Vogue
Norma Kamali Spring 2024
By Laird Borrelli-Persson
If you’re Norma Kamali and life gives you lemons, what do you do? Make a trompe l’oeil denim print, evidently. “The interesting thing about this collection is that I had fabrics chosen, everything done, ready, and none of it arrived,” explained the designer on a walk-through. “The universe didn’t want me to do that because I shouldn’t have been doing that,” she concluded and moved on, cool as a cucumber. And why not? Kamali has many resources at her fingertips.
From her archive, she pulled a marble print and another that featured a giant elephant head. From her memories, she pulled a trip to India. These inspired draped sashes that were attached with magnets to garments to give the wearer an easy on-off option. The TV series 1883 was the starting point for Kamali’s fringed vegan-leather jackets, which fit into a sub-theme of “Old Hollywood, but cowboys at the same time.”
