The All-Star Louis Vuitton A/W´23 Men’s Show

This season, the Louis Vuitton atelier emphasised the importance of teamwork by asking a creative collective to work with them on the show. From Rosalía’s musical performance to KidSuper designer Colm Dillane’s thematic collaboration with Ibrahim Kamara, here’s everything you need to know about the men’s autumn/winter 2023 show.

It was all about teamwork

In fashion, we talk about houses a lot: les grandes maisons, the fashion houses, the headquarters! It sounds imposing, but at the heart of these buildings are teams of dynamic and diverse individuals, who come together every season to create something. They share ideas and talents, collaborate, and conceive concepts and inventions that didn’t exist six months ago. When you put it like that, it’s not so grand at all. As someone fortunate enough to work with the Louis Vuitton team, I witness this collaboration from the inside. After the death of Virgil Abloh in November 2021, the creative bond that exists between the inhabitants of the house he called home – who all loved him so much – has never been more significant. This season, they emphasised the importance of teamwork by asking a creative collective to work with them on the show.

Michel and Olivier Gondry created the set and prelude

For the runway show, Louis Vuitton invited brothers and filmmakers Michel and Olivier Gondry to create a concept alongside the creative director Lina Kutsovskaya, a long-time collaborator of the brand. The house they built as the show set – erected within the Cour Carrée du Louvre – wasn’t a fashion house, but a house of ages: a building where each room represented a different stage in the life of a boy, from birth to young adulthood. The show was heralded by a short-film – embellished with the signature stop-motion effects of the Gondrys – which told the same story. The theme of coming of age was central to the work of Virgil Abloh. To his Louis Vuitton team, who have spent the last year coming to terms with his death, the feeling of having to grow up fast – having to deal with a painful situation in life – is now a natural part of that circumstance, too.

Rosalía curated a live musical performance

After the January and June shows of 2022, which memorialised and celebrated Virgil Abloh in different ways, it felt like this show signified the stage that follows a mourning period. With a spirited live performance by Rosalía, who had curated a full soundtrack for the show and danced her way through the Gondry brothers’ building of life, it had an optimistic energy to it, as if the entire venue had taken a deep breath of courage and motivation. The feeling was echoed in a collection taglined by slogans like “blurry vision of a bright future” and “fantastic imagination”. They appeared infrequently emblazoned on clothes that embodied the familiar genetics of Louis Vuitton menswear, but demonstrated a more mature approach to dressing. In place of the big-scale graphics of previous seasons, the silhouette was reduced and slightly formalised but structured with all the couture-level intricacy that defines the house.

The collection revolved around connectivity

The collection seemed reflective of the studio’s recent mutual experience, but also their shared generational outlook as a largely millennial team. Inspired by the collectivity and collaboration that underpinned the show, they expanded on the notion of connectivity, mirroring it in the mindset of their own ’90s generation – the first to grow up with the internet. It was interpreted in screen-centric motifs and techniques, from cinema references in graphics to TV screen effects and cyber encryption interpreted in the weaving and treatment of fabrics and leathers. It made for blurry, trippy, three-dimensional effects that reflected the emotional side to the collection: growing up, finding clarity, making your way.

It was designed with the participation of Colm Dillane

Alongside its long-time men’s stylist Ibrahim Kamara, Louis Vuitton invited Colm Dillane – the American designer behind KidSuper – to collaborate on themes. His face paintings and face-imbued camouflage motifs captured the collection’s studies of connectivity from a distinctly human point of view: the mind’s willingness to see faces in everything; to establish eye contact; to make human connections. The images filtered into accessories, which counted a flashlight bag with an LV spotlight carried by Rosalía, and a camera bag that filmed its surroundings as it moved down the runway. As a love letter – quite literally – to connectivity and the human hand, Dillane and the studio created entire outfits and bags made from letters – written by the studio to their loved ones – and scanned and printed on fabric and leather. As a token for guests, a giant cardboard key was placed on every seat, making everyone a roommate at the house of Louis Vuitton.

