Fashion Month is almost coming to an end.
With shows over shows happening every day, take a look at SLEEK’s runway roundup.
Image Courtesy of Dior.
Dior
Using each collection for Dior to reflect on the relationship between body and fashion, Maria Grazia Chiuri focuses on the re-reading of the 50s in the Fall/Winter 2023 collection. With the focus set on the 50s, a significant era for the fashion house and marking the invention of the New Look, it allowed Chiuri not only to dig deeper into Dior’s history but also French style. For the collection, floral motifs by Monsieur Dior are reinterpreted while fabric interweave with a metallic thread to create silhouettes that seem to erase contours. As a celebration of femininity, the creations suggest multiple paths for the women of our generation that have the power to shape the future.
Image Courtesy of Han Kjøbenhavn.
Han Kjøbenhavn
As a continuation of their ongoing interest in sculptural shapes, organic curves and brutal design, Han Kjøbenhavn’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection aims to combine rawness with a soft touch. Chrome sculptures are integrated into garments and dresses, while handcrafted welted boots, faux fur and vegan leather stand for boldness. Under the theme of making hell a beautiful place, Kjøbenhavn came together with Diablo®IV (the hugely anticipated game from Blizzard Entertainment) and celebrated their collaboration with tight-fitted bodysuits embroidered with the Diablo IV logo as a dystopian audio created a dense and raw atmosphere.
Image Courtesy of Blumarine.
Blumarine
For their Fall/Winter 2023 collection, Blumarine defines the Blumarine woman as one with charisma, ready to fight with an attitude of a provocateur. Combining fierceness with glamour, fire-red flares allude a love for battles and knitted metallics reveal seductive powers. There is no middle ground in this collection as extremes coexist, extra long maxi skirts and the barely-there mini, the Blumarine woman doesn’t make compromises and is ready to strive.
Image Courtesy of Vaquera.
Vaquera
With the aim to move one step away from non-conformity, this season’s Vaquera isn’t afraid to make things that aren’t necessarily for sale. Punkish influences are seen in jeans studded with blunt-ended nails, accumulating a weight of 20 pounds thus taking a route into a more experimental direction. Taking a twist to the designer duo’s hero Vivienne Westwood’s iconic tit top, Vaquera takes it further this season, adding twisted and tucked nipple details to introduce their new era.
Image Courtesy of Gucci.
Gucci
Filling up the season between Alessandro Michele’s era and Sabato De Sarno’s arrival, the Gucci team pulled together a collection referencing the house’s heritage. Both Tom Ford’s and Michele’s time influenced this season’s runway, drawing back to 90s slimline tailoring and eccentric styling as seen in the most recent Gucci era. For the accessories, oversized horse-bit pieces in bags stood out, tying back to designs from 2003 and with everything else bringing back a sense of Gucci nostalgia.
Image Courtesy of Acne Studios.
Acne Studios
The Fall/Winter 2023 Acne Studios show feels like an invitation into an enchanted garden, with crystals everywhere dripping from trees, resembling a weeping willow out of a fairytale. Inspired by his memories of growing up in northern Sweden, creative director Jonny Johansson captures his backyard he remembers as infinite woods in the collection, recollecting back to a time when nature was the vessel of inspiration. It becomes clear that the collection is counteracting our hyperreal-looking digital world as Johansson brings new approaches with moss crochet slip dresses and cropped moto-jackets painted to look like flaky white birch trees.
Image Courtesy of Fendi.
Fendi
The Fall/Winter 2023 Fendi collection authored by Kim Jones is introducing a new bag, the Multi that folds from a day tote to an evening bag in one move without any fuss transformational operation. Jones combined elements in this collection that felt very Fendiesque but at the same time fresh, using menswear textiles in feminine dressing and creating a connection from ready-to-wear to the house’s couture. But the main inspiration for this collection was Delfina Delettrez Fendi’s use of colour: brown combined with a pale blue derives from the colour palette of her Roman school uniform. Each look in this collection goes back to the roots of the Italian luxury house.
Image Courtesy of Ferrari.
