As Paris Fashion Week is underway, we’re taking a closer look at some of our favorite collections being debuted for the Fall/Winter 2023 season, including those by Issey Miyake, Loewe, Chloé, Christian Louboutin, Roger Vivier, and Isabel Marant.
Courtesy of Chloé.
Recognizing the need for women’s stories to be brought out of the shadows in the fight for climate solutions, Chloé’s Creative Director Gabriela Hearst focused her sights on a figure who overcame such societal suppression and struggles—the Baroque Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Noting that climate change disproportionately displaces women and girls specifically, Hearst’s new designs for fall/winter 2023 represent the house’s latest chapter in a quest for solutions by looking to Artemisia, who subverted 17th-century standards in becoming a renowned artist and advocate. The clothing visibly represents its point of inspiration, employing innovative, responsible fabrications in a series of silhouettes that reminded us of the garments worn by the subjects of Artemisia’s paintings—like off-the-shoulder dresses with puffed sleeves or gowns with capes, and puffer coats reminiscent of the capacious robes worn by the nobility of the time.
Courtesy of Roger Vivier.
In Roger Vivier’s “The Legendary Silhouette,” the maison revived its ties to couture through a showcase referencing 1950s couture presentations, where a collection of sculptural accessories was the focal point. A series of themed rooms saw models clad in black, which allowed the alluring shoes, bags, gloves, and jewelry to shine, drawing the eye from the top to bottom of looks featuring gems, pearls, satin, and leather, in hues of moss, blue, pink, purple, black, and a deep red, along with an animal print. In a space with theatrical red velvet curtains, we saw styles like a pair of thigh-high boots that connected to a giant ruffle that merged with a belt at the waist. And in a room of pink, some of our favorite pieces included a belt with dangling teardrop pearls and a rectangular clutch with purple jewels and embellishments.
Courtesy of Christian Louboutin.
Opposed to a static presentation of accessories, Christian Louboutin invited guests to the Opéra Comique in Paris to experience its newest collection in motion at “The Loubishow”. The mainstage performance saw dancers clad in the iconic red-bottom footwear—in particular, a chorus of white Astribotta boots—in an illusory set of reflective material, moving their hands and feet in unison to an entrancing effect. New for the season, we saw styles like the Lipgloss Queen heel, a sandal with a heel fashioned after an ornate tube of makeup, and the Flamencaba capsule, which was developed in collaboration with Rossy de Palma and features the rich, passionate colors and details associated with the art of flamenco.
Courtesy of Isabel Marant.
Imbuing notes of an unconventional sensuality, Isabel Marant’s latest designs for men and women featured cuddle-worthy knits, encompassing coats, and comfortable pieces with a certain blasé. For men, we saw low-slung trousers with wide-cut, swinging legs paired with pieces like textural-patterned knits, shearling jackets, and padded biker leathers. For women, there were similar pants styles imagined in distressed denim, dresses with cut-outs and cinched-in midlines, effortless work suits, and roomier, oversized dress styles like a fuzzy sweater dress or a style in leather with long sleeves and a high neck and zipper details. Garments were imagined in warm shades of yellow, winter whites, black, gray, and a spectrum of pinky reds.
Courtesy of Loewe.
A collection of reductionist principles and elementality, Loewe introduced its newest womenswear designs in a white cube set accented by an installation of confetti cubes by Lara Favaretto. The artist’s largest installation of its kind, Favaretto constructed 21 colorful cubes within the show space from a total of 10 tons of compressed confetti (titled Midsommar after the film by Ari Aster of the same name). It posed a space between monument and ruin as the work inevitably disintegrated after interacting with the bodies walking through and around them. On the models who navigated the installation, we saw pared-down looks and reduced shapes that focused on a particular gesture or detail. There were blurred prints that saw simple garments painted with the suggestion of other garments; chains holding up draping; pintucks on archetypal, oversized garments that created new shapes; entire outfits covered in single-tone feathers; and leather pieces, at once soft and chiseled, that looked like they might be worn by plastic toys or blowup figures.
Courtesy of Issey Miyake.
Introduced in the Théâtre du Châtelet, Issey Miyake’s “The Square and Beyond” takes the conventional shape of the square to engage in an unconventional exploration of dress that hones in on the ma, or the unfilled space between clothing and wearer. Opening with a marimba performance by percussion ensemble Trio SR9, the runway show revealed nine suites of designs comprising striking new silhouettes in bright hues and blocks of color. Making up the Canopy designs were three-dimensional tent-like shapes that featured angles from side to side, sometimes appearing to merge tops with pants. Expanding on the shapes of knitting techniques, the Square Scheme designs saw irregular silhouettes born from this same approach to woven fabric, their unusual shapes emphasized with square prints. And in the Shaped Canvas designs, inspiration found in unexpected painter’s canvas shapes offers seamless knits with angular silhouettes that can be worn front and backward.