Givenchy’s ‘New Formal’ A/W´23 Men’s Show

British Vogue fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen delivers five things to know about the Givenchy autumn/winter 2023 menswear show in Paris, which saw Matthew M Williams deconstruct traditional dress codes by introducing a new idea of formal attire. 

It was pure fashion nerdery

Like any Matthew M Williams event, the Givenchy show seats were packed with cool people styled to the nines. You’re never totally sure who they are, but they’re definitely in the arts – they’re definitely someone. It’s an esoteric who’s-who that can make anyone else feel like the uncool boy in school, but what really defines Williams and his kind isn’t too-cool-for-school-ness but the opposite: they’re dedicated fashion nerds, not just in fangirl terms but technically. At Givenchy, Williams’s work is expressed in his passion for the development of fabric treatments, the study of wardrobe archetypes and – through that – the evolution of dress codes that are instinctive to those cool people who surround him. 

This season epitomised that nerdery.

It was all about how you wear things

“I’m interested in tradition: the wardrobe pieces that transcend eras and fads, and are continuously picked up by new generations and subcultures, and adapted to their way of seeing themselves. It’s something I really studied this season: what the people around me wear and how they wear it,” Williams said in preview. “What is it about a garment that makes someone feel themselves, feel confident, feel at ease? It’s the way we customise it and wear it. Every piece in this collection is a reflection of that, from distressed workwear, to haute couture tailoring.” The show opened with the latter: four fiercely-cut, perfect black suits created in Givenchy’s haute couture atelier. Then, Williams started doing his thing…

It was about deconstruction and customisation

The looks that followed the haute couture suits soon began deconstructing: Williams cut cargo trousers into skirts, chopped off the bottoms of sweatshirts and downsized delicate jersey tops, layering them over much bigger volumes that spilled out from underneath. Look by look, the silhouette intensified in a clash of patterns from the world of Americana, from plaid to bleach to camo to flames and neon. Then, he started reducing that same silhouette. In the preview, he pointed to a photo of Hubert de Givenchy from around the ’60s, dressed elegantly in jeans with his sweater tied gracefully around the waist, making it look like a skirt. It inspired a sportswear silhouette that looked like formalwear.

It proposed a new idea of formal

“As I got into the research of the collection – and all the references we gathered of men and their wardrobes throughout the 20th century – I became increasingly intrigued by the idea of formal,” Williams said. “But I didn’t want to stage a rebellion against dress codes. This was more about investigating a new formality built from the components that appeal to a younger audience today, like sweats. I started deconstructing those pieces to see how I could evoke an idea of a formal silhouette through those pieces without compromising their integrity.” He nailed the idea in a look composed of all-grey sweats – sweatshirts, sweatpants, deconstructed ‘sweat-skirt’, as he called it – that felt entirely like a formal dress code.

Williams literally unpicked traditional dress codes

The nerdery continued in tailoring infused with the spirit of unpicking traditional dress codes. Quite literally, the hems of suits were unhemmed and allowed to fall down with their threads becoming decorative elements. It made for a very flattering silhouette – all elongated and slick – only enhanced by the Harris tweed greatcoats that followed, each of them subjected to Williams’s painstaking fabric dyes. The show took place in an optical white cube in École Militaire – with an original soundtrack by Bakar – so you could really see the detailing. What Williams does with fabric treatments is wild. It’s another approach to modifying the archaic dress codes we’re slowly customising, one generation at a time.

The 2023 Met Gala Dress Code Has Been Announced

In case you missed it, this year’s Costume Institute exhibition is dedicated to the legacy of fashion’s most hyperactive and prolific mastermind, Karl Lagerfeld – a polymath designer who put even the most adroit multi-taskers to shame, and whose uniform (staunchly starched collars, Ancien Régime-esque ponytail) became the stuff of legend.

With Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator, and longtime Lagerfeld collaborator Amanda Harlech, the exhibition’s creative consultant, have the tall order of synthesising the designer’s career into about 150 looks. But thankfully, at this year’s Met Gala, paying tribute to Mr Lagerfeld is not solely a task for the curators, as the 2023 dress code is “In honour of Karl.”

It’s a moment for all the esteemed guests to salute one of fashion’s greats, and from our perspective, the theme has multiple, wondrous ways into it. Lagerfeld designed for a handful of houses – Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel and his eponymous brand – so there’s a rich trove of materials, eras and aesthetics to mine for inspiration. And so, honouring Lagerfeld on the Met Gala red carpet leaves the attendees, which include co-chairs Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer and Dua Lipa with three options. The first, most authentic approach would be to wear an archival look from one of the labels Lagerfeld led; the second would be to sport modern-day Chanel or Fendi, two houses which Lagerfeld left an indelible impression; and the third – and perhaps most obvious? To find a Choupette and dress à la Lagerfeld.

Which route will secure a glamorous attendee a spot on best-dressed lists? A look with originality! Lagerfeld, we guess, would have hated a half-hearted homage, and with such an immense oeuvre, guests shouldn’t have any trouble unearthing a one-of-a-kind piece.

For those going the vintage route, kudos to any guest who turns up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in an archival Balmain frock dating between 1955 and 1958 – the period when Lagerfeld served as Pierre Balmain’s assistant. Guests could also aim for Patou pieces dated between 1958 and 1963, when Lagerfeld served as head designer and ushered the label into the swinging ’60s. Then, of course, guests have two Chloé eras to pull from; Lagerfeld helmed the Parisian label from 1963 to 1983 and again from 1992 to 1997, effectively creating the quintessentially romantic Chloé girl.

And let’s not forget about Fendi. From 1965 onward, Lagerfeld led the design team of the Roman fur-turned-ready-to-wear label; he conceived of the double-F logo and monogram design, which –fun fact! – stood not for “Fendi-Fendi,” but “Fun Fur.” And, oh how fun they were! Lagerfeld dipped minks in technicolour dyes, patchworked them like quilts, shaved them for added texture, and, all in all, pushed the boundaries of what was possible with furs before the brand began phasing them out. Most any vintage Fendi red-carpet ensemble would feel right at home at this year’s Met Gala.

Next on Lagerfeld’s CV – which reads more like a textbook of 20th- and 21st-century fashion history than it does the work of a single individual – comes Chanel. From 1982 until his death in 2019, Lagerfeld’s care of Chanel vividly coloured his legacy – albeit in the achromatic hues of black and white. Archival Chanel couture and ready-to-wear are sure to win applause from red-carpet watchers: Who could forget Lily-Rose Depp’s Chanel couture dress dripping with gold chains (a look originally worn down the runway by Christy Turlington in 1992), or Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s subtly coordinating black leather coat dresses by Chanel, for Camp: Notes on Fashion in 2019?

It goes without saying that those vying for modern-day Chanel and Fendi pieces will not disappoint. And the remaining guests, who will nod to either Lagerfeld’s contributions to fashion or his own uniform, have a lot to play with. No matter which way guests go, the assignment is clear: Let’s do him proud!

Kim Kardashian Now Owns A Piece Of Princess Diana’s Wardrobe

The Attallah Cross – a pendant worn by Princess Diana made of square-cut amethysts accentuated by circular diamonds – sold for $197,453 (around £160,000) at auction in London. The lucky owner, who bested three other bidders? Kim Kardashian.

“This is a bold piece of jewellery by its size, colour, and style, which cannot fail to make a vibrant statement – whether it be of faith or fashion, or indeed both,” said Kristian Spofforth, Sotheby’s London’s head of jewellery. “We are delighted that this piece has found a new lease of life within the hands of another globally famous name.” The final sale price from Kardashian is more than double its pre-auction value.

