Chloé made a feminist showcase at Paris Fashion Week, with models sporting bloomers and baby blue blousons from the French fashion house’s SS25 collection.
Vogue editor Anna Wintour and boho muse Sienna Miller were among the stars nodding with approval on the show’s front row.
Anna Wintour and Sienna Miller showcased Seventies boho glamour on the front row (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
When creative director, Chemena Kamali, debuted for the house with her AW24 collection in February this year, the show sent shockwaves through the industry, bouncing boho back firmly into the trend circuit.
The bloomer was featured in a range of colours and lengths (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
The collection’s pieces were subsequently worn publicly several times by Sienna Miller, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Nicole Kidman.
A brand famed for it’s exaltation of feminine freedom, for her second season, Kamali has taken a leaf out of 19th century feminist fashion by introducing ruffled bloomers.
Chloé reimagined the bloomer silhouette into trousers (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
Bloomers, a precursor to women’s trousers, were popularised in the mid-1800s. They could be worn under shorter dresses and allowed women more comfort and freedom of movement, but were immediately controversial, as the ruffled bottoms exposed “too much of the body” – according to contemporary standards – and were suggestive of underwear.
Bloomers were also reworked into hotpants (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
Yet, the new fashion trend pushed the boundaries of feminine social norms, and became a signature look of early suffragists.
Kamali reinvented this symbol of liberation on the catwalk with sheer lace bloomers in their traditional form, as well as reworked modernised ruffled hotpants.
The rich, loud floral print is new for the fashion house (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
The collection also featured voluptuous blouson ruffles and maximalist florals: a powerful print that hasn’t often been employed by Chloé before.
Kalami also played with a pastel colour-palette of sherbet lemon, peach and mint, but with powerful punches of fuchsia and cobalt blue to liven up the collection.
Deep pinks punctuated the runway (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
It seems the German designer, who landed her first internship at Chloé in the early aughts, has reawakened the fashion house’s classic Seventies “Soft Look” of voluminous, hyper-feminine layers in light-as-air fabrics.
Kamali reimagined the Seventies ruffles, by adding more and using busier prints (Vianney Le Caer/AP)
Kamali, however, has introduced a modern twist to the brand’s feminine savoir faire, adding depth and profundity.
The show closed with Kamali running onto the runway to blow kisses to the overwhelming round of applause. It seems as though the house is going from strength to strength under new creative direction: as Kamali brings Chloé into a new era of feminine fashion.
