Kenzo’s Beatles-Inspired A/W´23 Show

Artistic director Nigo’s third collection since joining Kenzo is the designer’s answer to The White Album, writes Anders Christian Madsen. See all of the highlights from the menswear presentation, below.

Everyone was there

For his third show since joining Kenzo as artistic director in 2021, Nigo changed things up. He swapped the house’s cosy Sunday afternoon slot for a more glamorous Friday evening appointment, and took out the Salle Pleyel music venue for a grand orchestration with what must have been the most illustrious guest list this Paris Fashion Week: Pharrell, Skepta, Tyga, Troye Sivan, Erika Jayne, Lisa Rinna, Matthew M Williams, and the list goes on. The turnout spoke volumes about the appeal of Nigo’s work at Kenzo, and the Friday night concert hall concept suited the glamour that surrounds him.

It was Nigo’s The White Album

A huge fan of The Beatles, Nigo likened the collection to The White Album. It was his way of explaining – in terms that make sense to scholars of the group – the eclectic mix of styles and genres that make up this proposal. Scored by the all-female 1966 Quartet, who played renditions of The Beatles in a live performance, it took its point of departure in the rocker and mod cultures of ’60s London. A devoted collector of vintage clothes, Nigo’s vast archives are filled with pieces from the era, which he uses as references for his work, and which create the authenticity that was so visible in the tailoring of this collection.

Nigo paid tribute to Dame Vivienne Westwood

Nigo’s reflections on ’60s British subculture evolved into a study of the heritage country wardrobe – backed up by a collaboration with Hunter that included field jackets and wellies adorned with Kenzo’s boke flower – and the associations that naturally follow: the tartans of the Highlands and their punk interpretations, a road that had to lead to the late Dame Vivienne Westwood, whom Nigo said has been an influence throughout his career. (His vintage archives count a considerable amount of her creations from The Red Label era onwards.) In a season that hasn’t paid enough tribute to Westwood following her death just three weeks ago, Nigo’s gesture was heart-warming.

It debuted a new sneaker

If the ’60s and ’70s references were Nigo’s personal contributions to the many facets of the collection, the ’80s elements that followed were very much rooted in the legacy of Kenzo Takada. Little ruffled dresses and roomier tailoring silhouettes drew on his collections from the decade, with all the collaged flower motifs and broken stripe patterns that came with the territory. It pushed the show into ’90s skateboarding culture – an area close to the heart of Nigo – expressed most prominently in the voluminous sneakers he has studiously been working on since joining the house and was finally ready to launch. They were worth the wait.

Nigo increased his Japanese techniques

Throughout the collection – whichever era or subculture garments referenced – Nigo imbued the cuts of tailoring, dresses and the workwear in which he excels with Japanese construction. Y-shaped jacket closures and box pleat mega-flared trousers were inspired by the uniforms of kendo (Nigo practised in school), and sashiko quilting – likewise used in kendo sportswear – was applied to every fabric under the sun. He adorned it all in his eccentric Kenzo graphics, including a goldfish motif in homage to the Japanese symbol of good fortune-

Timothée Chalamet Makes A Surprise Fashion Week Appearance At Loewe

At this point, it’s a well-known fact that Timothée Chalamet is one of the best-dressed men in Hollywood. But despite his regular outings in some of the slickest looks the fashion world has to offer – all styled by Chalamet himself, might we add – it’s surprising how rarely the actor actually makes an appearance at, well, fashion week. (His last outing at Paris Fashion Week was almost three years ago, and even then it was primarily to support his close friend and frequent red carpet collaborator Haider Ackermann at the designer’s autumn/winter 2020 show.)

So it came as a pleasant surprise to see Chalamet stop by the Loewe autumn/winter 2023 menswear show today, in one of his typically casual – if still impeccably stylish – off-duty looks. For his Parisian day out, Chalamet wore a slick bomber jacket with leather sleeves over a crisp white tee, a pair of fitted navy blue joggers, and a pair of distressed white sneakers. (Chalamet finished the look with classic black wayfarers and one of his favourite Cartier necklaces.)

As for why Chalamet chose to stop by? Well for one, he’s just wrapped filming Dune: Part Two, so the actor might just be enjoying a rare moment of having a little time on his hands. So too has Chalamet made no secret of his fondness for Jonathan Anderson’s off-kilter designs at Loewe, regularly wearing the brand’s fleeces in the past, and most recently sporting a tee from their hotly coveted Studio Ghibli collaboration on Instagram. But the likeliest answer is simply that he decided to tag along with his friends and collaborators on his recent cannibal flick Bones and All: director Luca Guadagnino and co-star Taylor Russell, with whom he sat front row. The former is collaborating with Anderson on the costumes for his next film Challengers and appeared in a recent campaign, while the latter opened Loewe’s previous Paris Fashion Week show in September and serves as a brand ambassador.

