Highlights From The Spring/Summer 2023 Shows
Catch up on all the latest catwalk collections
Another season of fashion shows is upon us, as we look to New York, London, Milan and Paris for the spring/summer 2023 collections.
After the past two years of pandemic-related disruptions and cancellations, we’re set for a relatively normal month of shows – aside from in London, which coincides with the official period of national mourning, following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. While shows from the likes of Harris Reed, Erdem and Christopher Kane will still go ahead, a number have had to be rearranged due to closures in the capital, particularly on the day of the funeral itself.
In New York, we had Fendi celebrating the 25th anniversary of the iconic Baguette, alongside the latest collections from Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger and Tom Ford, while we can look forward to new-season shows from Versace, Prada and Giorgio Armani in Milan, and Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Below, see catwalk highlights from the spring/summer 2023 collections so far:
Saint Laurent
This season, Anthony Vaccarello was inspired by American choreographer Martha Graham, who was known for reshaping and revolutionising modern dance. He was particularly drawn to the tube dresses that her dancers wore in a 1930 production, and used these as the basis of much of the collection, sending clingy, draped, hooded dresses down the catwalk in a variety of earthy tones. There was also, of course, lots of leather in the form of floor-length coats, and he dialled up the glamour with sharp shoulders and killer accessories.
Dior
“Each Maria Grazia Chiuri collection is about opening up room for the creative imagination.” the house wrote in the show notes. “For this ready-to-wear show, she has adopted the image of a map of Paris from the house’s archives.”
Through this, Grazia Chiuri traced her own path, between autobiography and reflection, and then nodded to the Tuileries Gardens, created according to Catherine de Medici’s wishes.
“An Italian noblewoman who arrived at the French court in 1533, she is an emblematic figure of the relationship between women and power, and Maria Grazia Chiuri is fascinated by her political intelligence and the innovations she pioneered, such as heeled shoes, the corset, and Burano lace, which were all brought into the royal manufactures.”
Burberry
In what transpired to be Riccardo Tisci’s final collection for the British fashion house (before announcing the appointment of Daniel Lee as chief creative officer), Burberry showed its September show in London a few weeks later than planned, having delayed out of respect for the royal family after the Queen’s death.
The A-list catwalk saw Naomi Campbell, Karen Elson and Bella Hadid walk, while Kanye West sat on the front row.
“In summer, in Britain, the beach is a place of democracy, of community,” Tisci said of his inspiration for SS23. “It is where people from all cultures can join together in simple pleasures. I wanted to translate that ideology – that emotion – to an entire collection. I wanted to express that spirit of togetherness and joy, that reality.”
“We explored a new sensuality – a consciousness of the body. I was inspired by the liberation and openness of youth, of people embracing their bodies and revealing them – a pride in themselves, who they are, their identities. Their freedom.”
Dolce & Gabbana
For spring/summer 2023, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana teamed up with Kim Kardashian – who they describe as “the ultimate muse”. With Kardashian playing the role of ‘collection curator’, the trio went through the brand’s ’90s and ’00s archives, selecting some of her favourite pieces, and looks that they felt were inspired by the reality TV star – many of which were then slightly tweaked and repurposed to make a new collection exploring the most “authentic DNA” of Dolce & Gabbana.
“If it is true that fashion moves forward in search of ever-new expressions, when creativity is firmly rooted in its identity it knows how to transcend time and space,” explained the show notes. “Thus, even when it is rethought, repurposed, reinterpreted through the eyes of the present and the consciousness of the past, it retains its most genuine nature while managing to speak to many different generations.”
Bottega Veneta
Elegance met utility in Matthieu Blazy’s second collection for Bottega Veneta, which was focused on the quiet power of the everyday, set against a colourful catwalk designed by Italian architect Gaetano Pesce – and featured a surprise star turn from Kate Moss in jeans and a checked shirt.
“The premise is simple – the collection is about a contrast of characters on the go, invited to travel through Gaetano Pesce’s landscape,” Blazy said. “I wanted to design not just for one woman or one man, but for women and men. From the perverse banality of the everyday nubuck looks, to the eroticism of ultra-sophistication through tailoring, via the look of the bourgeois left of the past, to the souvenirs worn by a high-brow traveller… The whole world in a small room.”
Versace
If there was ever a sign that fashion’s obsession with Nineties and Noughties nostalgia isn’t going anywhere, it’s Paris Hilton closing the Versace show in a sparkling pink chainmail mini dress and fingerless gloves – a look that could have come straight from her wardrobe in The Simple Life era.
She was the grand finale in a typically starry catwalk line-up – featuring everyone from Bella and Gigi Hadid to Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski. The show saw a more gothic turn from Donatella Versace, who this season was inspired by rebellious women, blending darkly romantic bridal looks with slashed dresses and lots of leather.
“I have always loved a rebel, a woman who is confident, smart, and a little bit of a diva,” the designer said.
Gucci
In some truly masterful casting, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele enlisted 68 sets of identical twins for his spring/summer 2023 show. Titled Gucci Twinsburg, the show was inspired by the designer’s mother and her twin sister, “two extraordinary women who made their twinship the ultimate seal of their existence”.
As he explained, “the grace of their duplicated and expanded love gave rise to my eternal fascination for the double, for the things that seem to reflect equal to themselves.” The resulting collection was a tribute to the magic of twins – and, in duplicating the clothes, an exploration of the way in which “they seem to lose their status of singularity”, are a reflection of each other, and yet still allow for the expression of individuality.
Prada
For spring/summer 2023, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a collection designed to be “a sequence of realities”, with a focus on contrasting elements.
“There is an interrelationship between the raw and the sensual, between delicacy and roughness,” explained the show notes. “The collection plays constantly with dissimilitude and paradox, shifting between different visions, separate realities.”
The pair also invited film director Nicolas Winding Refn to conceive an experience around the collection, which took the form of an immersive installation and a series of short films exploring the lives of women and modern femininity.
BOSS
Max Mara
For spring/summer 2023, Max Mara took its audience on a trip to the Riviera in the 1930s – inspired by the timeless style of Renée Perle, the “silent muse” of French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue, and architect Eileen Gray – and their shared vision of modernity.
“At Max Mara, each piece is designed not just to be worn, but to be lived in,” read the show notes, reminding us that these were clothes designed for real women, inspired by real women.
This was translated through “archetypal looks which are the backbone of Max Mara’s collection; backless tanks, voluminous canvas sailor pants, floppy wide-brimmed sun hats and long, languid skirts which hug the hip then slide into pools.”
Written by SARAH KARMALI for Harper’s Bazaar UK.
Images courtesy of Jason Lloyd-Evans (Dolce A/W 2023)