Rock me Amadeus
Everything is connected, things that apparently have nothing in common with each other suddenly find a connection. This is inspiration, intuition, the human condition. This is what we are, we are connected to the universe.
I hung a picture on the wall. The image of the handle of a door in the shape of a man’s head whose arms unite to form a knocker – toc, toc, alchemy. This vision has turned into a circle that joins the shoulders or hips and flies in the wind, sometimes it’s short, others it’s long.
My first inspiration: the cloud and the image of a 1950s pin-up photographed from below; it seems to be in the sky with cotton balls thrown at her. I like the shape of the clouds that float on the body, clothes that slide over the body, shirts that come down from the hips to the floor. You can wear them backwards or tie them to the hips: do it yourself. We have worked with Wastemark collecting inventories from the best Italian textile companies: reduce, reuse, rethink.
I love volumes; street vendors with their goods tied to the body are walking windows. The shapes explode to form infinite possibilities: shoulders, padded hips, large hair and umbrellas. The support is secured and protected by corsets, which are also fundamental for the fabrics that twirl in Botticelli’s Venus.
For the second season, we worked in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative using hand-made fabrics in Mali and naturally dyed Bogolan literally “made of land”.
We have renewed the Animal Toe shoes with a new heel that Mozart would like. Tyger, bright burning tyger, in the forests of the night. The 18th century hairstyle, worn by young apprentices, is brilliant. I had never seen creatures like this, they come from another planet. They create a historical and geographical fable of the human race, from microbes to robots.
We support Fauna + Flora in their fight against the protection of the Sumatran tiger from mass extinction. www.fauna-flora.org
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Tags: ANDREAS KRONTHALER FOR VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, ANDREAS KRONTHALER FOR VIVIENNE WESTWOOD SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Mon, October 7 2019 » Fashion Blog
SLUMBERLAND
Slumberland, LANVIN’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection pays homage to Little Nemo, a hero emerging from the deepest of dreams.
Created by illustrator Winsor McCay in 1905, the adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland appeared as a weekly comic strip in the New York Herald that portrayed the escapades of a young boy who had fantastical adventures in his dreams. Bruno Sialelli’s own childhood memories in the south of France often resonated with Nemo, where nothing was impossible, full of happiness, fantasy and dreams. This world is perfectly aligned with the story of Maison Lanvin; a house that began with Jeanne Lanvin drawing clothes for her dear daughter Marguerite.
For his Spring/Summer 2020 collection – its 64 looks for men and women – Bruno Sialelli adds a new chapter to the Lanvin story. In addition to Nemo, he revisits the elegance of the 1950s-60s and its Swans, as Truman Capote called them. Veritable goddesses of style, these jet-setters such as Lee Radziwill and Babe Paley strutted their elegance from the Hamptons to the Riviera with irresistible effortlessness.
Jackets are cocoons for comfort and are accented by ball suits and kimono coats, all architectural pieces where the details (square sleeves, swan necks, hidden buttons) highlight the couture look. Whole pages of Nemo’s adventures can be found on shirts, pleats and flowing jerseys. The opulence of the cuts and fabrics (wool gazar, silk, lurex, linen, voile…) is disrupted by the equally luxurious but ultra- contemporary accessories: XXL chain bracelets, cheeky yet stylish mules, Pharaoh loafers in gold leather and also bags such as the Knocker and the Toy, a bucket bag in resin and cashmere leather, for an endless summer on the beach or on the road.
For men, more casual looks join the LANVIN galaxy: raglan t-shirts with 60s prints by Jules-François Crahay, then Lanvin’s Creative Director; oversized blanket parkas in narrow-striped poplin with tons of pockets…you need them for tidying away souvenirs and other talismans from your escapades in Nemo’s world.
The final parade borrows elements from mukesh, an ancestral embroidery from Egypt that Jeanne Lanvin collected. This technique – linen mesh set with gold staples – is hardly used any more in Egypt, so Maison Lanvin went to India to find exceptional seamstresses who use similar practices. The five Grecian dresses bestrewn with coloured metallic sequins required fifteen thousand hours of work. Ethereal and swirling, they close this almost surreal collection.
