During a weekend when Vetements packed its runway with a cast of celebrity models including Travis Scott and J. Balvin, and superstars Harry Styles and Elton John came out to see Alessandro Michele’s Valentino debut, it was the entrance to Isabel Marant’s spring 2025 show Sunday night at Palais Royal that felt the most like a death trap, though the star wattage was much lower.
The crowds on Rue St. Honoré were so poorly controlled and contained that the crushing swell could have turned quickly and dangerously to a stampede. Her show entrance is always bad, but this was the worst it’s ever been and she needs to think about another venue if the situation can’t be improved.
Nevertheless, the show went on, with Marant returning to boho form with a vision of leggy, Amazonian warrior women. (If only they could have been securing the door.)
With so much hype around Chemena Kamali bringing back 1970s hippie chic at Chloé, it made sense for Marant to stake her claim as one of the queens of that look in the 2010s when front-row guest Kate Bosworth embraced it, alongside the likes of Nicole Richie and Mischa Barton. (The designer celebrated 30 years of her brand in April in L.A., which is a creative well for her.)
Certainly there were best-of moments from then on the runway, including the floaty tops, leather and fringed outerwear. Marant’s shoe business was on fire at the time, too, and she brought back moccasin boots (this time scrunched down and folded over at the ankles) and gladiators, now brilliant three-in-ones than could be unhooked and worn as thong, mid-ankle, or knee-high sandals.
“It’s very feminine and very tough at the same time. It’s always about the clash,” Marant said during a preview with her artistic director Kim Bekker. “Tribal influences from all over the world” found their way into the collection, and its high level of handcraft. That was evident on a great-looking black poncho waxed to look worn with woven geometric and fringe details, a printed flossy fringe drop shoulder top, and a striking allover geometric handwoven minidress in pink-and-purple sunset hues.
The same pattern could be sampled on a new raspberry leather bucket bag, part of Marant’s expansive new accessories offering, which also includes a chic half moon leather flap bag called the Altay with braided details that looks like a daily uniform winner.
Also for the everyday: floaty peasant tops, cropped and flared denim, canvas flight suits, embroidered blanket miniskirts, leather bomber jackets with double collars, and minidresses in abstracted butterfly prints.
And for contrast, solid black slinky jersey dresses with sexy cutouts and metal ball embellishments made for a chic minimalist moment. For more evening inspiration, the gorgeous sheer black washed sequin finale dress brought to mind moonlight on the ocean. “We didn’t want to go all the way bohemian because that’s what you expect it to be,” said Bekker.
