HELIOT EMIL Sets Paris Fashion Week FW23 on Fire
The Danish label’s “Connected Forms” runway show explored the sculptural archive of Henry Moore by creating its own visual patinas.
Paris Fashion Week brings a viral moment every season (Coperni Fabrican dress, anyone?), and this time around the accolade might just have gone to Julius and Victor Juul’s Danish label, HELIOT EMIL. Why? Because it sent a model set on fire down the runway.
The look in question was a HELIOT EMIL staple. Covered in black fire-proof techwear head-to-toe, the look was anything but simple, instead a bold statement that lit Paris Fashion Week on fire, literally. Holding a signature toolbox-esque bag in hand, the outfit was complete with zippers, metal-capped drawcords and an oversized finish, elevating the silhouettes, textures and designs that frequented HELIOT EMIL’s Fall/Winter 2023 runway collection, “Connected Forms.”
This season was inspired by the architectural, abstract sculptures of Henry Moore. The British artist is known for working with bronze, and a result, many of his sculptures live in the open as pieces of public art. In turn, the sculptures have developed a natural patina, seeing the abnormal shapes become a part of the earth around them.
Likewise, HELIOT EMIL creates wearable sculptures and also looks at the body as a sculpture itself. Silhouettes manipulate the skin; opening with a belt around the breasts and a cuff on the upper arm warp natural shapes, while the uber-padding of a puffer jacket piece in the second look (it too treated with a mottled patina) takes a different approach to reshaping our dimensions.
Fabric manipulation using heat, water and extensive tears echo Moore’s work once again, while various HELIOT EMIL signatures like ropes, metal adornments, liquid metal effects, zippers, buckles and padding brought the collection together. Sculptural details include the curved zippers or the ability to move them over the body; one dress in particular highlights how a dual-ended zipper can create a dress that can be worn in multiple ways, while mottling and ripping riff off Moore’s influence.
As expected from Julius, compression knits comprising fluid shapes in highlights of gray, tubular padding wrapping around the torso, distressed knitwear and a hyper-futuristic aesthetic throughout prevailed. Take a look at the collection above, and find more Paris Fashion Week FW23 content across Hypebeast.
Elsewhere, ZEGNA and The Elder Statesman have officially debuted their Winter 2023 collaboration.
