We’ve got another weekly round up of the latest in the world of fashion! This week we’re looking at runways from Valentino and Saint Laurent, plus there’s new collabs and exciting celebrity fashion news. All this week and more in our weekly fashion update!

Runways

First up, let’s have a look at the Valentino Haute Couture AW21 show. This display from the Rome-based fashion house was brimming and bubbling over with exuberant colour. Held in Venice, the Valentino runway boasted a broad spectrum of colour shapes and textures and brought up the age old question of whether fashion is art. For the brand’s creative director Pierpaolo Picciloli, art is an end in itself, whereas fashion always has a practical element to it. Nonetheless, as haute couture is seen as the highest form of expression in fashion, and Valentino as a maison has never shied away from embodying the ethos of couture in its collections, art certainly played a role here. Billowing burgundy blouses roll beneath fuzzy, jellyfish-like hats. Glitter meets cotton meets leather meets cashmere, all in a bold but tempered lilac. The vibrance of the colour palette matched the vivacity of the designs themselves: rich yet simple and full of motion, like strokes of paint across canvas.

From fine art to sex and rock’n’roll, we turn to the fashion masters of both with the Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2021. Known for their slender silhouettes, edginess, and the kind of devil-may-care glamour associated with the Platonic ideal of a rockstar, Saint Laurent brings all of this energy and takes a particularly gothic slant. Unveiled in Venezia, Italy, alongside an ecologically-minded art installation called Green Lens by artist Doug Aitken, the collection features plunging necklines and slim but draping pants and jackets that harken back to the heroin chic looks of the ‘90s, all in jet black. Exquisitely embroidered smocks and blouses give an androgynous look straight out of Jane Eyre while frilly collared blouses offer a sexy and elegant pirate look. Everything from lace and mesh formalwear to silky cape jackets to brightly coloured suits that wouldn’t look out of place on David Bowie can be found, and we’re here for it.

Collabs

With workwear being one of the hottest trends this year, it’s a total blessing that TOGA and Dickies have decided to come together for an essential workwear capsule collection. The Japanese luxury brand paired up with the staple of American workwear and functional streetwear to produce 4 items. Featuring traditional tailoring and sturdy twill material, the capsule’s minimalist presentation and stark, solid colors give the items (wide and flared pants, zip-up work shirts, and pleated drawstring skirts) a modern Japanese take on classic Americana.

If you’re looking for a collab to kick start your hot girl summer, then this next pairing is for you. Coach and BAPE teamed up to produce a new collection, and its campaign stars none other than hot girl Megan Thee Stallion herself. Both brands bringing the streetwear culture of their home cities New York and Tokyo, we can see Meg dressed head to toe with a combination print emblazoned with the BAPE logo and the Coach signature. Shorts, a cropped sweatshirt, a bucket hat, and a backpack with a pair of clean white sneakers to tie the look together. With the promise of leather goods, tees, accessories, and footwear, this is one project streetwear fans will want to keep an eye out for.

Celebs

Hot off the release of BROCKHAMPTON’s latest album earlier this spring, rapper Kevin Abstract has released a new solo single SLUGGER, as well as the accompanying video Abstract directed himself. Those releases also coincided with Abstract launching his own apparel brand, Video Store Apparel, releasing their “WARHEAD” collection for Spring/Summer ’21. The line features the audacious, in your face colour saturation that has marked much of Abstracts work both solo and with BROCKHAMPTON, with vibrant throwbacks to ‘90s skate and streetwear style written up and down the simple yet boisterous items.

And with the return of cinemas for many of us, the world of tinsel town red carpet looks is back better than ever, and the title on everyone’s lips for this is: The French Dispatch. Cast members of the latest Wes Anderson flick wowed audience members with their Cannes looks at not one but TWO red carpets for the film. Hollywood Darling Timothee Chalamet showed his fashion range wearing a luxurious silver Tom Ford suit and white Chelseas to the first even, while sporting an oversized graphic tee tucked into slouchy black pants for the second. Other fab looks included director Wes Anderson’s penny loafers, knit tie and seersucker suit, Adrien Brody’s jet-black peak-lapel double-breasted suit, Tilda Swinton’s short-sleeved, cinched baby blue power suit, and Bill Murray epitomizing Vacation Dad Fashion.