From leather and denim to plays on the Vietnamese áo dài, we’re bringing you the best of Paris Fashion Week with Acne Studios, Courrèges, Dries van Noten, Peter Do, and ROCHAS.
Acne Studios Creates the Leather and Denim Woman
Acne Studios, photo by Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com.
Acne Studios’s newest collection was meant for the fast-moving woman: sculpted and futuristic, severe and polished, industrial and mechanical. Staged in front of Chairs in Rubber (2001), two recycled-tire sculptures by Estonian artist Villu Jaanisoo, the Women’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection subverted the archetypes of womenswear with a focus on toughness and human form, rooted in leather and denim. “Denim and leather can transcend genre and subcultures – from punk to S&M,” says creative director Jonny Johansson. “When you want to feel tough you gravitate towards leather and denim; it’s like armor.” The runway looks created sculptural armor that accentuated the female form. Each look played with the extremities of proportions–everything is either stretched or shrunken–and draws on a neutral black and dark brown palette, with biker accents in flame orange, green, and blue.
Courrèges Evokes Sensuality with Throbbing Scenography
Courtesy of Courreges.
A heartbeat pulsed and filled the space with echoing thuds for the show. The sound of a woman’s slow, rhythmic breathing filled the room as models silently circled the Lycra-covered catwalk. For Courrèges’ FW24 study of symmetry and sensuality, creative director Nicolas Di Felice, artist Rémy Brière, and creative polymath Matière Noire conjured a visceral show ascending toward a climax. The sequence of looks followed a gradient of dis-robing, starting with models sheathed in a geometry of coats and scarves and ending with a final flourish of bias-cut slip dresses, latex footwear, lingerie finishings, and leather pin-up bras. The FW24 collection draws on the infinite potential of primary shapes, molding the geometry of the garments to become one with that of the body.
Contradictions and Dualities Define the Dries van Noten Woman
Courtesy of Dries van Noten.
With swaddling scarves and angular cuts, sequin pointillism and color fields, Dries van Noten’s Autumn/Winter 2024-25 collection told the story of a woman defined by duality. Bird songs called in the background while models styled with the show’s defining extreme hair fringe presented a juxtaposition of structured and soft elements, with garments crafted through both precise stitching and flowing constructions. The outerwear was elegantly sculpted, while tailoring techniques transitioned seamlessly between wrapping, draping, and traditional cuts, defining diverse silhouettes. Mesh layers provided flexibility and hint at the body’s form, elongated pants paired with cropped jackets created striking proportions, and scarves were transformed into dramatic single sleeves.
Peter Do’s Newest Collection Pays Homage to the Áo Dái
Courtesy of Peter Do.
“I dedicate this collection to my late grandma, who taught me the values of persistence, hard work, and strength,” wrote creative director Peter Do in his collection note. The brand’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection, titled “Áo Dài” after Vietnam’s national dress, played with novel silhouettes and luxurious textures. Do paired bold lapelled blazers with pajama pants, encapsulated a blazer dress in black mesh, and presented the work-in-progress charm of the dress form. Each look reformulated formalwear and subverted the boundaries between masculine and feminine dress with a nod to the áo dài structure.
ROCHAS Unfolds Portraits of the Woman
Courtesy of ROCHAS.
Creative director Alessandro Vigilante’s debut collection for ROCHAS came to life in the Hôtel d’Évreux, with models milling and lounging around a salon bathed in hibiscus pink. Embracing feminine panache, Vigilante mixed genres and pulls together jewel tones, precious textures, hourglass tailoring, shimmering velvet, Art Deco lace, and quilted satin to create myriad portraits of women. Each piece in the collection expressed a matrix of desires and dreams, while paying homage to the cornerstones of Marcel Rochas’s artistic vision of “elegance, simplicity, and youth.”
