11 September 2024 |
Last season, he had us dressed to the nines at our 9-5, but Queens-born designer Laquan Smith opted for a riotous return to the club this season, serving up a collection that packed a scantily clad punch.
Starting out with a military sentiment dipped in sex, micro mini skirts that barely covered the bum were worn under field jackets and boxy ‘field’ dresses laced up with steaming libido. Low-slung, expertly-tailored suit trousers underscored shirting with deep V necks that descended down past the nave leaving little to the imagination. Meanwhile, Smith’s signature cutouts appeared as lace or mesh bodysuits, open-front blouses, and femme fatale catsuits revealing the shimmer of itty-bitty bedazzled lingerie worn beneath. Tiny heels teetered under it all.
And while pieces like these deserved a bass-bumping, bottle-popping soundtrack and the blur of omnipresent strobe lights, Smith’s style is malleable, and could fit more modest occasions as well. A snakeskin striped twinset made up of a figure cinching bustier and a pair of baggy wide-leg trousers felt like the right kind of ensemble for pre-drinks, while chiffon wraparound blouses and strapless tiered dresses in leopard print or ladylike pink and bold chartreuse elegantly billowed around well-shaped bodies. Always sexed-up in Smith’s signature style however, nips were out, either shrouded by chiffon or on unobstructed display.
Smith was big on brown this season, with varying shades of the neutral tone populating almost every look from oatmeal twinsets to caramel lace catsuits and Grace Jones-shouldered ostrich feather coats so chocolatey you could almost taste them. The sugar rush reached its peak in the closing bridal procession of all-white lace unitards, satin suiting and corseted bodysuits that took oh-so-sweet nuptials to a new, seductive level. Yum.
Photography by Bella Macgregor.
