Mark Fast wants to expand his customers’ wardrobe beyond the spliced knitted dresses he made his signature more than a decade ago. His spring 2024 collection opened with knitted fishnet leggings and a matching top that harked back to his trademark cutout body-cons—new iterations of those dresses also came later in the show—but there was plenty of newness for his loyal fan base. “I want to give the customers of my brand more options,” he said in a preview. “Knitting is how I started and it’s how I narrate my idea of fashion, so it’s always got to be there, but we’re slowly developing it and experimenting.”
Lightweight denim was the focus this season, realized as miniskirts and mini-shorts, cropped jackets, jeans, frayed waistcoats, and jorts across the womenswear and menswear offerings.
More on the menswear: Mark Fast’s fall wardrobe (as seen on the runway last season) contains puffers and sporty track tops. Spring, according to the designer, is about shell trousers, graphic tees, and silk-satin separates. There was even a tailored moment in the first section: a lapel-less, double-breasted jacket and cargo shorts in gray. Again, plenty of newness for the designer’s die-hards.
A fair amount of skin was on show via the aforementioned knitted minidresses, skirts, and rib-grazing tops—woven using a range of techniques involving linen and elastic yarns, one of which featured fringing that looked like unraveled tape reel—but other looks were more modest. A handful dabbled with layering: Look 34 boasted a plaid shirt worn beneath a tie-dyed logo tee, followed by a look that was made up of a long-sleeve top beneath a denim bustier.
Fast’s thumping soundtrack put the inspiration for the collection into context. “I got quite inspired by the desert, the dawn and the dusk of the desert, what it feels like to be in the sunrise and the sundown, that feeling that you get when everyone’s asleep but you’re awake.” A desert festival, perhaps? “Not Burning Man,” the designer insisted (he said he was inspired by the 2016 film The Bad Batch). But the acid-splashed denim, copious fringing, silk-satin scarf tops, and stomper boots certainly wouldn’t look out of place in Nevada.
