Anxiety about the state of the world notwithstanding, Paris fashion week got underway to sunny skies and a fairly upbeat mood over at the Docks en Seine, where IFM staged its annual show for its newly minted Master’s program graduates.
“There are so many positives about this class,” said Leyla Neri, director of the master's program in fashion design. Despite graduating into a job market clouded by fear that AI will “come in like a tsunami” and wash out opportunities with the undertow, the class was remarkably creative and cohesive, she added. “Their reaction was to explore their own practice by looking at others,” she said.
“We weren’t expecting that from this generation, but at the same time they’re not taking inspiration from artists like we used to decades ago. It’s really about the practice and the meaning of the practice. It’s their way of saying ‘we’re not the only creatives at risk,’” said Neri. “In a way they are the ones teaching us, and showing us how crafts will coexist very, very smartly with new technologies in ways we have a hard time imagining.”
Eventually, the crossovers with graphic design, film, music, dance, anime, sculpture, painting and so on became so marked that IFM organizers decided to adopt the white box setting favored by visual artists to send the graduates out into the world.
And what a send-off it was, brimming with fresh ideas, energy and a remarkable level of execution. Yes, there were expressions of anxiety and anger, sometimes incorporating coarse expletives (fair enough). But there was also fun and silliness and the odd detour into nightclub subcultures that would probably be best left to a dark sweaty underground dancefloor somewhere.
But overall, from start to finish this was one of the most impressive IFM showings in recent memory. Across the board, knitwear was the star, whether worked in striking colorways and textures or as ethereal lace, sculpted suiting and sometimes mammoth proportions.
“There’s a lot of emotion in there,” said Adam Jones, director of knitwear for the masters and bachelor programs. “People have a lot of preconceived notions about knitwear. We ask them to dig deep in their research and tell stories that need to be told, which involves a lot of technicality, but we teach them how to do that and then we let them play with it and make it do things you wouldn’t expect. Then we work on silhouette and shape and stories and meaning and how it all relates. But what we’re really showing is that you can do anything with it. I really think it’s the future.” The real threat, he added, is “people doing basic things and always returning to the same things—but that’s not what we’re about anyway.”
Backstage after the show, Sidney Toledano, the IFM chairman and former CEO of the LVMH Fashion Group, was effusive in his praise for the class and for Neri. “It’s so fresh, creative and well-executed, and I’ve seen a lot of shows,” he quipped. “Sometimes I see big houses with other means just doing repetitions of what we have seen, but here, they’re taking a risk—and they’re doing it perfectly.”
Asked if he was optimistic about the future of fashion, he replied, “The fashion is here and the world is hopefully improving, maybe not today but for tomorrow, yes. We must work with them to find the future. But if you’re not optimistic, you shouldn’t be in fashion.”
