NO YOU’RE not dreaming – the red lights of Sportmax‘s autumn-winter 2024 runway marks the suspended reality of a 1980s landscape, or otherwise known, Camera Obscura, the brand’s latest collection.
Inspired by an array of iconic 1980s women – including the likes of Nico, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, and Siouxsie Sioux – the line offers women of today the power and bold charisma once channelled then.
Adorning shirts, dresses, jackets, and knits are prints inspired by album covers, a celebration of music’s women.
In a blurring of future and past, accentuated shoulders were paired with corset-cinched waists and elongated silhouettes were allowed further depth through their layered belts and contrasting textures.
The waistline centred as the focus, with tailored blazers, ultra-slim coats and knitted mini capes thrown over looks with an unapologetic energy refreshing to womenswear.
The colours were deep and dark in varying shades of black and navy blues met with bursts of monochrome outfits in blazing red and sand.
Unfazed by the masculine colour palette, femininity is presented with a twist in the form of lurex fringes and touches of alluring sheer cut-outs.
In the world of Sportmax’s AW24, where cross-cultural influences are vivid and understood to the artistic level, it appeared natural when boxing shorts of black leather were paired with suit shirts and corset waists – putting a sporty spin on the counter-culture Buffalo style of the 1980s.
Patent leather cowboy-style neckties appear on tailored suits, while oversized pleats inspired by origami techniques are asymmetrical and bold in royal blue.
In accessories, silhouettes were softened by round-toe Mary Janes, while classic cowboy boots can be seen poking out of long trousers. The show debuted the brand’s new structured bucket bag in patent leather with a metal handle, which opens to reveal a tiny vintage-style mirror.
Defiant and daring, the collection does not simply show an understanding of contrast and cross-referencing, but an artistic appreciation and wholehearted embrace.
by Madeleine Ringer