Capsule #84 ft. The Buoys

Hiiii everyone,

Hope your week was okay 🫶.

Lots of fashion stuff today as we come out of Couture Week in Paris and Copenhagen Fashion Week. Very different vibes, so I’ve picked out a few things worth seeing from each event to give you a flavour. 🪡

There are lots of images in today’s letter — good news for those of you who ask for more pics! But if the email gets clipped in your inbox, click ‘read online’ in the top corner to see the whole thing.

Be sure to scroll to the Hot & Not from The Buoys — and pop on a song of theirs in the meantime.

Enjoy!!!

Holly x

🪡🇫🇷 PARIS COUTURE 🇫🇷🪡

The one worth seeing: Jean Paul Gaultier by Ludovic de Saint Sernin

JPG invites guest designers to take a stab at creating a couture collection that melds their style with the legacy of the fashion house. This season, Ludovic de Saint Sernin was picked. A little intro: Ludovic is a Paris-based designer who interned at Dior and YSL, then came up at Balmain, before starting his own label in 2017. His clothing explores sexuality through recurring motifs of leather, cutouts, and lace ups. If you see lots of eyelets on a celeb, it was probably him.

The show was called ‘Le Naufrage’, which translates to Shipwreck, and the concept was explored fully whilst retaining the Gaultier codes. Models appeared caressed in ropes and anchors, as if just retrieved from a sandy shipwreck. Hair wet and artfully tracing the face. Mermaid shapes, leaning into classic JPG corsetry but with newness that’s hard to imagine until you see it done. (I couldn’t help but imagine the delight felt at Team Pinterest, who predicted “Sea Witchery” would be big this year).

One look was undeniably inspired by Ariel:

And there’s more: Amelia Gray in a latex crocodile suit (more on that here). Paloma Elsesser looking like Elizabeth Swann. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley with an edge we haven’t seen for a while. Not everyone loves a concept show but this was such a strong example of it working really well: cohesion, narrative, but not gimmicky.

I think it’s safe to say that if you didn’t already know the name Ludovic de Saint Sernin, you do now. So keen to see which celebs secure them for upcoming red carpets, and who manages to get exclusivity. I recommend watching the clothes in movement here:

Chanel hedged its bets

The Chanel collection felt way more ready-to-wear than couture, but in the current context it makes sense: Luxury is struggling generally, and Chanel is between creative directors, meaning the in-house team designed this collection. There wasn’t a major point of view, beyond some reaching to attract a younger crowd with reworked versions of the tweed suit. Consider this a client-friendly offering before Matthieu Blazy arrives. Super excited to see his first collection.

Those efforts to attract a younger crowd were also felt by inviting younger It Girls to sit front row.

But the best muses…

Were the girls at YSL menswear. Iris Law how…

And coincidentally, Saint Laurent climbed up the rankings in the latest Lyst index. 👀

Alessandro Michele dipped into the archives

…for his Valentino couture debut. Much of the collection was dresses with the big, poofy skirts, and I was left wondering which actresses will bring them to the red carpet for awards shows. Emma Stone? Carey Mulligan? Let’s keep an eye out.

♻️🇩🇰 CPHFW 🇩🇰♻️

Hollie Mercedes outfit repeating

I will always shout out when people rewear outfits because it’s still rare. Loved seeing Capsule fave Hollie Mercedes share her re-styling of this shirt and skirt for Copenhagen Fashion Week. Extra on-brand with CPHFW’s sustainability goals. The confidence to rewear and not care… very cool.

Olivia Hirst’s colour palette

It’s subtle but this colour combo kind of took my breath away when I saw it… The dark plum base layer, indigo tights, and a green bag. For those of us who like dark colours but don’t want to melt into the dreariness of winter, this is super inspiring.

ALIS returns to CPHFW

I’m constantly reading the sentence “streetwear is dead” and while I agree we’re past peak hypebeast era, I would argue that “streetwear” is a huge category, and a lot of people continue to wear stuff that falls under its large umbrella. ALIS is a Danish skate brand that was recently acquired by Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Hesselager (founders of Rains) with the ambition of turning it into a contemporary streetwear fashion label. The CPH show this week was the unleashing of ALIS 2.0 into the world, and I thought the collection was great: the comfortable edginess of skate silhouettes, but with a heaviness and quality that elevates it beyond the everyday.

