Passports and boarding passes at the ready, my dears! Yes, we know that summer has hardly dawned, but this week, we’re taking you on a fashion world tour that makes fashion month look like a provincial circus tour. From Louis Vuitton’s pre-fall extravaganza in Seoul to the off-season show of New York fave Christopher John Rogers, and Pucci’s kaleidoscopic cruise collection shown along the banks of the Arno in Florence, some of fashion’s most exciting names have spreading their wings and taking flight, and we’ve got all the tea you need from each and every show. How chic! But that is, of course, not all! From Saint Laurent bling to an interview with South London songstress RAYE, and another with the team behind the experimental fashion mag we’re sure you’ll want to go ALL-IN on, this week’s edition is chocka with more than enough stylish tidbits to see you through the long weekend. Here’s what’s in fashion.
Louis Vuitton lands in Seoul
Last weekend, Louis Vuitton headed out to Seoul to showcase its pre-fall 2023 collection, staging a blockbuster show on the Jamsu Bridge — an iconic landmark at the heart of the Korean capital. Opened by none other than former i-D cover star and Squid Game actress Hoyeon — who sported a mod-ish studded leather and glossy block-hued moto jacket — it was a collection that conveyed exactly the sort of adventurous spirit we’ve come to expect of Nicolas Ghesquière’s tenure at the house. A synergy of unexpected motifs, intricate embroideries figured on casual poplin shirting, while prim jacquard dresses were elevated by leather panelling and chunky hardware details. In its ensemble — and given the fact that the brand had travelled so far to show the collection — it embodied the importance of travel in Louis Vuitton’s brand philosophy, with that dynamism conveyed through the abundance of sporty references seen across the board.
As the show’s creative advisor, Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game’s director, placed various Korean motifs to the occasion. Soundtracking the parade on the iconic bridge were classic Korean hits like Sanulrim’s “Ahni Beolsseo,” as well as Honam Nongak Orchestra’s renditions Kim Duk-soo’s “Beat” and Han Dae-soo’s “To the Land of Happiness” — and, as a curveball, The Pussycat Dolls’ “Stickwitu”.
What’s more, despite the strong winds on the night, a veritable razzle dazzle of K-pop stars made it out for the occasion, including NewJeans’ Hyein, Taeyeon, Le sserafim (Chaewon, Eunchae, Yoonjin, Sakura, Kazuha), Bae Doo-na, Wi Ha-jun, Park Hyung-sik, Park Ji-hoo, Jaurim’s Kim Yoon-ah, as well as Louis Vuitton global ambassadors Chloe Grace Moretz and Jaden Smith. What a way to touch down in town, right? Gucci, your move next! SI
Christopher John Rogers delivers a knockout New York show
Typically, to attend a Christopher John Rogers show is to step into a world where colourful stripes and polka dots reign, both of which have become his signature. So when his latest collection, his 12th, To Have and to Hold, A Happy Cry, which took place last Saturday in New York, opened with a white drapey dress, it signalled an about-turn for the designer. Once the second model walked down the runway in a white two-piece suit with a bouquet of flowers in her hair (perhaps a new trend for this year’s “quirky” bride”), the colour story had begun, taking us from white and metallic to vibrant yellows, blues, and oranges. The show even ended with a gothic twist.