Bruno Sialelli purposefully chose the Quai Branly Museum and its magnificent gardens as the setting for his Slumberland. Designed by Gilles Clément, the gardens encourage daydreaming and contemplation, far from the tribulations of the urban world. Adjoining this peaceful haven, a lounge-room has been created for the occasion in the style of famous American interior designer Dorothy Draper. It could be Nemo’s room: wallpaper with wide stripes, deep pile carpet, a happy and carefree exuberance.
The show will take place in silence. Each member of the audience will be given headphones to make the experience even more physically immersive in these dreamlike surroundings. On the programme: an experimental mix designed for the occasion in binaural sound also called “3D sound” with extracts from the King and the Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies and Anna Meredith.
This sound approach is also a reflection on our era and the millennial generation, described as hyper-individualistic and in their own bubble. With this show, Bruno Sialelli does the opposite as he invites the audience to a fun and immersive experience in his own bubble, the bubble of his era: the LANVIN bubble.
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Tags: Lanvin, LANVIN SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Thu, October 3 2019 » Fashion Blog
Balenciaga Summer 20 reimagines dressing for work: power dressing, no matter what one does as a job. Looks transform a wearer in the way a uniform can. Unlike their archetypes, though, garments and accessories are made using un- conventional processes.
New Fashion Uniforms, for example, invent a powerful but convertible shoulder line, while other garments shift a pattern so that seams twist around the body. Seamless Tailoring introduces a new shape for suits in all styles.
The newest Balenciaga sneaker, the Tyrex, is made with a sinuous network of athletic elements to form the silhouette of a classic office shoe. New Trompe L’oeil sets one style against another, creating a familiar archetype with inventive materials.
Super Plissé presses an entire ultra-large garment with pleats. Pillow Parkas are made of lightweight outerwear lined with inflated puffer jackets.
Fetish Gowns are made with negligee-like lace, but in voluminous shapes. Wearable Ballroom dresses reference the couture House’s legacy in contemporary textiles, with removable crinolines, to be worn in any setting. Models of various career tracks interpret and play on beauty standards of today, the past, and the future.
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Tags: BALENCIAGA, BALENCIAGA SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Thu, October 3 2019 » Fashion Blog
As you might have heard, TELFAR is a black-owned, non-gendered fashion project established in 2004 in NYC. That was a long time before such a thing was possible…We would like to keep it that way — to appear always just over a horizon. Our shows are the result of a radical form of collaboration that we hope borders on conspiracy – in search of the collective form; the human form: of music, of theatre and of style. For Spring Summer 2020 we bring the practice to the screen – through the commissioning of a collective film.
Previews as a trailer for PFW The World Isn’t Everything is an exquisite corpse drawn and drawing together artist Petra Collins, break-out American playwright Jeremy O. Harris, enigma Dean Blunt, post-pop-star Steve Lacy, and rappers Butch Dawson and Bby-mutha, Moonlight star Ashton Sanders and Diamond Singily among very many others… The film mirrors a runway presentation and is accompanied by a live score by the Afro-Parisian DJ/Genius CRYSTALLMESS and the London based sonic artist Klein.
The aim of this show is the same as that of the brand. In an era of representation we insist on presence. In the era of inclusivity we cannot be content to be included in someone else’s world. Our project is to build a world of our own and the process and the result are indistinguishable. Our customers are our collaborators and our cousins are our customers.
Spring/Summer 2020 takes its inspiration from the customs/security lines at any airport at given time, anywhere in the world. It marks our third collaboration with the all American beer brand Budweiser, whose iconic emblems appear throughout in jersey, silk and twill.
We begin with our militant cargo section — in slate, drab and khaki — bisected by signature TELFAR panel- ling. What could be the legs of a pair of cargo shorts replace the arms of a simple T shirt — adding utility to ubiq- uity. Sideless slacks and shirts and a full military poncho with a hidden hood finish a utilitarian statement torn between tourism and survival.