It’s not the first time Kardashian has scored an iconic piece of fashion history. At last year’s Met Gala, the star famously and controversially wore the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F Kennedy, which was loaned to her for the red carpet from the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. That same night, she wore a Norman Norrell design worn by Monroe to the 1962 Golden Globes. Kardashian found the green sequined gown through Heritage Auctions. In 2021, she also purchased an outfit worn by Janet Jackson in her “If” music video for $25,000. This Sotheby’s win, however, marks her first time publicly bidding on archival jewelry associated with the British royal family.

The Attallah Cross was first created back in the 1920s by Garrard, one of Princess Diana’s most-worn jewellers. The pendant was bought in the 1980s by Naim Attallah, a friend of Princess Diana’s, who loaned it to the royal for several appearances. Most notably, Diana wore the piece in October 1987, when she paired it with a Catherine Walker dress for a Birthright charity gala in London. The necklace was reportedly only ever worn by her. “When I was growing up, we’d always have it on the table for Christmas lunch, but it was never worn by anyone other than Diana and it hasn’t been seen in public since she died,” said Ramsay Attallah, the son of Naim, back in December.

Garrard made many other pieces for Princess Diana over the years as well. In addition to selecting her oval sapphire engagement ring from the label in 1981, she also wore Garrard’s “Swan Lake” necklace made of diamonds and South Sea pearls for her last public appearance, a performance of Swan Lake at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1997. The necklace was put up for sale in 2021 for $12.1 million, though there were no bidders.

Princess Diana’s Attallah necklace is not the only piece from the royal’s collection going up for auction this month. An aubergine velvet ballgown worn by the royal for an official portrait in 1991 and a Vanity Fair spread in 1997 will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s as well. It matches the amethysts on the cross, should Kardashian want to buy that too.

Saint Laurent’s Ravishing A/W´23 Men’s Show

Anthony Vaccarello’s first men’s Saint Laurent show in Paris was a strong, sensual, romantic, ceremonial reflection of the Yves-centric womenswear aesthetic that defines his work, finds Anders Christian Madsen. Here, five things to know.

 

It was Saint Laurent’s first men’s show in Paris

It was porn for precision freaks: every detail and every curve of Anthony Vaccarello’s first men’s show for Saint Laurent in Paris was so breathtakingly clean and defined that it hit you with entrancing effect. Presented in Tadao Ando’s chalky white cylinder within the Bourse de Commerce – a celestial alabaster light cast from its painted ceilings – it was like watching classical statues slowly moving around the great hall: their faces angelically chiselled, their shoulders heroically arched, their clothes draped like Hellenistic veils. “I like the masculine and the sculpted. The contradiction of that with the softness,” Vaccarello said casually before the show, but this was anything but a casual experience.

It was the perfect counterpart to Saint Laurent’s womenswear

“For me, when I see this collection, I feel like it’s my second collection. My first was last season in Marrakech and this is the second one,” Vaccarello said, reflecting on the menswear proposals that came before. “I think, before, it was me, but maybe it was too separate from the women’s. More and more, I want them to be almost one person. The man goes to the women’s and the woman goes to the men’s – there’s no difference. Before they were not at the same level and I really want to put them there.” He did that and more, in a highly considered proposal masterfully carved out in a kind of monochromatic, wistful masculinity: a strong, sensual, romantic, ceremonial reflection of the Yves-centric womenswear aesthetic that defines his work.

Charlotte Gainsbourg played the piano

Backed up by a pianist on a grand piano – who eventually gave it over to Charlotte Gainsbourg (in a flared velvet tuxedo) for the finale – there was, at first sight, a dandy-esque ballroom quality to the pussy-bowed shirts and floor-sweeping coats that floated down Vaccarello’s round runway. At closer inspection, it wasn’t as simple as that: under those coats were fluidly-cut, elongated sweatpants posing as a kind of tuxedo trousers in a generational code-switch that was truly impressive. Not because Vaccarello bringing sportswear into an elegant wardrobe is revolutionising, but because he actually made it look and feel like a bona fide formal proposition – a real generational formality, if you will.

