THE NEWS

Marine Serre has been seeing dystopia. Her show last season was staged in an underground bunker, and though she moved outdoors this season, the unrelenting rain lent the proceedings a foreboding vibe that was reinforced by the clothes. Titled “Marée Noire”, which refers to oil spills but is directly translated as “black tide”, the show opened with inky blacks and oil-slick surfaces, accessorised with clanking belts and chains. Models had pouches, backpacks and reusable water  bottles strapped around their bodies. Combined with the rugged materials and protective silhouettes, they had the air of survivalists in an apocalyptic aftermath—an unmistakable commentary on the climate crisis. Serre confronted the issue by working mostly with upcycled fabrics, recycled plastic and reclaimed metal hardware. Alongside her distinctive scarf dresses, Serre also flexed her tailoring muscles, cutting lean, mean suits that she layered over her signature crescent-moon bodysuits. The range of Serre’s output was amplified by the diversity of her casting; women and men of varying ages, shapes and colours stomped down the runway—beacons of hope for a new tomorrow.

 

Tis the season of love and no thing spells it out more clearly than the colour pink. Fendi recently released a special capsule of it siconic Baguette and Peekaboo bags in romantic gradients of pale pink and rose gold in sumptuous materials such as embossed leathers, lizard skin and crocodile skin. The contemporary shades and fabrications breathe new life into the house icons, making them equally compatible with high octane date night dresses, and t-shirts and jeans.

 Yves Saint Laurent broke all the fashion rules and caused a sensation when he unveiled Le Smoking in 1966. More than half a century later, the tuxedo suit is firmly ensconced as a wardrobe staple for generations of chic women. For spring/summer 2020, Anthony Vaccarello served up endless iterations of the look, rendered in snakeskin, sequins and pinstripes. Accompanying the pieces were sheer shirts, pussybow blouses or nothing at all; on the bottom, they were paired with everything from hot pants to bermuda shorts and skinny, high-waisted trousers. To drive home the agelessness of Le Smoking, Vaccarello enlisted Juergen Teller to shoot the collection on a timeless cast of supermodels that included Stella Tennant, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

 

Christian Dior was famously a gallerist before he turned to couture. So it’s only natural that art runs in the veins of the Dior maison. For the fourth edition of the Dior Lady Art project, the brand enlisted 11 artists from around the world to put their personal spin on the iconic bag made famous by Lady Diana. Marguerite Humeau blended art and science, transforming the shape into a wave using 3D printing. Kohei Nawa padded his with PVC pockets and filled them with coloured gel, creating magma-like patterns, while Raqib Shaw printed, embossed and embellished the Lady Dior with dreamy floral scenes.

 

"Clockwise from left: Playing cards set; dice case; comb with calfskin case, Maison Celine"

 

Hedi Slimane is the kind of designer who commands a loyal army of obsessives. For those where head-to-toe CELINE is not enough, the brand has released a capsule of lifestyle accessories. Launched in tandem with the recent haute parfumerie collection, the pieces are stocked in the dedicated space on Rue Saint-Honoré that houses the fragrances. Like the perfumes, the objects are conceptualised as a tribute to the idea of ritual—be that of grooming, smoking or leisure. In true Slimane style, these seemingly everyday accoutrements are crafted in ultra-luxe materials such as leather, crocodile skin, python skin and lizard skin.

 

The Portobello Tote is Mulberry’s first fully sustainable leather bag and the brand’s first project under its Mulberry Green programme, which outlines the brand’s commitment to positive change and responsible, sustainable production. Produced entirely in its home country of the UK, at carbon-neutral factories in Somerset, the leathers used for the tote come from eco-certified tanneries using hides that are by-products of food production. Even the thread that holds the bag together is made from recycled polyester fibre. Furthering its pledge to do good, Mulberry has allocated 100 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of the bag to the World Land Trust, an organisation that funds the conservation of wildlife habitats.

 

Nicolas Ghesquière’s love for futurism is a well-documented fact; his collections often reference cult sci-fi films such as Akira and Blade Runner, and he was one of the first in fashion to venture into the use of digital avatars, with Final Fantasy’s Lightning fronting one of his earliest Louis Vuitton campaigns. This season, he takes his passion for future fashion to the next level with the release of a capsule designed in collaboration with Riot Games’ hugely popular “League of Legends”, customising the French house’s iconic Monogram with a special League of Legends motif that was splashed across ready-to-wear as well as brand classics such as the Neverfull and Speedy bags, and his hit Archlight sneakers.

 

The Loewe Elephant bag was a hit the moment it was introduced by Jonathan Anderson. Now, the brand has given it a new twist, transforming it into a phone cover for the iPhone X, XS and XS Max, in standout colours such as yellow and pink as well as neutrals. Not just an ornamental accessory, the phone cover is functional, with the ears and trunk of the Elephant case serving as a stand to prop up the phone both horizontally and vertically. There is also a tonal strap that enables the phone to be carried around the neck or wrist.

 

The spring/summer 2020 collection of MCM marks the debut of Global Creative Officer Dirk Schönberger, who is best known for elevating adidas from sportswear giant to fashion power player through the strategic partnerships he has masterminded with the likes of Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney and Kanye West. For his first collection, he collided rave and disco cultures— the former is a vital part of Berlin today while the latter soundtracked the era when the brand was birthed, in the ’70s. The result was glamour with a dash of street edge—think long lines and oversize silhouettes, tailoring paired with streetwear, and bold primary hues clashing with neutrals and metallics.