, but the benefits will far outweigh the criticism in the long term. Covid-19 has accelerated the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution in many industries, including fashion. Digitisation is less wasteful and more inclusive,’ says Phoebe Smith, managing director of Helo, which has bases in London, New York and LA.

There is a cluster of brands and designers who are also choosing to show off-grid or in hybrid ‘phy-gital’ shows. Saint Laurent and Gucci will not be taking part in forthcoming September fashion weeks. Meanwhile, show design and production agency Bureau de Betak set up a division, Bureau Future, two years ago, specialising in digital strategy and technology that amplies the live event online. Says founder Alex de Betak, ‘One of the tools that will help fashion become more eco-responsible is digital broadcasting. Covid-19 has accelerated that need, as will the recession. Nothing can replace the live events and physical encounters, but the parameters of the show need to be updated with a reduction in the size of the audience.

Without the constraints that come with a huge audience, designers are freed up creatively.’ De Betak produced a Jacquemus show off-schedule in a Paris suburb in July for a restricted audience, and a Dior cruise presentation in Puglia, Italy. ‘We are looking at how to amplify the experience online with interactive features and AR. With that shift brands can attract fresh eyes and audiences.’ What the new era of showmanship is giving fashion enthusiasts as well as industry professionals is an unprecedented insight into the ateliers, the processes and the inspirations behind the collections. It is pushing the parameters and expanding the ideals and aspirations that fashion embodies.

This article originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Wallpaper* (W*257) – on newsstands now and available for free download here

This week, the luxury second hand website The RealReal shared that the global effect of Covid-19 has seen a 194% rise in sales of loungewear. As we’ve eased into our newly laid back wardrobes, so we’ve also slipped into a range of sliders, slippers and flat sandals to suit our downtime do’s.

It’s a home run for our wardrobes then, that Birkenstock and Valentino have released the newest slip-on shoe styles in their collaboration, which first debuted on the Paris runway in 2019. The unisex sandals are a bold take on the brand’s double buckle Arizona silhouette, imagined in a range of camouflage hues, and emblazoned with the Valentino VLTN logo. They combine the glamour of the Roman couture house with the at-home ease of the German lifestyle label - two tenets we’re taking into the rest of 2020.

Birkenstock’s Valentino collaboration forms part of its 1774 category, which focuses on special projects and partnerships. Since its launch in 2019, it has unveiled collaborations with Proenza Schouler, Rick Owens and Il Pellicano hotel group. ‘Fashion isn’t our total thing but the process of the collaborations is very interesting because you get to find out why people want to talk to you. That is invaluable,’ Klaus Baumann, Birkenstock’s chief sales officer, told Wallpaper* of the coverted category earlier this year.

Should you be lucky enough to escape to the sea this summer, Valentino and Birkenstock’s latest take on the Arizona sandal will be a beachside essential. If you're more home bound, we suggest placing your Zoom camera somewhere near your feet. Your sandals will be the envy of anyone on a video call. 

INFORMATION
birkenstock.com

British photographer and Wallpaper* contributor Jason Lloyd Evans has been shooting behind-the-scenes backstage snapshots from the runway shows of the world’s most creative brands, since the early 2000s. Here we reveal his favourite sublime snapshots, spanning the last eight years.

Armani Privé S/S 2012

‘Giorgio Armani hosted a “One Night Only” event in Beijing and seemed to be one of the first to really tap into the market and bring his show direct to his there. It was a great experience to go and cover the trip for them.'

Proenza Schouler S/S 2012

‘Proenza Schouler has always been one of my favourite brands to cover in New York. The brand's shows always have such a special casting, concept and collection.'

Burberry A/W 2013

‘Karlie Kloss and Jourdan Dunn showing their love for Christopher Bailey's Burberry. His shows always had a super positive energy.'

Givenchy S/S 2014

‘Being backstage at Riccardo Tisci's shows for Burberry was always an en experience, you never knew what you'd be allowed to shoot. The make up which Pat McGrath created for his shows was very special too.'

Chanel A/W 2015

‘Chanel doesn’t generally allowed backstage access and therefore it is always a bonus to be covering it for a special feature. This A/W 2015 shot from Karl's reign ran as part of a 12 page feature in 10 Magazine. Big, bold and beautiful.'

Gucci S/S 2017

‘Gucci really hit its stride under creative director Alessandro Michele – his eclectic collections are such a departure from what came before and add a real buzz to the Milan schedule.'

