Author: Design & Culture by Ed

Power. Saint Laurent AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Here’s one of the most brilliant collections coming from Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. There was power, there was vibrance, there was colour – something I missed or didn’t really feel in his last collections. And, it didn’t look like Hedi Slimane’s Celine. The opening look laid bare exactly what he was thinking of for the season: an haute bourgeois red tartan double-breasted blazer, gilt-buttoned, velvet-collared, atop a matching jabot neckline blouse, hair swept back, substantial gold and jet earrings, and… black latex trousers. And there was plenty more of tailoring: exquisite jackets, impeccably cut, double-breasted, many with those same gilded buttons, in ochre cashmere, pearly gray flannel, jaunty navy wool, natty brown houndstooth – and all worn with those same dominatix, all-gloss pants. What was new and completely refreshing was the way Vaccarello chose to riff on the lush sensuality that Monsieur Saint Laurent was such a master of. And what else was new, yet very Yves: the uninhibited sense of color, with Vaccarello working his way through the classic YSL palette – fuchsia to purple to emerald to hot pink – and showcasing it his own way through that extremely non-classic latex. But when styled with YSL’s Le Scandale-inspired fur coats, it all made even more sense. Backstage, Vaccarello acknowledged the #MeToo climate, and spoke of celebrating a woman’s power and her own sense of self. Ever since his arrival at Saint Laurent, Vaccarello has endorsed a woman’s right to express her own physicality, and her sexuality, any way she wants.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The New Business Look. Coperni AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Here’s the business look of the future, delivered by Coperni. A troop of hacker replicants took over Station F, a startup campus on Paris’s east side. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant staged their Coperni runway show in the campus’s expansive atrium. The venue suited their vision – the look of the new collection is as sharp, sexy, and futuristic. The Coperni boys spent two years at Courrèges, whose founder André Courrèges laid the foundations for Space Age style. That DNA continues in their work. This was a highly persuasive outing: confident in its minimal concision. Pants suits were cut close to the body with very little in the way of excess, save for the flourish here and there of extra-long split sleeves or a jacket hem that swooshed to one side in a gesture suggestive of movement. A gorgeous little black dress cut asymmetrically at the neckline was just as lean.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

On Another Planet. Marine Serre AW19

| Design & Culture by Ed

Marine Serre predicts the future. Last season, the sight of masked models might have felt sligtly too dark and painfully dystopian. Today, the threat of corona virus paralyses Europe, and people go crazy for masks. For autumn-winter 2020, Serre also sent out a number of “protection-wear” looks, but this time, some rays of bright future are seen on the horizon. “It’s quite stormy right now,” she said, “yet we have to see a future in that. It’s about finding ourselves there—understanding it and embracing it.” The designer tumbled deep down into the futurist wormhole, exploring fashion on a distant future planet. Her every-age-imaginable model cast, even feauturing the models’ actual kids, underscored that it’s about more than her own generation: we are really all in this together. There was a series of sandy denim pieces with a distressed scorched effect, allowing some new kind of warped beauty to emerge; their hue also riffed back to Frank Herbert’s “Dune”, which Serre quoted on her invitation, inspired, she said, by its depiction of new communities emerging in a radically different world. Much of the collection was about perfecting existing silhouettes and focusing on Serre’s commitment to upcycling, which, she said, now accounts for fifty percent of her business (other brands, take notes!). The weaving of past, present and future together was there all the time: you could see it in the hourglass shape of a trio of collaged houndstooth coats for any gender; intricately constructed outerwear conjured out of leather and fake fur bedspreads; a passage of looks utilizing white lace trim tablecloths; the jewellery was made from pre-used stuff like vintage rings. Serre’s collection was a powerful celebration of what could come out of today’s state of the world.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.