From start to finish, there was romance on the runway — sprinkled into the colour story through larger-than-life bows making evening gowns look like presents and fresh flowers replacing handbags. The collection felt playful (in typical CJR fashion) but also cohesive and grounded — with the slouchy, wrap-around knitwear being an easy buy for more wardrobe-minded dresses. Naturally, there were still moments for peak drama: extreme pattern clashing, long voluminous gowns, unexpected ruffles, and asymmetrical necklines. After the show, Rogers strutted down the entire length of the runway with a celebratory spin on the catwalk. Happy tears indeed. LP
Acne Studios just dropped this summer’s It-bag
Summer is great and all, but, if we’re honest, summer dressing can feel a little same-y – sorry to break it to you, girlies, but there are only so many ways you can style a baseball cap, a cute crop top, a miniskirt and sporty sheux for tinnies in the park. One surefire way to invigorate an otherwise predictable summer look, however, is to opt for a statement bag! As the days start to lengthen, our eyes are fully set on Acne Studios Platt Crackle series, a line of nifty flat bags in tactile, crackled leather finishes. Available in shoulder bag, crossbody and mini iterations, it’s an effortless yet distinct option to lift whatever looks you’ve got lined up for the balmy months ahead. MS
Pop star Raye discusses FINALLY controlling her own music and being one of the iconic faces of SKIMS latest campaign
South London singer-songwriter RAYE has been behind some of the biggest dance pop anthems to come out of the UK in the past decade. But with bigger dreams than those being offered by her label, she made the brave decision to go independent, finally releasing the debut album she’s wanted to for a long time. It paid off, though, and the critically-acclaimed album spawned the track, “Escapism”, that took her music worldwide and made her one of the buzziest names on the scene right now. Naturally then, for SKIMS latest campaign, that showcased a mammoth range of the Kim K-led brand’s revolutionary shapewear, including eleven new cuts of their viral seamless sculpt collection, RAYE was one of their icons alongside other new gen internet-beloved artists Ice Spice, Pink Pantheress and Nessa Barrett. Here, we catch up with RAYE about her album’s huge success and why she loves SKIMS.
Hi Raye, what have you been working on lately?
We’ve been on the road! We’re doing 183 shows this year so this is a whole different kind of life that I’m getting used to. I’m a studio baby but it’s great getting to perform.
You released your debut album in February. How does it feel to finally be releasing the music that you want to make?
It feels really great to be releasing music I’m really proud of and just being in control of my career. I like being an independent artist, I’m in a great space and I love this album. I’ve been releasing music for 10 years but this is a completely new feeling. First of all, because it’s an album and I just believe albums are important and beautiful and necessary. Secondly, it feels great to not make decisions based around money and instead what art and stories I want to share.
You went independent and then your debut album became hugely popular on TikTok, how did it feel to see the album get so much success?
It was amazing and also hugely unexpected. It happened so quickly, how fast it spread and then impacted. I’d blink and see another ridiculous statistic. It’s beautiful. What music doesn’t want people to hear their music? That’s what it’s all about for me. I’m grateful that TikTok put ears onto my music and brought people to my album. It was perfect timing.
What are your thoughts on the role of social media in allowing artists to gain control over their careers?
The weird thing about social media is you can’t predict or control it. You can’t. That also means you can’t adjust or cater to it either. You have to focus on what you want to say and then maybe people on social media will like what you’ve done but you just can’t force that. If you were to try and direct your art to be successful on social media I think you’d have a huge headache everyday.
How did you react when you heard you were going to be in the SKIMS campaign?
I was on my first holiday in a long time and I got the call through from SKIMS and I was like, “cut the holiday short. Let’s go!” It’s an incredible brand and I love the creative direction. It’s Kim init, she’s so good at that. I was very honoured to be asked.
What does SKIMS mean to you?
I wore SKIMS and shapewear a lot even before this campaign. I love the brand, I think the products are amazing. They have great seamless pieces. When you’re on stage you have a lot of people watching your body and the way it moves and so sometimes you want to feel snatched and comfortable and held. Back in the day, I used to layer loads of shapewear but with SKIMS I only need the one piece so that’s great.
How did it feel to be a part of the campaign alongside Ice Spice, Pink Pantheress and Nessa Barrett?
I think Ice, Pink and Nessa are so brilliant. They’re all so talented in their own right and really incredible women.
What do you think is the common ground between you and the other girls in the campaign?
