From Alien-inspired curtains of slime at Prada – which dripped down onto the stainless steel runway below – to Paris’ Pont Neuf paved with gold for Pharrell Williams’ menswear debut at Louis Vuitton, Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2024 saw the collections presented against a series of scene-stealing backdrops. Here, we round up the most spectacular runway sets of the season.
The best show sets of Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2024
Prada
Guests to Prada’s latest menswear show were greeted with a vast stainless steel space which had been erected in Fondazione Prada’s Deposito. As the show began, sheets of slime began to drip – Alien-like – from the ceiling, pooling in green mounds on the runway below. It was a reflection, said the house, of the collection itself, which was titled ‘Fluid Forms’ and ‘an examination of fluid architecture around the human body’. ‘We were thinking a lot about the body – to give freedom to the body, even if our interest is to show references to archetypes and architecture in fashion, which is usually restrictive,’ said Raf Simons, who co-created the collection with Miuccia Prada.
Dior
Celebrating five years at the house, Kim Jones’ S/S 2024 collection saw models appear from the floor via a series of specially constructed lifts (there were 51 panels in all). ‘I suppose the set could be seen as an abstract garden,’ Kim Jones told Wallpaper* of the inspiration behind the theatrical spectacle. ‘Particularly with the boys wearing hats, as they rise through the floor, they’re almost like plants growing – like a mechanical garden where the hidden is revealed. The hats echo the organic shapes of flowers, and it all felt like a new way to interpret Christian Dior’s garden now.’
Louis Vuitton
Pharrell Williams shut down Paris’ Pont Neuf – the city’s oldest bridge – for his debut menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. Guests were transported to the spectacular show space along the Seine on boat, before ascending to the bridge itself which had been entirely clad in gold. The runway also featured a geometric pattern reminiscent of the house’s Damier check, which Pharrell riffed on in the collection itself. One such play on the distinct print came in a camouflage-inspired motif which he called ’the Damouflage’. ‘I wanted to make a print that makes people say, “OK, that’s P. And that’s Damier”,’ he said.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake
Held at Paris‘ Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake’s latest collection looked towards its essential element – the plissé pleat. Under colourful garments from the Issey Miyake offshoot which hung from the ceiling, the show began with an enormous roll of pleated paper being unfurled along the runway, out of which hidden garments were cut and placed on the models. ‘A refinement of what is quintessential to the brand,’ said the collection notes.
Loewe
The Loewe show set featured a number of fountains created by American sculptor Lynda Benglis, the first time such a collection has been presented together. A towering trio of fountains in the centre of the space – splashing out onto the runway below and forcing viewers to look upwards to their height – provided a metaphorical link to the collection’s silhouettes, which Jonathan Anderson said were meant to evoke the feeling that you are looking upwards at the model through a fish-eye lens. ‘I wanted the idea of looking up at someone, as the audience was looking up at the statues,’ he said.
Fendi
As part of the Pitti Uomo schedule, Fendi transported guests to its recently opened factory in the rolling Tuscan hills of Capannuccia, just outside of Florence. Set against the backdrop of artisans creating the house’s handbags and leather goods on the factory floor, the show – said menswear and accessories creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi – was an ode to craft and the atelier. ‘The pulsing heart of Fendi, a place symbolic of creation, where development, innovation, craftsmanship training and production are reunited under the same roof,’ she said of the unique location.
Zegna
Milan’s sun-soaked Piazza San Fedele – creative director Alessandro Sartori’s favourite square in the city – provided the setting for Zegna’s latest collection. A celebration of linen titled ‘L'Oasi Di Lino’, the curving runway was outlined with enormous bales of raw linen flax which had been transported from Normandy, France. Not simply a prop, after the show the bales were set to be transported to Zegna’s Italian mills to create the various iterations of linen which featured in the collection itself, from linen gabardine and linen faille to linen knits and satin linen.
Revisit our coverage of Paris Fashion Week Men’s, Milan Fashion Week Men’s, Pitti Uomo and London Fashion Week S/S 2024.
