“Finding ourselves in the beginning of the end of the world, we are in line for a sample sale.” These are the words that began Conner Ives’ SS24 presentation.

Titled Late Capitalism, in the show notes Ives informed us it was a TikTok of a girl queuing outside a DSM sale in New York as the sky behind her pulsed orange from the Canadian wildfires that inspired him to create this collection. Foregoing a traditional runway show and instead opting for a minute-long video starring model of the moment Alex Consani, SS24 was an irreverent collection of characters who all wore clothing sourced second-hand from Depop.

Brilliantly lampooning our current age, each look embodied a hyper-specific personality, such as look 13, who was the Depop Girl. Aptly described as: “TRENDING! Y2K! RARE! Connoisseur of micro-trends. She doesn’t accept offers but knows all the girls that do. She’s a capitalist, through and through.” Or look 16, the ‘Woo’ Girl who was “having drinks with her girls at Buddakan, and she’s gonna scream ‘Woo!’ intermittently throughout the entire evening. It’s her world, we’re just living in it.”

It was all so Gen Z and IYKYK but let’s not forget, it comes down to the clothes at the end of the day. The majority of the collection was constructed from stretch jersey (the least Ives could do for women at the brink of an environmental apocalypse, according to the show notes) and saw 1930s-style slips crafted from vintage t-shirts, among numerous other uses of dead-stock Airtex mesh and lace. Look 19 (The Late Capitalist herself) was a standout, an ankle-length dress and bag constructed entirely out of the tabs from fizzy drinks cans. As much as Ives loves a tongue-in-cheek concept, he cannot hide the fact he can construct a damn good outfit.