Our denim is paneled and modular: with T-shirt flares, graphic cut-outs or full legs replaced with fish-net and leather, or dappled with fluffy clouds of bleach. A knit section starts with a trio of smart mod-zipped polos to return as breezy Afro-Jamaican string-vests: in T’s, hoodies and our classic asymmet- rical tank cut from crop to tunic.
A sporty tricot section in red, black and khaki is branded with an anachro-sporty iteration of the Telfar logo — for an iconic track-and-field statement whose fully constructed stripes betray complex tailoring, hidden pockets and zippered ventilation along their lengths. A pair of 70′s running shorts appear, then reappear as a poly-athletic version of our classic thigh-hole jean. Track pants, merge into denim at hip with a kind of queer inevitability as the trunks of track jackets are replaced with cotton netting, or T shirts, recycled from elsewhere in the collection.
As is our custom, our T shirts feature looks from our previous collection. FW 2019 “COUNTRY” poses as promotional stills from an unfinished black spy thriller. Some are cut at the back, or missing a sleeve; wrap at the sides or gather at the waist with a drawstring. The appliqué language of American Varsity is repurposed for a dimensional camouflage, constructed from amoebas of khaki and bone jersey, or in cut-out varsity letters backed with fishnet to skin.
“T shirt” with fragments of print, embroidery and appliqué invades the collection as both idiom and material. A duet of buttonless split collared shirts appear to be constructed out of scraps of vintage surf-T’s. They spill from the southern border, as the bottom of a jean as a flares; or as a boxer shorts — unseat a Chino mid-hip. The body of our polos is likewise replaced, leaving nothing knit but a collar and pocket stranded in a graphic sea.
Poplin is evicted as the primary material for our collared shirts and wraps featuring vintage Budweiser beer graphics printed inside out. Even a pair of two-piece suits, over-dyed in navy and ox-blood, are revealed by their faint graphics and raw slashed seams to be composed of nothing but jersey T shirts.
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Tags: SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020, TELFAR, TELFAR SS 2020
Thu, October 3 2019 » Fashion Blog
Remembrance is altered by time. When data is transmitted from one mind to another –one era to the next – the truth is belied. Through Maison Margiela’s reflections on the digital age, the Défilé co-ed collection for Spring-Summer 2020 pays reverence to history and the lessons it taught us. In the digital age, our memories are hacked: distorted and trivialised through the chaotic noise of the social media debris. The mind becomes a search engine filtering through the latest impression, while wisdom gained from the past gradually gets buried in the news. Stories of hope, heroines and liberation are forgotten as history draws ever closer to repetition.
Detecting a need for mindfulness, creative director John Galliano prompts a wake-up call, challenging the senses to discern between memory and oblivion; real and unreal. Informed by ideas conceived in the Artisanal ateliers, the collection proposes key pieces rooted in conversations between the past, present and future. Tailoring rendered in the hack print – a motif resembling the accidental slip of a print machine – manifests as heavy tweeds or herringbones from the classic men’s wardrobe. In reality, they are trompe l’oeil prints uncovered by the white ‘hack’ element through which the fabric’s true identity is revealed. The illusion nods at the Artisanal theme of projection. Here, projective filtrage – the impression of light-projected imagery adapted into prints on translucent fabrics – translates into trench coats veiled in printed organza, triggering a sense-obscuring confusion of layers and light.
In a make-do and mend proposal of upcycling, holes – hand-cut or industrialised – riddle coats and dresses. Employing the technique of nomadic cutting, garments magnify and migrate on the body, in supersized trousers morphed into a strapless dress, or a leather trench coat cut into a corset. Elements from uniforms generate memories and associations of comfort: utility jackets appear in transformative form, while knitted vests and jumpers accentuate a co-educational sentiment. Short all-in-ones mutated with Watteau backs recall the eveningwear of a time when glamour, lest we forget, was often tantamount to hope.
