Runway Report: Paris Fashion Week Autumn 2023 Day 4 Recap

Midway through Paris fashion week, we bore witness to the yet unseen reinventions of historical fashion tropes, courtesy of the great minds behind Giambattista Valli, Yohji Yamamoto and Loewe. Keep reading to discover more and make sure to check out our picks for day 3 here.

Here are our picks of the most memorable shows from Paris Fashion Week Day 4:

Giambattista Valli

For his autumn 2023 collection, Giambattista Valli looked at Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, for inspiration. That would explain the French-meets-Italian feel. The show kicked off with a tailored-to-the-T sleeveless tweed onesie, attesting perhaps, to the designer’s infatuations with one Charlotte Casiraghi – reinforced even more by the tweed jacket-dress styled with horse riding boots. The dresses, as splendid as could be, featured his signature ruffles and florals, interspersed with sheer polka-dotted numbers, lamé gowns and sequin midi dresses with tulle trains, bearing a striking rococo-style embroidery. 

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto’s autumn 2023 collection held a unique point of view to the familiar and true narrative of femininity itself. Deconstruction is hardly an uncharted territory for the designer, but – heavens! – how masterfully was it executed. Shirt dresses were finished with pieces of leather, while skirts billowed as raw-edged flaps looped around the models’ legs. Pockets were formed from patches of fabric linked together on leather cords to generate a captivating way to repurpose excess materials. As for the colour palette, he layered black against a brilliant red and white, as if the night had been brought to life. Each look was a two-fold statement: a classic level of beauty that was tinged with an imperfection, whether it was the spotted face of the models or the asymmetry of the garments themselves.

Loewe

For his autumn 2023 collection for Loewe, Jonathan Anderson invented ghosts. Ghosts of fashion, if you will. Simple mackintoshes, cotton dresses straight out of the 1950s, silk waistless and sleeveless gowns and rigid leather shirt tops all spoke to Anderson’s talent of articulating the most obscure and complex topics in an effective manner. Anderson had a blast playing with anachronism and modern couture. He contorted the norm with feathers, creating clothing that looked like T-shirts and jeans. His most notorious achievement was velvet cocktail dresses with no straps. Although they looked typical on the surface, each dress had a voluminous shape when seen up close.