Though Paris Fashion Week has long since come to an end, we’re still thinking about the Fall/Winter 2022 debuts from Stella McCartney, Christian Wijnants, Maitrepierre, Prune Goldschmidt, and Mônot.
Courtesy of Stella McCartney.
Earth-conscious fashion was as glamorous as ever in Stella McCartney’s Fall/Winter 2022 debuts. The house found inspiration in the work of the painter and sculptor Frank Stella for this new collection, utilizing 67 percent responsible materials to explore Stella’s oeuvre. Strong-shouldered outerwear, oversized tuxedo tailoring, and form-fitting or lingerie-esque garments presented a juxtaposition of masculine energy and feminine grace. These shapes saw graphics and prints pulling from the artist’s painted works—like a fluid dress silhouette with a print featuring Stella’s Ahab, or gowns with imagery from Spectralia—while detailing like gunmetal chain fringe looking at his metallic sculptures. The evolution of animal-free furs and skins continued, bringing with it styles like Monogram shoulder bags, shearling-reminiscent coats, new Frayme bags, and the house’s most conscious sneakers yet, all made using fabrications like recycled nylon, Mylo mycelium leather, and a grape-based leather alternative.
Courtesy of Christian Wijnants FW22.
Great volumes, gorgeous knits, and a certain positive attitude are the things that came to mind when discussing Christian Wijnants’s new collection. Focused on warmth, comfort, and feelings of serenity and resilience, the Fall/Winter 2022 designs put a focus on knitwear, highlighting cocoon shapes, textural boiled wool, intricate crochets, color-blocked pieces, and chunky knits with long tassels of yarn. Outerwear and tailoring came in varying proportions, offering an interplay of shape and size through pieces like cropped tuxedo jackets, coats with long, oversized sleeves, and spacious trousers with asymmetric folding details. A palette of optimistic blues, greens, and purples, laid the way for prints and graphics inspired by artists Marlene Dumas and Fernando Khnopff, which were interpreted as various abstracted chain, stripe, and circle motifs.
Courtesy of Maitrepierre.
Maitrepierre’s collection “Nostalgia” saw gorgeous garments with an alien approach, building off of a foundation that melded styles of the past with the technology and artificial intelligence of the current day. A collision of couture and sportswear yielded regal shapes with everyday details, painted in red, pink, and blue tones, along with playfully glitzy prints featuring strings of jewels. The collection’s origins were exemplified through pieces like a tailored jacket with a drawstring hood, an Oxford button-up with dramatic drapery that wrapped the wearer’s shoulders, and a strapless gown in red made in a breathable fabrication, layered over a sporty halter and paired with a waxy skull cap. The designs also boasted 90 percent sustainability, earning the honor of making their debut at the Paris Climate Academy through initiatives like local production and the use of deadstock leather, natural enzymes and pollution-free ink, and recycled fabrications.
Courtesy of Prune Goldschmidt.
Titled “Born To Be Wild,” Prune Goldschmidt’s Fall/Winter 2022 debuts brought us a collection of looks fit for the literary heroine—bold and audacious, but also classic and dignified. Codes of refined beauty set a foundation of elegant silhouettes like floor-length dresses with long sleeves, mini A-line dresses, and matching suiting featuring fitted skirts or long, wide-legged trousers. Meanwhile, cheeky details subverting proprieties included ruffled Medici collars, mannish belts with gold hardware and dangling chains, black leather caps and necklaces, and sensual footwear featuring pointed toes and kitten heels. Looks we loved included a Toile de Jouy jacket and ruffled blouse styled with a soft knit skirt; a houndstooth skirt and blouse with a large bow off the neck, styled with leather gloves; and a pair of black leather cigarette pants and a red jacket with gold buttons, worn with matching red slingback and a black conductor’s cap.
Courtesy of Mônot.
Mônot’s Artistic Director Eli Mizrahi imagined the house’s Fall/Winter 2022 designs with the femme fatales of New York, Paris, and Beirut in mind, offering a collection that at once honored a timeless approach while embracing the progressiveness of fashion today. Demi Moore’s iconic black dress from the film Indecent Proposalwas a key reference, representative of the elegance and daring embodied in the collection’s many iterations of the little black dress. This style along with the three-piece suit and variations on corsetry were staples of the season, each taking on many forms throughout the all-black collection. We saw variations ranging from miniature blazer dresses and leather trenches to long-sleeved gowns with bare torsos, biker-length rompers with one-shouldered tops, and sheer dresses with leather bustiers. A recurring “Mônot” monogram was also seen in white graffiti text, printed across whole garments or seen smaller on tall leather gloves.