Tommy Hilfger S/S 2017

‘This LA show tapped into many emerging patterns in fashion. It was a collaborative collection with Gigi Hadid, it used the See Now Buy Now retail model and had real focus on consumer activation.'

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda S/S 2018

‘I have been really lucky to cover Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda events. The summer show is always hosted in a stunning Italian location such as Sicily or Capri. The clothing is always exceptional.'

Alexander Wang S/S 2018

‘All the cool girls want to be in Wang's gang and that's the energy his brand's shows really tapped into. Case in point, here you find Bella Hadid, Kaia Gerber and Kendal Jenner.'

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2019

‘This was one occasion where I was happy to be shooting the catwalk rather than backstage. The show, the venue, the music and the collection was incredibly moving, and many editors were weeping! At the end of the show, I whizzed to the front of the runway and caught these really intimate shots.’

Versace S/S 2020

‘This is part of a backstage series of portraits of Jennifer Lopez and Donatella Versace, after Lopez had walked the catwalk in a revisited version of the brand’s iconic Jungle Dress.’

Fendi A/W 2020

‘For Fendi, I captured days of clothing fittings, hair and makeup tests, the show’s set build and DJ meetings. How fashion shows are presented may change, but for me the creative and collaborative process that comes from them will always be at the heart of fashion.’

Quotes: Jason Lloyd-Evans. Additional writing: Laura Hawkins

INFORMATION

lloyd-evans.com

Mood board: Voluminous couture shapes, neon hues and flounces of taffeta – Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino signatures are often mimicked again and again during fashion week. But for A/W 2020 the designer stripped back his prismatic colour palette, opening Valentino’s show with a series of all black evening wear and tailored pieces – leather bustier dresses, slouchy suiting with a sparkle of sequin, a sheer plunging gown with tulle ruffles. Pierpaolo was preoccupied with the power of uniform, and the possibility of enhancing character by reducing the fashion silhouette. Leather, houndstooth and suiting shapes were borrowed from a stock menswear wardrobe, seductively offset with flashes of vibrant red – seen in a trenchcoat, a wide collared peacoat and a final high neck sequin gown glittering with paillettes.

Finishing touches: Feminine fluidity came in the naturalistic motifs on accessories. For A/W 2020, Valentino introduced bags festooned with 3D petals. These were contrasted with bovver boots (autumn’s most enduring stompy soled shoe – also see Versace, Prada and Issey Miyake), which accompanied both tailored daytime looks and eveningwear.

Best in show: An oversized double-breasted jacket in soft leather was fantastically fluid, while an opening cashmere coat tied with a narrow leather belt was comfort and luxury combined.

Mood board: ‘The meaning of romanticism today is different,’ the notes to Pierpaolo Piccioli’s A/W 20 menswear show began. His deference for opulence and glamour, best seen in his beautiful womenswear couture shows, spilled into his menswear offering too. There has been a consistent reassessment of masculinity in the past few days of the new decade. Piccioli wanted to revive a certain romanticism through menswear cut. The look was fluid, suiting open at the sides, the line languid and quiet. 

Finishing touches: The collection focused on tailoring as, the notes suggested, ‘masculine metaphors’. In Milan, designers seemed obsessed with scrubbing out the dictums of gendered fashion, several posing the question: ‘what makes a man today?’ At Zenga it was about an opening of discussion and emotion; at Ferragamo it was in the adaptability of the clothes – the autonomy of the wearer. At Valentino the question inspired a traditional and romantic respectability. The show started with black and moved into orange, grey, berry – colours derived from flora. A fluid purple blazer showed flashes of lime green shirting underneath. Flowers ran across the back of shoulders.

Team work: The floral motifs printed, appliquéd and knitted onto the clothes were taken from the archives of photographers Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The words of French artist Mélanie Matranga, inspired by her fabric haikus, were magnified all over: NEED NEED featured on a V-neck tabard, BAD LOVER on the front of a double-breasted jacket and collaged onto washed denim suiting. The British artist FKA Twigs sang live.

Mood board: In today’s frenzied fashion landscape, where images are consumed with incredible velocity on Instagram, designers are stepping back to refocus and reassess their output. In London, JW Anderson was fascinated by ways of perceiving, and how we focus on silhouettes and details. For spring, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli offered a ‘study on withdrawing,’ taking everyday silhouettes, like the shirt, pencil skirt and the Bermuda short, and imbuing them with the extravagant Couture sensibility which he is renowned for. Ensuring the ‘ordinary becomes extraordinary,’ the designer took the form of the white shirt dress for the show’s opening looks, reinterpreting it with ballooning bell sleeves, as a mini dress swathed in ostrich feathers, with a ruffled bib or oversized starchy bow. Elsewhere, his mastery in colour came in ruffled gowns in neon green silk georgette and fuchsia taffeta, and tropical landscape scenes, inspired by Fauvist forms, embroidered onto kaftan shapes and column dresses.