Materials
Fabrics evoke the textures of the classic men’s wardrobe but are not always what they seem: light cottons and wools appear printed in the optical illusions of tweeds and herringbones, while traditional trench coats are swathed in printed organza. Indications of upcycling materialise in a Glam Slam coat with mattress lining, in a faux leather utility jacket, as well as faux reptile effects that conjure ideas of technology packaging. Tailoring wools are contrasted by materials from noble dressmaking: crin and satin are employed in suits, and taffeta and duchesse satin appear in all- in-ones with Watteau backs. Knitwear features in vests.
Technique
Employed in tailoring, the trompe l’oeil hack print makes light cotton or wool resemble the textures of fabrics from the classic men’s wardrobe such as tweeds or herringbones, only to interrupt the mirage with a slip-style white ‘hack’ revealing the true nature of the fabric. Projective filtrage features in coloured trench coats veiled in printed organza that confuses the senses. Holes form a predominant motif, either hand-cut or industrialised, nodding at a contemporary idea of polka dots and a proposal for upcycling. Techniques from haute couture are used in the fusion of all-in-ones with Watteau backs native to high dressmaking. Nomadic cutting signifies the migration of a garment from one part of the body to another such as trousers that become a dress, while flat-cutting appears in jackets that look one-dimensional until worn.
Palette
Colours inherent to the humble men’s wardrobe – black, brown, navy, white, beige and grey – are joined by those known from uniforms: olive, moss green and bordeaux. They are elevated by noble colours associated with haute couture and eveningwear, from seafoam to ochre and cinnamon.
Accessories
Introduced in the Artisanal collection, the Snatched – a new genderless bag by Maison Margiela – debuts in a smaller volume. Taking its name from contemporary slang for good looks, the fold-over pochette features cut asymmetric angles and a handle through which the hand snatches on to it. The bag appears in red patent bridle leather and white calfskin. The 5AC, a Maison Margiela classic, enters into the collection in faux crocodile tan leather. Knee-high boots with curved heels – in black or brown patent leather or white-painted faux python – build on those from the Artisanal collection alongside Mary-Janes in black, brown or white patent leather. Sailor collars upcycled from blankets feature as scarves, while hats pay homage to millinery native to haute couture.
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Tags: MAISON MARGIELA, MAISON MARGIELA SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Wed, October 2 2019 » Fashion Blog
Courrèges © Copyright 2019
Tonight, Courrèges presents its Spring-Summer 2020 collection on the Canal Saint Martin, Paris. With guests flanking its’ banks, a boat glides down the canal — wrapped in smoke and light with the vocalist Lafawndah serenading from its bow — a loosely choreographed spectacle transforming this most Parisian waterway quartier into public performance space.
In collaboration with Jeff Mills, the music moves from flowing to fixed; from the river to the street: as the boat docks and first looks disembark.
This relay between the concrete and the fluid; liberation and legacy, drives a collection grounded in self-styled categories: from studies in utility outerwear cut in the signature Courrèges architecture — but in patchworks of texture and color; to future-folksy knits in a generous mesh, hewn in bold orange black and white. Soft dressing in flowing gingham is dotted, and abuts an offering of tailored ensembles and concise separates: some lacerated with immaculately finished cut-ins which curve across the body or open in soft triangles to the chest.
The heart of SS20 is the materials. When we relaunched the line in 2018 with the initiative Fin Du Plastique , we pledged to discontinue the use of petrol based plastics — setting ourselves the challenge of replacing the house’s most iconic material: our textured vinyl.
We are pleased to have discovered an innovative algae based vinyl which uses 10 times less plastic — but for us it is not so much this discovery, as the fact that we made our commitment without knowing we would find an alternative that is the true calling of sustainability. Our new vinyl is not perfect — it is better. Sustainability is not a destination but a process: it is about creativity – not austerity; pleasure – not abstinence; today – not tomorrow.
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Tags: COURREGES, COURREGES SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Wed, October 2 2019 » Fashion Blog
Marine Serre © Copyright 2019
Imagine… By hiding in caves and shelters deep underground, small but illustrious groups have survived the Apocalypse – the climate wars, the heatwaves, mass extinction. Closely knit together by their past experiences, and their shared trouble under the old regime, they are coming out of their hide-outs, becoming aware of themselves, in the wasteland of oil and water left behind by those coming before them.
