Day & Night. Chloé (by Phoebe Philo) SS02

December 8, 2023December 7, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Since Phoebe Philo‘s big comeback that we’ve all experienced during the late autumn, I love digging into her work at Chloé – an underrated era from early 2000s, before reinventing Céline. What I find truly intriguing is that Philo subtly refers to her Chloé days in her new work. For her spring-summer 2002 debut , avoiding in-your-face rock ’n’ roll attitude, the British designer blurred the distinction between day and evening wear with breezy separates inspired by ’70s Saint Tropez, Brigitte Bardot, and Talitha Getty. A sense of easygoing elegance permeated everything from fitted tops with intricately worked sleeves to lace-trimmed camisoles and fabulous monkey-appliqué bathing suits. A long suede skirt with blush gray and black panels exuded earthy chic, as did the Moroccan-style beaded bags and sandal-boots in aged gold leather. There were also plenty of high-impact sexy staples, a category Philo and Stella McCartney introduced to the brand during the latter’s tenure (Phoebe was Stella’s right-hand at that time). The low-slung flared pants with flirty cutouts at the hips, pinafore shorts, summery minidresses and punchy T-shirts with net backs could easily pass in 2023 and look absolutely HOT.

P.S. I also happen to have an amazing macramé blouse from this collection, waiting for a new owner in my vintage shop!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Body-Celebratory. Xuly.Bët SS24

December 5, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s well-known wizardry with pantyhose dates to the 1990s. For spring-summer 2024, the designer revived the signature red-stitched nylon tops with which he first made his name. Cut into a sleeved bandeau that can be worn Flashdance style, or pieced into a minidress with elongated sleeves, these stretchy Xuly.Bët wonders had a second-skin fit that goes with Kouyaté’s body-conscious and body-celebratory dressing. Their flexibility also spoke more broadly to the designer’s generous and innovative approach to fashion, which is influenced by his experiences with second hand clothes in Mali, and can now also be framed within current discussions about sustainability. Also back in action were Kouyaté’s sporty jackets and tops made using upcycled American football jerseys. Some looks were styled with vintage basketball shorts, whose bagginess provided a nice contrast to the tight fits of leggings and micro minis. The gold-on-denim pieces – some modeled by the designer’s son – were part of a collaboration between Xuly.Bët and artist Smaïl Kanouté. Kouyaté used Kanouté prints on pieces worn in a performance of “Yasuke (The Black Samurai),” which is about bringing together diverse traditions, choreographed by Kanouté. Kouyaté still believes in the power of fashion to evoke joy; he also thinks it can be used as a platform for change.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Everybody Comes To Hollywood. Balenciaga Pre-Fall 2024

December 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Balenciaga‘s first-ever fashion show in Los Angeles had it all: the Kardashian-Calabasas flagship style, some Hitchcockian drama with a Lynchian twist, the taste of an Erewhon smoothie and even the H of the Hollywood sign as the backdrop. Demna called LA “my favorite city in the world,” saying, “all my cultural evolution, when I was a teenager growing up in this kind of post-Soviet vacuum, it really came from here, through movies, music – I mean, everything that I kind of absorbed, that later on started to kind of become my fashion references.” There was certainly something surreal about Balenciaga’s gothy black clad guests turning up en masse on a well manicured stretch of Windsor Boulevard in Hancock Park. The collection skewed SoCal, starting with the exercise clothes, gym bags, and souped-up sneakers of the first few looks. The circa Y2K velour jumpsuits and giant high-heeled shearling boots that came next will be familiar to readers of US Magazine, which would’ve been another way the young Demna got his celebrity content.

Back in those pre-social media days, the paparazzi lurked outside hipster coffee-shops. Circa 2023, it’s Erewhon smoothies that the stars are clutching. Timed to yesterday’s event, Balenciaga collaborated with the LA grocer on a juice. Made in part with activated charcoal powder, it’s as black as the stretchy turtleneck and tight jeans worn in the show by Brigitte Nielsen. “I don’t know what’s in it,” Demna said. “I just wanted it to be black.” The designer (officially) rejected the idea that he approached the collection – or LA itself – with irony, but there’s something comically perverse about a paper grocery bag made in leather. The sensational evening clothes were as Hollywood as the rest of the show, but it was easier to read earnestness in their elegance and drama. There was a respectful nod to Cristobal Balenciaga in the grand volumes of a white wedding gown whose funnel neck extended to just below the model’s eyes. Two other dresses conjured post-coital bed sheets tied at the bust, if bed sheets came in patent leather. These were pure Demna.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Go With The Flow. Maryam Nassir Zadeh SS24

November 30, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Spontaneous” is a word that well describes Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s design practice. The spring-summer 2024 „Rush” lookbook is a result – not by choice, but by circumstance – of total spontaneity, as it was styled and documented during one afternoon in Paris. „The exhilarating exercise was taken as an activity of being in the moment surrendering to circumstance and making the most an afternoon with people you love around a medium you love, clothing”, said the New York-based designer of the go-with-the-flow process. Following your guts and instincts is the best possible advice anyone in fashion should take close to heart, and while sadly not many follow it, Nassir Zadeh proves that its utterly true. The collection, paired down in fabrics and styles, is a sincere return to the designer’s core and past styles, as well as a reiteration of her favorite summer clothes. But there were also novelties that will be enjoyed by the brand’s loyal fanbase. One of the heroes of this lineup is a wrap that can be worn as a skirt or a dress that was inspired by a cover-up Zadeh’s mother wore in the ’90s. It’s essentially an easy-peasy scarf-topped skirt that you self-tie. It’s vacation-ready but also has that lived-in Lower East Side cool with which Zadeh’s work has become so synonymous. “What I’ve been trying to achieve for so long is this sensibility which I look for a lot… when a garment has spirit in it and it has lightness and delicacy in the way that it’s made.” Love.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Tethys. Standing Ground SS24

November 22, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

For his third showcase at Fashion East, the sensational Standing Ground designer Michael Stewart doubled down on his statuesque yet ethereal aesthetic in a collection – entitled Tethys, a reference to the prehistoric Tethys Sea which was an early ocean formed about 35 million years ago when most of the countries of the earth were still one large landmass- made from offcuts and leftover fabrics. This time, the palette was inspired by the pastoral landscapes of Ireland, featuring shades of powder blue and moss green. There were column dresses with ruched detailing adorned with intricate beading. “While I’ve developed something of a distinct aesthetic that’s a combination of technique and form, this season’s pieces have a certain purity and softness, while maintaining something of a sci-fi vibe,” he shared ahead of the show back in September. Ever since founding Standing Ground in 2022, Stewart has strictly dedicated himself to the canvas of the evening gown. He is a designer who knows the importance of a sharp fold and a glamorous wrinkle. Naturally, his spring-summer 2024 outing delivered that in abundance. The construction of these pieces was exquisite. It will be hard to forget the cobalt blue gown constructed from a single piece of fabric or the green crushed velvet number that genuinely made that notoriously tacky fabric look couture. Of course, the beaded accoutrements were the stars of the show. The show notes described them as “Xenomorphic coils, conjuring subliminal techno-erotics and a gothic posthumanism.” They encrusted the dresses like barnacles, or a H.R. Giger-style exoskeleton.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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