Wes Gordon Banishes Dress Codes for Carolina Herrera Spring 2024

Ana Colón

12 September 2023 at 7:20 pm·5-min read

In the past, Wes Gordon has spoken about how his Carolina Herrera is really defined by color. His palettes tend to be punchy and expressive, bright and eye-catching, anchored by the occasional polka dot, stripe or floral print. Spring 2024 feels like a slight departure on this front — it's still colorful (pale yellows, lilacs and dusty pinks are on the docket), but with restraint: The saturation's been dialed down, significantly, from the brand's last collection, which showed in Rio.

"I wanted a palette that was a little cooler in temperature, but still super feminine," he said post-show, explaining how, following that punchy, Brazilian-inspired resort collection, his mood board was populated by images from '90s fashion editorials and of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. "They're colors that still are impactful, but not as aggressive. The blacks and whites give them that exclamation."

This collection, Gordon continued, is about "straightforward clothes — pieces that didn't have too many superfluous seams or unnecessary details." Instead, what they'll have is "one flourish," he explained: "It'd be a simple pencil skirt, and maybe the flourish was that it was transparent or a black satin dress that had the big embroidered floral sleeves. In everyone's quest for modern clothes, so often they can become soulless and cold. Herrera's a house for women who want to find clothes that make them stand out and be remembered and have amazing time. So, for me, the fun of this season was reconciling clean silhouettes and clean lines with that fabulousness that is Herrera."

It's not that Gordon's proposition is any less formal or elegant than the typical Herrera fare — it's just organized in a way that feels less... well, organized. There's not a parade of gowns at the end, for one; instead, the eveningwear is sprinkled throughout, following a white floral embroidered mini skirt and preceding a knit turtleneck-and-cardigan set. (Where Spring 2024 does build on the Rio collection is in the sexiness underlying the looks — like a knit floral top with a matching hot pant, dresses cinched close to the body, sheer layers revealing what's underneath. She's sexy!)

"I didn't want to do the build-from-day-to-night, because I don't believe in that," he said. "I don't think that's how the world is anymore. You wear what makes you feel fabulous, dress code be damned. If it says dressy and you want to go casual, do it; if it's casual and you want to wear a gown, do it."

To prove that point, Spring 2024 actually begins and ends with the same look: a cotton shirt and pencil skirt (very Herrera, the woman). At first, it's a white blouse with a black satin bottom; for the finale, the top's done in black, and the skirt is fully hand-embroidered with silver embellishments. The message, according to Gordon, is that "these rules don't exist anymore."

"Wear what makes you feel amazing, whenever you want to," he said. Hear, hear.

See every look from Carolina Herrera Spring 2024 below.