Vaqera’s Spring/Summer 2024 Ready-to-Wear Collection

Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee emerged for their bows tonight in matching sunglasses, big eye-obscuring shields of the kind worn by post-op cataract patients and A-list celebrities. They said their collection was a consideration of the ways in which stars (and the rest of us) negotiate lives mediated by a 24/7 barrage of cameras. Do you want to be seen or do you want to hide? Is there a difference in a world where everyone is wielding an iPhone?

Vaquera has never been mistaken as a brand for introverts and it isn’t about to be now. After opening with a gold fishnet catsuit, the breasts outlined like bullseyes, many of the “normal” looks that followed were split down the back, exposing bra straps and panties. Other looks used underwear as decoration. The pink satin briefs fixed to the front of an otherwise conventional skirt might not have registered as all that outré on the runway, but on the street it’d be a different story.

Standing up along the runway, like fans crowding a police barricade at a red carpet or outside a fashion show, the crowd hooted and hollered in appreciation. There aren’t many collections here in Paris or in the other fashion capitals that deliver Vaquera’s kind of edgy fun. With Dover Street Market handling the brand’s production, sales, and distribution, DiCaprio and Taubensee are spiffing up their tailoring; there were couple of black pantsuits here that could pass in the straight world even with their bondage straps and industrial zip details, and a white cracked leather trench looked boss. And their jeans just keep getting better.

With the screenwriter’s strike over, the red carpet may soon be on the rebound. Maybe some bold starlet will wear Vaquera’s bleached denim ball gown. We’d love to see it.