Vaccarello put his masculine womenswear silhouette on men

“Part of these clothes are from the last women’s show. It’s an evolution from the long dresses and the knits,” Vaccarello explained backstage, gesturing at the long coats and sweaters in his running order, which echoed those that waltzed around the glimmering light of the Eiffel Tower last September. But while you could easily draw lines between the two collections, the gender question didn’t feel that pronounced here. After seasons of fortifying a masculine tailoring silhouette in his women’s shows, switching it over to a male physique – in more or less the same proportions as his womenswear – made for an interesting transition: a genuinely genderless way of cutting.

It showed that patience is a virtue

Vaccarello’s first men’s show in Paris epitomised the focus and attention to detail that have defined his collections over the past year. “Each look is considered to a fault,” the show notes read, and they weren’t exaggerating. It went to show that fashion – contrary to public and often business belief – has time and patience for development, for obsessively studying the same detail over and over again, and for evolving a look and a wardrobe that people want to wear for more than just a season. Listening to people’s conversations walking out of the Bourse, that certainly seemed to be the consensus at Saint Laurent.

JAN JAN VAN ESSCHE PROJECT#11 - RITE A/W´23

Contemplating on the present to stimulate creativity while opening up newly divergent paths without expectations. 

Looking back and finding strength in ones' fundament to slowly keep on building a future rooted in history. 

From this transition, a new perception on freedom arises... a new phase... a new rhythm. Listen to the drum beat. 

A substantial core of existing styles is reinterpreted. 

Sensible materials that have proven their value are once again selected to soothe and to comfort from the first hint of touch. 

Ample winter coats and capes envelope the silhouettes in rich yak wools giving room for layering loose fit kimono inspired suits, 

While jumpsuits and individual utilitarian elements are added to ground the ephemeral and to emphasize the workwear influence in the carefully constructed garments. 

The oversized yet fluid pieces in the collection carry references to the ‘boubou' and chemise Arabe, expressing a laid-back elegance and take the overall mood traveling to distant places. 

A range of tunics and shirts in light weight wool chiffons and silken winter cottons function as perfect layers to accommodate the various winter temperatures around the world. 

Chunky knitted sweaters and hand crochet beanies in French merino d’Arles linen blend for colder regions. 

‘Shibori' pattern woolen cloths -hand-dyed by skillful masters- travel from Japan, highlighting the meticulous resist dye craft and bringing a mysterious depth to the draped silhouettes. 

The 'Bincho tan' -coffee combined with ink- dyed cottons carries a faded sand color, while the fiber dyed cotton checked fabric radiates saturated hues. 

Waxed garments, made from cotton cloths by Halley Stevensons, are added to the winter collection evoking new emotions and sensations to the Jan-Jan Van Essche sphere. 

The handwoven series in the AW23 collection are once again fully handcrafted in the JanJan Van Essche studio by artisan Lamine Diouf. 

These unique pieces keep on demanding their place in the wardrobe and once again they compliment the collection by narrating the story of the slow pace of the hand. 

A series of vegetal tan leather McKay boots are hand crafted by the brothers -Ryo & Sotaro Ogino- of Petrosolaum based in Tokyo. 

An ongoing collaboration since the AW20 season, which has been timelessly sharpening and grounding the Jan-Jan Van Essche signature silhouette. 

A new collaboration with the Austrian werkstätte Mülhbauer resulted in beaver and rabbit fur felted hats in their natural colors, hand moulded on custom made blocks. 

Their softness and subtle luster absorb and reflect, shielding the wearer from rains and rays.

With his debut show, Jan-Jan Van Essche shares his philosophy and approach to contemporary fashion through a triptych presentation. Taking the audience from a runway show on the subtle rhythm of the music by composer Willem Ardui, to a poetically intense dance performance by six dancers. 

The renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, created a piece emphasizing the story of the collection and lifting the moment to another realm. 

For the finale, Jan-Jan wanted to surprise his audience with the 24 models lined up in front of the ancient frescos on the walls of the graceful Santa Maria Novella cloister, matching and blending the color palette of the silhouettes, merging the ancient and the contemporary. 

