For KNWLS founders, Brit Charlotte Knowles and her partner Alexandre Arsenault, it was always going to be a tall order to top last season’s momentum. The Central Saint Martins graduate duo released a 42-piece capsule collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier in September that screamed gritty punk; a high-femme reinterpretation of Y2K fashion loved by Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa. To celebrate, the brand held a buzzy party with SSENSE in New York with Doja Cat and Ice Spice. See? Tall order. But, before we speak too soon, enter KNWLS’ Autumn/Winter 2024 outing in London.
“Stepping out from a chauffeured saloon—she cinches the belt of her dome-shouldered coat and sets off in an assured strut, dagger-sharp heels clicking against the concrete floor,” the show notes begin. And just like that, we’re thrust back into the realisation that the KNWLS girl doesn’t look back—she probably doesn’t even remember yesterday—she’s only looking at what’s in front of her. Always onwards and unbothered.
Titled Sensational, the vintage allure of zip-fastened corsets, funnel neck jackets and low-slung, side-buckled skirts quelled the sartorial appetites of ‘it’ girls itching for something-new-but-also-something-old. Like, for instance, a laced pinstripe denim. Cargo-pocketed skirts. Glitched-out graphic mesh. Fine jersey dresses. Flared pants. A roomy Bermuda pant come in tobacco leather. The list, quite literally, goes on. Elsewhere, linebacker-shoulder wrap coats with plunging necklines conjured up the zest of 80s power dressing.
The standout piece was undoubtedly the sea-green leather crop and skirt combo. “[The] zip-fastened corset–complemented by a side-buckled [midi] skirt—offers perhaps the most confidently restrained riff on the brand’s signature garment to date,” read the show notes. “With additional iterations in laced, delicately pinstripe denim intimating the punk-ish flair at the KNWLS protagonist’s heart.”
See you at a party on Delancey Street soon. I’m sure we’ll forget all about it come next season.
