The fall 2024 collection is Bahareh Ardakani’s third turn on the ready-to-wear wheel, and she is just starting to hit her stride.
The Swedish designer is sticking with the strong shapes and crisp-cut tailoring in her couture collections, which she has shown on the runway each July. Shoulders have become a signature, and here she used them to sharp effect while blowing up the sleeves to “Poor Things” proportions on covetable outerwear.
It had all the drama and none of the damage, as the entire collection was Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)-certified. Ardakani is obsessed with the small things, down to the biodegradable fusing on the linings, and all the leather was vegetable-tanned. The dedication is in the detail.
She defined it as “new luxury.”
“It’s a bit private,” she said. “[Clients] care about the look and feel of the piece, the way it’s shaped and that it’s cool, but also like the attention to all the details. This woman wants to know what she’s buying.”
Ardakani set out to build the most sustainable collection she can, which was part of the reason it has been a slow burn. It was her first collection to achieve the certification on all pieces, and this is the first season she is welcoming buyers.
It was a streamlined, mostly muted palette of black and tan, with some pops of her signature jewel-toned purple on an organic silk pussy-bow blouse, and a dark denim duo with a striking, side-zip collar. Her modern take on the tuxedo jacket was done up in jacquard with an asymmetric hem.
Pleating was also a staple for how she builds structure into a garment, and she used it on architectural jackets cinched at the waist, and on the backs of trenchcoats to create volume that fell just so.
There was nothing precious here — it was power dressing for the eco-conscious woman. Suddenly, supply chain is sexy.