Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Fashion Show SS2024

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, the designers behind Viktor & Rolf, can always be trusted to bring some humour to the Haute Couture shows. With their latest collection, the Dutch duo once again tapped into the absurd, delivering a collection that was entirely black but full of lightness.

Playing off the friction of indecision, where we’re often pulled to extremes of choices, Viktor & Rolf’s Spring/Summer 2024 coutureshow entitled ‘Viktor & Rolf Scissorhands’, was comprised of seven “flawless couture outfits” that were then used as blueprints for three consecutive iterations of the same design. As if slowly disintegrating, looks escalated to complete dismemberment by way of erratic cutting.

The concept “investigates the creative (im)possibilities of a pair of tailor’s scissors, when used spontaneously to experiment with decorative cutting,” read a statement. “From minuscule holes in a Rorschach motif to a ballgown hacked in half: holes and slashes are controlled and directed but also form instances of orchestrated chaos.”

The result was half-slashed bodices, tulle skirts carved up haphazardly, large bits of fabric peeled away and exposed layers. While ‘ruining’ a garment may sound like easy work, the craftsmanship involved in the original pieces and their slashed-up counterparts was not lost on viewers.