Maybe our individuality. Each one of us has a very unique style that is true to ourselves. I love my 60s Hollywood glamour and retro-futurism. Pink is giving 90s queen with those thin eyebrows. Ice has that beautiful fro and Nessa is giving rock chick. Everyone has their own individual, beautiful style. TG
Upcycled Nike garms are coming to Soho
A year ago Nike launched Re-Creation, their LA-based circular vision for fashion whereby deadstock and vintage pieces are collected and then turned into locally-designed, stunning new pieces that are zero-carbon and zero-waste. Well, the program has now made its way to the other side of the Atlantic. A 25-piece, one-of-one, upcycled collection is now available at NikeTown London, the brand’s Oxford Street home, with a larger collection to follow. Created with Greater Goods, a London-based project from Jaimus Tailor dedicated to sustainability, it features uniquely remastered Nike-tick sports tees, patchwork sweats and statement oversized jackets. What’s more, this is just the first of their new European offerings with a Sarah Moh collection set to debut in Paris this summer, too! Watch this space. TG
NYC street style meets motochic in Tommy Hilfiger and Awake NY’s Miami Grand Prix collection
Ok Motomamis, Tommy Hilfiger and Awake NY have crafted your new wardrobe must-have. Partnering with Mercedes-AMG F1, the collection of seven unisex reinvents archival Tommy pieces – such as polos, baseball jerseys and rugby shirts – with a bold and electric aesthetic ready for the race car track or the streets of New York City. The accompanying video, too, features Lewis Hamilton – a key role model and inspiration for the collection for Awake founder Angelo Baque – as well as Tommy showcasing their inspiring individual journeys. “I have been an F1 fan since I was a kid, and we’ve been breaking conventions in our partnerships with the sport since the 90s,” said Tommy Hilfiger in a statement. “With this collaboration, we wanted to continue to innovate with both design and an inclusive spirit to create a bold new perspective for the next generation of race-goers.” Speed on over to the Mercedes and Tommy online stores, as well as select Tommy retailers and racing tracks near you in order to snatch a piece before the Grand Prix this weekend. Ready, set, go! TG
Miu Miu launches the campaign for its summer collection
With summer on our doorstep, we’ve been dreaming more and more about our the perfect looks for long, hot days and balmy nights — and the answer we keep coming back to, to be honest, are clothes that are as close to wearing none at all! It seems that Mrs P and the team over at Miu Miu are having similar thoughts, with the brand’s latest summer collection — sorry, Miu Miu L’Été — comprising garments that draw inspiration from “the charm of underwear worn as outerwear”, a release reads, as well as the rudiments of men’s tailoring and sportswear, all stripped back to their essentials. Featuring breezy safari dresses and slashed skirts in simple cottons alongside light, breathable knits and cute, cropped denim jackets, these are clothes that’ll make you look as good as you can without being naked this summer. MS
Saint Laurent launches fine jewellery
Fine jewellery isn’t something that we typically cover here at i-D, but we’re making an exception today on the grounds that this isn’t just any fine jewellery launch — it’s only a bloody Saint Laurent fine jewellery launch. Yes, you read right — a top contender for the title of Paris’ chicest luxury houses has branched out into the world of hard luxury (all things bling, basically), with an Anthony Vaccarello-designed collection of bracelets. cuffs, necklaces and earrings. Crafted from the most materials, including carefully sourced and selected gold and diamonds — the collection embodies the timeless elegance of the label’s fashion offering, drawing iconic Saint Laurent signatures like Cassandra and Maillon motifs. So, how can you get your hands on these goodies? Well, presumably by having a pretty hefty wallet/credit card balance for starters, but even then, the range will only be available for sale in select Saint Laurent stores worldwide. Lucky for us London folk, the Bond Street store is on the list from June — form an orderly queue! MS
Pucci lifts off from Florence to infinity, and beyond!
Are there any fashion houses that do summer wardrobes with quite the same gusto as Pucci? Well, if there are, we don’t wanna know! Earlier this week, the Italian label invited a global audience to a quaint show set on the banks of the Arno, the river that runs through the heart of the country’s Renaissance gem, Florence. It was a significant affair not only on account of the fact that it was staged in Pucci’s ancestral home, but also due to the fact that it was the very first they’d had staged under the creative directorship of Camille Micelli, who took up the helm of the house last year.
