Viktor & Rolf’s couture show mimics an absurd children’s soft-play

Viktor & Rolf took a nostalgic approach to its autumn/winter 2024 couture collection, showcasing exaggerated shapes, explosive colour blocking and childlike graphics.

The Dutch label, established by designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren in 1993, is a highlight of the Haute Couture Week calendar, with its avant-garde designs and surrealist approach to fashion.

In the front row sat singer Ellie Goulding, model Coco Rocha and former Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, Lisa Rinna, who dressed in what appeared to be an homage to Andy Warhol.

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The collection drew heavily on the label’s second-ever couture show 26 years ago, which was inspired by the shapes of mushroom clouds from atomic bombs.

The brand described the collection as Haute Abstraction, “featuring spontaneous and slightly absurd compositions that blend elements of clothing with abstraction. The collection aims to clear the viewer’s mind from the past and encourage free exploration,” noted the designers.

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Models walked the runway in space-age hairstyles and surrealist silhouettes as Viktor & Rolf set out to abstract the human body, using geometric shapes, combining triangular, spherical and trapezoid volumes like a child’s building block construction.

Polka-dot blouses, rolling globe busts and clownish ruffs ignited a playful pining for a simpler age.

A box wrapped in fuchsia fabric encased a model whole, while multicoloured satin suits were assembled out of assorted 3D shapes and pussy-bow pleats cinched in exploding silhouettes.

The show melded dysfunction and construction almost seamlessly. Viktor & Rolf freely experimented with the implausible and produced inventions like enthusiastic young scientists.

The soundtrack consisted of a human voice spouting incomprehensible syllables – perhaps a metaphor for the nonsensical noise we encounter every day.

It’s been a busy week for Viktor & Rolf – kicking off proceedings by dressing model and presenter Alexa Chung for the fashion extravaganza Vogue World in Paris.

Chung wore a cream silk slip dress with a single red rose on the torso – one of Viktor & Rolf’s more conventional designs, which had echoes of the blush gown with rose detailing worn by Black Swan star Natalie Portman to the 2011 Golden Globes.