From Paris to New York, the buzz on the big four catwalks is back

NEW YORK

Empire state of mind

Coach is a rare Big Apple brand with close to a century of history behind it. But as its creative director Stuart Vevers tells Andrew Sardone, its relevance comes from reflecting where the city is today

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The James B. Duke House on 5th Avenue at 78th Street sits at the centre of establishment New York on the city’s Upper East Side. Across the street is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where galleries are named for the city’s business titans and bold-faced philanthropists, and it’s an easy stroll to the Mark and the Carlyle, where neighbourhood regulars still “do lunch.” Its interior, a series of hushed salons, appear filtered with a sepia glow.

But on a chilly February day, with a snowstorm bearing down on the city, the space embodied a much more contemporary idea of the Big Apple that’s also come to define the Coach fashion label and its English designer Stuart Vevers’ perspective on American fashion. The fall collection’s show notes favoured terms such as “recontextualized” and “queered” to describe how every new generation of New Yorkers ­subvert expectations of what the city represents. In the presentation, that translated to taffeta cocktail dresses stomping by in motorcycle boots, nods to sustainability including the use of “post-consumer crystal” and bags hung with Times Square souvenir-stand charms.

After the show, Vevers explained how he translates the city’s social, philosophical and aesthetic tension into a fashion statement.

Tell me about the inspiration behind this collection.

What I really love about fashion is when it’s stories of heritage, ideas from history, and how a new generation reinterprets them. I’ve got a personal obsession with youth culture through the decades and there aren’t many places that are more interesting to look at than American youth culture history from the ‘50s onwards. It was almost like this gang of kids crashing this established, elevated space. The Duke House is actually an NYU building. It’s lecture halls and libraries and things like that. That combination, I find really interesting.

You also leaned into the souvenir shop aspect of how visitors to New York experience the city.

It was like the idea of postcards from New York, like the models travelled through the city with their postcard hanging from their bag and picked up these charms on their adventure.

Because you’re not a New Yorker by birth, do you feel that the way you think about all these things and how they can come together is different?

Everything about New York – and America in general – I still see through the lens of Hollywood or the pop music videos that I grew up with, so I can never take off that film. Maybe I will one day, but to this point, I’ve never been able to take off that filter. Sometimes, if you haven’t grown up with something, it has a certain sense of mystery or romance. That allows me to play with quite obvious things.

What would you say is Coach’s role in defining New York fashion beyond New York?

It is that creativity of the city, the characters that you see and the self-expression that you see. It’s just so natural to be inspired by that. And then, in a way, we’re projecting it out. You can always be surprised by the city. You think you’ve seen it all and then something happens and you’re like, “No? Amazing!”

This interview has been condensed and edited.

LONDON

True Brit

London Fashion Week is celebrating its 40th year and its momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Odessa Paloma Parker shares her highlights from a trip across the pond

WELL TRAVELED

With its own 10th birthday to fete this year, tailoring-centric Labrum London’s founder and creative director Foday Dumbuya thrilled the audience gathered in the Tate Britain gallery. Consistently inspired by tales of cross-cultural movement and the African diaspora, Dumbuya – born in Sierra Leone and partially raised in Cyprus – infused an array of sublime suiting with a sense of storytelling by topping models’ heads with suitcase headwear fashioned by milliner Lucy Barlow. The men’s-wear label, which won the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in 2023, is known for its zesty textiles, and the fall 2024 collection – aptly titled “Journey of Colours” – carried on this narrative through its far-reaching use of hues and a print based on passport pages.

HIGH NOTES

Suitably set in a British Museum room that displays an array of Parthenon statues, Montreal-born Erdem Moralıoğlu’s show paid homage to the Greek opera singer Maria Callas during his runway presentation. Calling on her penchant for high-glamour details and mid-century silhouettes such as swing coats and amply skirted cocktail frocks, Moralıoğlu’s romantic mix of looks was spellbinding in its lush materiality and winking gestures – like the silk rose-adorned footwear that evoked the image of flowers being thrown at the feet of someone taking a bow on stage. The range of textiles was also noteworthy, with flamboyant marabou feathers affixed to knit separates, and a merlot-coloured leather sumptuously draped into a floral-embellished evening dress.