Titled Initials E.P., the show, staged in the light of the near-full moon was both a celebration of Pucci’s codes and a statement on the future Camille aims to steer it towards. The lunar setting was indeed no coincidence – in fact, the conceptual lift-off for the collection was in fact Emilio Pucci’s 1971 design for NASA’s Apollo 15 space, with its escapist energy filtering down into the clothes themselves. A billowing silk kaftan printed in one of the house’s signature kaleidoscopic motifs opened the show, striking a fine balance classical Italian opulence and the sort of thing you’d expect an eccentric space contessa to wear, with the otherworldly theme carried through with white bodycon crop-tops and dresses with dainty bleached florals blooming from the neckline. A sporty adventurousness was conveyed clingy knitted black jumpsuits and maxi dresses, each interrupted by bands of swirling Pucci print, converting to all-out raciness in flounced denim miniskirts and bustier tops, neon orange leather bombers and fishtail skirts slashed up to the hip. Closing out the show was a suite of dramatically draped pieces in iridescent foil-laminated printed silks and swirl-printed lycra bodysuits, which, admittedly, will probably have most earthlings thinking you’d landed straight from outer space. Then again, with the direction this world’s headed in right now, maybe that’s for the best! MS
A new magazine to go ALL-IN on
As you well now, we’re huge fans of esoteric fashion-related printed matter, and one of the independent publications we’ve been raving about since we first came across it is ALL-IN. Headed up by Paris-based duo Benjamin Barron and Bror August, ALL-IN functions as both a fashion brand and an experimentally formatted magazine, with the themes explored in print filtering through to the runway, and vice versa. For their latest issue, they’ve broached the theme of ‘Fast Fashion’ – albeit not in the sense it typically denotes in fashion conversations. Eager to get the lowdown on their latest print offering ahead of its launch, Benjamin and Bror kindly filled us in on their reading of the issue’s titular term, the magazine’s unconventional form, and their stellar lineup of contributors. MS
How would you introduce ALL-IN to someone hearing about you for the first time?
ALL–IN is a fashion brand and magazine. Each collection and publication is released annually and explores similar narratives across different formats.
What’s your reading of ‘Fast Fashion’? And what first piqued your interest in it as a theme?
This is the first year we have produced and released a collection and publication within the same year. To us, this was fast fashion. Of course, fast fashion is an industry and the predominant way people consume clothing, but in this context, we are exploring it in a literal way: the speed of everything that is fashion, not only the production and consumption of clothes. If what you make needs to be replaced by something new all the time, what is the value of the time you put into creating it? This issue explores the idea of process as a response to the race of creating something new.
How would you introduce the issue? And how does it sit in relation to the rest of ALL-IN‘s work?
This issue is inspired by an exhibition we saw last year at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent highlighting the process behind developing a collection; it showcased sketches, patterns, hat moulds, tech packs, and other materials isolated from the final garment. It was inspiring to see something which explored the time that goes into making fashion and the beauty of the object that is created before the final product. This edition of ALL–IN directly responds to this exhibition.
The issue’s contributor list includes a lot of people whose practices, from a fashion perspective, are often considered transgressive/subversive. Was there a particular logic behind who you invited to contribute to this issue? And if so, what was it?
The artists we invited were people whose work we admired, and in their own way everyone who contributed explores what we find beautiful in fashion. The issue is bookended by features surrounding the archives of Bernadette Corporation and Miguel Adrover; both of their practices hold a mirror to and challenge the cycles of fashion, and their conversations are central to the issue.
What sort of conversations did you have when it came to bringing the magazine together? For example, when did you decide to assemble the magazine as a stack of envelopes rather than as a bound book?
The stack of envelopes was one of the first ideas we had, and it was directly lifted from the exhibition at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. In one vitrine, they had a collection of tech pack envelopes, each with taped-on drawings, hand-written look numbers – some envelopes were tied together with a ribbon. The format felt connected to ideas central to the issue. The rest of the conversations happened when reaching out to and starting conversations with contributors.
So, who is ALL-IN‘s audience?
Shopaholics.