Make it work: Utility styles continued to dominate designers’ lineups for spring 2024, especially those known for dressier fare.
At Max Mara, Ian Griffiths plastered his mood board with heroic recruitment posters for the Women’s Land Army, a British civilian effort to conscript women into agriculture during World War II.
WWD international editor Miles Socha observed their uniforms were adapted to dungarees, boiler suits and apron dresses in sturdy cotton drill, but “this being a fashion show … Griffiths went for a slender and leggy look hinged on pencil skirts, high-heeled sandals and HotPants, the first breakout trend of this Milan Fashion Week.”
Elsewhere, Anthony Vaccarello showed a rather newsy collection for Saint Laurent, trading in his mostly black, very soigné evening clothes for daytime separates inspired by the house founder’s ’60s inventions, headlined by the safari jacket and the jumpsuit in spice-rack colors.
“I really wanted simplicity this season,” he told Socha. “I wanted something less precious in the materials, something less ostentatious.”
Jumpsuits were also popular at Victoria Beckham and Elie Saab, where the couturier took a similarly dressed-down approach as part of his expansion into the lifestyle space, reported WWD general assignment editor Rhonda Richford.
And Dallas-born Daniel Roseberry rooted his second ready-to-wear effort for Schiaparelli in his love of American sportswear, zhuzzing up his own daily uniform of Carhartt work pants with a gilted tweed jacket, exposing the breasts. The likes of LaQuan Smith and The Attico’s Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini showed similarly sexed-up versions of the look, pairing their bellow-pocketed trousers with skimpy bra tops.
And keeping in step with the spring menswear collections, the utility vest emerged as a standout piece for women as well, seen on the runways at Louis Vuitton, Prada and Bally.
