16 September 2024 |
Instagram: @emiliapetrarca
Fashion prides itself on being forward-thinking—on telling the world what’s new and what’s next. But the industry is also, to quote The Great Gatsby, “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Beyond the obvious touchstones—people like Jane Birkin, Audrey Hepburn, and Josephine Baker; movies like The Matrix and Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?—there are a handful of slightly more niche references that creative directors and editors love to turn to over and over. Here are some of the recurring themes that popped up again this season. And probably will the next one, too.
Pete Doherty and Kate Moss at Glastonbury, 2005. Photograph: Matt Card/Getty Images
KATE MOSS AT GLASTONBURY ^
Kate Moss looks good doing almost anything, but she looked especially good clomping through the mud in knee-high Hunter rain boots at the Glastonbury Festival in the early 2000s. What is it about these images that we keep coming back to? (The Japanese label R13 referenced them for spring/summer 2024.) Despite being down and dirty, there’s an aspirational element to Moss’s DGAF attitude. Astronomical dry-cleaning bills, be damned! Of course it helps that La Moss has the best personal style of possibly anyone… ever.
Fendi Couture SS21
ORLANDO ^
Written by Virginia Woolf in 1928, Orlando is perhaps one of the author’s most popular novels. Inspired by her lover and friend, Orlando tells the story of an aristocratic man who mysteriously metamorphoses into a woman at age 30 and then happily lives to be 300 years old. The story has been adapted into movies, plays, and operatic works (in 2019, Rei Kawakubo designed the costumes for composer Olga Neuwirth’s rendition at the Vienna Opera House). Designers have not been able to resist Orlando either—most recently interpreted at Kim Jones’ Fendi couture debut (Spring 2021) and at Alice Temperley’s Spring 2024 show. As gender becomes more and more of an amorphous concept, especially in the fashion realm, it’s safe to say this isn’t the last we’ll see of the industry’s favorite androgynous icon.
Sienna Miller in Chloé at Cannes Film Festival, 2024
Sienna Miller in Chloé ^
During that early aughts era, the perennially boho-chic Sienna Miller was also clomping around London, albeit in wooden Chloé clogs. Fast forward twenty years to this past February, when Chloé’s new creative director Chemena Kamali kicked off her tenure by inviting the actress to sit front row at her Spring show in an updated version of the famous shoe. “I don’t know that I was conscious of this at 21,” Miller told Vogue at the time, “but this softness and femininity has historically appeared in moments of political stress and war.” Okay! Miller is all grown up, but she will forever live in our heads (and on our Pinterest boards) as a 21-year-old haute hippie.
CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion
by Sunita Kumar Nair (Abrams Books)
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wearing pretty much anything ^
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.’s tragic death, and as a result, images of the stylish couple are cropping up even more than before, which was a lot. Paparazzi photos of them walking around Tribeca have inspired ad campaigns for brands like Sporty & Rich, and Sofia Richie referenced Carolyn for her highly Instagrammable wedding last year in the South of France. Plus, you can’t tell us that The Row doesn’t have big CBK energy. After all, the couple symbolized “quiet luxury” before we even had a term for it.
Prada FW24
Tom of Finland ^
When I saw models in leather fisherman caps walking the fall Prada runway, my mind instantly went to Touko Valio Laaksonen, also known as Tom of Finland, the oft-referenced Finnish artist who specialized in hyper-masculinizing homoerotic art. You know the look: Big beefy men in tight, tight pants and leather jackets. Lots of suggestive bulges. Tom of Finland’s queer iconography has spurred recurring merch collaborations—think T-shirts, jeans, and jock straps—with the likes of J.W. Anderson and Diesel as well as exhibitions a’plenty. Look no further than beloved fashion starchitect Peter Marino to see Laaksonen’s enduring appeal IRL.
Marc Jacobs FW24
David Byrne’s supersized suiting ^
Over the summer Drake wore a tight white tee with extremely oversized khakis to his son’s soccer game and the image went viral. Sure, it was the first photo of the Canadian star since he was eviscerated by rapper Kendrick Lamar in a much-publicized beef, but my mind went to another musical hero: Talking Heads’ David Byrne. He of oversized suit fame. “I wanted my head to appear smaller and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger,” he has explained about his recurring choice of attire. “Because music is very physical, and often the body understands it before the head.” Designers like Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, and Gucci (hat tip to Alessandro Michele) have dabbled with supersized proportions, too. And so have social media stars like Hailee Bieber and Kylie Jenner who will do anything to stylishly maximize their looks (and views).
Loewe FW24
Arcimboldo’s vegetable prints^
In this Ozempic-ified world, food-related prints are all the rage. (You always want what you can’t have? Ha.) We’ve seen them recently at Burberry, Akris, and most notably, Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe. For fall, he sent caviar-beaded bags shaped like asparagus down the runway and showed pants with vegetables printed all over them. The brand was also the subject of a viral meme this summer regarding tomatoes. Thankfully, a tomato-shaped bag was on the way—a real chicken-and-egg scenario. It reminds me of Italian artist Arcimboldo’s famous vegetable faces, which have been featured on Comme des Garcons pieces in the past.
