Hitchcockian violins shuddered through a hall of the Sorbonne. Gilded CCTV cameras lurking within modernist chandeliers craned their necks. And, as the first model walked out in the S/S '23 show, a new era began for Rhude, the ascendant label of 29-year-old LA designer Rhuigi Villaseñor, who, just three years after his Paris Fashion Week debut, has moved from potential flash-in-the-pan to fashion brand proper.
He's come a long way. What began life as a one-off bandana-print T-shirt that was quickly bought by Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg has turned into an impressive, multifaceted label that now counts Big Sean, A$AP Rocky, Offset, Future and the Hadid sisters among its fans. The most recent collection, New Money, has a tongue firmly placed in one cheek while also paying reverence to its "streetwear" roots: a term bandied around with such abandon that it could've lost all meaning if it wasn't for designers like Villaseñor. He gets it.
Because Rhude's streetwear is the stuff that was born in the city but stays on the backs that move from central LA to the Hollywood Hills. His fans are the new jet set. And no, they didn't arrive via hedge funds and tax-free inheritance pots. Instead, Villaseñor came to the US from the Philippines at the age of 11, and broke into the industry with no formal fashion training.
In the most recent show, that meant an olio of all the things that currently makes fashion tick. Military shirts with floral prints and billowing fits. Seventies fang-like collars and slices of Jagger leather. Rhude's signature retro tobacconist typeface knits, and a tangerine co-ord tracksuit. There were even preppy Rydell High letterman tees and cardigans alongside Mr Ralph Lauren-ish prints that belong at his second, and third, and fourth home. Montauk meets MTV Base. And then there were shades of Mr Ripley/Greenleaf (Cuban collar shirts), and a touch of Matrix-era futurism (bug-eyed sunglasses), and a primary-hued touch of Mittleuropa (a premonition, perhaps, as Villaseñor is set to debut his first show as creative director of Swiss brand Bally this September).
It sounds like a lot. And it is. But it works. While Rhude pulls freely and wildly from menswear's multiverse, Villaseñor's pick 'n' mix approach to fashion is still somehow cohesive. These clothes feel perfectly aligned to the new set, the "New Money", that refuses to play by old rules. Collections no longer have to toe the line of a seasonal theme. They don't have to restrict themselves in order to project a vision. These are clothes that have fun, and feel fun when you're in them.
In fact, they're all endlessly wearable: a sure sign that any brand is making serious commercial moves. Which is the aim for a label in that strange transient phase between hot new thing and fashion week mainstay. "All the money's gone" lamented the vocalist on the show's lo-fi soundtrack. Chances are, the bank account was emptied at Rhude.
