Rip Her To Shreds: Viktor & Rolf Get Crafty For Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture

The design duo probe a garment's infinite possibilities—with a little help from some scissors

Sparking many a viral meme, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, the brains behind Viktor & Rolf, can always be trusted to bring some humour to Haute Couture Week. With their latest collection, the Dutch duo once again tapped into the absurd, delivering a collection that was entirely black but full of lightness.

Playing off the friction of indecision, where we’re often pulled to extremes of choices, Viktor & Rolf’s Spring/Summer 2024 couture show, entitled ‘Viktor & Rolf Scissorhands’, was comprised of seven “flawless couture outfits” that were then used as blueprints for three consecutive iterations of the same design. As if slowly disintegrating, looks escalated to complete dismemberment by way of erratic cutting.

The concept “investigates the creative (im)possibilities of a pair of tailor’s scissors, when used spontaneously to experiment with decorative cutting,” read a statement. “From minuscule holes in a Rorschach motif to a ballgown hacked in half: holes and slashes are controlled and directed but also form instances of orchestrated chaos.”

The result was half-slashed bodices, tulle skirts carved up haphazardly, large bits of fabric peeled away and exposed layers. While ‘ruining’ a garment may sound like easy work, the craftsmanship involved in the original pieces and their slashed-up counterparts was not lost on viewers.

It’s something that takes great skill that Horsting and Snoeren seem to effortlessly achieve, thirty years on: Novelty and fun without falling into gimmick territory. Perhaps it’s because, beyond the conception, the final product never ceases to inspire the way only great couture can.