Wes Gordon’s Audacious Abundance
Review of Carolina Herrera Spring 2024 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
While Carolina Herrera’s dresses are big and bold, the idea at the heart of a brand is a simple one: conveying joy through opulent fabrics in beautiful shapes. For Spring 2024, Wes Gordon stayed true as always to this core vision, while subtly updating it with a modern sense of flexibility by opting for a bit more layerability and separates.
THE BUZZWORDS
Audacious. Whimsical. Opulent. Joyful. Abundant.
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look # 16
In a collection full of boldly beautiful looks, the showstopper was the biggest and boldest. Intricate and endless layers of chiffon are crafted into lavish cascades of joyfully contrasting vertical stripes. Sleeveless to show off the clavicles and shoulders – two underrated bodily assets.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
I was really inspired by the venue we’re showing in, the Whitney, and when I started thinking through some of my favorite fashion editorials of the 90s, and the idea that modern can still be quite feminine, clean doesn’t have to be soulless – especially through the lens of a house like Herrera that women come to to have fun and stand out and feel magical.”
– Wes Gordon, Caroline Herrera Creative Director
THE WRAP UP
The collection’s best moments are indeed the ones where magic and modernity coexist. There’s a fine line between classic and dated, and a few of Gordon’s plays to classical femininity here do feel a bit costumey, a bit too Jackie O. But in the moments that it works, it really works – and most importantly it does so in a way that gives the Carolina Herrera customer, with her joyful and bold spirit, something she didn’t know she needed.
