Prada: Miuccia Prada’s alluring S/S 2016 invitation comprised a trio of acetate sheets that created a lens effect when moved over each other. Ensuring their safe arrival was a black plastic envelope with a press effect
Dior Homme: M/M (Paris) quoted Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung – ‘in all disorder a secret order’ – on its illustrated poster-sized invitation
Paul Smith: Sir Paul Smith championed an ‘independent mind’ for S/S, with this mantra adorning a luxurious, black cashmere handkerchief
Yohji Yamamoto: The designer set the tone for his Paris show with a brown paper bag invitation. On one side, a sketch of a near-naked man clad in hot pants declared ‘I’m for rent’, with show details on the reverse
Louis Vuitton: Louis Vuitton delivered its spring/summer show details on a grey mountboard, debossed with its signature monogram pattern, and names elegantly scribed overleaf in navy blue ink. Kim Jones also enclosd a second invitation – letter-pressed with a blue rope motif and edged in blue - that summoned us to Paris boutique Colette to view the house’s A/W 2015 collection drop in store
Saint Laurent: The work of American artist and sculptor Billy Al Bengston was the latest to grace the next edition in Hedi Slimane’s sleek series of booklet invitations. The 81-year-old artist - best known for his soft-focus, geometric paintings and association with surfing subculture - offered up the perfect visual prelude to Slimane’s southern Californian soujourn
Wooyoungmi: Woo Youngmi and Katie Chung joined a number of designers looking upwards to the final frontier for inspiration this season. Their invitation, printed on textured card, depicted the moon in different phases
Kenzo: A mirror-effect duplex mountboard alluded to Carol Lim and Humberto Leon’s interplanetary space race. Housed in a taupe envelope with the house’s name printed in a pleasing, mint-green foil, the invitation was our one-way ticket to the cosmos. We have lift-off!
Alexander McQueen: The prologue to Alexander McQueen's S/S 2016 show was the vintage, black-and-white portrait of a tattooed man on the front of each invitation – later referenced on the runway through silk scarves in a tattoo print and complimenting cuffs. Printed on textured card with a UV-varnish, the invitation arrived in a ghostly tissue paper envelope
Coach: Stuart Vevers opted for a heavy, mountboard invitation, edged in purple, to announce his debut LC:M show. An abstract graphic – clouds billowing over a rocky texture – hinted at the psychedelic medley of textures and hues that were to come
Neil Barrett: The Milan-based designer alluded to his newfound focus on pattern with a camouflage motif screen printed on Perspex
Oliver Spencer: The London menswear brand has us seeing shapes – shapes drawn from the oeuvre of American minimalist sculptor Richard Serra to be precise. Its invitation riffed on Serra’s large-scale sheet metal works, featuring a medley of red, interlocking circles and triangles on off-white card
Umit Benan: The Turkish-born designer whisked us to Havana by way of Paris, envisioning Fidel Castro and Che Guevara celebrating their victory over the dictator Bastista with Cuba Libres and cigars. Salud!
Gucci: From Gucci came an elaborately illustrated invitation. Framed in black, the textured card was bedecked with classical Roman motifs
Hardy Amies: Creative director Mehmet Ali marked his galactic spring offering with a debossed grey triplex card and edged in a lemon yellow
Piquadro: The Italian leather goods company commanded our attention with a laser-cut aluminium invitation
Versace: It was an Arabian roll call at the Italian house, which announced its summer 2016 outing with a whistle (in gold, of course), delicately chained to a patterned black card. Details appeared on the reverse in gold foil
Richard James: Heralding the Savile Row tailor’s trek to Las Pozas – the pseudo 'ancient ruin' created by eccentric English poet and surrealist Edward James – was a triplex card, illustrating the silhouette of one of Las Pozas’ concrete structures emerging from the rainforest
Junya Watanabe Man: The Japanese designer’s theme this season was ‘Faraway’ – more specifically Africa. To wit, a poster invitation transported us there pre-show through an image featuring a figure standing tall over the lush, exotic landscape
Salvatore Ferragamo: Massimiliano Giornetti’s striped invitation foreshadowed his collection’s polished colour palette
Raf Simons: Mr Simons’ simply elegant invitation – a subtle, white card with names handwritten and the show details printed overleaf – gave nothing away. Who would have guessed he had a blitzing techno-rave in store for us this season?
Margaret Howell: Ever refined, Margaret Howell sent out a pared-down invitation that echoed her crisp but casual collection
Issey Miyake: This season, Issey Miyake’s menswear designer Yusuke Takahashi was enamored by photographer Yoshinori Mizutani’s series Tokyo Parrots. Alluding to the collection's theme of urban nature, the invitation featured one of Mizutani’s vibrant images
Santoni: Spring was in the air for the Italian shoe brand, which sent through a poster-sized invitation illustrated with a Technicolor collage
Bally: The Swiss brand sent forth a quadruplex card in a royal blue hue, with show details printed in white foil
Pal Zileri: This invitation predicted Mauro Ravizza’s riff on technology, with a circuit board-inspired geometric motif on multi-layered, die-cut card
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A celestial New York exhibition showcases Roman and Williams’ mastery of lightingLauded design studio Roman and Williams is exhibiting 100 variations of its lighting ‘family tree’ inside a historic Tribeca space
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‘He immortalised the birth of the supermodel’: inside Dior’s career-spanning retrospective of photographer Peter LindberghOlivier Flaviano, curator and head of Paris’ La Galerie Dior, talks us through a new Peter Lindbergh retrospective, which celebrates the seminal German photographer’s longtime relationship with the French house
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Take a bite: Laila Gohar and The Luxury Collection’s ‘Cakes & Candles’ are a sweet treat for the sensesLaila Gohar’s six cake-inspired candles draw on The Luxury Collection’s hotels around the world – where guests can enjoy matching edible confections
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Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UKAs A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
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‘Shoemaker to the stars’ Salvatore Ferragamo’s colourful life and work celebrated in new exhibition‘Salvatore Ferragamo 1898-1960’ at the house’s Florence museum explores the Italian shoe designer’s wide-ranging career, which began in the golden age of Hollywood
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Summer games, from pétanque to pool floats, get a fashionable spinFrom a luxurious pétanque set to pool floats and playing cards, summer games and toys from the world’s best-known fashion houses
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Alessandro Michele to exit his role as creative director of GucciItalian house Gucci has confirmed Alessandro Michele will leave after a seven-year tenure in which his eclectic aesthetic has proved a critical and commercial success
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New short film takes you behind the scenes at Margaret HowellA Working Space provides a behind-the-scenes look at 34 Wigmore Street, Margaret Howell’s London headquarters, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year
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‘Modern beauty’: Pieter Mulier on his new vision for AlaïaAs creative director of Alaïa, Belgian designer Pieter Mulier honours the timeless vision of the maison’s founder while rewriting the past anew. Here, speaking to Jack Moss, he tells the story behind his first year at the house
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Annemarieke van Drimmelen’s photographs capture the spirit of Margaret HowellDutch photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen has captured Margaret Howell’s A/W 2022 collection in an evocative series of black and white images. Here, Van Drimmelen and Howell tell Wallpaper* how the project came together
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In Memoriam: Issey Miyake (1938 – 2022)We remember fashion designer Issey Miyake, who has died aged 84
