Paris couture week ended on January 25, and we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk about it! Today we’re going to introduce you to five shows that seemed the most significant and watch-worthy to us. Don’t forget that haute couture is not about the wearability of clothes or trends – it’s there to showcase the creative abilities of the brands and limitlessness of designers’ imagination. Basically, it should be viewed and received as art. However, some brands, like Fendi, Chanel, Dior, and Valentino, actively support the idea that haute couture needs to be safe enough to be appropriate for real life.
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Maison Margiela Couture Spring 2024 was officially recognized as the best show of this year’s couture week. You do understand that you absolutely need to give it a watch now, right?
Creative director John Galliano managed to make the collection dramatic, theatrical, and commercial all at the same time. It looked like some items, accessories, and footwear could definitely be seen in the realm of our prosaic day-to-day life – if they were taken out of the magnificent picture created by Galliano. For example, red-sole Tabi pumps – the result of the Margiela x Louboutin collaboration.
In fact, the show was Maison Margiela’s first couture show in two years. It was held in Paris, under the Pont Alexandre III bridge. The place aimed to reference street shows held by Margiela himself when he was still in charge of the brand.
Another fun fact is about John Galliano. Back In 2001, when he was working for Dior, he was once scrutinized for exploiting and aestheticizing the homeless. The reason was the controversial collection that featured the designer's now iconic newspaper print. The print didn’t actually display random newspaper scraps – it was a made-up Christian Dior Daily paper that presented portraits of homeless people. John Galliano claimed he drew inspiration from the homeless population he had seen during his walks in Paris and the Rag Balls popular in the 1920s–1930s. Overall, newspapers are a symbol of homelessness. Now, 20 years later, after a long time of public hate and cancellations, he once again focuses on the misfortunate and rejected. This time, everyone applauds and praises his creative genius. Galliano is on a roll!
For the last several seasons, guest designers have been creating collections for Jean Paul Gaultier. They have tried to seamlessly merge the brand’s DNA with their own aesthetic vision. This season, Simone Rocha was invited to create an haute couture collection. She kept the whole process a secret from Gaultier, so the designer witnessed it for the first time together with the guests of the show.
The show was wonderful. Simone Rocha tastefully combined her love for Victorian fashion and romantic elements with identifiable codes of Jean Paul Gaultier, such as sailor caps, sailor striped tops, iconic cone bras, etc. Rocha made the sailor striped top ethereal and transparent, the stripes turned into satin ribbons, and the sailor cap became naive and covered with bows. The other highlight of the show was the fun hairy shoes. Would you like to get yourself a pair of those? :)
Daniel Roseberry never fails to amaze everyone – and it works wonderfully for Schiaparelli. This time, the designer reflected on the way people and technology become intertwined and how technology gradually replaces humanity. For instance, a model holding a robot baby walked the runway. It looked like an elegant reference to the Madonna Litta by Leonardo Da Vinci or the works of Raphael. There was also a model wearing a dress made of motherboards. The collection was surrealistic and corresponded to the origins and key ideas of the brand. We could also see homages to the works of Elsa Schiaparelli. Give the show a watch, you won’t regret it!
Robert Wun's Spring 2024 Haute Couture collection was a stunning technological satire. It was so intricate and interesting to watch: a tulle dress covered in letters, a wedding gown with crystals resembling blood stains, a red dress with a scary human-shaped appendage behind the model’s back, and many more.
By the way, Robert Wun is rather new to haute couture. His first couture collection was released in 2023.
Viktor&Rolf has irony in the brand’s DNA, and that’s exactly what you have to equip yourself with to watch the SS24 show. This year, designers showed us “torn” haute couture in black and beige. The gowns looked like they were ripped out of jealousy behind the scenes.
We hope we managed to inspire you to watch the shows and immerse yourself in the beauty of haute couture.
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