What does a wearable wardrobe look like? The answer depends on who you ask. This season, Demna at Balenciaga and Alessandro Michele at Valentino both showcased diverging takes on clothes they want to see out in the real world — in the office, on the streets, at the club.
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At Balenciaga, Demna wanted to ‘show the different facets of my vision for Balenciaga,’ he explained after the show, which was set in a gigantic black maze. ‘I promised last year I would do a study of standards. It's the hardest thing to do. It's easy to put a chair on the head and be like, Oh, that's like, my wearable art… I wanted to show the whole variety of kind of standards in the way I imagine fashion.’
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The show started with an office wardrobe, Demna style, with suiting that had subtle Balenciaga twists. ‘What makes a suit a Demna suit is the [low] placement of the button,’ he explained. ‘It’s the waistband that can be worn adjustable, low waist or high waist, the sleeves and armhole that’s big enough to fit another garment other than a shirt underneath.’
There was the ‘standard’ trench coat, the ‘standard’ fur coat, the ‘standard’ hoodie dress (although, let’s be real, few but Demna would see a hoodie dress as a wardrobe basic). There were lots of European streetwear and urban city looks — puffer coats and gilets worn with skinny puma tracksuits for men; while for women, jackets were fitted through the body, accentuating the female form, hoods finished with fur trims so exaggerated that they obscured the models’ faces completely — and eveningwear dresses that slit right up to the hip bone, to reveal a flash of lacey stocking-clad leg.
‘My fashion, what I do, is really about the brain behind dress making, rather than make believe or that ‘Fashion is art’, or whatever,’ he said. ‘Fashion is wearable, fashion is urgent, fashion is right now. I need that kind of fashion. And tonight was that exercise for me to share that.’
Meanwhile, at Valentino, Michele took us to the public toilets for his second ready-to-wear show for the house. He described the setting as place that neutralises different concepts of intimacy — but really, it was like being in the loos of a megaclub à la Hï Ibiza, people watching as different characters flitted in and out of the toilet stalls, music pounding, a sense of kinetic energy reverberating around the room.
His capsule wardrobe was eclectic, for sure, and, as to be expected, definitely not for the minimally inclined. Some clubbers wore jeans and sneakers with Valentino’s take on a going out top. Others were dressed to the nines in signature Michele gowns, a mish-mash of textures and colours. Bows! Feathers! Ruffles! Sequins! Lace! Day and cocktail dresses; ’70s silhouetted-suiting; lace bodies teamed with lace tights and heels, bralettes and big knickers on full display. Welcome to the fashion nightclub of dreams.
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