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Whether it was because of Olympics-related disruptions, the economy, world events or the creative director merry-go-round, Autumn 2024 couture week felt slightly quieter than usual.
The event ran from 24 to 27 June — a week earlier than usual — to accommodate the Olympic Games. This season’s calendar had 27 houses (compared to 31 last July). Fendi, Valentino, Maison Margiela, Ronald van der Kemp, Julien Fournié and Gaurav Gupta skipped this couture season for a variety of reasons. “As part of a rescheduling of its shows, Fendi will not be presenting this year for haute couture in Paris,” the brand stated. Valentino has a new designer, Ronald van der Kemp will be showing in New York in September, and Maison Margiela has pivoted to showing once a year. Meanwhile, this season marked the return of Thom Browne and Charles de Vilmorin to the schedule. New couture guest member Ardazaei closed the curtain. “[The season] went off smoothly,” says Pascal Morand, executive president of Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM).
There were plenty of celebrities in attendance, including Kylie Jenner and Doja Cat at Schiaparelli, Jennifer Lopez, Jisoo and Xin Liu at Dior, and Michelle Williams and Keira Knightley at Chanel. It was “bring your child to couture week”, as Vogue put it on Instagram: Cate Blanchett turned up with her son at Giorgio Armani Privé, while Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Maya Rudolph each hit the Balenciaga show with offspring in tow.
On the runways, the focus was on the clothes — not viral moments. Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry was clear. “I didn’t want a robot baby, I didn’t want people to talk about anything other than the mastery of the clothes,” he said after the show. “The pay-off of a social media break-the-internet moment is so small now, I wanted something more timeless.” Models had an allure reminiscent of ’50s heyday couture, walking slowly and making eye contact with the audience.
Couture feels like an escape in the uncertain world, and one of this season’s highlights was Giorgio Armani Privé. Armani built his entire collection with pearls, “sensing a widespread need for serenity and constantly seeking a calm”, read the show notes. There was a guided meditation at Balenciaga. “I wanted to share this very intimate and personal thing that I do on a daily basis. It helps me to connect to myself, find this Bluetooth within myself,” creative director Demna says.
Although the wider luxury industry may be slowing down, couture clients — like high jewellery clients — are doing well, according to Sidney Toledano, president of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. “Haute couture numbers are good. I always say, the issue of couture isn’t the clients but the petites mains,” he says, referring to a shortage in the skilled craftspeople that bring couture to life.
Redefining couture
That said, some designers used this season to question the purpose of couture, its modernity and its remit. Is it a business, a theatre or an experience?
Balenciaga’s closing look — a black nylon dress — was a case in point. “About 30 minutes before the show, the dress didn’t exist,” creative director Demna explains backstage after the show. “I wanted it to be this ephemeral dress. Because what is couture? Nobody really needs couture to be honest. To me, it’s an experience of wearing clothes. And I wanted to bring it even further to this idea of experience or performance. This dress only exists for 15 minutes of an event.”
Dutch designer Iris van Herpen continued to push the boundaries between fashion and art as she presented her designs on models suspended in front of giant white canvases to mimic artworks. Van Herpen still has a halo from her blockbuster exhibition ‘Sculpting the Senses’, which drew crowds to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs from November 2023 until the end of April. On Tuesday, she was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (‘Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters’) by the French ministry of culture, at the residence of the Dutch ambassador to France.
“Each time your collection is more than a collection, it’s an event, a performance, a tribute to the imagination, a musical experience, a total work of art,” Olivier Gabet, directeur du département des objets d’art at the Louvre Museum, said when presenting her the insignia. The designer, who has become as famous as fellow Dutch citizen Rem Koolhaas, according to the ambassador, is off to Brisbane, Australia where the exhibition opens on 29 June.
Modernity was key at the Jean Paul Gaultier show by Courrèges creative director Nicolas Di Felice — who is following in the footsteps of other guest designers including Haider Ackermann, Olivier Rousteing, Julien Dossena and Simone Rocha.
“To celebrate what Jean Paul represents for me, I just closed my eyes, and I realised that he really represents for so many queer, different people from the countryside that Paris is a city where everything is possible, you’re gonna be accepted,” Di Felice says. This translated into diverse casting, including some models from the queer community that he found on Instagram. The set was a white box and the collection involved geometric shapes. “When it comes to couture, people expect embellishments. Embellishment doesn’t come naturally for me,” Di Felice adds. “He modernised it; showed another part of me,” Gaultier says after the show. “It’s very refined, with a minimal approach. It gives another dimension.”
Olympics fever and Chanel in transition
The upcoming Paris Olympics and Paralympics were, of course, top of mind this season. On the eve of couture was Vogue World, which celebrated the long-running relationship between fashion and sports. Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri paid homage to movement in her latest couture collection, exploring clothing construction and its relationship to the body and sport. “I don’t want to build the body, I want to release it,” Chiuri told Vogue Runway and Vogue Business global director Nicole Phelps, who called her “the most modern couturier working today”.
Thom Browne, who is known to have an affinity for sports, featured nods to the Olympics too, including the gold bullion embroidery of athletes alongside a trio of fully embroidered jackets in bronze, silver and gold.
Chanel hasn’t returned to the Grand Palais yet — the site will be used for fencing competitions during the games — instead, it hosted its show at the Palais Garnier (Chanel has been a major patron of the Opéra national de Paris since 2023). It was the first show since the sudden departure of Virginie Viard on 6 June, artistic director of fashion collections. Phelps wrote: “We are entr’acte at Chanel, with a new artistic director not yet named and no timeline given. Outside the Palais Garnier, it’s safe to say that every couture show this week is an audition for the coveted position.”
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