February 19, 2023 |
Conner Ives sought inspiration from Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia for his AW23 collection. The film charts a group of Angelenos’ pursuit of happiness, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley. A range of the same name, it was more mature and stripped down than the 90s It-girl reviving spectacle of his previous show. Ives sent bias cut reconstructed baby tees spliced into gowns strutting down the runway. Always with the most bangin’ soundtrack of the week, models marched to everything from Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” to Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction” and even the opening theme of Psycho. Coyote Ugly inspired fur gilets were paired with hunter wellies. Trapeze coats, hats and boots were reminiscent of Ghesquiere’s A/W 2006 collection for Balenciaga; it was the show that sparked Ives’ die-hard adoration of fashion mania. “I was about 10 years old and going absolutely feral,” Ives wrote in the show notes. “The theme of this collection explores the often overwhelming sense of emotion that fashion has the potential to inspire. The same feelings I felt as a child looking at the first fashion show I ever saw.”
Just as he did at his debut show last year, Ives’s leading ladies and the clothes they wore each embodied a certain character archetype representing a melting pot of unique human experiences: from the Tom-Boy, the Real Housewife, Carrie Bradshaw, the Whistleblower, the Granola Girl, the Shiny Set (a reference to Nicholas Coleridge’s book The Fashion Conspiracy, where he describes women that make their annual migration to Paris for couture month as ‘wearing couture like sportswear’) and more. But this time around these personalities were more aspirational; it felt refined. It seems Conner Ives is all grown up.
Photography courtesy of Conner Ives.
