Plus, pre-fall collection looks from Proenza Schouler, Givenchy, and more.
By Harper’s BAZAAR staff
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Pre-fall collections are rolling in. The season that remains at retail the longest each year is a powerhouse for brands and retailers. In other words, pay attention: These are the clothes we’ll be wearing in a few months’ time.
Bottega Veneta
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Bottega Veneta tapped the creative set to showcase its pre-fall collection, lensed by Tyrone Lebon. The images feature notables including musicians Kenzie and Arca, poet Caleb Femi, dancer Ellen van Schuylenburch, and actors Little Simz and Malachi Kirby, among others. Each poses under the intense glow of a flash in pieces that leverage sequins; bold colors like lime green, turquoise, and cherry red; and sleek tailoring. Square-toe sparkly sandals and chunky boots make reappearances for the season. It’s cool-kid fashion, and the best part is that it hits the sales floor soon.
Gabriela Hearst
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Gabriela Hearst is a designer who loves artists—and showed her appreciation by tapping local New York City stars to model her most recent collection. Current and former Pioneer Works residents Genesis Belanger, Ari Melenciano, Caroline Garcia, and Kara Gut showcase the minimal-smart line on location at the community art building in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at sunset.
Balenciaga
PATRICK WELDE
Global travel by green screen becomes a promising message for the future in the hands of Demna Gvasalia for his Balenciaga pre-winter look book. The images by Patrick Welde feature models in the collection superimposed on iconic tourist destinations—from the Great Wall on—and are accompanied by a “Feel Good” video made in collaboration with artists Kamilya Kuspanova, Anton Bialas, and Heejoon Kwak. The 58-look offering is 90.6 percent certified sustainable and unisex, with comfort wear like sweatpants paired with trench coats, baggy denim, “faux furs” created out of recycled cotton, printed dresses, and the brand’s rereleased moto bags in every size imaginable. Baseball caps are imprinted with a stencil stamp that reads “Balenciaga Apparel Rentals,” and sweatshirts are emblazoned with a “Gay Pride” logo in the iconic GAP font. There are track suits and padded coats, parkas and fleece jackets, and a voluminous dress that’s part archive Balenciaga, part Princess Di’s wedding gown. An entire wardrobe for the future as imagined by Demna.
Louis Vuitton
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Nicolas Ghesquière drew upon three stylistic pillars of LV under his leadership—Tech Romanticism, Energetic Sportswear, and Rediscovering Essentials—for pre-fall 21. The results are vibrant, truly sporty, and very LV. Stacy Martin serves as the ambassador of the collection, photographed by Ghesquière. The brand is calling the look, Nouvelle Vague.
“Stacy has innate elegance and an inspiring personality,” the designer says. “I have a lot of respect for her career path, her bold choices, and the roles she takes on. I very much enjoyed photographing Stacy. So cool and laid-back, I love the way she wears my collections.”
Dior
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Maria Grazia Chiuri wrote a love letter to Paris for pre-fall 21. Inspired by a host of creatives, including designer Elio Fiorucci, Andy Warhol, and Renaissance painters like Paolo Uccello and Mizza Bricard, the results are pure Parisian Dior—from leopard prints to the famed Bar jacket and logo track suits, with joie de vivre to spare.
Proenza Schouler
Proenza Schouler
According to a release for Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s latest, pre-fall 2021 “advocates for a way of dressing that is free of unnecessary complication, while celebrating the joy of dressing up in all its tactile, material, and sensual glory, and as an antidote to the increasingly challenging times we are living in.”
Chanel
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“Showing Château de Chenonceau at the Château des Dames was an obvious choice,” Virginie Viard said. “It was designed and lived in by women, including Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de’ Medici. It is a castle on a human scale.” The collection itself is a melding of “the Renaissance and romanticism, between rock and something very girly, it is all very Chanel.” Indeed.
Max Mara
Max Mara
Max Mara, for the pre-fall season, looked to Elizabeth “Lee” Miller for inspiration. The fashion and art photographer was a war correspondent shooting for glossies during WWII, which is reflected in the collection’s military-style tailoring, large pockets, and utility belts.
Etro
Etro
Bohemia is a characteristic that is embedded into Etro’s DNA. The Italian label’s pre-fall 2021 collection, however, is far more rhapsodic. From the shearling-lined vests to the ’70s-style animal-print suits, the entire lineup is the stuff of rock legends.
Givenchy
Givenchy
“Ultimately, what I am trying to do in the Givenchy collections is to reflect today’s world,” Matthew M. Williams, the brand’s newly appointed creative director, said. “I appreciate a certain material experimentation and an intense contrast in clothing that could only be achieved and exist now. At the same time, we embrace tradition, the techniques of the salon, and timelessness; these distinct elements are not mutually exclusive. The clothing is not disposable or dictatorial, instead we want it to become central to a person’s sense of their own style and build each season. It’s an idea of a more personal luxury, of simultaneous formality and informality, construction and comfort; it’s the luxury of people wearing clothes, not clothes wearing people.”
Moschino
Moschino
Designer Jeremy Scott’s latest lineup focuses on combining found objects to form looks—sweat suits mixed with silk, dresses with Baroque patterns, and double-breasted suits with gold buttons in the shape of teddy bears—that are characteristically Moschino. “I always want to have fun with it,” Scott said. “And, with this collection, that joy was found in looking back and fusing together different moments from mine and Moschino’s visual language over the years.”
Carolina Herrera
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With New York City as a starting point, designer Wes Gordon designed a collection that is “fresh, spirited, and buoyant—miniskirts, polka dots, and A-line silhouettes in vibrant hues.” He explained, “The collection is all about living loudly and proudly, and playing with extremes. Let a short skirt be short, let a full sleeve be full.”
Oscar De La Renta
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Designers Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim looked at their pre-fall collection through an optimistic lens, with an eye toward vibrant colors, the codes of the house, and a summer of playfulness and whimsy.
Jil Sander
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Per the brand, “Lucie and Luke Meier have designed this collection mirroring this diversity, these ambiguous times, combining and balancing apparently conflicting elements. The result is relaxed and playful.”
Rosetta Getty
Rosetta Getty
Rosetta Getty took a trip back in time to the golden age of minimalism for pre-fall, telling BAZAAR.com, “Like many women, I have always found great freedom in riffing on the key style codes of the era. During the ’90s, I embraced an unexpected, genre-defining medley of minimalist separates, offbeat vintage finds, custom sportswear, and high-octane evening looks. Reflecting on this transformative decade became the starting point for my pre-fall
2021 collection.”
Nanushka
Nanushka
Sandra Sandor explains of the collection, “I was immediately inspired by an abstract picture frame in my home. And the more I delved into this inspiration, the more I could see that immediate connection with Surrealist motifs and cues. That is where we headed, looking at the relationship between form and organic shapes, and how we tap into their qualities in our collection direction.”
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This article originally appeared on harpersbazaar.com
