Tue, June 25 2019 » Fashion Blog
VALENTINO SPRING SUMMER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
Traveling is certainly a physical activity, but it truly enlightens and enriches when it takes the form of a free-flowing, borderless meandering of the mind. Travelers who go on journeys within the realm of their own minds are capable of transcending boundaries to reach the elsewhere, expanding possibilities and imagining utopias.
As signs and traces of different cultures mingle and flow in a sartorial present that makes everything possible, an exotic utopia materializes. Differences come together and everything finds a meaning – another meaning, with an unexpected significance – in the dialogue with the other.
Lines flow, colors glow as the high and the low, the bright and the earthy mingle and twine. The purity of the djellaba, the simplicity of the caftan, the human authenticity, a touch of handmade crochet and embroidery encounters the precision of the suit, the ease of flowing outerwear. Imaginative landscapes – exotic utopias, indeed – created by artist Roger Dean, who designs the elsewhere, many elsewhere’s, in bright colors onto surfaces, materializing imagined places, making them visible, hence real.
As the journey changes the traveler, readdressing habits, gestures and views, so the act of dressing gains a lighthearted absent-mindedness: a straw hat on the head, Valentino Garavani Rockrunner Plus sneakers at the feet, practical bags in the hand. There is no final destination to the journey, which happens in the here and in the now.
Utopias have the power to shape what is not there, and are charged with the urge to make it happen. The elsewhere is made possible.
Mon, June 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
DIOR SPRING SUMMER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
The past of the future, now becoming then. The notion of the relic – the idea of constant evolution, investigation and creation of history – sits behind every haute couture maison. These houses are a living, breathing connection to a storied past, to another epoch – a testament to the power and currency of memory. For summer 2020, Kim Jones, the artistic director of Dior men’s collections, explores this notion, collaborating with multidisciplinary american artist daniel arsham, whose work examines the archaeology of the present. The result is a testament to Dior’s legacy – one we uphold, one that is continually being created.
Sculpture and architecture were integral to Christian Dior’s work: his haute couture was moulded and structured – dramatic silhouettes and crafted clothes were soft sculptures in themselves. For this summer 2020 collection, the shapes are supple, fluid, gently structured and featherweight, but combined with working methodologies and characteristics that evoke sculptural origins.
Leather garments have details that are bonded, then sliced like a frieze; pieces are printed from the inside to capture features of cut during the printing process and throughout; and the tone-on-tone Dior oblique monogram and shading express an idea of sculptural elements, like bas-relief. A colour palette of sun-bleached neutrals and intense colour hues a monumental landscape.
A superstitious importance given to totems, the notion of luck and the magical properties ascribed to physical objects were part of Christian Dior’s ideological make-up. Elements of Dior – both hallmarks of the house and incidental pieces that express its physical actuality – here become emblematic relics. Items drawn from monsieur Dior’s studio – his clock, his telephone – have been cast by daniel arsham, reminiscent of the artist’s future relics series.
In its first-ever collaboration with the luxury luggage brand rimowa, Dior presents a unique capsule collection, including a backpack, a champagne case, a hand case, a clutch and a cabin suitcase, characterised by the German house’s iconic aluminium grooves. Forged with craftsmanship and expertise, this special-edition Dior and rimowa collection features the Dior oblique motif and uses an innovative combination of anodising processes, whereby vibrant pigments are inscribed directly into the product’s aluminium skin, lending the design a high complexity of reflective, lasting colours that celebrate the spirit of the material as the building block of the collection.
As ever, the collection is founded on the history of Dior, its excellence of cut, tailoring and craft. But it also reinterprets modern history, a new heritage. The Dior newspaper print, introduced twenty years ago as part of the spring-summer 2000 haute-couture collection, is redrafted, once again in collaboration with daniel arsham. The collection also telescopes to now, underscoring styles Kim Jones has introduced to the house of Dior: a selection of neo-classics.
The tailleur oblique of Kim Jones’s debut is reiterated, its details adapted to outerwear; the reinvention of the Dior saddle bag continues, its curves adapted as storm-flaps on coats; and draped volant sashes introduced for winter 2019-2020 evolve. Today, they have a shaded touch – dragging through the sand of the show décor, it appears as if they are already marked by the passage of a different measure of time. Others outline the lapels of tailored jackets, like cast shadows.
