High fashion represents the very pinnacle of French type and savoir-faire. Such is its exclusivity, that solely a handful of homes are granted membership by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode annually. Naturally, this makes for a few of the most opulent runway spectacles of the season – dwarfing present units, star-crammed entrance rows – however it additionally represents an opportunity to have fun the poetry of vogue and dressmaking, with every hand-crafted garment usually taking hours and hours of labor to good.
Up to now, this season has been sometimes transporting. At Chanel, it started with a misplaced button as Virginie Viard took us down a rabbit gap of confections impressed by the romance of dance, whereas at Dior Maria Grazia Chiuri introduced a melange of richly crafted materials backdropped with a set by artist Isabella Ducrot. In the meantime, at Alaïa, Pieter Mulier opened up the doorways to his retailer for a tight-knit present – an expression of intimacy from the always-emotive designer.
Reporting from Paris, right here is the easiest of Haute Couture Week S/S 2024, because it occurs.
The very best of Haute Couture Week S/S 2024
Giorgio Armani Privé
Giorgio Armani Privé S/S 2024
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Armani)
It was a sometimes opulent outing from Giorgio Armani, whose Privé collections – in accordance with the equally opulent entrance row, clad in final season’s runway appears to be like – entice a phalanx of worldwide purchasers dedicated to the designer’s pursuit of magnificence. He achieves it not simply by the langurous line which additionally runs by his Emporio and Giorgio ready-to-wear collections, however within the extraordinary flights of embellishment and embroidery, alongside wealthy jacquards, lace, and the iridescent materials which right here wrapped the physique and glimmered within the mild. Certainly, by means of inspiration factors, Mr Armani merely stated that this was him ‘indulging in surprising bursts of creativity’, which set the gathering’s freewheeling temper (clothes that erupted into fronds of tulle, monumental plissé hats). Like final season, the designer additionally famous an ‘imagined journey from west to east’, right here rising in richly embroidered kimono-like robes.
Chanel
Chanel Haute Couture S/S 2024
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Chanel)
A considerably surreal opening video noticed the actress Margaret Qualley shedding a button from her Chanel jacket, earlier than being aided by Naomi Campbell to search out its alternative (cue the looks of monumental spools of thread and gleaming scissors within the quick, which was directed by Dave Free and scored by Kendrick Lamar). As if by magic – simply after an unlimited recreation of the signature Chanel button had descended from the ceiling of the Grand Palais Ephémère – Qualley had leapt out of the display and onto the runway, sporting the gathering’s opening look.
It heralded the beginning of a refreshing, romantic assortment from Virginie Viard, who regarded to the button as an emblem – the ‘jewels’ with which Gabrielle Chanel had adorned her authentic jackets, and handled all the time with the ‘utmost respect’. ’Chanel brings out feelings in me that I exploit for inspiration, assortment after assortment… my mission is to search out new methods to inform its most stunning tales,’ elaborated Viard, who used it as a leaping off level to discover the ’bodily poetry’ of ballet and dance.
As such, the gathering – which arrived in a sugared-almond palette of white and pale pink – was stuffed with thrives that urged each romance and motion, whether or not the fronds of tulle that emerged from the sleeve of a jacket or as a type of pannier on the hip, or the layered physique fits (on which extraordinary embellished bustiers sat) and white tights, which urged the liberation of the dancer’s rehearsal room. ‘I usually take into consideration dance, it’s an vital theme at Chanel,’ defined Viard. ‘The Home is near its establishments, to its choreographers and dancers, and we create costumes for the ballet. I’ve tried to convey collectively the ability and finesse of our bodies and garments in a really ethereal assortment, composed of tulle, ruffles, pleats and lace.’
Dior
Dior Haute Couture A/W 2024
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Dior)
Maria Grazia Chiuri largely eschewed strictly outlined themes for an exploration of what the Italian designer known as ‘aura’. It speaks to the temper she has conjured throughout her tenure on the home thus far, the place regardless of recalling moments from historical past – or certainly the home archive – she outlined a definite expression of latest femininity.
Right here, the present was backdropped by a piece by artist Isabella Ducrot titled Large Aura, a sequence of large-scale clothes silhouettes that of their building recalled the warp and weft of material. Certainly, it was material – the medium of the couturier – which took centre stage right here, with wealthy moments of moiré, assembly the sheen of iridescent materials and the plush textures of velvet. Of moiré – a material for which Christian Dior, she famous, had a specific infatuation – she stated it ’unfurls over winter like a wave.’
For the silhouettes, Chiuri regarded in direction of La Cigale, a gown that first appeared in Christian Dior’s A/W 1952 assortment (there, it was additionally in moiré). A definitive Dior silhouette – narrowed on the waist and cantilevered on the hip to form the posture – the strict line was reinterpreted with new ease by the designer, throughout robes that wrapped across the physique and gently nipped on the waist, or a sequence of hourglass tailor-made jackets worn with free-flowing plissé skirts.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli Haute Couture S/S 2024
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Schiaparelli)
Daniel Roseberry’s collections from Parisian couture home Schiaparelli have come to herald the arrival of the week within the metropolis. And, they all the time have a star-studded visitor record befitting the event (this season, Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and Hunter Schafer all took their locations entrance row). With Roseberry – who lower his enamel at Thom Browne, one other designer keen on fantasy (and who made his high fashion debut in 2023) – you by no means fairly know what to anticipate (an internet-ubiquitous S/S 2023 assortment noticed monumental replicas of animal heads used as adornment).
This season was no exception, with Roseberry presenting a cosmic assortment impressed by outer area and sci-fi tropes – all the way in which right down to a ’robo child’ constructed from what gave the impression to be mounds of gleaming discarded tech (it was carried down the runway by mannequin Maggie Maurer, who famous it was lighter than her personal child). A robe adorned with outdated cell phones and compact disks had an identical impact. ’As artwork – and nature – teaches us time and again, the issues and concepts that appear diametrically opposed to one another may mix to make startling chimeras, objects composed of acquainted components that, when united, create one thing surprising and new,’ defined the designer.
Elsewhere, robes have been lower with a sometimes sculptural line, whether or not richly embroidered and reaching excessive above the pinnacle on one aspect, or full with monumental fan-like breastplates crafted from patchworked black lace. ’[It is] a sequence of profiles each acquainted and never – half human, half one thing else,’ Roseberry continues. ‘And, subsequently, completely Schiaparelli.’
Toteme
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Toteme)
Swedish vogue model Toteme has been going from energy to energy in current months, which culminated with the opening of a smooth new London outpost on Mount Avenue late final yr (the most recent in a slew of openings, which span New York, Shanghai, Seoul, and naturally Stockholm). Selecting to indicate off-schedule at Haute Couture Week, founders Elin Kling and Karl Lindman invited an intimate gathering of press and associates to view the A/W 2024 assortment on a stark white-backdropped runway, which recalled the Nineties runway reveals which have little doubt been an inspiration to the pair’s stripped-back stylings.
Certainly, Kling (who’s inventive director) famous a honing-in on ’line, lower and form’ in an astute assortment that spanned gently tapered wool overcoats, featherweight knits which wrapped sensually across the neckline (a silhouette which reappeared later in sinuous clothes), and a fantastically lower slew of robes that closed the present, both hovering gently off the shoulder or knotted and adorned with crochet flowers. ‘Designed for real-life conditions, the gathering contains a extremely curated edit that explores and consolidates the Toteme codes,’ the designer famous. ‘Finally, the gathering contains the right mixture of types for a refined look.’
Supply: Wallpaper
