While fashion week as we know it may forever be changed, brands are still finding ways to introduce their latest seasonal collections—whether in person or online. Here, we’re sharing what’s debuted during Paris Fashion Week from Marine Serre, Cecilie Bahnsen, Wales Bonner, and more.
Marine Serre’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection was introduced through the short film AMOR FATI, realized in collaboration with directors Sacha Barbin and Ryan Doubiago, composer Pierre Rousseau, Iranian-Dutch singer Sevdaliza, and French artist Juliet Merie. Set in three symbolic environments—a laboratory, a natural landscape, and an underground water-world—the cyclical narratives of the film explored the urgent need for change. The collection showed sharp tailoring through a series of designs ranging from a duo-colored “moon lozenge” jacquard weave to sleek menswear pieces, offering a contemporary second life to repurposed tailoring fabrics, alongside hyper-functional, multi-pocketed utilitarian garments and iconic accessories made of biodegradable nylon and recycled moire in a monochrome palette. The palette then shifted through optical knitwear in kaleidoscopic sapphire and cobalt blue. The collection also featured a series of Red Line futuristic pieces, such as a shield visor made of regenerated carpets and the survival harness crinoline that consciously delimits the body space.
Cecilie Bahnsen SS21, photo by Lana Ohrimenko.
Cecilie Bahnsen’s moody and sensuous Spring/Summer 2021 collection drew its inspiration from a woman on a journey across a landscape, symbolically wandering by the sea in Denmark. This season, Bahnsen expanded the vocabulary of her brand with new silhouettes and details, such as a re-working of her signature open-back dress, a new off-the-shoulder balloon shape statement sleeve and feminine silhouettes. Styled over transparent ribbed knitwear and masculine tailoring, the designer played with layering as she created the looks for the collection. Bahnsen and her team created floral embroidered organza overlays worn over the dresses, tailoring, and sculptural outerwear, creating an airy, light, and beautiful 3D texture that moved in the wind. The label also used recycled fabrics, such as this season’s cashmere and faille, as well as a shoe created in collaboration with the Spanish brand Hereu—a modern minimal slipper in fabric made from waste plastic. Bahnsen presented the short film The Summit, shot on the West coast of Jutland and directed by MOON, conveying the mood and the story behind the collection.
Wales Bonner’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection “Essence” launched as a digital presentation alongside the première of Thinkin Home, a film by Jamaican artist Jeano Edwards, and a digital publication entitled Reflections on Essence. “Essence” is the second in a triptych of collections by Wales Bonner that explores the diasporic connections between Britain and the Caribbean, focusing on the early 1980s origination of dancehall music in Jamaica this season. In the collection tailoring and shirt making were ever present. The hybrid sports tailoring enhanced with striped satin and the elevated jockey silks and patchwork corduroy in electric blue brought a dancehall vibrancy to the collection. From the cedar brown striped tailoring wool, to the striped crepe pajamas crafted with frayed finishing, an effortless ease and evening sensibility appeared throughout the collection. “Essence” also saw the development of the women’s character, illustrated by the intimate sensuality of silk and crochet dresses.
Cecilie Bahnsen SS21, photo by Lana Ohrimenko.
Thebe Magugu’s collection, “COUNTER INTELLIGENCE,” was informed by South Africa’s espionage community and a series of interviews conducted by the designer with confessed female spies who worked for the country’s old Apartheid government. Shot by Kristin-Lee Moolman and styled by Ibrahim Kamara, the film for “COUNTER INTELLIGENCE” follows models in several compromising situations, caught either on CCTV or Secret Surveillance, all dressed in the new season. Mimicking the chameleon characteristics of a spy, the collection swings from sharp tailored pieces to feminine free-form dresses. Highlights include a trompe-l’oeil dress spotted with polka dots that are actually the scanned fingerprints of confessed spy Olivia Anne Marie Forsyth, a sheath dress embroidered with yellow, pink and blue fluff speaking to the idea of peacocking, prints featuring authentic documentation, and an A4 Leather Satchel that can only be opened via password.
