Last stop, Paris! Yes, after a marathon of shows, and a standout season for Milan, we’re now gunning for the grande finale — a week jam-packed with some of the biggest shows there are. We’re talking Chanels and Diors, Louis Vuittons and Saint Laurents, Rick Owens and Miu Mius. You know the drill by now, but we’ll say it again — tune in here for all the latest, chicest news to know as and when it happens. Bisous!
Vaquera
We all love a debutante, don’t we? Well, this season the honour of being the new kids on the block fell down to New York’s enfants terribles, Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee of Vaquera. Making their first hop across the pond to present their AW22 collection in Paris, they took to the concrete bowels of 3537, the vast cultural space in the Marais owned by the powers behind Dover Street Market. On the opening day of Paris Fashion Week, the duo brought what many of those who’d flocked to see the show were hoping for – a rapturously camp flurry of voluminous looks; blurs of shimmers and lingerie frill storming down the runway, which, when paused revealed themselves to be eminently desirable clothes.
What was clear, though, was that Vaquera – a label that for so long has been pegged as a fixture of New York’s coterie of iconoclastic ‘young designers’, is actually now all grown up. This season’s scarlet quilted outerwear – cropped bombers, broad-shouldered double-breasted jackets, and belted overcoats – with acid-washed denim and oversized apron skirts demonstrated top-notch cutting skills, while gigantic angora cable knit sweaters struck a golden ratio between hug-me cosiness and a fashion-forward silhouette. Lingerie – a recurring motif in Vaquera’s collections for some time now – figured in lacy trims on transparent rainproof sheet smocks and baggy nightgowns, while splashes of camp came by way of puffs of leopard faux fur, second skin PVC underlays, and pops of Westwood-y studded tartan kilts. For a label that’s often described itself as a purveyor of ‘fashion fan fiction’, this felt like a collection that set them on their way to becoming a subject of the very genre they pioneered. MS
Images courtesy of Vaquera.
Botter
Just weeks ago, news broke that Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter would be stepping back from their responsibilities at Nina Ricci to focus solely on the label they built together, Botter. Gauging by the collection they presented on the morning of the second day of PFW, it was a gamble that paid off, resulting in one of the pair’s most intriguing collections to date. Titled “Caribbean Couture”, it was an effective ode to the resourcefulness inherent to the island nations’ culture – plastic lawn chairs were metamorphosed into desirable design objects, covered in wool plaid and faux furs that echoes fabric found in the collection. Tailored v-neck pullovers were cleverly repurposed from pairs of trousers, and halter tops and western shirts were fringed with cascades of beads recycled from ocean plastic – the latest in a series of moves made by the label to draw attention to the crises faced in our seas. MS
Images courtesy of Botter.
Off-White
Since the sudden, tragic passing of Virgil Abloh towards the end of last year, tributes to the creative legacy of one of fashion’s most singular voices has been paid by way of two deeply moving Louis Vuitton shows. The first took place in Miami, just two days after the announcement of his death, with the second hosted in Paris during the city’s men’s fashion week in January – and it was in them that Virgil’s final collections for the Parisian maison were shown. Last night in Paris, it was the turn of Off-White – the house that Virgil built from the ground up. The final collections of womenswear and menswear Virgil designed were presented around a giant chandelier installed at the heart of the Palais Brogniart and were imbued with a sense of forward-looking celebration. They nodded to Virgil’s unspeakably powerful contribution to fashion history, and looked to the future with the same wide-eyed wonder that coloured his perspective. Read our full review of the Off-White show here. MS
Images courtesy of Off-White.
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