Fashion brand ÉTUDES presented its Fall Winter 2023.24 Centre-Ville Collection, that explores the modern city life, on January 17th, during the ongoing Paris Fashion Week. The collection highlights materiality and iconography, and it brings the bold proposition of an amplified silhouette, that fuses elements of streetwear and the structured elegance of tailoring. The color palette features muted tones from dusty rose and arctic blue to deep green, chocolate, mud, concrete, black and beige. For the season Études collaborated with the Amsterdam-based Swiss artist Batia Suter, her graphic assemblages appear as a palimpsest of time and place: printing, embroidery and appliqué patches that investigate the phenomenon of cities throughout the ages.
FALL WINTER 2023.24 MENSWEAR COLLECTIONS
“Adopting the archetypes of the masculine wardrobe inextricably linked with city life, the collection is built on tonal harmonies; emboldened by hand and industrial processes from raw-edged tailoring to bleached and destroyed denim. Roller-printed felt wool, padded nylons and dark satins join winter sartorial fabrics in a layered discourse between notions of sportswear, uniform, and formality. Naive emblems of the street are revealed in hyperreal 3D and stitch embroidery, from padlocks and antique coins to playful memento mori. The Études bomber jacket finds new forms in parka and hooded shapes, and with new fabrics and finishes including stoned cotton canvas, optical nylon, leather and embroidered iconography. Ample fluid trousers are layered with hybrid mock-neck blazers, double-breasted suit jackets, and fuzzy textured knits.” – Études
The collaboration with Études is a collective result of our exploration of the term ‘La Cité’, based on material from my two Parallel Encyclopedias that in a way also are very close to this topic. It feels like saying something about the present with the help of the past, through this practice of finding and grouping existing images. It’s about leaning on history, and looking for something that feels timeless. The collection grew through an intense exchange over a few months: shifting images and discussing meanings. It was like a ping pong that opened new views and options. It was a very inspiring process that brought things slowly to their final form. For me, the fabrics and the shapes took the role of a new and very sculptural medium. Worn so directly on the body, they are more dynamic than a book or installation could ever be. In that sense I always had a strong fascination with clothes and how they can function as a messenger that shares an abstract meaning, like an emotional layer.” — Batia Sute
