This season, Paris was a moment of change and transition: new Creative Directors (Chloé), new creative visions (Givenchy), and big brand revamps (Alexander McQueen). The tail end of the fashion month spectacle, Paris Fashion Week is notably where big moments happen. Case in point: Louis Vuitton’s big show celebrating 10 years of Nicolas Ghesquiere, or the celebratory-packed front rows of Balmain and Off-White. It’s also the time and place where designers unveil what we’ll all be thinking about and wearing in the coming months.
While “quiet luxury” and its normcore iterations were a major theme of the past few seasons, there are signs that chapter might be closing: the parade of conspicuous furs (real and faux) and embellished gowns can certainly count as a sign. Remixed outerwear in the form of grandiose capes and trenchcoats also took precedence on the runways this past week, while signs that another color might rival the popularity of red were abound. Ahead, keep reading for 6 trends that set the stage and dominated Paris Fashion Week.
Great EsCAPES
Whether you’re a part of the Phoebe Philo fandom or not, you can’t deny the designer’s ability to generate ideas that get people talking. And from the first drop of her eponymous line, a leather bomber jacket with a detachable scarf that creates a cape effect was the clear standout. The almost $10,000 jacket is currently sold out on Philo’s website (a Kendall Jenner paparazzi appearance also contributed I’m sure), but don’t worry, we’re in for a long season of capes ahead. Nanushka debuted a leather cape within its Fall-Winter 2024 collection (sans the bomber) complete with a shearling lining (a wonderful addition for actually keeping you warm). And no one could miss the glorious capes over at Chloé (if you want a cape done well, Chloé will always get it right), which newly appointed Creative Director Chemena Kamali brought back with a force from the Chloé archive. Of the show’s 54 looks about a fifth of them included some type of cape from casually draped wool versions to patent leather Inverness coats. According to show notes Kamali looked to the ‘70’s for her new take on the brand, with the goal to inject the house with vibrance, “sensuality” and “fluidity”. Can’t say she didn’t exceed expectations. It will be no time until Issey Miyake’s masterfully layered capes are on everyone’s wishlist, but should you need a more glamorous, make everyone stop and stare moment, Mugler definitely filled the void.
Full Out Fur
You don’t even have to be chronically online to have heard the phrase ‘mob wife era’ used over and over again. But even if you’re just as tired of hearing it said, as a lot of people on the internet are, it would be difficult to deny that maybe, just maybe it’s a little bit true. Fur is not an unusual sight on the fall-winter runways—after all, designers do care about function just as much as form and fur does an exceptional job at keeping you toasty—but the sheer amount of faux-fur coats in Paris were almost comical. Virtually every collection on the runways included one: Givenchy, Loewe, Balenciaga, and Dries Van Noten to name a few, but the most covetable belonged to Saint Laurent, Miu Miu, and Louis Vuitton. Miu Miu’s take played along the lines of indie sleaze with brown fur coats layered over denim sets that included ultra-skinny and ultra-low-rise jeans. It’s important to note, the type of fur coats that encapsulate this trend here isn’t modest. It’s big, self-indulgent, in your face, and sometimes colorful to boot. Just maybe the age of stripped-down outfits might be over (or at least starting to fade).
High Collared
“To dress is to create form,” an opening line from the Victoria Beckham show notes. And perhaps there was no better demonstration of the power of form than the exaggerated collars seen everywhere from Victoria Beckham and Courrèges to Stella McCartney. The detail took full command at Acne Studios with extreme collars so tall that they served as pseudo masks guarding the face. The same was also evident at Victoria Beckham with trench coats and knit sweaters constructed with tall standing collars that shielded the bottom half of the face. The pandemic has made us accustomed and more comfortable with the idea of face accoutrement, so what’s a big collar front row and center?
The Trench, Revisited
If last year’s quiet luxury boom was about refining and exalting the classics, this season turned them upside down, inside out and deconstructed. Exhibit A: the trench coat. The foundational piece made numerous appearances at shows like Coperni, Courrèges, and Balmain but in iterations far from the long-sleeved vision of the trench that the British have made so famous Balmain chose to inject its version with padded shoulders, at Coperni, a pantless, playsuit trench styled with sheer black tights and black pumps led the way. Even at Dior, where straightforward, ladylike staples reign, the trench coat saw a modification with shorter sleeves (for this collection Creative Director Maria Grazia Chuiri took inspiration from the house’s Miss Dior line first introduced in 1967.)
Oil Slick
In one instance where Paris seemed to have stayed faithful to the basics, black leather seemed to be on every designer’s checklist. We’ve seen leather evolve into more whimsical territory over the years, at times to the extent where one could question if a piece was actually leather (a la Bottega Veneta’s skillful denim-looking leather jacket), but this season proved the classics can capture just as much attention. For Valentino’s Le Noir collection, Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccoli did away with color entirely with an array of looks only in the color black. It was an exercise of exploring texture and silhouette, and naturally, plenty of leather came out to play. Piccoli switched from regular to patent finished in his experimentation of colors with expert-leveling tailoring that breathed new life into beloved basics. Over at Isabel Marant where Parisian Boho reigns, black leather surfaced in the form of effortlessly cool outerwear, a favorite being a matching set that included a leather oversized zip jacket and trousers. Rounding out the black leather fixation, Chanel presented a skirt set complete with a belted moto jacket, which I’m sure will be on many “French girl style” Pinterest boards to come.
White Hot
Without a doubt cherry red was the last great color trend to dominate the scene, and although its presence held firm over the past week in Paris (it was still pretty much everywhere), another hue seems to be nipping at its heels. Designers fully embraced white for fall-winter 2024, opting for the bright, crisp shade in a range of casual, on-the-go looks to sophisticated evening wear. The color may not evoke the same audaciousness as red, but it still delivered the message of chic in the form of body-clinging dresses at Casablanca and streamlined shift dresses at Coperni and Courrèges.