Best in show: The show’s opening white series had a particularly pared-back ethereality, both splendid yet simplistic in its construction. Elsewhere, a hot pink short suit had all the slouch of spring’s most popular tailoring silhouette, and a Lacroix luxuriousness when paired with a transparent blouse with a trailing pussy bow collar.

Finishing touches: There was an extravagant elegance in the show’s accompanying catwalk jewellery, which included bauble like golden cuffs and huge chandelier earrings dangling with encrusted flowers and colourful monkeys.

Mood board: The concept of travel and the meandering man are never far from the S/S season – menswear often looks to explore, subvert or explain notions of journeying. A man is always on the move, scaling mountains or running against the wind. It might have much to do with the activewear moment which has dogged fashion for a couple of years now; we are looking for newness in a samey world. At Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli often draws on faraway lands for inspiration and, for S/S 2020, the line of the Arabic djellaba robe and the moroccan caftan was key. They evoked a free spirit, with a touch of the handmade. Crochet and embroidery met with suiting, giving conservative clothes a couture consideration.

Team work: Imagined landscapes by English artist Roger Dean were applied liberally through the collection. Dean is known for the otherworldly scenes he created for posters and prog rock album covers in the late 1970s. Eight of his canvases were on show in January this year as part of the 24th L.A. Art Show. Collaboration with artists has become a standard of the luxury fashion market – and, for S/S20, Valentino’s elegance and modern masculinity was reframed by the dramatic, graphic pop of Dean’s sci-fi vision. Three of his works, ‘Yellow City’, ‘Dragon Garden’ and ‘Blind Owl’ were used on shirting and embroidered onto outerwear. Dean’s planets rippled on the surface of a roomy cagoule.

Best in show: Flowing outwear covered smart, lean suits. Floaty silk shirts, cotton blouses, a boxy cavalry coat in tan had mint green inserts. The look was gestural. Super-roomy coats kept their shape. Fringes were applied to the front of classic light denim jackets. Standout was a split leather trench in cornflower blue. Dean’s work was embroidered onto a zip-up jacket, an impossible yet welcoming landscape. The billowing trench and longer length shirts eased into a summer of the senses.

After Simon Porte-Jacquemus’ Italia Riveira-inspired S/S 2019 show, the fringed woven bag in maxi or mini format became the star of our Instagram feed. A signature of Jane Birkin’s chic yet casual 70s style, the basket bag has now reached haute new heights.

Take Valentino’s scrunchable straw shopper or Celine’s basket bag, which mixes natural raffia with elevating black calfskin. Loewe’s penchant for artisanal crafts is reflected in a weaved basket with a luxurious leather inner to keep our poolside essentials safe, while Greek label Zeus + Dione’s wide-handled oversized Scorpio bag will be the perfect picnic companion.

There’s no need for a paradisal postcard background to carry these bags around, we’ll be sporting them come rain or shine, island coastline or city.

Scene setting: On Sunday afternoon, the fashion pack met behind the Hôtel National des Invalides (a different side of the same venue that hosted the Celine show a few days ago) in the tent that has been, for the last few seasons, the set for the Valentino womenswear show. This time, the glass-walled space was pristine, with only a cream carpet and ebony-black wooden benches in sight… and a lightbulb sign reading: ‘The people you love become ghosts inside you and like this you keep them alive.’ There was the collection’s theme: love. Backstage, Pierpaolo Piccioli spoke passionately of building a community of people around him, a concept different from ‘lifestyle', removed from inanimate objects and reigniting human contact.

Team work: And this he set out to do, mainly with a little help from Jun Takahashi. The Japanese designer, best known for his Undercover brand, first collaborated with Piccioli during the last menswear season, creating surreal UFO collages that were printed all over the collection that was presented last January. For womenswear, though, the mood was decidedly less pop, and more romantic instead (even if, this being Takahashi, a tinge of punk could never be too far away). A 19th-century neoclassical sculpture and some roses made their way into mini dresses and long chiffon gowns, illustrating a romantic idea of love. Elsewhere, Piccioli decided to also work with a group of poets including Greta Bellamacina, Mustafa The Poet, Yrsa Daley-Ward and Robert Montgomery to create a book on love that awaited guests in each one of their seats.

