Paris always closes the onerous but invigorating spectacle of fashion month, and being the closing player of a four-week long performance is no easy position to draw. Nevertheless, the suave flair of the Parisian fashion houses, both new and established, and the romanticized aura of the French city, never fails to provide a decadent finale to the fatiguing cycle of fashion. With grand names such as Christian Dior, Balmain and Hermès headlining the calendar, alongside more modern but thriving enterprises like Miu Miu, Commes de Garçons and The Row, the French calendar is busy. GLITCH has highlighted some of the key takeaways from this last act of an ebullient month for fashion.
Industry News
Dior Dresses Their Showspace
This season Dior dressed their models in a new, but perfectly on-brand collection. Meanwhile, they dressed their space in something very typically un-Dior. Lining their catwalk this year was a 7m Long LED Screen video installation created by visual artist Elena Bellantoni, that opened like glitchy shutterboards and the show’s beginning. The screen glared like a garish billboard in the tight packed and dim event space, and was a stark contrast to Dior’s typical fascination monochromatics. Entitled “Not Her”, the eye-twitching LED art, in blinding pink and yellow neons, featured pop art writing, poster cut outs, and was an odd contrast both stylistically and colorfully to the known Dior palette. However, the graphic staging was intentional in its idiosyncrasy. With its anti-sexist and anti-capitalist messaging, the artwork solidified the coded messaging of Maria Gracia Chiuri’s more stumped heels, lounging silhouettes, and long lined suiting, and was an added punch in her feminist movment to desexualise fashion. Chiuri named her loose fitting collection “a rejection of the fashion industrial system which dictates women must conform to an hourglass idea of perfection”. The art, and the runway aflame with neon striping, was certainly a discordant switch with the romanticized heritage Dior associates itself with, but was beautifully alerting and cleverfully honed with its messaging and purpose.
Courrèges Breaks Away In A New Direction
Invitees to the Courrèges show this year were treated to a touch of playfulness, as they were mailed cream slate tiles in place of paper invitations. The tile revealed itself to be a crackable, smashable, fortune cookie-esque invite, which when hammered away at, revealed the show location – Paris 15e, a cylindrical warehouse. Somewhat of a loveable quirk on social media, the invite foreshadowed the very theatrical staging that Courrèges had plastered the warehouse floor with. The clinical white wash interior was somewhat of a blank canvas, but as the models paraded down the line, the ground appeared to be lined in a similar crackable plaster to that of the invite. Their dainty pricked heels stomped and stamped through the crust, in a performance that could be literally described as “groundbreaking”. But the thin plastered flooring was likely more than just an artsy display of destruction. According to the show notes, the models’ “first steps on virgin land shatter the moon-like surface, carving a fissured road that chronicles each passing stride”. Entitled “The Miseducation of Courèges”, creative director Nicolas di Felice seemed to be wanting to mark a change in the Courrèges image and direction, with more fluid and slouchier cuts and silhouettes having a newfound dominance. Whilst the aesthetic did differ from the previous straight-edge and futuristic appeal of the brand, the Courréges women still appeared to be marching to the moon. The space age feel of the show space, combined with this softer brand aesthetic, was perhaps suggesting that although di Felice is tempering his aesthetics, the Courrèges women is still an explorer, an adventurer, and ready to take on new territories.
GLITCH’s Talent To Watch
Larger Than Life Fashion by Paula Canovas Del Vas
Known for scrunched and bunched pieces, and her playful pinning and pulling of material, Paula Canovas Del Vas’ creations have spanned works from the larger than life “Pillow Bag” to her uniquely structured “Bao Dress”. Her FW23 collection was all about tulle and draping as she parceled up her models like enmeshed gifts in bright sheer fabric. Meanwhile, her SS23 showcase was more rugged, with the focus on cords and strings and straps. As expected, from her previous infatuations, her show on Monday for SS24 hinged on a particular theme, and this time skin tight shapewear, that clung to the models bodies and stretched into finger gloves and footwear, as they dressed themselves in front of an audience, was a notable visual. Ruffles and ballooned shaping was then the main stylistic thread of the collection they dressed themselves in, as Del Vas’ shapes billowed over the top of their streamlined shapes. Giving fashion a larger than life, 3D feel, seems to be Canovas Del Vas’ signature as she designs fashion that alters the body rather than compliments it. Her show this time round, was almost an interpretive performance of movement, dressing and shape-making, as her models moved haphazardly and interacted with each other in a way atypical for a runway. GLITCH is hooked by the artsy and sculptural aesthetic of this emerging designer, and excited to see how she pushes the scope of fashion, and the concept of the fashion show, in seasons to come.
