Reflecting on Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren’s 31-year-long collaboration under their eponymously-named Maison, Viktor&Rolf, the word that is conjured to explain the Dutch duo’s offering is a simple one: absurdist. Always amusing—like the act of having models wearing upside-down dresses with skewed orientation for Spring/Summer 2023 Couture, or the often-memed “Fashion Statement” Spring 2019 collection that featured gowns sporting phrases like “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come”—V&R are amongst the vanguard of fashion’s provocateurs.
For their latest outré, the designers honed in on the intentionality behind the abstract. Over 23 looks, the mononymously-known couturiers contoured figures to the uncomfortable, sculpted shapes with unfathomable proportions, hiked up the contrast and increased the saturation levels. The Fall/Winter 2024 collection, aptly titled “Haute Absurdism”, takes cues from the artistic movement of the name, but also the brand’s rich history of once-preposterous design. Case in point: the iconic duvet gowns presented in Fall/Winter 2005 (and since gone on to define a generation of “goblin” girls and Ottessa Mosfegh’s My Year Of Rest And Relaxation acolytes.)
The geometric garments borrow their form from V&R’s breakthrough Fall/Winter 1998 “Atomic Bomb” runway show—a collection rife with mushroom cloud motifs à la the distinctive cumulus profile that follows an atomic explosion. (A year after the Barbenheimer debate, have V&R subtly shown their allegiance to Christopher Nolan’s “Best Picture” Academy Award winner?) But 26 years later, in the time it’s taken for Saturn to fully rotate around the sun, the protruding structures and undulating outlines have become more relevant than ever, especially in a period that requires more play and less precariousness.
A high-octane satin blazer coat opened the collection. Panels of pastel lilac, coral, cerulean blue and turquoise intersected like a Piet Mondrian piece. Both the lapel and shoulders were three-dimensional, jutting out from the body like a rhombus or trapezoid. Another notable look was a mint-green straight-line dress with shoulders so elevated they appeared to box models’ chins. Elsewhere, triangular pussy-bow blouses were so cinched they gave the effect of being insecurely balanced on an inverted cone. Contrast and layering were also prevalent throughout, with the act of patterned shapes emerging from a juxtaposing mould evoking the sense of a half-wrapped present.
Yes, there were no ‘hourglass’ bodies here, but a new ideal human form altogether. (Something you can read about further in GRAZIA’s 17th issue, titled ‘Idealism’). In a sense, V&R brought things back to the childlike wonder imbued in creation. “The human body intersects with three-dimensional, abstract geometric shapes like cubes, triangles, and spheres—building blocks drawn from the realms of constructivism and cubism, as well as from a child’s block set,” the designers note.
Of course, art movements have always held a special reverence in fashion. As you might recall, surrealism—a strain that encourages the unreal or dreamlike—became the mode du jour, present in Loewe’s cracked-egg heels or even more recently, Schiaparelli’s high heel bustier. But rather than looking inward or to fantasy for the unconventional, Viktor & Rolf are supercharging the wearable. Stripping back the emphasised shapes, these are looks Princess Diana would have adored for her public outings. (We do know how much Lady Spencer loved a bubble skirt!) Yes, they’re not exactly designed for day-to-day, but if this season of Haute Couture Week has taught us anything, it’s that fashion is at its best when enhancing the mundane.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA International.