Best in show: As for the collection, it also felt like back to basics exercise: almost all superfluous adornment seemed to have disappeared, instead being replaced by monacal shapes and monochromatic looks (which brought out Takahashi’s prints). Proportions were noticeably shorter (an appeal to a younger audience?) and there was a sense of wearability, even when it came to the most spectacular evening gowns, in transparent ruffled chiffon and pleated tulle. All in all, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s message couldn’t have been clearer: all you need is love (and Valentino).

Mood board: There’s something liberating about the lavish. There’s escapism in opulence. Glenn Martens took the creative helm of Y/Project in 2013. In recent seasons he has steered his label away from the confines of ultra-cool streetwear into something more magnificent, haute couture-inspired and dramatic. Young designers today are not to be defined by one passing trend. Looks are bold. Decades are mashed up. Silhouettes are tongue-in-cheek. Y/Project’s A/W 2019 collection includes dreamlike medieval dresses, 1980s denim hotpants, spliced and diced 1940s fur coats, and a final section of hilariously hyperbolic evening gowns. A Renaissance faux fur, faux leather pleated dress and a body swathing meringue-like ball gown.

Finishing touches: Y/Project’s gaiter-like boots have become an accessory signature. Only emphasised by the brand’s 2018 collaboration with Ugg on huge shearling-lined waders. For A/W 2019, these were imagined in leather, and had both a swashbuckling and equestrian élan.

Best in show: Building up a strong set of accessories is an essential for a blossoming brand. Often bags, shoes and jewellery are the commercial bread and butter of a fashion label. Y/Project’s hyperbolic catwalk jewellery is gaining momentum, and offers a deliciously ironic comment on how these pieces vye for attention on the runway. For A/W 2019, styles were huge. Shards of coloured glass or hammered metal twisting around the ear lobe, bold chokers formed from the figures of nude women, huge spirals of metal, dangling from the ear towards the décolletage.

Mood board: Time and time again, the question of ‘where is gender now?’ swirls around the shows like the smell of a lingering lunch. The lines between the masculine and the feminine are increasingly crossed. Tradition is tucked in, but designers pick and choose what they want. The relaxed is given rigour; leaner styles are cut in softer fabrics. creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s sensational womenswear for the house of Valentino is ultra feminine, in the most operatic sense, whilst his menswear has a more supple approach to classic masculine codes. For A/W 2019, he had greater fun with fluidity. The clothes had a liquid line. The silhouette of tailoring, outerwear and accessories was rooted in a sense of freedom and ease. What the show notes called: ‘A twist, in the sobriety.’

Best in show: Individual pieces were broken down, eased and re-calibrated in monochrome. There was graceful suiting; sleeveless wool jackets worn over coats. Lightly padded raincoats. A longer line on shirting worn underneath double breasted jackets. Rich wool coats with long, scarf collars. Standout were the space-age graphics designed in collaboration with Jun Takahashi of Undercover. His collages, featuring space ships, portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven in the film A Clockwork Orange, flying saucers and lunar landscapes, were used as intarsias, embroideries, jacquards and prints. The season’s standout coat will most likely be a round-shouldered mohair style, covered with Takahashi’s floating, sky-blue spaceships.

Finishing touches: Long gone are the days when designers would keep everything secret from one another. The mood today is less competitive and more convivial. For the coming season Piccioli collaborated with the eminent healthy footwear brand Birkenstock on two exclusive styles. Their classic Arizona sandals were shown in Valentino red with tonal buckles and a tonal full leather covered footbed. And in total black with the omnipresent VLTN logo writ large on the side in white. ‘No matter what you wear, who you are, no matter your gender or social background, no matter your age, your style, no matter if you care about fashion or if you do not, Birkenstock has its own universal language,’ Piccioli said.

Scene setting: Guests were back yesterday to the grand Hôtel des Invalides on the Rive Gauche, where a few days ago the First Céline show by Hedi Slimane took place. This time, though, the Valentino show was on the opposite corner of the building, far from the gilded Napoleonian dome and past a little jardin à la Française. A permanent tent was established there a few years ago and works as a conservatory of sorts, featuring an array of cacti, succulents and other exotic plants which, alone, gave us a clue of the collection we were about to see.

