My Unfiltered Reviews of the S/S 2024 Collections

The Good, the Bad and the...Not So Good

Going through the runway images for the S/S 2024 shows, I was struck by the overarching feeling that “fashion” as a category no longer makes sense. For the last century, a designer’s vision would steer the direction of a brand, combined with a specific idea of who their customer is. Now, designers are stuck on a hamster wheel trying to chase trends that are already going out of style. It appears as if the entire industry is packed into a rudderless ship headed towards an iceberg. It may not sink, but it will splinter into much smaller pieces.

We used to look at shows to understand ‘what’s next,’ but all we have left is ‘what’s now’. Designers keep trotting out the same white shirts, jeans and trench coats over and over again. Fashion is no longer the future, it is rooted firmly in the present. Zimmermann is showing skirts that are already on sale at A Bronze Age. After the umpteenth baggy trench coat flashed across my screen I threw up my hands in desperation…I have seen enough!

The Good

Eckhaus Latta

Eckhaus Latta always displays the creativity and clarity of vision I look for in a collection. Their big shiny pants were not "for me, per se, but I appreciate the fact they exist.

Jason Wu

I loved the shimmery sheer magic and moldering Victorian lace looks happening at Michelle Obama-favourite Jason Wu Collection. Very Courtney Love-approved.

Louis Vuitton

Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton was the first collection that I was genuinely excited about. I thought the whole poofy-sleeved athletic jackets with draped, voluminous skirts and low-slung belts was genuinely interesting and I loved the new silhouette it opens up the arena for. I also loved the ultra-mini skirts with powder blue tights. Indie sleaze lives.

Maison Margiela

John Galliano is a genius but he doesn’t belong at Maison Margiela. It was clearly a pity hire coordinated by Anna Wintour to bring him back into the fold post-antiseminism incident, but I think his naturally (frilly) sensibility just doesn’t jive with the house. He needs to be somewhere else, like Valentino, Givenchy, even Chloe, or designing his own line. That said, the cocoon coat silhouettes, “man skirts” and deconstructed white collars were undeniable. (Though, it was difficult to tell whether the conical hats were supposed to be “lampshade” or “paddy hat” which was a bit, um, uncomfortable.)

Loewe

Jonathan Anderson is incapable of putting out a bad collection. The weird, straightjacket-like knits absolutely broke my brain and I loved how willing he is to toy with our perception of how proportions are supposed to look, with those insanely high-waisted pants, knee-grazing cardigans and off-centred blazer buttons. it was the perfect combination of sexiness and frump.

Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli is always a “bit much” and that’s the point, but this fish skirt was particularly good.

The Bad

Gucci

It’s so funny to me that Sabato de Sarno was clearly hired to take Gucci in a more “quiet luxury” direction but it already feels so tired. Alessandro Michele’s shtick was getting old too, but at least it gave us something to look at? A visual feast? It’s very hard to care about a collection whose only visible idea is “logo.” If Ken’s job in the Barbie movie is “just beach,” then Gucci under Sarno is “just logo.” It’s frankly disappointing. If they keep going in this direction, they might as well just get rid of clothes and become an accessory brand because that’s apparently all they’re interested in.

Alexander McQueen

Unpopular opinion but Alexander McQueen under Sarah Burton always felt sort of empty and hollow to me. Burton possessed superior technical skill but lacked the risk-taking, slash-and-burn attitude of her mentor. It was Alexander McQueen with a lobotomy: shadows of the man remained, but the true essence was gone.

The Extremely Ugly

Y Project

Glenn Martens is the hottest designer going, but he makes clothing that is, I am sorry to say, ugly. Intentionally ugly, sure, but…why? Do we not tire of the constant drive for “subversion”? I believe we are in, as Andre Leon Talley gorgeously put it, a famine of beauty. I will say, the dress made out of two dress shirts was pretty cool though but for the most part I absolutely do not understand the appeal of this and kind of don’t want to.