PARIS (AP) — Chloé channeled the essence of her vibrant 1970s style, fueled by the indelible influence of the late Karl Lagerfeld, for the debut show of her new designer Chemena Kamali on Thursday at Paris Fashion Week, leading the brand into a new era. Showed again.
Despite Lagerfeld’s enduring presence in the brand’s aesthetic, Kamali is the latest in a series of female designers – including Gabriela Hearst, Claire Waight Keller and Phoebe Philo – to be at the helm of the maison. It is fitting for a house that is credited with inventing ready-to-wear in the post-war era of the 1950s that freed women from the constraints of formality.
Here are some highlights from Thursday’s fall-winter 2024 show:
Going back to its roots – or close enough – Kamali harked back to the brand’s ’70s heyday and, in the process, attracted the great and the good of the fashion world to its debut. The show was one of the hottest tickets at Paris Fashion Week.
The attendees were a mix of fashion dynasties – reminiscing about the past and looking towards the future. Pat Cleveland, the iconic model — and one of the first women of color to achieve success on the runway in the 1960s and 1970s — posed for a flurry of camera snaps with her model daughter, Anna Cleveland.
The fashion dynasty was soon followed by Jerry Hall and Hall and Mick Jagger’s model daughter Georgia Mae Jagger. They sat in their cushioned seats next to Mikhaila Aghion, the granddaughter of Chloé founder, Gaby Aghion.
Kamali, a 42-year-old designer from Düsseldorf who rose up the ranks at the house, said a “feeling of nostalgia” and “something that triggers a memory” is at the heart of the brand – and not just as seen in the stars who Not only did it include those clothes that had one foot in the past and the other in the future.
For fall, diaphanous 1970s tiers fluttering in almost celestial pastel colors defined the show’s aesthetic inside a brutalist warehouse space. The worn concrete and obviously rough plaster gently contrast the femininity inherent in the designs.
This solid collection had plenty of moments of whimsy. Exaggerated swim dresses were sometimes paired chicly with huge shiny thigh-high leather pirate boots, adding unexpected style contrasts.
Likewise, there were the occasional flashes of gold metallic Chloé belt, golden grape neck clasps, or the occasional enormous brown leather handbag, almost as big as the model holding it. Layering, statement fur and pirate-style trunks also firmly established the style dial of the late 1970s.
Kamali said her goal was to honor the brand’s legacy of liberation and innovation.
“Gabby (Aghion) wanted to free women from the rigidity of (1950s) fashion,” she told reporters, linking the brand’s beginnings to its ongoing mission. “She was actually one of the first women to do ready-to-wear because she wanted women to be able to move and go to work.
Reflecting on the transformative “Karl era”, Kamali said Lagerfeld was “so influential in the late ’70s (because he) was someone who could see the past and the future simultaneously.”
In a touching moment, capturing the atmosphere, Kamali dedicated the show to her father, who passed away recently. As she walked forward to thunderous applause, her young son jumped from the audience into her lap.
Another installment of Paris Fashion Week brought another designer-less Givenchy display at the (albeit extremely chic) salon housing the Avenue George V headquarters. While the LVMH-owned brand’s decor was minimal – a small affair on a bare-wood Point d’Hongéry parquet – it was compensated with buzz as well-wishers crowded the famous Parisian avenue, and VIP guests were treated to champagne. It was done abundantly.
Givenchy Studio again took the reins of ready-to-wear, unveiling whimsical designs inspired by, it said, “seduction” and “the flirtatious and suggestive aspects that inspired founder” Hubert de Givenchy.
The collection began with a short dress featuring a scratched metal-like surface texture, a contemporary contrast to its long, classical train. Rigid swirling neck scarves introduced a prominent banding theme, echoed in the rigid band panels adorning the bust of a signature little black dress – such as the one famously worn by muse Audrey Hepburn – a notable fashion-forward On cue.
An oversized statement fur coat added on-trend glamour, along with a loose A-line wool coat with an off-kilter back and a series of gleaming gold and bejeweled earrings. Yet, amid the praise, a faint whisper among attendees suggested the lack of a cohesive, creative backbone. Does this stem from the knowledge that the storied house was touring without its captain, after Matthew Williams’ departure was announced in December last year?
There remains hope that the great Parisian maison will soon find a successor to Williams.
American fashion maestro Rick Owens’ latest showcase was a pioneering exploration of anthropomorphism, presenting a universe where human and alien blur. Owens’s ready-to-wear collection, called Porterville after the California town of his youth, served as a name and inspiration for the season. The ornate logo at the top pays homage to Owens’s roots and engages the viewer in a display of bleak displacement and surreal, dehumanizing references.
Models emerged as if they were stepping out of the future, their silhouettes dramatically elongated with boots that reminded them of insect limbs or exaggerated horse hooves and bejeweled heads that merged the equestrian with the cosmic explorer . The silver balled pendant added an ancient and futuristic aura to the unique edge of the collection.
Owens’s signature embrace of volume came in airbag-like body wrapping, while the high priestess-style pointed shoulders on the duvet jacket and the elemental fierceness of the puffy jumpsuit and cape conveyed a sense of security.