Soundbite: ‘I've been reflecting a lot lately about the idea of paradise, and especially about the way artists throughout history have gone to these far away lands to explore their art and their identities', Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli said backstage after the show. He warned, however, that this collection was all but an exercise in escapism. ‘I think it's more about being able to further become oneself. At the end of the day, you can do that anywhere.'

Best in show: And become more himself, Pierpaolo did. His collection was one surprise after another, starting with a series of sepulchral black gowns (Kristen McMenamy opened the show in a bustier taffeta number with puff sleeves) which progressively morphed into an explosion of colour in the form of sequined and feathered chiffon, silk and tulle dresses. But if these could at first be mistaken for fairytale princess gowns, they were effortlessly brought back to earth with the help of accessories including feathered slide-ons, raphia totes, straw hats and coppery hoop earrings. On the way out, an enthused editor stated 'I would wear everything'. That was the definitive review.

A procession of petticoated Victorian hikers traversing crumpled paper mountains; 6.5m-high mechanical cylinders resembling steaming underwater pistons; a monastic chapel hanging with paintings by artist-monk Sidival Fila. These are just three of the eight scenes, hidden beneath huge tents of silver fabric, which greeted guests at Moncler’s Genius Project debut, in the cavernous Milanese stadium Palazzo delle Scintille in February.

The premise? A roster of designers – from Simone Rocha (winner of a 2018 Wallpaper* Design Award, W*227) to Craig Green, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Rei Kawakubo’s protégé Kei Ninomiya – were invited to put their creative spin on the brand’s signature padded down jacket. Their creations were to be released in line with a new retail strategy, one that disrupts the traditional seasonal cycle with fresh drops of product put on sale each month (a model that nods to the selling strategies of street and sportswear brands such as Supreme and Nike).

‘I started looking at images of women wearing voluminous silhouettes among really rugged landscapes,’ says Rocha of the 19th-century Alpine trekkers, such as Maria de Mont Blanc and Henriette d’Angeville, that inspired her collection’s fusion of ‘femininity and practicality’. For the Milan presentation, the London-based Irish designer created a scene of hikers, milling against shadowy paper peaks, clad in gauzy petticoat layers, lampshade dresses in padded down, shiny puffer jackets with frills and frothy finishes, and marabou-trimmed accessories.

‘I’ve long been intrigued by Rocha’s sophisticated and hyper-feminine aesthetic,’ says Remo Ruffini, chairman and CEO of Moncler. The brand’s original, now ubiquitous, padded down jackets were first conceived in 1954, and Rocha brought her mastery of airy fabrics, such as organza and cloqué, to their ultra-light construction. ‘What was so surprising was that I could manipulate the fabric like taffeta or tulle,’ Rocha explains. She saw the padded garments as a ‘jigsaw’, the seams of which could be pieced together to create voluminous shapes – such as an A-line coat, its linear puffed sections widening towards the knee, and a jacket with undulating ruffles sprouting from its seams.

Ideas of growth and blossoming were essential to Rocha’s design concept, which worked to assimilate outdoorsy garments into their natural environments. ‘I was looking at foliage and flowers growing up through rocks,’ she explains. Signature handwork, such as beading, sequins and embroidered flowers, appears to push through seams or cluster around the graphic Moncler logo. ‘I used pearls to evoke a snowy mountain palette,’ she adds of the collection, which is realised in white, powdery pink, red and black.

An element of protection is often evident in Rocha’s designs for her own label, her romantic silhouettes offset against militaristic cross-body belts and oversized cushiony bags. In her accessories for Moncler, she has emphasised functionality, creating nylon hiking backpacks that buckle around the waist and padded ski mittens. ‘It’s something I’ve never done before in terms of manufacturing,’ she enthuses. Her experimentation with technical fabrics is also seen in signature flaring dresses and soft double-breasted coats reinterpreted in nylon.

‘The Moncler Genius Project was very much about everyone having their own identity but being part of the brand’s voice,’ Rocha explains of unveiling her collection amid offerings as diverse as Craig Green’s padded men’s diving suits and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Madonna-inspired flaring capes.

‘We’re establishing a dialogue with consumers, talking to different audiences and continuing to evolve,’ adds Ruffini.

Included in Rocha’s collection is a range of sunglasses. Ski goggle-inspired and ovular, they appear as if circled with black droplets of water. Functional yet feminine, made for the outdoors yet opulent, they serve as a symbol of Moncler’s multifarious vision. §

As originally featured in the September 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*234)

INFORMATION

4 Moncler Simone Rocha is available from mid-September. For more information, visit the Moncler and Simone Rocha websites