Revenge Dressing. Alaïa SS24

July 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Alaïa collection by Pieter Mulier is hot, sexy, F-A-S-H-I-O-N. In another words, a perfect start of haute couture week, which quite ironically happens in the midst of one of the most tumultuous moments in France’s contemporary history. Taking place over a footbridge across the Seine, the fashion show couldn’t have been more public – a strong contrast to the intimacy of Mulier’s last presentation, which he held in his own apartment in Antwerp. “For me, that’s what it is about,” he declared afterward. “It’s about extremes. You know Alaia is high heels or flats.” The bridge bristles with lovers’ padlocks bolted to its handrails. It seemed an apt environmental accessory to the unabashedly sexualized, latex and visible-thong clad vision of women Mulier was unleashing on the world. “It’s the next step in what I want to say about Alaïa,” he said. “Not fetish – that’s not a good word – but it’s personal obsessions that I wanted to do in a way that other people didn’t. Using latex, using leather in a different way. Creating a silhouette that’s very feminine, but yet quite different than what you see today.”

Kinky fashion has its own long Parisian tradition – there’s nothing new in seeing the proposal of chic bourgeois women in immaculate tailoring who also happen to be displaying underwear. These male-gaze luxury fashion tropes have a 50-year history that goes back as far as Yves Saint Laurent and Helmut Newton. The 21st-century set of questions for Mulier center more on how to handle the empathetic argument that Alaïa always made for glorifying the physicality of womanhood; how to claim it as his own, and make it relevant in his own time. Indeed ‘time’ was the overarching theme Mulier was talking about—in the sense of the time it had taken to mould and tailor the silhouettes and add obsessive details, “like 35 buttons on a coat.” You could see the time-consuming techniques lavished, say, on the opaque-sheer splicing of horizontal bands of strips of leather and gauzy fabric, winding in varying widths down a floor-length dress. The tailoring was nipped to the narrowest of pencil skirts; the taut knitwear engineered to expose the thonged bodysuits that are, of course, Alaïa-central. If you’re looking for a revenge wardrobe, Mulier has it sorted out for you.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Out Of Town. Burberry Resort 2024

June 30, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Daniel Lee‘s era at Burberry is taking shape. In his debut, Britishness and the emphasis on the outdoor-wear were the biggest take-aways. In his second collection – resort 2024 – these ideas are further developed. I’m stuck with the same impression as back in February: the offering is good, but… I’m not shook. It seems that Lee’s Burberry will be much safer in fashion-wise terms, comparing to his time at Bottega Veneta. The latest line-up is a mix of “proper” looking clothes with a touch of Philo-isms (Lee worked under Phoebe at Céline; the silk foulard look in swan print is a clear signifier of that) and accessory tricks he mastered to perfection at Bottega (the big, chunky boots are back). The faux-fur trapper hat is still hot, even though we’ve seen it on the runway debut. Probably the most interesting thing about the collection is what the designer did with Prince of Wales check. He morphed it into something sophisticated but just a little weird: traditional at the top, but warping downwards into digital-age waves. Below that, tights that take up the same pattern. And on the feet, a slew of the kind of footwear that engendered fanatical enthusiasm from Lee’s followers at Bottega. The designer talked about establishing “an outdoor and outerwear” feel for this collection. That’s Burberry-central, of course – windswept moors, rain coats, quilted jackets, and all that. Playing around with Burberry checks comes with the territory. The landscape and culture are first nature to this Yorkshire-born designer, meaning he’s no need to ladle on the references with a heavy hand. One of his English country-walk tropes turned into a delightful lattice-work of yellow dandelion flowers printed on dresses in a pattern mimicking a traditional argyle.

