Academia
Designers are going back to school, the party’s over!
Academia was trending on the Spring 2024 (& Spring 1984) runways.
It’s an aesthetic motif that improvises on an old theme, perhaps because it invites self-reflection & meditation on happy thoughts.
Academia invites reflection on the joys of being smart & entering into intellectual competitions, of matching wits with one's partner (perhaps with an honorary degree) & running circles around her with one's clever repartee.
Academia invites reflection on the dramas of growing up & handling or coping with one’s burdens, of enduring one’s difficulties & surviving by being clever with twists that bring the dramas back to life.
Academia invites reflection on thinking one should go far & do better, getting brilliant results primarily by working hard & living by one's wits with intricate strategies that helps one get out of trouble.
Academia invites reflection on the way dress codes shape one's self-perception, lending a great deal of color to the slide show of one's own permanent vacation.
Academia invites reflection on having it in oneself, by being a genius with special inborn powers & remembering that genius is ten percent inspiration & ninety percent perspiration.
Academia also provides inspiration for how to be clever & creative within the restraints of formal dressing while working on one's novel while the inspiration lasts.
A look back to school days doesn't strain for effect so much. The author of one's own drama knew what they were doing, & it’s in the lines already.
On this front, Miu Miu’s disheveled subversion of prep-school uniforms was definitely conspicuous, as was Marni’s café society nonconformists or Chanel’s provocative secretaries.
Punk riffs on school girl short skirts from Copova Lowena were easily grasped, an initiative much obliged to Andreas Kronthaler's Vivienne Westwood.
JW Anderson bestowed a claymation narrative of an out-of-dresscode ensemble, while Dries Van Noten liberates the conventional rugby shirt, persuading us that it’s okay to do a bit of peacocking.
Celine
Celine
Vuitton
Dries
Dries
Dries
Prada
Prada
Prada
Prada
PH5
Miu Miu
Marni
Marni
Marni
Mark Fast
Loewe
Westwood
JW
JW
Gucci
Lowena
Lowena
Lowena
Chanel
Chanel