One of the lessons of the fall season is that grand exits can be as important as head-turning entrances; with the backs of garments being unexpectedly different from their fronts. At Rokh and Dries Van Noten there was a continuation of the backwards styling I tracked last year, but for fall 2024 the focus was on whet Nicole Phelps called “different-coming-than-going construction,” which is more common in evening wear (see Tom Ford and Giambattista Valli) than ready-to-wear. Thom Browne’s collages of cloth wrapped all around the body, and the Poe-ian refrain “Nevermore” appeared on the reverse of a ribbon-trimmed jacket. Jun Takahashi also sent messages this way in his menswear collection, one of which identified the wearer as a member of the “sad song lovers club.”
A number of Chitose Abe’s hybrids worked a front/back dynamic, while there was a sense of looking back in time at both Yohji Yamamoto. The Japanese designer’s beautiful show closed with a series of looks featuring back bustles, marking a return to a silhouette he worked with in his 1989 and fall 1995 lineups. Prada’s two-sided designs seemed to bring fashion history along for the ride.
NB: This is the first season that our phtotographs have taken back shots at select shows. You can find these images in the Detail tab on the Collections page.
