Mood board: Kris Van Assche is faithful to his tight list of references: early 90s youth culture as experienced through the eyes of a teenager growing up in the Belgian countryside. There’s an obsessive, almost fanatical return to the look and mood every season. For A/W18, Van Assche wanted to make the camel coat more street. He was also thinking about how New Romantics might meet New Wave. The mood inside the Grand Palais was filled with the bite of New Beat – the style of Belgian underground music and subculture that fused techno and acid genres – and the spirit of the New Look.
Best in show: A series of glitchy moody films of models walking through the floors of 30 Avenue Montaigne were released on Instagram in the run up to the show – the atelier logo laid over a tribal tattoo motif. It is a graphic emblem of rave culture, scaled up and repeated in an all overprint. Dior Homme has a nineties indie nonchalance that contrasts with the lofty couture ambience of the maison. There was some strong black suiting; flashes of white lining the edges. Wide leg denim with short leather jackets; a striped vest worn over a matching polo neck in stripe jersey. Youth and maturity; street savoir-faire.
Scene setting: For S/S17, Villa Eugénie designed a looping rollercoaster studded with multicoloured lights. The setting for A/W18 recalled the same theme in the form of a deconstructed fairground: what looked like illuminations from a suburban funfair were boxed up in glass cases running down the catwalk. Models walked to Forever Young – the 1984 track by German rock group Alphaville. The boxes gradually filled with smoke as the show went on and culminated in the bulbs being trapped behind a light, distant kaleidoscopic haze. Just like the end of a night, or the start of a new day.
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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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‘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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Palace unites with Rapha to celebrate inaugural Tour de France FemmesMarking the first time women will compete in the historic cycling race since the late 1980s, this new collaboration sees Palace Skateboards and Rapha create uniforms for both on and off the bike – including an ‘outlandish’ pair of Crocs
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Mariella Bettineschi’s feminist artworks survey guests at Dior A/W 2022 showAs guests gathered at Dior’s A/W 2022 womenswear show venue in Paris, sets of duplicated eyes stared down at them from the artworks of Mariella Bettineschi
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Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022: Chanel to Miu MiuIn this extended report, Wallpaper* updates you live from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022 shows, with rolling coverage as runway events unfold
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Scene-stealing runway sets from A/W 2022 menswear showsA Kubrickian space odyssey at Prada; a recreation of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris at Dior; and colourful, artist-created flags at Loewe: explore the best runway sets from the A/W 2022 menswear shows
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Dior recreates Paris bridge, Pont Alexandre III, for A/W 2022 showDior recreated Paris’ landmark bridge, Pont Alexandre III, for its A/W 2022 menswear show, which took place on 21 January 2022, the date of Christian Dior’s birthday
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Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2022: Louis Vuitton to Loewe, Dior to HermèsIn this extended report, Laura Hawkins reveals 9 highlights from Paris Fashion Week Men's A/W 2022. Including: Virgil Abloh's final collection for Louis Vuitton; Rick Owen's riff on sleaze; elfin-inspired accessories; and a celebration of slouch and surrealism
