From Dior’s New New Look to New New New Bottega: Venice Is the Designer Debut Soft Launch

Then it was After The Hunt’s Julia Roberts in a first-look at Vitale’s Versace vision: a sleek, ’90s-leaning day-time look that consisted of a blue wool blazer, a striped shirt, and denim straight-leg jeans. (Later, Amanda Seyfried asked Roberts’s stylist to borrow the look—a sustainable use of custom, and a way to maximize a first-look moment, kind of). Still, it felt like some serious sartorial whiplash, coming from the bold colors and prints of Donatella’s oeuvre. For the premiere, Roberts then wore a custom floor-length Atelier Versace gown made of navy crepe de chine. Vitale’s Versace? Erring on the side of timeless glamour.

Julia Roberts in Versace.

Photo: Getty Images

Amanda Seyfried in Versace.

Photo: Getty Images

Jonathan Anderson, set to showcase Dior womenswear at Paris Fashion Week in October, dressed couple Monica Barbaro and Andrew Garfield, plus Greta Lee, Mia Goth, and Alba Rohrwacher. Anderson created custom couture looks for Barbaro and Rohrwacher, inflected with historical references in their constructions and fabrications. The myriad of daytime and red carpet looks articulated the designer’s focus on tight tailoring and classic silhouettes with an Anderson twist, which he takes with him from his own label and Loewe tenure, augmented with a Café Society-esque floatiness and New Look-era shapes. Anderson’s D.N.A. remains well intact.

Mia Goth in custom Dior.

Photo: Getty Images

Alba Rohrwacher in Dior couture.

Daniele Venturelli

Greta Lee in Dior.

Photo: Getty Images

Monica Barbaro in custom Dior.

Daniele Venturelli

For Chanel, Ayo Edebiri and Fernanda Torres wore custom looks that pledged Blazy’s allegiance to the archive. Torres opted for a dark and romantic black velet gown, while Edebiri wore a cascading red gown which was a recreation of a fall winter 1986 Chanel dress, and a white, textured twist on the house’s classic suit set.

Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

And while we’ve seen those first rounds of Martens’s Margiela already, the once anti-celebrity brand continues its new all-in approach in Venice. Cate Blanchett wore a feathered gothic gown, which one of the first public outings of the designer’s fearsome couture collection. Over at the DVF Awards, Kim Kardashian stole the show in sweeping, gray Margiela.

In a year teeming with designer debuts and house musical chairs, a runway amid many, many runways can feel fleeting and samey. Maybe, it’s about the proximity to cinema and its grandeur that designers find alluring. Maybe, the dynamism of a red carpet and a committed brand ambassador feels like a freer space for a label’s new era of statement-making. Whatever it is, there’s something in the water in Venice.