Paris Fashion Week: The Top Shows for Accessories
By Roxanne Robinson
Before the last curtain fell on Paris Fashion Week for Fall Winter 2024, it was clear that quiet luxury was being edged out in favor of a bolder, more audacious take on style. Perhaps the runways demanded the shift as grabbing and keeping the fashion flock's attention is no easy feat. Designers amped up designs and to achieve this more decorated vibe, no accessory was spared. Along with bags and shoes, hats, gloves, belts, eyewear, and jewelry drove the statement home. Ac Magazine chose Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chloe, and Coperni as the best of the season, with honorable mentions going to Sacai and Maitrepierre.
CHANEL
In a collection that was lauded by the press as one of her best, Chanel creative director Virginie Viard paid homage to Deauville, France — a place that was endlessly inspirational to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and the scene of her most infamous love story with Boy Capel. Viard imagined languid strolls on the boardwalk, from morning to night in the off-season, explaining in show notes, “Deauville is where everything started for the House; 1912, the creation of her hat shop and then very quickly the first clothes with their visionary, radical style. It’s where it all began for Gabrielle Chanel.” In this collection, with a 20s-meets-70s vibe, models primarily wore oversized straw hats with logo ribbons throughout the show. Others — in a nod to Capel — donned newsboy caps. Models carried classic Chanel bags in every color of sunset and night sky while wearing another 70s-era staple, the platform boot.
COPERNI
Coperni, the French women’s wear brand based in Paris and created by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, has created accessories buzz since its launch in 2013 with the popular oval-shaped Swipe bag. For Fall 2024, the design duo, known for spraying a latex dress onto Bella Hadid and engaging robot dogs to walk the runway, proved again that tech and fashion make fine bedfellows. This season, Meyer and Vaillant looked to the nano-material silica aerogel, developed by NASA “to catch stardust.”
The buzz worthy Air Swipe bag, created in tandem with visual artist and researcher Ioannis Michalous, is made from the silicon-based solid with a porous, sponge-like structure in which more than 99 percent of the volume is open space. Silica aerogel is 1,000 times less dense than glass, another silicon-based solid, so the bag is one percent glass and 99 percent air. And while the overall look of the Air Swipe bag is delicate, it is not fragile by any means — NASA’s unique nano-material can handle pressure of 4,000 times its weight.
LOUIS VUITTON
The Fall Winter 2024 runway show marked a poignant and emotional moment for creative director Nicolas Ghesquière as it marked his 10th anniversary behind the LVMH stable namesake brand. When the designer arrived ten years ago, he immediately made a splash with his Petite Malle bag, a beautifully designed purse-like version of one of LV’s famous trunks. Surprisingly, no other designer had thought of it. Ghesquière’s collection, which closed PFW, referenced back to his previous work and gave the styles a new twist. Especially prevalent was the updated Petite Malle, now in soft side versions, and the trompe l’oeil effect on many other house bag styles. The designer referenced a style North Star, and the collection overall had an intergalactic winter mood. Models donned heavily embellished gloves; some with long shaggy fringe and others with thick fur topsides that referred back to another equally genius effort by Ghesquière.
CHLOÉ
The house also celebrated its past with a new beginning. At Chloé, designer Chemena Kamali returned to the house — founded by Gaby Aghion in 1952 — after starting her career there, first under Phoebe Philo, then as Clare Waight Keller’s design director, and now as its creative director. In show notes, Kamali referenced the feeling and spirit of the Chloé woman. Thus, in the 12-minute fashion show, the designer rebooted the luxe boho trend, steeped in its 70s-ness a la chez Chloé but pushed forward for modern appeal. Accessories played a starring role in massive, oversized hobos with cheeky details like horse heads and banana hardware, metal belts spelling Chloé, rolled headbands, slender over-the-knee style boots, Foster Grant-worthy sunglasses and plenty of jingle-jangle jewelry. Accessories also took center stage front row, where guests, including Sienna Miller, Jerry Hall, Pat and Anna Cleveland, and Liya Kebede, each donned identical wooden platform shoes designed by Kamali for her Pre-Fall 2024 collection.
HERMÈS
Since the rain was non-stop during PFW, the indoor rainfall over the runway at Hermès was a uniquely creative choice. It made sense, however, when you consider the vision of creative director Nadège Vanhee — “Une Bikeuse Équestere” or “The Rider” loosely translated, imagined a more subversive side of the French luxury brand, one that conveyed strength, sensuality, and practical adventure in an immersive weather experience. Accessories here draw inspiration from Vanhee’s The Rider in both mechanical (moto) and equestrian iterations. Her combo biker-riding boot is already topping everyone’s must-have list, while a fresh crop of reimagined Hermès bags are the stuff bag lovers’ dreams are made of. Medium-sized carryalls and clutches — often embossed — were carried sideways and close to the vest, and smaller, pouchlike bags were worn like belts, tied to the waist.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Sacai and Maitrepierre also intrigued us during PFW with an interesting mix of runway accessories. Sacai designer Chitose Abe offered the modern women the notion of all-in-one dressing: outerwear and knitwear in varying lengths and proportions. Abe balanced the look with over-theknee boots that mimicked dress pants for a trompe l’oeil effect. Emerging sustainably-minded brand Maitrepierre, designed by Alphonse Maitrepierre, collaborated with New York visual artist Gracelee Lawrence on original multi-color sculptures, including a wild big cat resting over the shoulders of one model and a hand as an oversized brooch on another model, were made with GMO corn residue. He also teamed up with iconic French shoe brand Carel to create custom Mary Jane and handbag styles using biosourced materials.