Ferrari
Parts of Ferrari’s history recall beauty as a pleasure that derives from speed. Further exploring the specific meaning of beauty, the Fall/Winter 2023 collection looks in places of motion, changes and transitions as silence is potentially a roar or pink could also be flowing into red. The collection is an evolution of simple lines becoming full volumes as workwear also plays an important role as a fashion classic in the Ferrari universe, using shades of pink in saturation to play into the elegance of the iconic and timeless Ferrari red.
Image Courtesy of GCDS.
GCDS
The Fall/Winter 2023 GCDS collection takes a look behind closed doors, the space where we can move freely and release our true selves. Creative director Giuliano Calza reduces the distance of his public persona to who he really is, incorporating his love for his cat Kittho on the runway, blown up to giant proportions. The idea of homeware is again incorporated in the materials, making use of velvets of sofas and tufty textures of bath mats that are in play with worn out leathers, thus symbolising a household that holds different souls: one tender and one more sultry.
Image Courtesy of Di Petsa.
Di Petsa
A guided meditation in the pitch black show space narrated by designer Dimitra Petsa set the tone at the beginning of the Di Petsa show. The Fall/Winter 2023 collection pays homage to the designer’s Greek roots, referencing the ancient mythology story of Persephone as it honors the growth and transformation the goddess has experienced. Manifested into a collection, wet-look illusion dresses and the placement of healing crystals embody the theme of breaking and healing.
Image Courtesy of Heliot Emil.
Heliot Emil
The Danish brother duo Victor and Julius Juul lit up Paris Fashion Week with dark and dystopian creations, really focusing on playing with proportions while staying functional. One jacket can be even worn in 55 different ways, which Heliot Emil proposed to demonstrate after. Inspired by British sculptor Henry Moore and his semi-abstract sculptures, the collection also messes with the dynamics of the human body, inflated balaclavas seemed frightening but at the same time displayed anonymity. While the models changed into their second looks, the Instagram viral moment happened as a stuntman was lit on fire, literally creating a burning man moment.
Image Courtesy of Dilara Findikoglu.
Dilara Findikoglu
Feminist, angry and sexual. Dilara Findikoglu‘s Fall/Winter collection titled “Not A Man’s Territory” lets women regain the power of their bodies, freed from society constantly questioning what is acceptable to wear. The impulse for the creations was the murder of Mahsa Amini and the following women’s rights movement in Iran which Findigoklu used to regain female self-possession. Symbolically a belly dancer outfit was made out of hair, tying it back to when women were cutting off their own her as a form of protest, while other looks are taking inspiration from strong female figures including Marilyn Monroe or Joan of Arc but all bringing back the power to women.
Image Courtesy of Omar Afridi.
Omar Afridi
Exploring how the genre of electro-music influences clothes and taking a closer look at how a change of sounds also evokes a change in people who are moved by it, the Fall/Winter 23 Omar Afridi collection presents a fusion of classic elegance and contemporary edge. In an approach to visualize both, timeless ringbone coats with three layered pockets are paired with a cocoon coat crafted from dry textures dobby wool tweed. Further continuing to explore an array of fabrics which include loosely woven deadstock and push fleece, the collection gets a touch of luxury with Loro Piana’s technical parkas.
Image Courtesy of Cormio.
Cormio
Set on a soccer field on the outskirts of Milan, Cormio showed a collection of the feminist desire for rebellion. Fighting back against the perception of women needing to be girls and inheriting the attributes of having to be quiet and laid back, the collection takes that concept of femininity with irony, using teenage muses such as Avril Lavigne and Amy Winehouse as an inspiration while bags mimicking the look of a soccer ball tied the collection together as a lighthearted look on society’s expectations from women.
Image Courtesy of A Better Mistake.
A Better Mistake
Exploring the concept of alter egos, the same-titled gender-neutral collection by A Better Mistake takes a conceptual approach as reflections of the dancers at the show generated by mirrors symbolize different identities. Silhouettes and fabrics change dynamically while each colour of the collection represents its own attributes such as red for passion, pink for childhood or black for introspection. To give maximum freedom of movement, the pieces are oversized also as a way to let the own personality flow and at the same time protect the body.