Concordes, celebrities and comfort – Eytys' autumn/winter '24 collection is a nostalgic touchdown
Throwback images of celebrities at airports are an endless source of inspiration. There’s just something about an A-lister – Kate Moss, Elizabeth Hurley, Gwyneth Paltrow – shuffling through the mundane motions of air travel in relaxed looks. Before Kim Kardashian’s ‘Kim Air’ and the rise of flying private (and before Instagram was around to document such extravagance) there was the Concorde: a supersonic commercial aircraft that was, in its heyday, the height of luxury. It was this aircraft, and the celebs that populated it, that served as the starting point for Eytys’ latest collection.
“This season I wanted to revisit an era before social media, when celebrities were mysterious and air travel was a luxury for a chosen few. A Concorde filled with superstars jammed tightly together in a tiny cabin embodies this better than anything,” says creative director Max Schiller, noting that his collections tend to merge “nostalgia and futurism”. “I find it mesmerising that you could make it from Europe to NYC in three-something hours sitting next to Mick Jagger.”
Here Schiller plays in that celebrity travel sweet spot at the intersection of comfort and camera-ready. “They’d be dressing up because they know they will very well be caught on camera, whilst having to adapt the attire to being crammed in a tiny airplane for a few hours,” he says. “That combination of flair and comfort is what makes true style.” Relaxed denim in faded washes with a leather moto jacket, for instance, or a crisp striped button-down shirt, topped with a hoodie. Fuzzy sweaters are thrown around the shoulders, baseball caps are pulled down low.
Getting the denim – an airport mainstay – just right was a bit of a process. “The process of creating denim washes is very much like cooking, which is a big passion of mine,” says Schiller. “Seeing a vintage wash I like and experiment with fabrics and treatments how to recreate something like it is very much how I would make food in my kitchen when recalling and recreate something I have tried in a good restaurant.” This time around, Schiller was aiming to recreate a “brownish green” pair he had seen some 20 years ago on a tuk-tuk driver in Bangkok. It’s best realised in a new flared silhouette that embodies, as Schiller puts it, the “Western-infused cowboy theme” of the collection. Also playing on that theme are the trusty leather western boots.
The lookbook is fittingly filled with celebs – actors Frida Gustavsson and Nanna Blondell, for instance. “They’re all talented, inspiring and charismatic friends of mine with big personas who embody the spirit of the collection,” says Schiller. As for the designer’s own airport attire? “I like to dress up when travelling,” he says. “I wear jeans, a pressed shirt and a club blazer. Always with my biggest MC-boots and army jacket on as these won’t fit in my luggage.”
See the full collection below:
Eytys - AW24