Temperature has gone up radically, but more self-confident than ever, they adapt, and codify their futurist-shamanic styles, their transformative themes – to birth several clans, across generations, species, and genders. For the first of these, black is the preferred colour before all others.
Moiré uniforms, leather embossed pants and shaped dresses, oily raincoats, shaped black satin looks. Black, referring to rebellion, radicalism, and autonomy – but also maturity, simplicity, abstinence. A second adapts tailoring to the new conditions, with a range of red and brown jacquard styles, toward a desert scuba-djellaba dress made of fluid red silk scarf.
The third of the communities entirely repels all ways of the old establishment, and their outdated nature-culture divide, aiming for deep spiritualist bonds across the entities. They do with what they find. Crocheted knitted tablecloth are serially turned in dresses and tops. Bed sheets and curtains of the old world become daily dresses. Former nightgowns, laces and old wool knitted shawls are transfigured into long white multi-layered robes.
For a fourth, the world has become so hot, their tough executive tailored suits are made out of towel… For those with a careful eye: water is indeed seeping through everywhere, and with it, the suggestion of ongoing evolution and hybridization. Morphing forward, to the next stratagem – mechanic or biological, it is not known, and what is the difference? The fifth and last, Marée Noir SS20, this alien Seraphim… the amphibian Queen emerges from it.
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Tags: MARINE SERRE, MARINE SERRE SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Tue, October 1 2019 » Fashion Blog
Summer is a feeling, a way of being and living, just as much as it is a season. So much so, in fact, that writer Albert Camus found there was, within himself, an invincible summer even in the midst of winter. But this is actually Summer, which naturally calls for an easy, breezy spirit; for a freedom of views and a fluidity of mind, reconnecting with nature, living in the outdoors.
A summery Missoni collection that is a new foray into a mindset that is freewheeling, effervescent and joyous by definition. Put together, which is a Missoni praxis just as much as it is a view onto things, informs a way of dressing that knows no boundaries of pattern, shape, color. The mix of everything is dematerialized by the weightless textures and light colors.
Protagonists of this summer that oozes the carelessness of a long day spent walking by the water, soaking up with sun rays and breeze, holding a basket in the hands and generally luxuriating in some dolce far niente is a couple. The feeling of mutual connection between the two is evident, from the way they behave to the way they appear.
Her dresses bare the shoulders, flow, swarm in printed layers; his tailored jackets are ombrè, his shirts knitted, his spirit is informal. They exchange prints, patterns and textures, making borders thin, or completely useless.
She steals a suit, maybe just the waistcoat or a pair of slippers; he indulges in a caftan, in the glittering of lurex. Summer turns into an effortless way to represent oneself.
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Tags: MISSONI, MISSONI SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Wed, September 25 2019 » Fashion Blog
The possibility that multiple identities can exist within a single garment is a concept inherent to the world of MM6. Duality, in particular, provokes us to question origin versus evolution – the idea that our collective consciousness ascribes certain meanings (and even rules) to materials, shapes, and the way we wear them – all of which can be twisted in an instant.
To that effect, the polemic characters of John Lennon and Yoko Ono are the starting point for the MM6 collection for Spring Summer 2020, their 1969 wedding and subsequent ‘bed-in’ for peace a source of global attention – for better or for worse.
Parading in an infinite looping action, a cast of MM6 models populate the Fabbrica Orobia – a former railway station in the south of Milan, stripped to a concrete shell. Marching to the beat of their own drum, they carry individual speakers playing a soundscape of church bells, chirping birds, honking cars, spoken word recitals, rock, and folk music engineered to provoke harmony and dissonance as they pass each other by.
