SILK ROSES AND TRAPPED WINGS: THE TENDER TENSION OF SS24

SSENSE VP of Womenswear Buying Brigitte Chartrand surveys her favorite looks of the season.

Rick Owens showered the Palais de Tokyo runway with rose petals in white, red, and yellow, like a pointillist sunset. Soundtracked by a hymn-like remix of Diana Ross’s “I Still Believe,” fuschia and yellow smoke drifting across the courtyard made the atmosphere even more beautiful but unnatural, too. During the SS24 presentations in September, natural things, like flowers, existed among handmade creations, like the pale pink long-stemmed roses inserted into Simone Rocha’s black dress. Flowers appearing where they shouldn’t. Crayola-bright smoke without fire. Tender, but unreal. A recurring theme.

“I don’t have a ton of hobbies but one is creating flower arrangements; I love going to the flower mart in LA on the weekends and just play with flowers for hours, filling the house with flowers. Rocha’s use of silk roses struck me as uncommon and fresh; romantic and poetic, but with a bit of darkness too,” Chartrand says. In this season’s collection, there were many pastels; dresses that looked like cakes. “But the tension here, between soft and dark, that’s it. I curated many of these looks in this Spring/Summer 2024 recap with that in mind,” she says. The tension of a flowered quilt transformed into workwear by way of ERDEM and Barbour spoke to her too.

Rick Owens is associated with the color black—Chartrand says that when she first started at SSENSE, she told the buyers to generally stick to black. “Over the years, Rick introduced more unexpected colors into his collections, and so we decided to follow suit,” she says. The contrast of the red boots with the top and shorts (it’s not a dress, as it initially appears)—and on top of that the bag that melts into the look—is consistently amazing. It speaks to his ability, season after season, to challenge shapes and silhouettes; the high-waisted skirts and micro bras were another stunning moment in this year’s show. “It’s hard not to include Rick Owens in a fashion week editorial, and this one in particular was something you could imagine his partner Michèle Lamy wearing,” Chartrand says.At fashion week oftentimes one model will emerge as the star. This year, Colin Jones made her mark, leaving the biggest impression during the Maison Margiela show. “She was incredible, a real SSENSE girl owning the streets of Paris,” Chartrand says. “This particular look, with its level of intricacy in its mixed materials, from the bustier down to the dots in the skirt, demanded something powerful.”Jones also walked for ALL-IN, and though she didn’t wear this look, it also had what Chartrand labeled the “spiciness and sassiness” of a particular kind of SSENSE customer. The label is five years old and making especially big waves in 2023, in part because Kylie Jenner wore it on the cover of HOMMEGIRLS. For Chartrand, highlighting the work done by a brand like ALL-IN is what makes SSENSE, SSENSE.

Embracing the beautifully absurd is another brand hallmark, which led Chartrand to a miraculous trench coat from UNDERCOVER. “I had to include it because more people needed to see the amazing wings,” she says. “If you only saw the runway images, you missed the details.” Trapped between two layers of sheer fabric, the wings recall the angels from Wim Wenders’s classic Wings of Desire.

The clay hoodie shown by JW Anderson this season worked its own kind of magic. According to Chartrand, it wasn’t as rigid, nor fragile, as one might imagine, being made of clay. The material “gave it all these different shades rather than one uniform color,” she says. (The show invitations were clay bars.) These photos don’t convey the process of putting it on either—there’s Velcro on the sides, and big zippers run down the sleeves; getting it over your head is the most complicated part. But definitely doable when you’re committed!

For a more practical spin, Chartrand chose colorblocked and joyous looks from ISSEY MIYAKE and Miu Miu. “ISSEY MIYAKE delivered a perfect summer look that requires no additions, no adornments. You put it on and go,” she says. The layering and colors—the dominant orange dress, lilac trousers, and dark brown long-sleeve dress—juxtapose beautifully. The shade of sunset orange was a recurring feature of a number of collections this year. Similarly summery, Miu Miu brought nonchalance to preppy outerwear by pairing a suit jacket with bikini bottoms, like a blend of East and West Coast archetypes. “The menswear version, with the layered board shorts and Speedo below the blazer is just so cool,” she says. “And everyone will want those sandals next year.”

On the subject of flats, Chartrand was enthusiastic about the new jellies from The Row. “They’ll be impossible to buy in just one color,” she says, adding that she bets the red and transparent versions will sell best. Through color, fabrication and shape, the label takes the simple and familiar, and elevates it brilliantly. The volume of the red raincoat. The way the trousers capture the light. “The Row has also made my favorite T-shirt of the season,” she says, applauding a perfectly baggy tee in cashmere. Layered under the V-neck cashmere dress, it makes for a strikingly graphic silhouette—which looks great on your phone or computer screen.

Playing with silhouette is tried-and-true territory for Demna, and the tablecloth material he chose for this dress—another flower pattern—is quintessential Balenciaga. “It’s my favorite in terms of the material and print,” she says. This year’s presentation was particularly dramatic and surprising, with a soundtrack dominated by the voice of the singular French actress Isabelle Huppert reading aloud from a guide to assembling a suit jacket. Demna’s most enduring work reimagines the shape and proportion of the body. “And of course we have to talk about these new sneakers, the Cargo,” she says. “On the day of the shoot, I took a photo of my foot in Miu Miu ballet flats next to them and it was hilarious.” Their scale poses the question: Where to go from here?