Our favorite shows take place on sets that are as much a work of art as the garments presented on them. These spring/summer 2024 ready-to-wear show sets underline the collections with a subtle metaphoric vibe.
PRADA: FLUID FORMS
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons created yet another futuristic vision for Prada. Translucent thick foams dropped down the ceiling of the Fondazione Prada creating an artsy curtain highlighting the soft floating fluid dresses and artistic fringe elements that accompany tailored masculine looks. The collection’s concept of fluidity framing the human form expands, represented through the show space. Abstract walls are evoked through fluid interruptions, forming an ever-shifting enfilade through which the models process.
LOUIS VUITTON: COCOONING ROOM
A hot air balloon, symbolizing the passion for traveling, lands at 103 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris and envelopes the scenery in warm sunlight. The installation at the Louis Vuitton show — envisioned by artist James Chinlund and realized by Penique Productions — surrounded the entire store in bright orange polyethylene sheets, reminding of Christo’s wrap art. The stylistic installation is recycled and can be reused.
In this floating and ethereal moment, the French artist Zaho de Sagazan fills the room with a narrative vibe with her unique voice. Nicholas Ghesquière, a pioneer of modernism in the fashion world, underlines the sense of weightlessness with sportive looks out of parachute-like materials, emphasizing not only the material but also the airy silhouette. Ready to take off in that adventurous collection for a magical trip up into the warm summer light?
FENDI: BAGS TURNED MONUMENTS
A walk through Rome. Passing by the famous monuments, like the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. On the way, discover a Fendi fantasia, where gigantic Fendi bags are set to recast the urban scenery. A set design focused on the Fendi icons, including the Baguette, the Peekaboo, the Origami, and First, alongside a new shopper-meets-clutch named the Flip.
Kim Jones, the new Roman architect, added statuesque shapes.
FERRAGAMO: SCI-FI SPACE
An elemental stage with white and light blue curved, curtain-like semi-lucent shapes set in a sci-fi bright space. Lightweight textures, tailored constructions, and sculptural accents: Maximilian Davis creates a contemporary wardrobe defined by the tension of opposites.
It balances between ease and refinement, fluidity and substance, elegance and audacity. A modern mix of culture and craftsmanship, in a subtle contrast of luxury and naturalness. It’s all about silhouettes, from fluid to sculpted, and from drapes to organic shapes. Ferragamo presents a timeless and new expression of artistry and allure. Let’s build on a bright future.
BOTTEGA VENETA: CROSS-CULTURAL MESSAGES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
The journey of Bottega Veneta starts with an invitation of a compass on a leather strap, with a map of the world and continues with the spring/summer 2024 collection by Matthieu Blazy, over an abstract painted floor – an artistic world map with fish and bird motifs. A set of traveling around the world.
A journey of transformation and escape. Representing the personal pleasure of dressing up, of being whoever and whatever you would like to be, and of traveling within the imagination around the world: from South America, Southeast Asia, Brittany, and Sicily it reflects the richness of the world’s natural wonders. With all its details and combined with urban codes, the special craftsmanship reminds more of couture than ready-to-wear.
JACQUEMUS: SCULPTURES
The Fondation Maeght was the perfect venue with its Giacometti figures and Joan Miró art pieces serving as backdrops for the Les Sculputures off-schedule show. Simon Porte Jacquemus’ shapes and proportions make the looks seem like art pieces. The silhouettes, like the artwork itself, are perfectly rendered to the female body.
LOEWE: SHAPED GESTURES
The Loewe show is a collaboration with artist Lynda Benglis, who has created an installation of monumental bronze sculptures and a series of jewelry pieces, that inspired also details on the bags and the chunky knits. The jewelry items are considered wearable sculptures that reflect the shifting world around them. The pieces are knotted, pleated, poured, and extruded and made from materials including gold, sterling silver, crystal, aluminum, and enamel. Reducing fashion to the silhouette, focusing on the outline is Jonathan Anderson’s new doctrine. A kind of inside-outside metaphor.
ACNE STUDIOS: DISCO COMET
Showcased at the L’Observatoire de Paris, the perfect location for a meteor impact is around a large disco bowl smashed into the ground. The deconstructed disco ball by artist Lukas Schwandtner is accompanied by the electronic duo Giant Swan. The presence of a broken disco ball is an allusion to the sense of freedom felt on the dance floor. Speed and spontaneity go along with the Acne Studios collection, focusing on sleek disco looks.
MIU MIU: IMAGINARY HISTORY IN A TECH LANDSCAPE
Qatari-American Artist Sophia Al-Maria situates the Miu Miu show within a landscape of technological ruins, an imaginary history invented in the Palais D’Iéna created in collaboration with OMA. Al Maria’s specially commissioned work Gravity and Grace depicts a confrontation between reality and fantasy. A reflection of the intention of her body as a work as a whole. Through this, she explores the meaning of storytelling, through the history of humanity to today – to transmit the past, share the present, and imagine the future.
Miuccia Prada also continued her desire of dressing it girls and guys by adding the perfect amount of sportive coolness to the collection. Subtle relics from the past, like sporty, preppy and Y2K looks create a special future style:Miuccia adds a reflective and futuristic definition.
DIOR: POP MANIFESTO
Not Her is Elena Bellantoni’s installation for Dior. The monumental video installation was played on 7-meter-high LED screens along with digital photo collages. The collected images for the artworks are from female advertising ads with a sexist undertone, in their aesthetics and visualization of the 1940s to the present day. A two-dimensional world whose details are generated by artificial intelligence: a fictional universe, constructed and thought out to perfection. The installation is intended to be comprehensive, using the sequence of images and texts in video animation to show how we are constantly exposed to media that have been conveying a hackneyed and sexist image since the 1940s. This season, Maria Grazia is playing a game of gender fluidity; white shirts become feminine with new twists, playing a new part in setting us free.
