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The ladies wearing haute couture are also looking at what’s ahead—and aiming to rule it all. Valentino recently presented “Un Château” at the breathtaking Château de Chantilly just north of Paris. Creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s haute couture collection explored “a place as an idea—a representation, a metaphor. Not the château, but “Un Château”—a locale unanchored to geographies or eras, but expressive of an idea of life, a symbol to be analyzed, questioned, then redefined.”

Meanwhile, the royalty in visions of the future by Schiaparelli is a little more dystopian but no less jaw-dropping. Mirrored mosaics on a skirt and jacket, a cowl that could be made of scales, petals, or feathers, and painted-on textures sauntered down the runway alongside dramatic earrings and accessories. The looks, which creative director Daniel Roseberry says are an homage to artists, including Yves Klein,

Giacometti, Matisse, Lucian Freud, and others, also look like they could be right at home in the Capitol from The Hunger Games or a Star Wars throne room.

Jacquemus took to the Palace of Versailles for its fall/winter haute couture presentation, and the star power was present on the runway with fashion royals Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, and Deva Cassel on the catwalk for “Le Chouchou” collection by Simon Porte Jacquemus. Guests watched from boats on the reflection pool as the models traipsed along the lawn in ballet-inspired lace, tulle, veils, and puffed silhouettes.

Synth Wave

Brandon Maxwell Resort 2024 celebrates another futuristic trend: minimalism. This ready-to-wear collection is ruled by simplicity, clean lines, black and white, and solid primary hues. A few glazed leather accent pieces round out a curation of looks that could fit on the streets of any Blade Runner cityscape or a casino in a galaxy far, far away.

Also embracing the synth-wave aesthetic is Interior, a New York-based fashion collection boasting “a unique mix of hard-to-find wardrobe staples and pieces that feel more like heirlooms than they do the fleeting styles of the moment.” Interior’s mission is “to be worn wherever and forever.” This Resort 2024 includes a mix of oversized suits, blouses, and sweaters alongside chrome leather and strategically distressed cotton pieces.

The Simulation

Call it the matrix or whatever you like, but Thom Browne might be living in it—or are we all? The designer’s haute couture show was packed, but most of the 2,300 guests were cardboard cutouts seated in Paris’s grand Palais Garnier opera house. The three hundred human audience members sat on stage, the runway before them, up close and personal. Browne says he wanted to “turn the tables” and ensure the audience felt like part of the spectacle. The collection itself was inspired by travel, with train station sounds and luggage being rolled and carted by while models wore utilitarian looks with some otherworldly touches.

Pharrell’s first menswear collection for Louis Vuitton also brought uniform vibes, along with pixelated fabrics, checkerboards, and—a small utility vehicle delivering suitcases? The iconic fashion house has always been held in high esteem, but critics believe this event may have launched it into the stratosphere as the music star gilded the Pont Neuf in Paris and shut it down for the evening’s celebrity-studded presentation. Something about it all seems a little like audiences were living in a metaverse where Pharrell is the king.

Louis Vuitton Men’s Summer 2024

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