On the Esplanade Saint-Louis in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, a hundred journalists, customers and personalities from the world of fashion mingle among the monumental sculptures of the set design of the Loewe fashion show. They are the work of the artist Lynda Benglis, a giant of post-war American sculpture. During the six decades of his career he has redefined the artistic object through the incessant innovation of form and materials. The pieces are viscerally exaggerated, reflect light in radically different ways and magnify themselves. A game of proportions with which Jonathan W. Anderson, one of the most influential creators of the contemporary fashion narrative, has wanted to challenge and alter the reign of silent luxury. How? He has taken advantage of his best virtue: altering conventional forms to turn any piece into the new and most coveted object of desire.
The Irish creative has proposed a practical yet daring daytime wardrobe for the Spring-Summer 2024 season that focuses entirely on the strength of details. A game of proportions that transforms into extremely high waists, long legs and a compact bust. Pieces that embrace the silhouette of the body, without squeezing it, to give it the opportunity to move and be yourself with absolute freedom. “I feel that we have embarked on a journey that has not been the product of a decision made overnight. Sometimes you get it right and other times you get it wrong. But when there’s suffering and there’s pain, it’s because there’s something very real behind it,” said Anderson after the parade. Behind the 39-year-old Irishman hides a true virtuoso, defender of transversality in fashion and able to transform tradition into an exciting vision for the present.
For Anderson, textures play a fundamental role in the whole framework. The point comes to light in the form of short, thick sweaters or long layers that wrap around the body. Leather is structured into elegant coats, into handbags that can be folded under the arm and into t-shirts and trousers with frayed edges. The characteristic theatricality that defines Loewe’s new-age DNA that captures new – and not so new – generations is in the giant-sized buttons that crown the coats, in large pins that double as a belt and in the accumulations of shiny brooches which, in the form of vegetation, slide down the bust of the models. All these pieces created by Lynda Benglis as sculptures and works of art to be exhibited daily and that reflect the changing and volatile world around us. All under a palette of contrasts ranging from camel brown, gray and black, to red, bougainvillea and tangerine. Anderson’s models dream a lot, but from the asphalt, with round-toed shoes, pointed slippers, ergonomic shoes and with college airs. Buckles are reduced and exaggerated, as are handbags, which take different attitudes with mini and medium sizes.
Dior also made comfort reign with the particular ode to the flat shoe thanks to some braided ballet flats that extended to the height of the knees and simulated the footwear of a gladiator. Maria Grazia Chiuri presented in Paris an interpretation of the assertive and rebellious woman, who rejects clichés and reaffirms independence and dissent in the face of patriarchy. Straight and angular ensembles, with a clear predominance of the black and white binomial, which paraded under a monumental decoration by the artist Elena Bellantoni. Messika was responsible for lighting up Paris Fashion Week with the high jewelry show, in which he presented the Midnight Sun collection. A manifesto of creativity inspired by the extravagance and freedom of the great places of the seventies, such as Studio 54, which had exceptional models such as Carla Bruni, official ambassador, and guests such as the iconic Cher.
