We made it. Fashion week culminates, as always, in Paris, with nary a thought of giving us a break. Visual excitement abounds along with experimentation, celebration and a big signal that better days are slowly making their way.
Isabel Marant sees our Spring/Summer 2022 as vibrant and fun. Just in tune with her upcoming store opening in Miami, Marant’s latest collection is for the beach and for play. Athletic separates meet fun prints, relaxed jackets and jumpsuits speak only of the sun. She shared with Vogue, “I really wanted to have super healthy, sporty, beautiful women with a lot of skin and legs—like always.”
At Rokh, the party dress got a new life with blue opera gloves, PVC details and accents, along with deconstructed cuts. Designer Rok Hwang intimated to Vogue backstage what the collection is all about: “Embracing femininity, and also a kind of youthful glamour, is the message that I wanted to present. So it has a kind of youthful energy.”
A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Hwang also told Vogue that he always goes back to his learnings in school for his creations, always challenging what’s been done with thought, and not just through a reckless desire to be different.
Fluid. That’s the one word to encapsulate the offerings of Issey Miyake for the season. Designer Satoshi Kondo sent down dresses described as “slinky” down the runway. Coats are softened with a rounded hem. Some pieces were accented with designs handpainted in Kyoto, while some were made with a technique called naki, which lets the colors blend into each other, highlighting that undersea theme.
Bold, adventurous, grand and beautiful. What else to expect from Rick Owens? At Palais de Tokyo, the designer, along with partner in crime Michele Lamy, declared that they are back in the best way possible. Engineered cuts were both sexy and and daring without giving away a sense of power and control.
“I always considered myself somebody that would do anything in the pursuit of beauty, and to maintain a certain standard of beauty—and that was the meaning of life. So we have to flex here,” Owens told Vogue.
Social media darling
Ten years ago, people were shy in expressing their doubts and misgivings when a young Olivier Rousteing took over Balmain. He is the first Black person to lead the French fashion brand, and he put in the work. Rousteing made the brand a social media darling with statement pieces for the trendiest personalities. So a look back on the 10-year run is most fitting, bringing out the best of the best and making the fashion show a two-day music festival heralded by Doja Cat. When you say Courrèges, you think space age. But designer Nicolas Di Felice, the brand’s head, says it is more than that. That futuristic look can be a trend that comes and goes; what Courrèges wanted was to dress women. This understanding, along with pieces from the brand’s ’60s and ’70s collections, showed up for Spring/Summer 2022.
It’s fun and festival-worthy with ponchos and raincoats. “André Courrèges really wanted to put his fashion on the streets,” Di Felice told Vogue.
Dries Van Noten isn’t holding back. Of his latest collection, he told Vogue: “Festivals and all these things came to our minds. We were looking at those moments when you get out, get with crowds, share emotions, and have fun together—whether it’s going to a pop or rock festival, going to a dodgy little club, or dancing in a discotheque.”
What you get with this mantra is colorful pieces that aren’t for the timid. A fair amount of experimentation and freedom was injected. Van Noten said to Vogue, “We did all kinds of crazy experiments—handmade smocking, fluffy things, jacquards, silks. Different types of sparkle—different shine, depths of glimmer.”
Between multicolored blazers and fringed dresses that gave rainbows a run for their money, we couldn’t be more thankful for this lively spirit.
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