Viktor & Rolf Fall 2023 Couture Collection

Viktor & Rolf the brand is 30-years-old, and Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren’s one-of-a-kind surrealist and (sometimes rather disquieting) humorous take on fashion hasn’t dimmed in the least. Their ironical, topsy-turvy spirit is still intact, and today’s couture show was pure V&R tongue-in-cheek-conceptual entertainment. Instead of transforming their anniversary collection into a parade of humongous, ballooning dresses in the predictable shape of improbable Viktor & Rolf-ish birthday cakes, they went the opposite route. “We wanted the celebration to be about the tiniest garment there is—the bathing suit,” they said backstage.

Artists are more often than not obsessive, single-minded types, and the Dutch designers aren’t exceptions. Variations on a theme and repetition is what their repertoire has often revolved around. Here the dissecting and reassembling potential of the bathing suit, be it a covered-up one piece or a skimpy bikini, was explored with meticulous focus.

Rigid ruffles and rows of bows so high as to cover the ears sprouted straight up from the plunging necklines of high-cut bodysuits, or overflowed from necklines sneaking onto the legs; three differently sized bikinis were juxtaposed one on top of the other in a sort of “I’m seeing triple” tipsy effect. Catchphrases like NO or I WISH YOU WELL were extended from décolletages in 3D cubic type, an apparent replacement for sleeves.

Yet the show stopping icing on the birthday cake were headless mannequins donning female black tailored tuxedos, hanging onto the models’ backs, or twisting in multiple formations around their bodies as if they were desperately calling for attention and didn’t want to let go. The meaning of all this? “It’s open to imagination,” answered the designers in unison. Obviously, the V&R repertoire doesn’t include the banality of logical, reasonable explanations.