Maison J.Simone Sandwhich Is Chic and Shock
…. was the strapline of this emerging brand’s show announcement on Instagram, which dubbed the style of fast food chain advertisements. Featuring Parisian model Noemie Lenoir chewing through a burger, whilst clothed in a feathered ensemble that was also modelled off the image of a burger, this young fashion house is daring, unorthodox, and a little bit. The creation of Jude Ferrari, a former stylist for both high fashion and the high street, with stints Jacquemus and Zara, Maison J.Simone is an interesting newcomer rattling the Parisian fashion world. Born in 2019, the brand has a quirky absurdness that fuses popular culture into their prints, and dabbles with the concept of dress up and costume. For their SS24 presentation, the models walked on portable floor pad treadmills – the hip new product that is being popularized by the grind culture pocket of social media, and encouraged work-from-home entrepreneurs to hit their 10,000 steps whilst building a business. Ferrari also played with lots of American iconography including cowboy aesthetics, shredded prints of the American Flag, and the concept of fast food. The collection of youthful RTW pieces was very spirited and jesty, but also very stylised and relevant to some wider emerging trends. It will be interesting to see how this off-beat fashion house builds its quirky fanbase and integrates itself into fashion culture whilst maintaining its outré allure.
Tech Alert
FabriX and Dress X Integrate Digital Fashion Into The Prestigious Capital
FabriX and Dress X combined forces to treat fashion week attendees to their very own gateways into the metaverse. Having started in London where they debuted their combined installations, the team finished fashion month strong with a presence in Paris for the second leg of their roadshow in Palais de Tokyo. Supported by the Federation De la Haute Couture Et De La Mode (FCHM), Dress X powered kiosks were set up to allow attendees to try on digital garments and curate their own virtual wardrobes in connection with their smartphones. The installation brought Hong Kong designers to a European fashion week epicentre, as the works of 12 creators were uploaded onto the booths. What’s more, 3 designers stationed in France, Florentina Leitner, Louis Gabriel Nouchi and Ponder.Er, were also given access to the platform, debuted some of their creations on this digital showcase set up. The presence of these kiosks in Paris marked the attend of FabriX’s so called two-part Digital Fashion Roadshow, and is a strong indicator of how digital fashion is having an ever-increasing presence in the traditional fashion calendar.
New Launches
Peter Do Shows For First Time In Paris
Peter Do came to Paris this year to showcase his eponymous collection for the first time in the French capital. The collection, itself entitled “Paris”, seemed to be a more sophisticated and developed showing of the Peter Do aesthetic, with block colours and boxy tailoring giving a very “fashion meets corporate” sentiment. Quite different to his “Born To Go” collection under Helmut Lang that debuted in New York just some weeks ago, his “Paris” collection seemed to have a less lustrous, but more dapper appeal, with a focus on deep reds, greys and beiges. The show notes were brief and seemed to simply relay the busy and emotional year Do has had, thinly stretched now under the success of Helmut Lang and the early development of his own namesake label. Do, who has been almost burdened, being labeled as a “prodigy” of fashion, did not disappoint nor fall short. His venture to the city of lights could have been diluted with elements of theatrics and showmanship off the back of his recent success. However his notes explained that he wanted the collection to simply “speak for itself”, and it did just that. Truly spotlighting his mastery in tailoring and style making, and echoing his mentorship from Phoebe Philo, arguably the female leader of elegant sleek, Do’s collection was an applaudable transition into the Parisian space.
Zomer
Zomer, by Danial Aitouganov and Imruh Asha, is a brand birthed just this year, which focuses on the “joy found in creative expression”. Their debut campaign, released across socials at the beginning of last month, was entitled “It’s Just Kids”, and played with the idea that even the world’s biggest fashion stars were once babies. The campaign imagery saw child models dressed as Anna Wintour, Steven Wiesel and Pat Mcgrath in a humorously impressionistic series of shots. Their debut collection was then modelled in Paris on Wednesday the 27th September, and in line with their tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign,it was filled with color, diversity and a flair of experimentation. The women’s ready to wear brand definitely brought something fresh and more accessible onto the Parisian scene, and it will be interesting to see how exactly their image sharpens and differentiates itself in season to come. In and ode to its playful marketing team, who caused a media stir with their miniaturizing of fashion personas, the show closed with two kids who teared down the runway in matching shirts. These children were the models for the first ever image by Zomer, that ignited their instagram feed on the 4th September. If you look closely at the men behind the brand, it becomes quite clear that these two boys who opened their campaign, and closed their show, are intended to be their own representations. Perhaps, the creative venture of this duo is an exercise of turning back the clock, releasing the inhibitions of adulthood, and driving a creative freshness inspired by their long-standing friendship.
Paris has wrapped up fashion month for the Spring Summer 2024 season, and the brands in attendance have the honor of being the lasting impression in attendee and consumer minds. Exhibiting a myriad of newness and difference, it will be interesting to see how some of the ideas, images, and names who sparked in Paris this September, will become fortified over the next winter quarter, and reemerge back in February.
Written by Hebe Street from GLITCH Magazine