The notion of the hand is the essence of couture. Translating it to menswear continues: parisian ateliers create clouds of pleated georgette, enveloping the figure like pigment in water while, expressing the universality of craft, toile de jouy patterns are hand-painted by kimono craftsmen from Kyoto, Japan. Both methods recall another era.
In this collection, the hand of the house is joined by those of the artist daniel arsham and Kim Kones, interacting in a dynamic and constant creative exchange. Pieces have been worked by both the Dior men’s atelier and arsham, who also examined the Dior archives to project into an imagined future, creating them as precious relics of a distant eon. New pieces have been prematurely aged, eroded, crumbled. Yoon Ahn’s jewellery designs have been taken, recast, eroded and returned by arsham to be recreated by the Dior studio.
Transparent shoes resemble casts in themselves, with socks visible inside. Graphics from Dior’s history become tablets in plaster, broken and altered by arsham, reworked in silicone as appliqué badges applied across accessories. Continuing in a new tradition, established under Kim Jones, of artists reinterpreting the iconography of the Dior men’s saddle bag, arsham casts its form as an artefact: the resulting bags will be 3-d printed, in limited edition.
The Dior logo is transposed, too: it becomes a façade, letters raised, with cracks and fissures worked into the surface of the cloth, worn by models walking through a desert scene filled with other monumental monoliths to Dior.
An interplay between past, present and future, the value of the past, looking ahead from the present – this collection explores anticipation and the elasticity of time, simultaneously looking back and forward. History is not immutable: it is dynamic, changing and alive. This collection is a tribute to Dior, the one that’s familiar and the one still taking form.
Mon, June 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
SACAI SPRING SUMMER 2020 MENSWEAR + PRE SPRING WOMEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
“That rug really tied the room together”
Designer Chitose Abe riffs on her signature hybridisation, taking Dude from The Big Lebowski’s observation as her starting point to join two familiar forms together in a new way.
Tuxedo pieces make for a more elegant and sartorial perspective, playing with scale and de-constructing sacai-style. Two tuxedo shirts of opposing scales are ’tied together’ with a stitched on bow tie, left hanging open. Half belts ’tie together’ two coats or tailored jackets to make one new piece. An over-sized denim jacket is attached to a shrunken version of the same; a child’s size MA1 jacket is joined to an over-sized adult scaled version of the same.
Familiar forms are cut with a two-dimensional approach, void of the contouring and fabric wastage associated with traditional pattern cutting, creating a new draped silhouette when worn on the body; a new exaggerated, slouchy ease that’s reinforced by joining together clothing items to make one piece. A tuxedo shirt and pants re-imagined as a dress; pants and a shirt become one.
Taking inspiration from the utilitarian style of fishermen from a bygone era, whole hybridised looks are made from a single fabric, this time playing with the forms to create the juxtaposition. A t-shirt silhouette made of suiting fabric, with the fabrication’s original intent suggested by tailored jacket detailing at the hem, re-positioned pockets and suit lining sleeves.
Celebrating the archival prints of Hawaiian shirt legend Duke Kahanamoku with SUN SURF..
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – T-shirts made from newly developed Brewed Protein Blended sustainable fabric by Spiber, featuring graphics by Fabien Baron.
Sacai x Gramicci mountaineering pants, designed for maximum range of motion when climbing.
Previewing the next instalment of Nike x sacai sneakers.
Mon, June 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
Mon, June 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
LOEWE SPRING SUMMER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
Populating the LOEWE Men’s Spring Summer 2020 show space inside the auditorium of the Maison de l’UNESCO, nine works by the London- based artist Hilary Lloyd are shown on monitors mounted on vertical chrome columns and trolleys. Spanning almost a decade (2008-17), the works examine aspects of the natural and built worlds, often capturing off the-cuff or staged moments from the artist’s everyday experience.
The shifting character of Lloyd’s gaze —fixed, fluid or fractured— combines with an emphasis on the physical apparatus of the installation to imbue her work with sculptural presence and subliminal eroticism. From near-static works such as Shirt and Plant to the looping repetition or disco-style strobing of Easter Bunny and Jewellery, Lloyd’s works resist classical notions of duration whilst imposing a formalised, architectural frame.
