The couture shows—for those of us who don’t have six figures to spend on an exquisitely constructed outfit—are a discombobulating experience at the best of times. Add to that a stormy global economic and geopolitical backdrop, and a front-row seat at the one per cent’s playground can feel practically vertigo-inducing.
Then came along Viktor & Rolf, who sent out a collection of gowns for their spring couture collection that skewered that topsy-turvy feeling—and then some. One model wore her ball gown upside down, her vision completely obscured by an inverted 3-D printed bodice and layers of tightly sewn powder-blue tulle (she was guided along the runway with instructions delivered over an earpiece). Others wore pretty pastel creations that were slightly askew, held by a frame on an angle just off their bodies, as though they were the result of a photoshopping error. A couple wore their debutante-style dresses perpendicular to their bodies, as though they’d taken some red-carpet style tips from Wednesday Addams. Somehow they kept their faces humorless as they processed through the gilded ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in sparkling Louboutin kitten heels.
The effect was giggle-inducing. “It’s an absurd take on the stereotype of a couture ballgown,” said Rolf Snoeren backstage, chuckling softly. “Which we translated for the 21st century,” added Viktor Horsting. Snoeren continued: “It comes from a love of glamour [but] like our perfume, we want it to be beautiful and we also want it to have a clever idea.” The first three dresses were classically-constructed, cupcake-shaped ball gowns, with corset waists embellished with crystals and bows and sugary pastel skirts. Then came a model in a beige corset, her peach dress bobbing along 10cm in front of her, held off her body with a hidden frame, and looking as though it were being ferried along by the mice in Cinderella. “We like the idea to first give the impression of, ‘Ahhhhhh, it’s going to be all very lovely.’ And then: Oops!” said Snoeren.
There was a comment here about internet culture and how consuming visuals on our phones—snapping photographs and immediately being able to invert them, using filters to distort and enhance our silhouettes and bone structure—has warped our sense of reality. “There is a disconnect between what we see, and the physicality of the product,” said Snoeren. Then there is the internet’s context-less state, where one scroll can take you from a fashion show to a mass shooting. “The information that comes at us, going from making banana cake to so many people being killed in Ukraine,” said Snoeren. “It’s: What kind of world are we living in? It’s absurd,” said Horsting. Luckily, the duo found some fun in the incongruity. As a viral moment that wasn’t shot through with controversy, it was a masterclass.
