Seal of approval: the finest A/W 2017 fashion week invitations

Fashion | 22 May 2017 | By Laura Hawkins

Old masters: Burberry and Off-White bought a touch of classicism to its fashion week correspondence. Burberry, whose February 2017 collection looked to the work of Henry Moore, nodded to the sculptor with a show invitation made from engraved stone. Off-White’s Virgil Abloh added a cartoonish curly moustache to the Mona Lisa, while a tongue-in-cheek ‘Nothing New’ slogan poked fun at the seasonal fashion cycle. Photography: Aylin Bayhan

Ode to orange: The boldest colour trend of the season was vibrant orange. For Raf Simons’ debut collection as chief creative officer of Calvin Klein, the mounted invite design featured a graphic orange stripe that bore the brand’s new Peter Saville-designed logo. Haider Ackermann added a painterly metallic brushstroke of the shade to its design, while AREA’s orange incarnation had a reflective beveled edge

Box fresh: Prada’s invitation, complete with an italicised handwritten message written on paper, arrived in an embossed, fabric gift box. Its deep red colour echoed the retro hues presented in the brand’s A/W 2017 women’s collection and its AMO-designed showspace

Team work: Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson teamed up with graphic design studio and regular collaborators M/M Paris and photographer Jamie Hawkesworth on an invitation featuring a fold-out poster and miniature book

Turn of the century: In celebration of its 100th show, Dries Van Noten created a graphic booklet of its archive prints. Overlaid with colourful, geometric shapes, the vivid shades and abstract patterns served as emblems of the brand’s expansive fabric heritage. Archive prints also featured throughout its A/W 2017 women’s collection

Water sports: Stella McCartney and Prism were preoccupied with playthings. A neon pink tube from Stella McCartney housed bright green water balloons – a playful invitation from the designer to get wet and wild. Like the blizzards in New York at the time, Prism’s snow globe shook up a snowstorm

Business as usual: What better invitation to tuck into the pocket of Balenciaga’s A/W 2017 power-shouldered jackets? One resembling a business card, of course

Gloss over: For her final show as creative director of Chloé, Clare Waight Keller designed a shining bronze show invitation. Also preoccupied with gloss, Victoria Beckham created invitations with three fold-out poster artworks. Our favourite featured black gloss and transparent abstract shapes, overlaid on an abstract image of a model during clothing fittings

Soft touch: Saint Laurent and Rick Owens demonstrated a lust for leather. Saint Laurent neatly tucked its invitation inside a personally initialised tan leather envelope, while Rick Owens sent an invitation in a supple black colourway

New nostalgia: A series of invitations riffed on nostalgic images and sugary shades. Missoni’s featured a scene of Monte Rose, the mountain view seen from the Missoni family’s Sumirago home in Italy, while Peter Pilotto’s featured a fold-out painting of an action scene in its London studio, created by Peter McDonald

Chain mail: The brand that has editors anticipating its invitation design every season, Anya Hindmarch put a paper chain of stick-figures in the post for A/W 2017. Spanning the colour spectrum, the colourful 2D cutouts nodded to kurbits, a type of Swedish folk art that inspired Hindmarch’s collection

Modern classics: A/W 2017 heralded a host of black and white wonders. JW Anderson introduced his new logo, featuring an embossed ‘W’ and a lost full stop, while Proenza Schouler’s acted as an emblem of its last show in New York, before moving to the Paris couture schedule. With utility in mind, Beautiful People’s show invitation doubled up as a hand warmer. Pallas’ interpretation acted as a drinks coaster, the show taking place at A Jean Nicot, one of the trendiest bars in Paris

Fast lane: Sportmax’s running-track inspired collection featured the encouraging slogan ‘Ready Steady Run.’ Flicking through its flip book-style invitation, emblazoned with the same motto, audience members moved to their seats with winning in mind

Window dressing: Sies Marjan’s Sander Lak featured the work of Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom on his show invitation. Eijkelboom began a series of photographic diaries in the nineties, and Marjan’s invitation features images of windows from ‘Diary 9’, taken in the Goatfield district of Arnhem

STELLA MCCARTNEY PRADA SAINT LAURENT JW ANDERSON LOEWE DRIES VAN NOTEN BURBERRY CALVIN KLEIN CHLOÉ PACO RABANNE GABRIELA HEARST ANYA HINDMARCH AREA

Seal of approval: the finest A/W 2017 fashion week invitations

Wallpaper* Newsletter