Last night, Altuzarra held his fall 2022 show in New York City’s historic Woolworth Building. After many seasons in Paris, he's back in town, and feeling its energy. "I really enjoy showing in New York," the designer tells BAZAAR. "And I think that maybe without realizing it, it has given my work a sense of joy and celebration." The storied structure's intricate ceilings call to mind the Gilded Age, but the designer was drawn less to the opulent time period and more to the details that exist within the ornate finishings—namely, images that reference the sea including fish scales, ocean creatures, and sailboats.
"I was interested in the idea of storytelling and the power of imagination," the designer continues. "I, like many, have been feeling starved for travel, and over the last couple of years I have been escaping through books and stories. This collection was a bit of an homage to fairy tales, adventure stories, populated with sailors, sea-farers and mermaids."
He drove the point home by including a copy of Moby Dick at every seat, complete with dog-eared pages, fabrics from the collection, and images of seashells. Such a straightforward inspiration might fall into costume or trope elsewhere, but Altuzarra’s sailors, world travelers, and mermaids brought a mythical magic, and some very, very good coats.
For that mariner moment, there was knitwear that looked as though it’s been a bit battered by the sea, peacoats with oversized shearling lapels, mother-of-pearl closures, and Breton stripes. As though that world traveler was picking up goods from every corner of the globe—in some woven bags that were slung insouciantly over the shoulder—there was a series of pieces done in a Moroccan rug motif, alongside shibori tie-dye, done in collaboration with Japanese artisans. These were paired often with sweeping pleated maxi skirts.
As for those sirens, the designer used oversized paillettes to call mermaid scales to mind—on the bodices of dresses, on skirts, and on a gilded gown worn by Gigi Hadid that sounded like the soft whoosh of the ocean at night, ebbing and flowing as she walked. It seems it’s time to make an entrance, ladies.
Altuzarra