Chalamet and his pals were far from the only starry attendees. Naomi Campbell, J Balvin, and Josh O’Connor also lined the front row to take in Anderson’s latest offering for the storied Spanish house; this time including angel wings, leather galoshes, and plenty of covetable outerwear. But Chalamet’s appearance was certainly the most unexpected – and given it was something of a reunion with his Bones and All collaborators, arguably the most charming, too.

Rick Owens’s Restrained A/W´23 Men’s Show

Rick Owens’s autumn/winter 2023 show was, in the designer’s own words, a sombre one. Owens unveiled a restrained collection that was a comment on puritanism, and created with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine top of mind. Fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen was there – read his breakdown below.

Rick Owens wanted to reflect the war in Ukraine

“Perspective” is a word Rick Owens has been using a lot lately. As a sensitive person who is deeply affected by moods of aggression, he tries to calm himself by measuring current conflicts against historical ones. It’s why he’s interested in Egypt – “the scale” – and perhaps subconsciously why he elevated every element of his show this season. Inside Palais de Tokyo, Owens had erected a podium-style scaffolding runway, meaning his models – who were already elevated on sky-high platform boots – towered over guests like magnificent giants, some of them dressed in capes for added perspective. “I was telling everybody I don’t feel comfortable doing a runway show during a war without acknowledging it,” he said before the show, referring to Ukraine. “We were all thinking, what do we do? What is tactful? What is virtue signalling? What is in bad taste? It turned into kind of a debate, and we didn’t come up with anything. So, I decided I’d better not do anything. I thought the show would speak for itself. It’s a sombre show.”

The collection was essentially Rick

Because he wanted to say and do something for Ukraine, but wasn’t sure a fashion show was the right forum, Owens internalised his feelings. They were whispered in a pared-back, purified collection that handed the spotlight to his masterful architectural cutting. Loosely inspired by Egypt, they were expressed in formidable coat and trouser volumes, longline dresses and distressed, unravelling denim. “I’ve tried to do something architecturally pure and kind of raw, and also working with motifs that I feel are very me, at the risk of seeming repetitive. These are things we’ve all seen from me before but when things are a good idea, I think they’re worth repeating. The idea of redeveloping motifs that are part of your signature, I think that’s a good thing to put out there: the idea of not letting things become disposable, which is all too often the case,” Owens said. On a concrete level, the collection served as a reminder of all the Rick forever-pieces you want to own but haven’t acquired yet.

It was a reminder to the industry

There’s a lot to be said for the point Owens was making, even if he didn’t get to make it the way he wanted to. When Putin invaded Ukraine in February last year, every show we went to came with anti-war message. A year into the war, it’s a different picture. “I look around and I see things and I cringe a little, thinking, they know there’s a war going on, right?” Owens said. “I realise, also, that we are companies that need to be on the top of our game. We represent the very best of this kind of industry and people expect excellence. We have to deliver that. We can’t ignore that. But there are ways of delivering that excellence that aren’t quite as voracious and conspicuously consump… Consumptive? Consumption? Consumptive sounds like what Camille had! She had consumption,” he smiled, referring to the Greta Garbo’s role in the 1936 classic.

It was a comment on puritanism

It wasn’t consumption (or a weak constitution) that led to the Victorian influences that coursed through the collection in sharp shoulders and tight waists, but a reflection on today’s mentality. “I feel like [Victoriana] is a great mirror of the way the world is right now because there’s this primness and propriety and moralism online that is almost puritanical… the way people go after each other. Cancel culture: every little mistake, everybody is so quick to judge.” Does he worry about getting cancelled? “Oh, yes. I mean, I don’t lay awake at night but I’m conscious of things that we do or shouldn’t. For instance, talking about a war, integrating the idea of the war in the show. How easy to backfire would that be? We could really get people riled up if we aren’t careful. So, better to draw back and try to best present the best work we can. It’s not about us.”

The Beckhams were there

Speaking of Victorian, in attendance was Owens’s friend Victoria Beckham, who – clad in a long, tight black dress, big black sunglasses and a slick plait down her back – looked like a Bond villain’s dream. She brought her husband David, whose wardrobe is no stranger to the world of Rick Owens, either. You could easily picture the footballer in a lot of the pieces that walked down the elevated runway, which spoke to the real-world expression that Owens’s thought process had generated. “For me, it’s mild and a little bit restrained,” he said. “There are moments that we’ve been a lot more flamboyant and a lot more theatrical.” In that sense, Owens did what he set out to accomplish. When we look back on this collection in years to come – and read the words he attached to it – it will give us a perspective of what was going on in the world, not just in fashion, in 2023.

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.