Here the guests could have a close-up look, while absorbing live music and singing by the Japanese taiko player Tsubasa Hori underneath the open sky. 

A rite of passage to a new chapter in the life of the Jan-Jan Van Essche collection.

Gucci’s Improvisation-Driven A/W´23 Men’s Show

For its first show without Alessandro Michele at the helm, Gucci turned to its archives for inspiration. Here, Anders Christian Madsen reports on the five biggest takeaways from the Italian brand’s AW23 menswear show.

It was Gucci’s first show without Alessandro Michele

Gucci’s first standalone men’s show in the post-pandemic world was also the house’s first after the departure of Alessandro Michele in November last year. But rather than ignoring the shift in artistic direction, the design team – many of whom have been at the house for decades – tackled the situation with authenticity and consideration. “Improvisation is an act of collaboration,” the show notes declared, offering a glimpse into the team resourcefulness that had driven the show. Reflecting on improvisation as a craft – as a practice that can only be carried out by people with skill and experience – Gucci devoted the collection to what they called “the aesthetics of improvisation”: a freestyled, free-spirited look founded in the character of the individual who wears it.

It featured a performance by Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog

Staged in the Gucci Hub in Via Mecenate, the models circled a big round platform. On top of it was the band Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – fronted by the man whose name it carries – who performed a live orchestration interpreting the theme of improvisation. It drew on elements of jazz and punk exemplary of the point Gucci was making: music genres in which the untrained ear can’t detect a system, but which require the utmost skill and precision. As the show progressed, the arrangement expanded in sound, culminating in an invigorating climax. Like the collection, the performance marked a departure from the musical influences of Michele’s work, and Gucci’s choice to change things up rather than emulating what had been felt like the right way to go forward.

The collection was based on the aesthetics of improvisation

The show opened with a series of archetypal garments: a white T-shirt, a formal trouser, a long skirt, an overcoat, a check suit, a denim trouser. But through the lens of improvisation – of self-expression – each classic wardrobe staple had been warped, either magnified or twisted in construction, or imbued with dynamic elements of customisation. Tailoring was expanded in volume and elongated for a legs-for-days effect that was ever so statuesque, and served as a contrast to body-conning tops. Scarves that evoked the feeling of vintage or archival finds were integrated into denim trousers and bags, as well as the padding of a down jacket, in ways that conjured improvised self-customisation. At the core of these looks was a message of individuality: the expressions of the designers who had collaborated on the collection, and the imagined self-expression of the people who will wear them.

It celebrated the Gucci archives

Delving into the archives was a natural point of departure for a collection that signified an interval for Gucci. While the house awaits its next artistic director, the design team had looked to the history that defines it. It was suggested in the 1980s silhouettes that appeared towards the end of the show – dance clothes, leg warmers, gilet tracksuits, soft ankle boots – and in the Tom Ford-centric references that made nostalgic Y2K hearts grow fonder. Next to washed, almost golden denim trousers, those included motorcycle jackets and trousers in leather, which paved the way for oversized coveralls. One was crafted in black Crystal GG canvas, a lacquered take on the house’s monogram cloth that also appeared in accessories.

Gucci’s signature accessories had been imbued with age and soul

Revealing themselves under the flared volumes of the collection’s formidable trousers, new interpretations of Gucci’s furry Princetown slippers had expanded in size for a vintage effect that embodied a feeling of wardrobe pieces imbued with age and soul. It was echoed in Horsebit loafers crafted in materials like corduroy, and in bags increased in dimension but relaxed in construction. They included holdalls and new versions of the Jackie and Dionysus that appeared in faded pastels, the Crystal GG canvas, shearling and crocodile, as well as coated canvas garments begging to be carried through an airport lounge. As the icons of Gucci’s history, the accessories were a reminder of the eternal blood that courses through the veins of this house and the incredible archives a new artistic director will soon have the privilege of adapting.