Serena Williams, Quinta Brunson and Venus Williams speak onstage during the 2024 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 11, 2024 in Hollywood, California. Photo / Getty Images
What resonated this week? Fashion, with feeling.
Texture is an underutilised textile attribute; it’s visually interesting, giving depth to a garment, and its tactility gives it sensory appeal — even from the flat, cold glow of a phone screen. (Which is why the flattening of clothes in recent years, focusing on digital visuals over hanger appeal, seems remiss).
But we’re not here to talk about e-comm, we’re here to talk about red-carpet fashion and what caught our attention this week; materiality, embellishment, crunch and surface interest.
It’s the reason Emma Corrin’s feathered frock leapt out at me, and Loewe’s densely embellished pieces gave Daniel Craig a sense of depth and eccentricity, helping make an otherwise formulaic white-background campaign (a convention that’s been the source of online complaints this week) genuinely interesting, and grab attention.
So, with that theme in mind for this week’s column, who looked good?
Serena Williams, Quinta Brunson and Venus Williams
Could Serena have read Dan Ahwa’s latest Sign of The Times dispatch? Anything’s possible in 2024. Sure, this embellished motif is probably a feather, but it COULD be a fern, and our Olympic attire could learn from this. It’s smart and it’s ceremonial. She looks great. They all do. The occasion is ESPN’s ESPY Awards, which Serena was hosting. Styled by Kesha McLeod, she wore a rally of great looks, including Giorgio Armani, Ferragamo, and this is by David Koma. Venus is wearing velvet Dolce and Gabbana, and Quinta’s look is Silvia Tcherassi. All textural, all unique.
The look that inspired our theme this week. I can’t stop looking at this dress (you should see the back) and thinking about its proposition. It’s designed by Dilara Findikoglu, who has been vocal about the role of independent designers now, and it’s a beautiful example of the craftsmanship and thematic richness that the Brit does so well. And for Corrin, who plays the villain in Deadpool & Wolverine, to wear an outfit that references symbols of purity and goodness — dove, swan, angel — is a masterfully twisted move from stylist Harry Lambert.
