Fall Winter 2021-22 Fashion Week: What to remember?
Physical or digital fashion shows, the Fall-Winter 2021-22 Fashion Week is barely over and it's already time to take stock.
Between slow down, innovation, positive energy, minimalism and a breath of freedom, from Prada to Fendi through Chloé, the houses celebrated joy and excellence by competing with inventiveness. Between innovative formats and emerging talents, a look back at the highlights of the season.
Trends & new dynamics
Flexibility, adaptation and commitment have become the watchwords of fashion in recent months. A health situation that pushes designers to surpass themselves to propose new formats and that also brings with it a desire to break with a rhythm sometimes considered too frantic. Between pre-collection, cruise collection and other capsule collections, brands now want to follow their own production rhythm and not the one imposed by the official calendar. This is the case of Gucci, Céline or Y/Project, who are reacting against an industrial policy often considered inadequate.
As Thibaut de La Rivière, director of Sup de Luxe, points out:
"Designers and fashion houses continue to present innovative formats, but today they need to take refuge in concepts and productions that are their own. A way for them to refocus on the essential: the garment and not the fashion."
It is therefore to find a balance, necessary for an industry in perpetual motion.
On the show side, this Fashion Week has been rich in major events.
For Fendi, it was the highly anticipated debut of Kim Jones, head of the ready-to-wear that made a sensation. After his Haute Couture show, it is with a collection of sunny tones, between ochre, caramel and beige reflections, draped cuts and ultra-feminine urban silhouettes, that the new artistic director signs his entry.
At Prada, it is now accompanied by Raf Simons as co-creative director, that the house explores the elegance and opulence for the fall-winter 2021-2022. Presented digitally, the show extends the sensory experience that the brand has been developing since its last men's collection. Sequined coats, psychedelic prints and glittering overlays, the tactile and visual aspect is exacerbated, like a well-deserved creative stimulus.
In London, the capital has also bet on a digital Fashion Week.
Victoria Beckham, for example, presented her collection called "Optimistic but realistic" during the second weekend of February. Fluid cuts and color-block shades for a powerful femininity, like Roland Mouret, always marked by freedom.
For the specialist of marked sizes, the late Azzedine Alaïa, it is with a presentation organized in the heart of the Parisian boutique, rue de Marignan, that the collection was unveiled. A mixture of Fall-Winter 2021 and the Editions line, resurrecting the great classics of the designer. We discover white shirts with an almost architectural structure, jackets in jersey or perforated corsets. Signature models with a sensual and spectacular DNA, typical of the designer who has been one of the most influential couturiers of recent years.
Commitment & emerging talent
Although the big houses have demonstrated their willingness to reinvent themselves, other names also attract attention. Indeed, it is the turn of emerging talents to join the official calendar of Fashion Week for the first time. This is the case, for example, of Alexandre Blanc, Germanier, Kenneth Ize, or Benjamin Benmoyal, all supported by the showroom Sphère dedicated to emerging talents, which selects brands for their creativity and their development potential.
Fashion is also investing in the environment, as Vivienne Westwood has presented a line composed of 90% of materials with a low ecological impact. At Chloé, it was under the leadership of Gabriela Hearst that the first eco-responsible collection was created. With clean cuts, malleable and versatile materials, it is perfectly in tune with the times.
On the trendy side, we find enveloping silhouettes with reassuring textures and affirmed contrasts. The mini rubs shoulders with the maxi, volumes are exaggerated, down jackets are XXL, heels are dizzying and knits are revisited, like Altuzarra. Note that it is also the return of the sixties silhouettes, and the mythical miniskirt propelled on many catwalks of the season, as at Louis Vuitton, where the mid-height boots and trapeze silhouettes announce the color.
This season, fashion is definitely optimistic, aware of the past, in tune with the present and always open to the future.