Va-va-volume — statement sizes are one of the leading fashion trends for spring 2024.
Countering the extremely wearable, quiet luxury styles that dominated the runways, Rick Owens mimicked the work of sculptors John Chamberlain and Donald Judd, showing bulbous minidresses in crumpled leather and boxy, gazar jumpsuits. He also updated last season’s oversize fabric loops with eco-nylon tulle sewn together with strips of organza. Likening these pieces to doughnuts and spun sugar, he told WWD international editor Miles Socha, “I was trying to do something elegant — a Parisian confection.”
At Comme de Garçons, Rei Kawakubo composed trapeze shapes from coiled tubing, which Socha thought resembled another sweet treat: soft-serve ice cream, while fellow Japanese designer Junya Watanabe coagulated pyramids, arcs, cylinders and planks randomly around his models, resembling cacti. His mission was to create objects and not clothes, Watanabe told WWD.
Similarly, WWD Milan correspondent Martino Carrera noted the stand-up collars at Sportmax were not necessarily flattering to the body in the conventional sense, but remained alluring.
Others were less radical in their approach to volume.
For example, Cecilie Bahnsen applied her signature ruffles, puffs and flounces in featherlight materials to clothes you’d “wear on a Monday,” she explained to WWD general assignment editor Lily Templeton. In an effort to ground her volumes in reality, Bahnsen emphasized denim separates, like the pink peplum-waist jacket and jeans.
Denim cut to exaggerated proportions was also a fixture in the collections of Sacai and Y/Project.
Elsewhere, volume heightened the drama in occasion wear. At Balmain, Christian Siriano and Coperni, exaggerated hourglass proportions were achieved with traditional ball skirts, while Harris Reed affixed wings to dresses in his main line, and XXL bows to those in his second outing for Nina Ricci.
“Reed is no stranger to volume, but some of his showstoppers strayed into Schiaparelli territory,” remarked WWD Paris bureau chief Joelle Diderich in her review of the latter.
And despite his reputation, Schiaparelli’s own Daniel Roseberry said he wanted to achieve a “sense of chill” for spring’s ready-to-wear, telling Diderich, “I really just wanted it to feel like we exhaled.” There were no corsets involved, but Roseberry still found ways to play with volume, as seen in his statement-making raffia neckpiece.