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AFP
Published on
Feb 15 2024
In a setting of a snowy field, in the middle of bare trees, the models parade to the sound of crows, in long jacquard tweed coats where black and white shine: the American designer Thom Browne closed New Fashion Week on Wednesday York on a “romantically dark” parade.
Thom Browne show, February 14, 2024, at New York Fashion Week. – ANGELA WEISS / AFP
Willingly theatrical in presenting his collections, the designer was inspired this time by a dark poem by the famous American author Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”, in which the hero, who has just lost his lover, receives a visit from the black bird.
While a female voice read the verses, the fall 2024 collection deployed its two major colors, black and white, on models walking slowly, half-human, half-animal with their veils or feather masks on their faces or the head topped with antennae, antlers, or braids suspended in the air. In this somewhat distressing world, the two colors intersect, sometimes in checkerboard patterns, on long coats with military shoulders.
A stole, made of shredded tuxedo pieces, is worn on the shoulders, over a false bodice accentuating the idea of illusion, and over a skirt adorned with ribbons. The materials, velvet, cashmere, moiré silk, satin silk, are warm or delicate to form the unstructured and eccentric ensembles dear to the American designer, on rather fitted silhouettes.
Known for having reinvented the gray suit, with its Bermuda shorts or pleated skirts for men, which his aficionados wore in numbers on Wednesday, Thom Browne this time wanted to recreate a “romantically dark” atmosphere, he said after the show. At the center of the decor was a tree, in fact a mannequin wrapped in an impressive 9 meter long puffy coat, by far the largest piece seen during this Fashion Week.
Gabriela Hearst borrows from surrealism
Since Friday, with around ten to a dozen shows per day, the marathon of fall-winter 2024 shows has seen all the styles intersect, with a strong return of chic, observed for example at Tommy Hilfiger. If New York is less popular than Milan or Paris, it still knows how to attract stars, like Beyoncé, sitting in the front row to attend the Luar brand fashion show on Tuesday evening.
Gabriela Hearst fall-winter 2024 collection, presented in New York on February 13, 2024. – / ANGELA WEISS / AFP
The same day, to present her latest collection in a snowy Brooklyn, the American-Uruguayan designer Gabriela Hearst was inspired by the British-Mexican painter and novelist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), one of the last representatives of the surrealist movement .
The designer continues to draw on the natural materials of her native region, in the northwest of Uruguay, to create light and airy dresses in satin or draped silk with deep necklines, or slit and golden evening dresses .
In Hearst’s creations, the shoulders are strongly defined, the lapels wide, the tailored suits decorated with metal buttons, which can be worn by both men and women.
Agbobly, “putting Africa” on the map
Born in Togo, immigrant to Chicago as a child, Jacques Agbobly, 26, embodies a new generation of talents who put their multiple identities at the heart of their collection. “My job is to put Africa on the map,” he told AFP on Sunday during the presentation of the collection of his brand, Agbobly.
Designer Jacques Agbobly (center) poses with his models during the presentation of his fall-winter 2024 collection at New York Fashion Week, February 11, 2024 – / Andréa BAMBINO / AFP
“I tell my story as an African living in the United States, more precisely in Chicago, and the obligation to navigate between West Africa and life in America, the need to find a compromise to exist between these two spaces,” he explained, also claiming his queer identity.
The result is a double-belted trench coat with green, yellow and red checks that recall the colors of the flag of his native country. Or a shirt, jacket, floral skirt set that falls lower on one side, a sort of synthesis between the loincloth and the suit. His creations allow him to still be in the running this year for the LVMH prize for young fashion designers.
Pair Ana FERNÁNDEZ, Andréa BAMBINO
New York, February 15, 2024 (AFP)
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2024-02-15 11:23:41
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