Forever Chloé: Chemena Kamali takes stock of her house
For Spring-Summer 2027, Chemena Kamali looked back at the Chloé she has shaped over the past three years through a deeply personal collection of house archetypes and bold new volumes. Anders Christian Madsen reviews the show.
If gossip has been swirling that Chemena Kamali is replacing Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent – following his own assumed departure – the self-penned love letter to Chloé that she placed on seats at Thursday morning’s show only added wind to the rumour mill. “May the love that poured into this collection endure forever,” Kamali wrote, dissecting the personal memories of Chloé and archival influences that crafted her collection. “I have let all my obsessions for Chloé lead the way. I wanted something deeply personal – to return to things I love, the emotions they trigger in me. It felt liberating to work this way, to listen to the resonance of everything I feel for Chloé.”
Whether there’s truth to the whispers or not, the atmosphere triggered a feeling of reflection: a stock-taking of what Kamali has built at Chloé and the mark she’s left on the house. She illustrated it in the clothes themselves: in the formidable volumes that filled the show as a striking contrast to the expressions that preceded Kamali’s tenure. Over the last three years, she has returned Chloé to its bohemian stride while simultaneously pushing it into a new directional arena of bold propositions. She’s made it part of the conversation. It’s why, when voices on social media have contested her rumoured appointment at Saint Laurent in recent weeks, trying to reduce Kamali to a purveyor of boho chic, they are wrong.
I have let all my obsessions for Chloé lead the way. I wanted something deeply personal – to return to things I love, the emotions they trigger in me. It felt liberating to work this way, to listen to the resonance of everything I feel for Chloé.
Chemena Kamali
Kamali continued her stride through a wardrobe of Chloé archetypes pushed into more emphatic form. Broderie anglaise, drawn from the house’s early robes de jeunes filles, moved between whisper-light organza and crisp, weighty cotton, while three-dimensional floral embroideries gave surfaces an almost couture-like density without losing their ease. Necklines became structural devices from which dresses expanded into increasingly assertive volumes. 1970s fishermen’s coats, capes and sou’wester hats brought a tougher and more radical outerwear language, sharpened by layers of smoky transparent vinyl. “This collection, I hope, is an expression of the maison’s heart, and soul,” Kamali signed off. As the standing ovation she received illustrated, it was as much a testament to her own.
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