fashion shows

The culture of fashion: how the catwalk soundtrack got its groove



Michael Clark Bodymap fashion show - photograph by Robert Rosen courtesy BodyMap

Models! Clothes! Music! Fashion show soundtracks are increasingly part of shaping a brand’s identity. And in the digital era they’re about to become even more important…

The year was 2017. Kim Jones was menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton. At the appointed hour, his first models sloped onto the Paris runway in iterations of slouchy 80s overcoats, baggy flannel trousers and Basquiat-style suits with untucked shirts. Then the kicker – internet-breaking Speedy holdalls emblazoned with red-and-white Supreme logos. And to add the crucial fourth musical dimension: Honey Dijon’s mix of Sound Factory bangers including Chez Damier’s Can You Feel It (MK Dub), completing the downtown New York nostalgia trip.

Since then, other notable catwalk soundtracks have included LaQuan Smith’s AW23 Ballroom fabulosity-fest; Benji B’s eerie David Lynch-like Chromatics mix for Jil Sander SS25 and Saint Laurent’s long-term music collaboration with DJ SebastiAn – so integral to the brand, they packaged it as a box set and sold it in Saint Laurent stores. (more…)



Calvin Klein: Nostalgia or Now?



Calvin Klein Collection SS25

Lots of people have been in my DMs asking for my thoughts on the Calvin Klein Collection reboot. Lies! One person asked, but I’m here to share my two cents anyway.

This show was the most highly anticipated of NYFW. If the relaunch of a 5-decades-old label is what’s getting people hyped about NYFW, that says rather a lot about the state of ennui. So, Veronica Leoni (formerly of The Row and Phoebe’s Celine) had a great deal resting on her spaghetti-strapped shoulders.

The show was beautiful. It was clean, serene, elegant and poised. It looked like 1990s Old Calvin. But is that a compliment? Or a problem? (more…)



Hermès takes Manhattan



Hermes AW24 New York Theo Werner

My SS24 trend report picked up on the major appetite for leather, and of course Hermès comes top of the leather lust list.

Hermès just showed the second ‘chapter’ of its AW24 collection in New York – a seductive, cinematic portrayal of wearable-yet-sexy (for straight-laced Hermès) leather trousers, jumpsuits, outerwear and abundant Mapplethorpe-esque caps that some thought dominated the show, but I rather loved. (Once a stylist always a stylist.)

Dior paid a similar tribute to Manhattan recently (more…)



Gentlewoman style: Dior pre-fall 2024



Dior pre-fall 24

My favourite look from yesterday’s Dior pre-fall 24 show at the Brooklyn Museum is this leather all in one number (above).

Maria GC gets a ton of stick for her collections (please – enough with the logos and book bags!), but this was one of the stronger ones. Themed with a NY-Paris bent, it used Marlene Dietrich’s personal style – and friendship with Monsieur Dior – as its running thread, with garconne tailoring, calf-length beaded flapper dresses and oversized coats (more…)