Ludovic de Saint Sernin RTW Spring 2024

Miles Socha
·2 min read

A summer evening in the gay-friendly Marais district of Paris, warm enough that gym-toned limbs and torsos glistened with sweat. A bouncy house track by Four Tet was pounding from the speakers.

Only we weren’t at Cox or Raidd bars, but Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s spring 2024 fashion show.

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There was similar rubber-necking as models strolled through the courtyard of the Musée des Archives Nationales, the front of their gauzy shirts completely carved away, leaving only sleeves and a collar. Other shirts were cut so skimpily they purposely could never be buttoned closed, leaving a strip of flesh exposed from neck to navel.

Yet this was a relatively tame show by de Saint Sernin’s standards, only a few loin-cloth-like man skirts and many easy-to-like jeans jackets, gently flared pants, handsome leather pieces and shirts that actually buttoned all the way.

The designer succeeded in conveying a narrative of holiday lust with espadrilles, just-out-of-the-pool hair, lots of dewy deltoids, and the dusty, neutral colors seen throughout this fashion season.

Female models wore many of the same styles as the men, in addition to sexy, lingerie-like mermaid dresses, and a long fishtail skirt similar to the ones he had paraded earlier this year during his brief tenure at the design helm of Ann Demeulemeester.

In his press notes, de Saint Sernin called his latest signature collection “a celebration of queer desire, joy and power” that “sidesteps lewd stereotypes of queer expression to propose a wardrobe imbued with a libidinal elegance.”

“Dare to be yourself. I think that’s the most beautiful message,” the designer related backstage. “Just embrace it and be loud about it and make it visible as much as you can. Because your difference and what makes you unique is what’s going to inspire other people to access that freedom.”

Launch Gallery: Ludovic de Saint Sernin RTW Spring 2024

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