Questioning what is casual and what is ‘dressed-up’, the MM6 wardrobe revels in the in-between space of our expectations, appropriating both British and Japanese traditions (care of the season’s source material). Everything from the tuxedo jacket to the tracksuit pant is re-imagined, removed from its original context to become something else. T-shirts and tutus collide in broken white shades of tulle and jersey, becoming draped and tiered separates, veiled blouses, and cleft-open dresses (worn undone or back-to-front).
Cut in black leather, white satin and tattered blue denim, shawl collar blazers are split up the sides to fall straight or tie across the body, and the ‘blouse blanche’ work coat returns bearing a shadowy bouquet of tulips. Adorning pieces from a circle-cut doily dress to the iconic nude bodysuit, the MM6 logo and numbers device join slogans ‘They Are Two Of A Kind’ and ‘BETTERHALFISM’, evoking the collection’s performative spirit of commitment, celebration, and amical togetherness.
Notions of the ready-made continue to inform the MM6 accessories collection, exemplified by the introduction of the tin can cylinder-heeled boot and sandal, offering a satirical wink to the ‘chivaree’ traditions of a couple’s wedding night.
They join new moulded sneaker shapes and square toe boots that bear MM6’s signature cylinder ‘6’ stamp heel, whilst alice bands, nano-sized origami bags and ruffled pool slides play on pearl and corsage details seen elsewhere. ‘Found object’ jewellery includes engraved ID tags, safety pin charms and house key pendants – transforming clichéd symbols of domestic life.
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Tags: MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, MM6 MAISON MARGIELA SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Wed, September 25 2019 » Fashion Blog
Family–the glue that binds us together– and the house traditions of craft and artisanship form the twin foundations of a Salvatore Ferragamo collection that is light, bright and designed for joyful living in the 2020’s.
Paul Andrew explains: “It started with a photo on my mother’s mantelpiece of my brother and I on summer holiday in Italy when we were kids in the 1980s. We are wearing clashing Bermuda prints and smiles. I wanted to bring that feeling of fun and sun-drenched innocence into a modern context with a collection that is physically very light and knowingly bourgeois but which also has tangible depth, substance and care in its construction.”
The house icon Vara shoe, designed by Fiamma Ferragamo, daughter of house-founder Salvatore, in 1979 is lovingly reinvented as the Viva: mono-colour in a sophisticated spectrum of tones, the famous grosgrain bow is enlarged and expressed in leather – as is the original shoe’s hardware accessory – on a pump that comes either cinched in the back or with a solidly crafted upper.
New prints featuring Ammannati’s 16th Century Fountain of Neptune in Florence – recently restored thanks to funding from the Ferragamo family – play against oversized tulip prints on backless short dungarees, scarf-caps, long easy silk devore dresses, men’s shirting and swimwear.
Bubble skirts, cinched-ankle trousers, racerback tailored waistcoats and wide-legged dungarees are all affectionate Italian-flavoured 80s revivals, often expressed in leather and presented in a colour story designed to echo the tradition of Murano glassmaking. 3D printed jewellery in clear resin is shot through with sinuous twist of colour. Trenches and dungarees are cut open at the back to let the skin breathe: leather fronted trousers and shirts are backed in cotton to conjure a striking contrast.
Artisanal achievements include a Raschel knit dress and top striped in fringed ribbons of crepe de chine, and a hand crocheted tank-dress made in the hills above Florence. A light fringe-edged skirt of woven silk features a sash panel. Men’s tailoring is breezily split-seamed.
The new Ferragamo triple pocket expandable handbag comes in leather-lined linen canvas, hand woven leather mesh, ostrich and waxed calfskin and is presented in a new shoulder slung size.
Paul Andrew says: “Precious but never heavy, these are clothes, shoes and bags to cherish far beyond a single season for many summers to come. They are built for long languid days of sun, salt, sand and ocean. I hope that for those who own them, in the years to come they will be a little like that photo on my mother’s mantelpiece: a well-worn reminder of happy times.”
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Tags: Salvatore Ferragamo, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO SS 2020, SPRING SUMMER MEN 2020, SPRING SUMMER WOMEN 2020
Wed, September 25 2019 » Fashion Blog