CHECK MATE

As a cadre of era-spanning supermodels, from Naomi Campbell to Karen Elson to Lily Cole and show opener Agyness Deyn, paraded through an enormous tent in Victoria Park, Burberry’s Daniel Lee showcased a return to form – with modern twists – for the venerable brand. By splashing a smattering of sparkle on otherwise subtle garments and devising a selection of slouchy leather bags destined to be tagged “It”, Lee reimagined and reinvigorated the historic house’s visual codes. A bit of oomph was added to outerwear through exaggerated lines, and even ubiquitous tartans looked fresh thanks to their appearance on turned-up cuffs and cheeky zip-front trousers.

PURE POETRY

Welsh designer Paolo Carzana’s oeuvre takes root in his use of plant dyes – his fall runway show’s atmosphere was accented by the presence of strewn flowers and bowls of tinted water on the seating – and organic materials. In combination with his eponymous brand’s upcycling practices and hand-made approach, it’s no wonder the phenom has received a host of illustrious accolades including the LVMH Grand Prix Scholarship, the British Fashion Council (BFC) NewGen Award, and the BFC and Kering Scholarship for Sustainability. Currently an artist-in-residence at the Sarabande Foundation established by the late Lee Alexander McQueen, Carzana’s seasonal offering of dreamy designs undulate and cascade across the body, simultaneously representing tension and sweet, soft release. Gathering techniques are deftly employed to generate a sense of flow; pieces are further imbued with a windswept mood accentuated by raw edges and billowing fabrics.

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FAMILY MATTERS

Canadian-British designer Edeline Lee chose to host a beautiful breakfast in Mayfair to laud her latest garments, with attendees that included the dynamic cast of women featured in the collection’s lookbook. Crafted to honour the relationships – and style kinships – between mothers and daughters, Lee highlighted the appeal of pan-generational dressing.

Her range of dress styles, sometimes sprayed with joy-making sequins, were in full effect, yet Lee also leaned into the practical side of sartorial flair, serving up natty versions of athleisure staples including slouchy T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and asymmetrically-tiered tennis skirts. The palette veered from whispers of lilac to shouts of emerald, making it a trove for every taste.

MILAN

Hold on tight

An often-used runway styling trick is to send a model down the catwalk with a range of bag shapes ­(dainty purses, folded-over totes, full-sized weekenders) scrunched under her arm like a clutch. At a time when at least one of our hands is often occupied by an electronic device, there’s something nonchalant and boldly impractical about surrendering another appendage to supporting a fashion accessory – and only that fashion accessory.

In Milan this season, the concept was pushed to its limits when brands, from Bottega Veneta to Tod’s, debuted handbags large enough to carry a shopper’s worth of essentials without any handles to clutter their designs. And when handles did appear, they were often removeable, allowing the wearer to dip in and out of the day-clutch trend with a quick tuck, buckle or snap.

Here, Nadia Pizzimenti compiles the season’s standouts

Photography by Ness DeVos

PARIS

Creative instinct

Makeup artist Julie Cusson tells Caitlin Agnew how she prepped artist Nadia Gohar for Chanel’s cinematic presentation in Paris

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Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was a famously intuitive person, a trait shared by Montreal-based makeup artist Julie Cusson. “My way to work is always to understand who is in front of me. My hands are always inspired by that moment,” Cusson says. “There’s something beautiful about all of us and I always try to emphasize this.”

It’s an approach Cusson took with artist Nadia Gohar when the latter attended the Chanel fall runway presentation in Paris this past March. In a guest room at Soho House Paris, Cusson leaned on her signature light touch to give Gohar a glow similar to the one seen on the runway.

“I really love her energy. She’s very calm and she has her own look. I just wanted to embrace her personality,” Cusson says. To achieve a fresh complexion, Cusson used Chanel’s La Base Matifiante, Les Beiges Water-Fresh Tint, the No1 de Chanel Skin Enhancer and the Baume Essentiel highlighter, which she dabbed onto the inner corners of Gohar’s eyes. For the finishing touch, Cusson applied the No1 de Chanel Lip and Cheek Balm in a creamy, petal-like shade called Lively Rosewood.

The result was soft and elegant, highlighting Gohar’s creative gaze without overpowering her delicate features. “I love the way Julie applies products lightly and layers them to focus on different areas of the face that could use a little colour or a little shine, or even a little mattifying,” Gohar says.

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On the runway, the Deauville-inspired collection referenced a range of eras from the 1920s through to the 1970s and was complemented by a beauty look that called to mind a fresh face on holiday at the wintry Normandy seaside. Following the presentation at the Grand Palais Éphémère, Gohar stopped in for lunch at Aux Lyonnais, an Art Deco destination by restaurateur Alain Ducasse.