Paris Fashion Week Men’s SS24 was an embarrassment of riches, from Pharrell Williams’ much-anticipated debut for Louis Vuitton to the apocalyptic visions at Rick Owens. It was also a fertile breeding ground for emerging talent whose presentations were proof that they’re not only forging their own voices but are also ripe to be picked up by a luxury house. Here are five names that are ready to go far.

Sean Suen

For SS24, Suen Seun opted for a pared back colour scheme, sticking to his black, white and ivory sensibilities. This monochromatic palette spoke to the idea of dreams as a lens through which to explore ancient Asian mythologies including the Ying/Yang and rebirth. But the Chinese designer is never one to rest on the stereotypes associated with his heritage. Instead, he considers what those ideas might look like today and in the future. Hence his line-up of strong pieces ranging from oversized tailoring to louche knits. A stand-out, all-black look came in the form of tiny satin (or in a similar, but separate look, leather) shorts with heavy-duty leather boots and a top with exposed arms and side panels. Its Seun’s uncompromising use of luxurious natural fabrics (cotton, linen, wool) and his ability to cut those fabrics with exacting precision, even when creating new silhouettes (a long black satin coat with a white peplum pleated skirt sown on top of it, for instance), that marks him out as a head above many others in the ‘next gen’ category.

Lagos Space Programme

This year’s Woolmark Prize winner designer, Adeju Thompson of Lagos Space Programme, showed for the first time at Paris Fashion Week for SS24. Titled ‘Cloth as a Queer Archive’, the collection continued the Nigerian designer’s exploration of Yoruba culture, making links between its storied textiles and dress practices and the celebrated style of queer people. The result was a modern interpretation of traditional cloths and codes rendered in their genderless essence. Seemingly simple looks came in muted tones of black, indigo and white and were accessorised by elegant brass adornments. An ankle-grazing, beige halter neck dress in wool met a long jacket and wrapper in post-adire. “In the popular imagination, the African aesthetic is colourful but minimalism has existed as an essential part of Yoruba expression for centuries,” Thompson asserts. To coincide with the presentation, Lagos Space Programme collaborated with Isabel Okoro on a film titled ‘Come to Me I’m Already Here’. Shot on location in Osogbo, the UNESCO World Heritage Site that houses the Sacred Groves which are an important illustration of the identity of Yoruba people, the clothes come alive, ready to reimagine global Nigerian narratives.

Botter

Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, the duo behind Botter, have their origins in Curaçao and the Dominican Republic respectively, and describe their brand aesthetic as “Caribbean Couture”. This season they looked to Vodou (Voodoo or Vodun): the syncretism of African, Roman Catholic and Caribbean religious traditions in Haiti. What resulted was an intoxicating play of textures, shapes and fabric manipulations such as the opening look, a rope-like, spiralled red vest. The persistent mix of tailoring in the form of deconstructed suit jackets paired with loose shirts and then in other guises, worn with sporty hybrid pieces (a result of their ongoing collaboration with Reebok) presented a fresh approach to dressing up. A silk dress with an illustration by Haitian artist Day Brierre depicting a young Black girl with a big grin and pom pom hair, struck the right note between their cultural references and commitment to craftsmanship. Botter’s ability to seamlessly merge enumerable ideas from its core inspirations – the unity of nature, the seas and the Black diaspora – to create innovative collections every season is an admirable feat.

Bianca Saunders

This season Bianca Saunders hailed Lee “Scratch” Perry, the pioneering Jamaican musician and producer who passed in 2021. Perry was also a fine artist, making collages out of found objects, and his kaleidoscopic output has gone on to have global resonance. “There is a Basquiat approach to his work, but it’s different, being steeped in religion and Jamaican iconography, animal motifs and mottos such as ‘Good over Evil’,” Saunders says. All of this provide an outlet for the British-Jamaican designer to explore deconstruction and manipulation of fabrics to create a series of rebellious silhouettes. Take the red shirt: the colour reminiscent of Perry’s signature beard, with its globe-like shape and made of a fabric that looked like papier-mâché: stiff and structured. Meanwhile another shirt looked like black tape was clasping two pieces of fabric together. The collection also saw her second collaboration with Farah, which resulted in easy-going denim and hopsack looks reinterpreting the brand’s archive. Altogether, the marriage of a spiritual, sun-soaked narrative with comfortable staples and idiosyncratic details, resulted in sartorial magic.

Winnie

Nigerian American designer Idris Balogun started Winnie in 2019 as an homage to his late grandmother Princess Winifred Dademu. For SS24, the starting point was the feeling represented by the German word ‘senhsucht’, which can be translated to ‘longing, desire, a craving for adventure’. This idea of yearning for something new perfectly encapsulates Balogun: a traditional men’s tailoring core that is tweaked just enough to create something unexpected but utterly must-have. So, high waisted tailored trousers come with a classical white shirt as well as a bias-cut neon blue light wool top. That old devil of a piece, the pinstripe suit, comes in oversized cargo pants and an elongated jacket. And a tailored wool suit is made with shorts instead of long trousers. Menswear tends to be a small margins game; one alteration changes the entire feel of the look. Balogun is becoming a master of this art and as such, expresses that old adage that the start of any new adventure begins with a single step. This collection was that first step.