A Feeling. Bode SS24

June 30, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Whether Emily Adams Bode Aujla shows her collections on a runway in Paris or as a lookbook, the New York-based designer always manages to capture a true feeling, a notion of a fleeting moment. For spring-summer 2024, Bode seeks inspiration in the Crane Estate, the residence in Massachusetts owned by an eccentric 90-year-old woman where her mother worked back in 1976. This appeared to be a perfect backdrop for Emily’s recently found obsession. Since her wedding last year, the designer is interested in investigating eveningwear. “It’s something that I’ve become quite passionate about because it’s really picked up for us,” she said. It’s evident in menswear pieces like the translucent-and-black all-over-sequin-embellished jacket, the navy blue suit with goldenrod crochet embroidery, and the white suit worn with a gorgeous blue and white striped pajama top with frog closures (you can also get the matching pants). It’s also apparent in pieces from her nascent womenswear line, like the sheer green dropped-waist dress studded with seed beads and the cream brocade midi-length jacket with three oversized satin bows for a closure. She called it a wedding jacket. “I love this idea,” Bode Aujla said. “I didn’t get to wear a vintage jacket like this for my wedding, but I thought that’s what I would wear. In my head, after the ceremony, this is what you put on; or maybe it’s worn at the courthouse wedding.” She continued, “Or you could wear this with black tuxedo trousers and have a really elevated evening look that’s not a dress. I could easily put that in men’s, but I think I wanted this and I think our girl wants this.” Although women have been buying and wearing Bode since the beginning, womenswear officially debuted last season in Paris. Those who expected it to look exactly like the menswear but with a slightly different fit were in for a surprise; the range is decidedly sexy. This came across in the knit panties and matching T-shirts, tanks, and bralettes; in dusty blue crochet dresses, and in the thin-as-air fish-print printed caftans. The designer added, “people commented about this on our runway show too. A lot of people expected it to be one way, and it’s like, the Bode woman compliments the Bode guy, she is not the Bode guy.”

Belle Du Jour. Saint Laurent Pre-Fall 2023

June 29, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

If you’ve had a yearning for big shoulders lately, you can thank Anthony Vaccarello for that. For several seasons now, and for both the women’s and men’s collections, Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent has been pumping them way up. It’s a look that rests on a squared-off line with a lot of impact. It’s also been a neat way to underscore his and the house’s exemplary tailoring skills which are impeccable. The deadly-chic Saint Laurent women’s pre-fall 2023 sketches out the look. There those shoulders are on masculine inflected overcoats, their swagger exaggerated by dark glasses, door knocker hoop earrings, and spike-heeled black boots. There they are again on leather and shearling jackets, some cut with a curvy blouson-y look or natty aviator versions, with featherweight shawls knotted at the neck to trail in the wind, leaving everything and everyone in their wake. The high-gloss, high-power era of fashion, roughly the late ’70s to the just dawning ’90s, is something that Vaccarello’s YSL has long been tapped into. Yet his smartness with it has been to amplify the look while also denuding it of some of its associations. Yes, he might be evoking that time with his second-skin black dressing, the wrists weighted with hefty golden cuffs, or with the roomy boardroom coats over sliver-thin pencil skirts that finish a fraction above the knees. But this isn’t a historicist retreat; there’s no desire here to create clothing shellacked with outmoded notions of power and status. Instead, Vaccarello’s attitude reads as modern: a touch of dishevelment with the hair of his models, a certain androgynous beauty, a kind of casual offhandedness about the whole proceedings. Vaccarello is designing for someone who’s curious about wearing chicer, glossier, more structured clothing, but who is still firmly living in, and dressing for, the world today.

Beautiful Defiance. Marc Jacobs AW23

June 27, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The 29 models did two finale laps (which took about three minutes) and then Marc Jacobs was out taking his bow. The defiant scarcity and razor-like sharpness of the designer’ latest fashion show is just so refreshing in times of endless fashion weeks and flashy presentations – where the clothes are no longer the main focus. Jacobs’ clothes – some of his most powerful designs in seasons, less couture-ish, more ready-to-wear-ish – themselves looked indebted to the 1980s, the last analog decade before the internet went wide, and the one when Jacobs came of age in New York City. But the show notes were written by the newly launched Open AI Chat GPT in a noticeably bland, monotonous style. Sample line: “The Marc Jacobs fashion show mesmerized its audience with an awe-inspiring fusion of masculine tailoring and feminine elegance.” The surprise of the experience, a rewriting of the show rules, made you wonder if Jacobs is onto something. As brief as they were, the back and forth of the two finale walks colored in the broad strokes of the show notes. The models’ cyberpunk bowl cuts conjured Pris, Daryl Hannah’s pleasure model replicant from Blade Runner, which seemed like another clue about what Jacobs was up to. They wore the masculine tailoring the Chat GPT described with overscale shoulders and high-waisted deeply pleated pants, as well as femme minidresses that showed off lots of leg–black stockings sliced at the calves over white ankle socks, and pointy-toed flats. The black-and-white palette and the body-conscious attitude of the little nipped waist dresses made the collection seem more essential, more New York, more… Marc Jacobs. To sum up: the designer’s last few collections were true eye-candies, but the most recent one is a true triumph.