HOW LITERATURE BECAME FASHION'S MAIN CHARACTER

This season, fictional figures jumped off the pageand onto the runway.

- Kristen Bateman

Chloë Sevigny's voice boomed over the speakers at Proenza Schouler's fall 2023 show as the actress and It Girl read fictional diary entries from the author and It Girl Ottessa Moshfegh. In London, Sir lan McKellen opened S.S. Daley's show by reading one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems. If it seems like the line between fashion shows and literary readings is starting to blur, you're not mistaken. Across the fall collections, a singular icon emerged: the nerdy intellectual with a library card. Think Miu Miu's artfully mussed librarians in tortoiseshell glasses, Altuzarra taking inspiration from Greek mythology, Thom Browne paying homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, and Sandy Liang's bow-adorned belles walking in the New York Academy of Medicine's library. Valentino recently featured text from Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life printed on clothes at its spring 2024 men's show. Off-runway, Bottega Veneta released an haute version of the Strand bookstore tote, and Chanel's Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon program presented house ambassador Charlotte Casiragh