Call of the Wild

Take a look at the season’s most exciting womenswear, which tapped into a primal divergence from reality.

From thousands of garments across weeks of fashion shows, ideas emerge. In the aggregate you could call them trends, focusing on their call to action: shop this way, look this way. But let’s hang on to the ideas for a moment longer; to individual gestures from specific houses and designers. For instance: a double-layered coat from ABRA. More precisely, a long, below-the-knee black fur coat stitched into a second, hip-length fur coat; the former is glossy and short-haired, like a guinea pig and the latter is spikier, many hued. One idea, one coat.

Still keeping the deluge of clothes at bay for another beat, consider that coat alongside a dress and scarf from Simone Rocha. The scarf at a glance looks like a mass of fur. Stare a little longer and the ears emerge. See the head attached to the ears. Worn by a seated model, the scarf reveals itself to be rabbit-shaped and its legs dangle from the model’s neck to land between her legs. Now we’re cooking.

Each season Brigitte Chartrand, VP of womenswear at SSENSE, surveys the collections, waiting for the pieces that catch her eye. Two ideas in particular stuck with her and informed her styling decisions in this editorial. Shot by Pegah Farahmand in Paris, the 14 looks illustrate the elegance Chartrand loves (as opposed to fashion that feels strictly conversant with internet culture).

Chartrand felt particularly inspired by anything that felt cult-like, primal, or born from a strange pastoral fantasy. “Anything that looked like you had been stuck in nature and had to make your own clothes,” she said. “Lost in the woods. Wildness. Escaping reality.” The almost monastically minimal pieces from Rick Owens this season conjured an occult uniform, and the fur used by Simone Rocha and Chloé tapped into a fantastical vision of the countryside. (Chartrand likened the latter’s look to a “mystical forest goddess.”)

Another potent source of inspiration this season: home decor getting up, anthropomorphic, and walking out of living rooms and onto our bodies. Chartrand loved the dress from Dries Van Noten that is constructed entirely from tassels, like a group of curtains conspiring on something big. A more graphic application is a skirt from Julie Kegels printed with the image of a brown-leather couch. Add a purse masquerading as a couch cushion and a tawny dog to complete the look.

The next big idea that captured Chartrand’s imagination was the strong, unconventional shapes and suiting offered by designers like Dilara Fındıkoğlu, Thom Browne, sacai and Marie Adam-Leenaerdt. Speaking with SSENSE earlier this month, Adam-Leenaredt said, “It’s really important for me to challenge established norms. I love tailoring, but I also love dresses. I love the combination between the structure of tailoring and the softness of a dress.” This eagerness to recombine and remix is part of what spoke to Chartrand. For instance, the sacai look with its many layers and unusual draping catches and initially confuses the eye.Let yourself linger over the pieces and the ideas vibrating therein.