Neutrals done well at The Garment

Sometimes people think that to you have to love wacky and kooky clothing to be truly into fashion. You don’t! And this latest collection from The Garment, a Danish label founded in 2020, is a great example of that. Creative Director Charlotte Eskildsen’s work is all about timeless craftsmanship and versatile design and it shows: these pieces demonstrate simplicity but are not lacking interest. There is beauty without shouting.

and IAMISIGO won the Zalando Visionary Award

IAMISIGO is a Nigerian label, founded by Bubu Ogisi and currently based in Lagos, Nairobi and Accra. The brand focuses on craftsmanship and showcasing traditional textile methods from communities across Africa, but with a cool and contemporary feel. Ogisi is super dedicated to preservation, ensuring the artisans’ methods, practices, and environments remain intact. Really cool.

Thanks to the win, IAMISIGO will present its SS26 collection at Copenhagen Fashion Week next August.

And finally…

Fashion and pop culture news you may have missed this week:

• Glenn Martens is the new creative director at Margiela. Things to know: he studied at the same school as Martin Margiela, and will retain his role as artistic director at Diesel

• Lady Gaga’s new album is called Mayhem and is due in March. Here’s the meaning behind the artwork

• …speaking of, will she be the Grammy’s special guest?

• Want to embody FKA twigs in her Eusexua era? She’s letting us in

• So many stars performed at the FireAid concert in LA — see it here

• And more where that came from: Hayley Williams, Lucy Dacus, MUNA and more are also putting on a benefit concert for the fires

• Dua Lipa and Callum Turner are in rom-com mode again 🥲

• This looks like the closest confirmation of new Rihanna music we’ve had for a little while…

• Charli xcx was photographed by Hedi Slimane for W magazine

• Hailey Bieber’s Rhode is doing soooo well… they did $90 mill in revenue in the final two months of 2024 and are launching in Sephora

• Another influencer biz doing well: Emma Chamberlain’s IRL coffee shop opened it’s doors in LA this week

• And good news for UK fashion: the British Fashion Council has secured £1 million in funding from the government to support NewGen designers at London Fashion Week

This week, The Buoys popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️…

The Buoys are an indie rock band from Australia. They’ve supported the Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg, and IDLES, and they released their debut album Lustre last summer following a performance at The Great Escape festival. The Buoys also did a great indie version of Olivia Rodrigo's 'Vampire' for Triple J's Like A Version.

Fancy experiencing the band IRL? Catch them at The Lexington in London on 26th February.

📺 Watching: Lucy Dacus on Teen Vogue’s ‘Playlist of my Life’, an similarly, Katie Gavin for Glamour’s ‘A Song For Every Mood’, and Emma Chamberlain’s interview with Charli xcx.

Also by the time you read this I think the Cynthia Erivo episode of Chicken Shop Date will be out.

📖 Reading: Two profiles: Lady Gaga for Elle, and Macauley Culkin and Brenda Song for Cosmopolitan. And Emma Garland’s article on the return of horniness in pop culture, in which she asks: is it all as freeing as it purports to be?

🎧 Listening to: ‘It’s a Mirror’, the new Perfume Genius song, ‘Ahead of Myself’ by The Buoys, and this episode of Bella Freud’s podcast Fashion Neurosis with Zadie Smith.

It’s the end of January, so obviously everyone is searching for holidays. The UK is the #1 European country searching for travel visas this month, of course, and “I wasn’t sad; I just needed a holiday” was the top “I just needed” search in the US in the past week. We’re all feeling it: searches for “winter blues” hit a 5-year high this week, so well done for making it to Feb. 🫶 Scuttle wants you to know that brighter days are coming.

If you’d like to adopt Scuttle or one of his friends, click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear how you’re finding Capsule - let me know here. And if you have a friend who might like it, do refer them! 🥺

See you next week 💋

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