Outside the Palais de Tokyo, a passerby inquired as to “who these hordes of elvish characters were waiting to see?” There was no Gandalf in sight: these were simply guests waiting for the Kiko Kostadinov Spring/Summer 2024 show – most of whom were dressed head-to-toe in Laura and Deanna Fanning’s wonderous deconstructed garments (every other person was donning their just-released Lella shoe). It’s the kind of hardcore devotion that most designers can only inspire after years in the game – but this is only the sisters’ third time showing in Paris (and their first on the official PFW calendar).
On the subject of brevity, the Fanning sisters explained that for this season, they were intrigued by ephemerality: how through draping, deconstruction, and the use of certain textiles, silhouettes will only hold for a moment in time before taking on a different shape. They cast their gaze back to Madeleine Vionnet’s draping of shiny textiles in the 1930s to then consider “how can we approach this sheen and gleam in a contemporary way?” If Vionnet’s ephemeral cuts were glazed with a certain glitzy glamour, the sisters anchored their singular approach in the original etymology of the word: “it comes from really old Scottish – when you’ve been glamoured, you’ve been bewitched. Someone has cast a spell on you. For us, glamour is this idea of the feminine mystique, a certain witchiness.”
And bewitching their collection was. For with every twist of the runway, the shiny Viscose used in purling dresses and tops – and show-stopping bias-cut trousers that gave the illusion of snaking their way around the models’ legs – caught a different light. Elsewhere, crinkled, metallic fabrics, notably cut into a beautiful loose-fitting trench (which the sisters scrunched into a ball to transport to Paris) changed texture throughout the show as the creases softened with each step.
The closing look, which was actually the first they started working on after last season, was an extraordinary intarsia knitted dress. Inspired by an Adeline André patchwork fur coat from the 80s, they tapped into Deanna’s knitwear background to manipulate a yarn known as ‘super fleece,’ to create a fluffiness that, to the uninformed eye, looked strikingly like shearling.
The S/S24 accessories offerings will also no doubt continue to fan the brand’s cult following into a frenzy. Models tapped down the runway in a slip-on brogue-esque sneaker-soled shoe and a new version of the Lella in a brown python print. This brogue detailing, a nod to the 30s references seen throughout the garments, was also featured on their now iconic Trivia bag, this season made from a sporty, perforated suede.
Speaking before the show, the sisters hinted that the invitation, which featured a sculpture of Orpheus entangled with his lover Eurydice, was an important clue to deciphering the show: it referenced both the artist Sonia Delaunay (see the show’s striped ensembles) and her creative partnership with her husband Robert, as well as their relationship to the Kiko brand. But more than anything, it is perhaps symbolic of the Fanning sisters unparalleled talent for translating their immense scholarly knowledge of design and art history into singular design methods and techniques. And although they are quick to pay homage to the female creatives who came before them, the sheer ingenuity of this collection proves that they are sure to become themselves an important inspiration for generations to come.
