New Poetry. Paolo Carzana SS25

As we’re approaching 2025, everybody seems to look backwards at the last quarter of the century in fashion. But let’s also take a look at the future. Paolo Carzana, the London-based designer, makes one feel very hopeful about. The über-talented designer, a finalist for this year’s LVMH Prize, uses plants and natural pigments like burnt umber to dye his crafty, gender-fluid garments. Carzana’s signature is the raggedy, lived-in look of his garments that makes men and women look as if teleported from another century. There’s also that hazy, misty, as if seen through a broken lens, lyrical silhouette of his clothes: the pinstripes on a pair of men’s trousers look blurred, the Caravaggio-esque drapes of the dresses seem to be shaped by gushes of unexpected wind. The gauzy layering and the buttonless, zip-free poetry of Carzana’s work makes him a truly, truly unique creative who doesn’t obey the industry norms of production scaling or aggressive marketing. No other contemporary designer sees beauty and strength the way he does.