Fashion has a tendency to look back in order to be able to move forward. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin described how this could be a new way of looking at history: tigersprung
In the summer of 2023, the Haute Couture season coincided with the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk. A French 17-year-old, of Algerian- and Moroccan descent, got killed by a policeman after trying to escape a routine check in a Parisian suburb. The killing spurred uproar and riots all over France and started a debate on aggressive law enforcement and racial profiling. The Haute Couture week was business as usual.
Ever since the pandemic, significant world events have — what it feels like — perpetually been happening. We’re seeing several armed conflicts all over the world; The Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Hamas-Israel war, the Red Sea crisis, and so on. Earlier in January, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that 2023 was the hottest year on record. Socio-economic instability. One could argue that the world hasn’t been this shattered in seventy years.
Fashion is often described as a mirror of our society, It’s seen as a reflection of the current zeitgeist that is expressed through clothing. The attempts to address what’s happening in the world are often futile and so few that they can’t be a representation of the whole industry. Has fashion become so intrinsically linked to conspicuous consumption, that it is now detached from reality?
Couture SS24 – Eugene Rabkin: StyleZeitgeist
In late 2023, I talked with Eugene Rabkin, fashion critic and founder of StyleZeitgeist, he expressed concern about how fashion has lost its cultural relevance in today’s society and how it has become a status-driven symbol economy, led by a few conglomerates.
A similar thought was expressed by Lampoon’s Editor in Chief, Carlo Mazzoni. «It is honest to admit that today fashion, the one presented by the ten mega groups that account for billions of euros per year, is a question of market, sales and commodification of decades-old brands whose entrepreneurial history is cultivated into legend by newspapers like Lampoon», Mazzoni reflects.
To put it frankly, fashion has become an industry that is driven by social media algorithms, exponential growth and bottom lines. Creative Directors are being appointed of star quality, rather than vision. The people attending the shows have better attention compared to what is on the catwalk. In a cacophonic world, fashion isn’t helping to straighten it out.
Six months after the Paris riots, it was time for another week of Haute Couture shows. Unrest isn’t at the maisons doorsteps this time, but the world is experiencing political turmoil. Haute Couture is, historically, the epitome of fashion. It is the ultimate form of craftsmanship. It is not made to be mass-produced. Designers have creative freedom, which is incomparable to RTW collections. If there is any moment fashion could show us its transformative power, it’s now.
The legacy of Elsa Schiaparelli in the times of Social media
About nineties years ago, Elsa Schiaparelli tore down the borders between fashion and art. Together with her patron, Salvador Dali, they created a surrealist expression that to this day influences fashion.
Today, Daniel Roseberry is at the helm of the brand. During his tenure, the brand has become a celebrity favorite. A-listers such as Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and Celine Dion have all donned outfits designed by Roseberry.
In the age of social media, artificial intelligence and postmodernism, surrealism are present everyday. Roseberry has made the house codes his schtick and has magnified surrealistic elements to become social media moments. In the SS24 collection, Roseberry found inspiration from Elsa Schiaparelli’s fascination for astrology. The collection, named Schiaparalien, is a search for something new and a fascination with the unknown. By combining old techniques with inspiration of what’s ’out there’. Embellishments are made up of technological artifacts from the mid-naughts; «the technology I grew up with is so antiquated that it’s almost as difficult to source as certain vintage fabrics and embellishments», Roseberry comments. The show could be seen as a comment on a world that is so tumultuous that the unknown is becoming a utopia.
Simone Rocha is Fusing Femininity and Rebellion, in the name of JPG
Gaultier, who retired in 2020, has kept his Haute Couture slot and offered it to younger designers too, with the help of his studio, to interpret his legacy. This season, the baton was passed on to Simone Rocha. The Irish designer that has become known for her coquette, subverted feminism. Rocha manages her eponymous brand independently and hence works with budgets that do not always match the creative output.
A big inspiration for Rocha is the artist Louise Bourgeois. Her almost autobiographical work which touches upon subjects such as motherhood and femininity, also shines through in this collection. Traditional female codes are enhanced, distorted and subverted. By having the female body in the spotlight, Rocha is enhancing its characteristics and drawing attention to specific parts, while marrying her language with Gaultier’s. Crinoline and corsets are present, but giving a sense of liberation rather than restriction. The cone-shaped bra— a Gaultier classic — is in Rocha’s fantasy world turned into a thorn. Just like how a thorn on a beautiful rose could sting if it is not handled with care.
Reviving the Beauty in Darkness
The most anticipated show — and afterwards, most talked about — was the Maison Margiela Artisanal (their way of phrasing Haute Couture). The creative Director, John Galliano has become a master of artistry in redressing fashion as a spectacle. In his work, during the 90’s Galliano rewrote the rules of what a fashion show could be and became the greatest showman of fashion. Choreographing models, unconventional venues, replacing runway lighting with theater lighting. Fashion was more of the feeling it could evoke, than the clothes itself and Galliano led the way.
The show was staged under the Pont Alexandre III, under the light of the first full moon of the year, with a scene similar to a dive bar, in the underworld of Paris. Galliano paints a picture that draws on a plethora of influences and references in time. It makes it hard to really put into context, but do you have to? This isn’t contemporary, nor historical. It’s commenting on the present with the help of history.
Fashion has a tendency to look back in order to be able to move forward. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin described how this could be a new way of looking at history, which he called tigersprung. A tiger’s leap through history, past and present creates a dialectical image, which bears a new type of meaning. Galliano is creating a bricolage, through his characters, misfits and outcasts, that is a reflection of our present. Even if we like it or not.
Couture SS24 in Paris – Bias-cutting, a Galliano favorite
This show had something which is intrinsically linked with fashion but has become equally scarce, namely, time. The collection was created in twelve months’ time, with some garments taking nine months to create. The collection is introducing a variety of new techniques. Bias-cutting, a Galliano favorite, is developed and present throughout the collection. One technique is called emotional cutting, which entails imbuing garments «with the unconscious gestures that shape our expressions: a caban pulled over the head in the rain, a lapel raised to cover the face, a trouser hoicked up to evade a water puddle».
Bodysuits and dresses in tulle and aquarelle are inspired by the fauvist expression from Kees Van Dongen. Just like Dongen’s women are sensually rendered, Galliano’s muses are equally sensual, as they’re frightening. Which are influenced by the voyeuristic portraiture photograph of Brassaï. This show was a reawakening. For haute couture, for fashion. A cultural reset. We shall not be afraid. There’s beauty in the darkness, we just have to let it in.
