Review of EgonLab Spring 2024 Men’s Fashion Show
Liberated Luxury
By Mark Wittmer
Spring 2024 saw EgonLab’s design duo of Florentin Glémarec and Kevin Nompeix continue their queer-minded reconsideration of menswear while dropping the grittier club-kid aspects that have characterized previous collections for their most pared back and mature – though still decadently subversive – collection yet. The collection is titled Toute Première Fois, and indeed the show did feel like a new start for EgonLab, or at least saw the brand explore an alternate-universe version of itself.
Maintaining the subversiveness at their core, EgonLab this time applies it to their own take on contemporary French high fashion.
More specifically, the designers seemed to have Anthony Vaccarello and Hedi Slimane in their sights, and much of the collection felt like both an ode to and a critique of their work. Vaccarello’s work at Saint Laurent was thoroughly present in the rakish black suits, evening dresses, skin-baring tops that tightly wrapped the bodies of their wearers, and flowing silk neckties.
Meanwhile, a bit of Slimane’s Celine is present in the sunglasses, the leather pants, and the high-low mixing of categories and materials. Luxurious and glam touches like faux-fur, sequins, and velvet exaggerate the sense of opulence, while the strings of stadium lights behind the runway feel directly out of a Celine show.
But Egonlab’s own handwriting is still present throughout the collection. Signatures like a pleated miniskirt/pants combo, powerful shoulders, flared pants, and angular suiting return. One print seems at first like abstract brushstrokes, but upon closer inspection reveals itself to be composed of entwined limbs and torsos. Double-breasted suit jackets cut just below the nipple feel a bit too underground, too kink for a more established brand with a lot more to lose to take the risk on, as does the rejection of gender binaries – and for EgonLab, the risks totally pay off.
Proving that they can work on a level with their well-established contemporary countrymen, EgonLab then reclaim this vocabulary of luxury and put it to work in serving their own vision of liberated, expressive sensuality.