In dialogue with Lloyd’s work, the collection invokes otherworldly perspectives of the day-to-day through a dream-like filter. Long and pure, the silhouette revolves around harmonious ensembles of texture and line disrupted, at times, by the tension of new volumes. Affirming LOEWE’s dedication to global craft, the house signature oro ‘cashmere’ suede mingles with locally-woven textiles in tunic and caftan shapes with split placket and buckled yoke details. From Bangladesh: hand-embroidered red and white cotton; from Burkina Faso: hand-dyed and woven indigo cloth; and from Japan: ultrafine blue linen denim and punched cotton gauze.
Complementing nautical archetypes from sailor’s shirts to washed silk dungarees, monochrome short suits in layers of poplin and voile meet airy knits and tanks in chevron or vertical stripes. Technical satin appears in accents on dry wool tuxedos or as an unlined raglan trench coat, as the new LOEWE tailoring returns with a relaxed two-button peaked lapel blazer. Moon disc pendants are worn like totems, and organza lilies sprout marabou feathers as earrings and a brooch.
Expanding on the season’s nomadic mood, thatched moccasins, suede link sandals and boat shoes evoke outdoor summer pursuits, as lace-up boots in espadrille stripes channel LOEWE’s Spanish roots. The geometric Berlingo shoulder bag is introduced in a large size in suede, toile and calfskin. The iconic Puzzle bag is revisited in a deconstructed silhouette in supple smooth calf leather, and a new Shopper Backpack in soft napa calf leather references LOEWE’s leather savoir-faire.
Mon, June 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
Sun, June 23 2019 » Fashion Blog
Sun, June 23 2019 » Fashion Blog
HOMME PLISSE’ ISSEY MIYAKE SPRING SUMMER 2020 COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE is created with the intent to liberate the way men dress. The clothes are developed based on designer Issey Miyake’s research on pleating since 1988. Not only are they designed for practical use, they also convey a sense of beauty and ease in their form. HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE is made for people of all ages and origins and for any occasion. It sets out to brighten up everyday life as it inspires people to express their originality in a creative way.
Sun, June 23 2019 » Fashion Blog
ACNE STUDIOS SPRING SUMMER 2020 MEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK
A collection that captures the focal point of Acne Studios – experimentation and archetypes, combined and contrasted. “Acne Studios has always been a place of experimentation, on which we have built solid foundations. It made me think of a student at art school, using its traditions to push somewhere new,” says Jonny Johansson, creative director of Acne Studios.
What guides the eye and how we see has long fascinated artists and photographers, the way they use effects to suggest details, and what can or can’t be seen. This exploration of our visual field is at the heart of Acne Studios men’s for spring/summer 2020, as if the project of an art student. The resulting pieces, with details that appear and disappear, are worn as a student would put them together: with irreverence.
Every piece connects with the original spirit of Acne Studios – indeed, Acne stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions”. This sense of experimentation is found in new fabric developments; inquisitive design; unexpected combinations and a playfulness with which the pieces are put together.
A transparent acetate coat has jacquard lining beneath, sometimes obscured, sometimes visible. Acetate lapels of a tailored jacket warp the light, while acetate ties cause a blur. A denim jacket in opaque wrinkled nylon has classic topstitch detailing only down the centre of the body, all details fading away to leave an open seam at the cuff.
Cotton nylon knit striped sweaters are a new fabric development with purposefully irregular pleating, as if long-stored then found. Woven coats and shorts have patches of yarn cut away to reveal the structure beneath. Shirts run throughout, from archetypal cuts to oversized granddad collar shirts with added functional pockets, and floral shirts that hang loose on the body.
Questions of visibility are everywhere: check pants are created from wide woven strips of fabric, revealing glimpses of flesh beneath. Buckles of coats are see-through casts, the memory of the original buckle left within them. The Manhattan sneaker evolves to a new lightweight performance style, with transparent sides and overdyed. Leather sandals are oversized, providing contrast.
Student satchels are trimmed with contrast colours, or turned into clutches and cross-body bags. Sunglasses have double lenses, as if a visual echo. Chain jewellery is created from pin heads, held by cable ties. Knitted bracelets and cuffs have threads that hang down trace over the hand.
Sun, June 23 2019 » Fashion Blog
