Upcycled & Defiant. Marine Serre AW22

March 7, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marine Serre‘s dynamic autumn-winter 2022 collection made me realise she would do great at rejuvenating the Vivienne Westwood brand. Why? First, her devotion to upcycling, which has inspired the entire industry, goes in line with Westwood’s sustainability ethos. Second, the Parisian designer has that rough, defiant style that is real and keeps evolving with every season. And third: the way Serre used tartan checks (all from upcycled scarves and deadstock materials!) this season makes me think of some of the greatest 1990s collections coming from Vivienne.

Now back to Marine’s latest line-up. The serenity of the Marine Serre show photographs completely belie the mayhem of what was happening two floors below. Suffice it to say that young people in Paris will scramble and wait, packed uncomfortably together, to witness whatever Serre will do. It felt almost like a throwback to the hysteria of the underground French fashion scene that swirled around the likes of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Martin Margiela and Xuly.Bët two decades ago. If Serre is a female inheritor of what male designers did to deconstruct and democratize Paris fashion once upon a time, the big difference is how she delves far deeper into cultural and environmental ethics. Challenging the form of the fashion show is part of that. “What was important was to open the boundaries,” she said. “To show a different way to do a show. It was important to me that it was in a museum, to have something that shows the collective imagination. And to have something where people weren’t sure if there were going to be people walking, or where to sit or look.” The “museum” was a gallery of re-mastered old masters on the top floor. Each of them variously redirected, decolonized and replaced the original iconography to link up with Serre’s work. The first looks of the show were series of black and white lozenge and crescent-moon patterned recycled wool jacquard tailoring – they looked chic and polished. More themes came through: the above mentioned tartan scarves patchworked into tweed coats, collaged upcycled knits. Toile de Jouy quilted bed clothes and camouflage prints were turned into neatly-finished, attractive clothing. Serre is clearly focused on proving there’s nothing rough-and-ready about the second life she’s giving to pieces of defunct garments or deadstock. She’s intent on sharing how she does this. The need for transparency and education are other parts of her impressive worldview and drive to accelerate change in her generation. On the first floor of the building she had installed an atelier with members of her teams of sorters, cutters and sewers at work, demonstrating how her pieces are made. “I feel I have a responsibility to give access to this savoir faire,” she said, preternaturally calm in the eye of the swirling storm of guests. All weekend, she was planning to open the doors of the installations and exhibition to the public. “For free, you know?”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

New Rawness. Gauchere AW22

March 7, 2022March 7, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

If you’re looking for brilliant, youthful tailoring with a raw twist in Paris, Gauchere is the brand you need. In less than 10 years, Marie-Christine Statz has developed a loyal following for her chic, minimalist aesthetic. Building on that, for autumn-winter 2022 the designer stuck to a restrained, mostly monochrome palette of black, deep blue, burgundy, anthracite and taupe to further explore what the brand stands for: sharp silhouettes and materials, plus a savvy dose of texture that’s clean, unfussy and interesting. Her opening look, for example, was a halter top that can be worn hooked over a shoulder or left long, an idea that returned on a faux minimalist, layered dress. Oversized suiting with slightly sloped shoulders nodded to budding interest in the brand among men, and was shown paired with bandeaux and fluid, high-waisted trousers. Three-dimensional fabrics brought the texture, for example fuzzy tech yarns. Patent leather gave a jean-style jacket gloss. Denim was chosen for its new-gen, water-wise washes. Sculptural evening dresses – like a trio of black gowns or fully sequined minidress in black or white – made the case for less is more, today and many moons from now. But her own account, Statz “doesn’t do crazy.” In times like these, that’s a considerable advantage, and one that her growing base is grateful to count on.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Functional Styling. Victoria Beckham AW22

March 6, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

As a designer-and-style-icon package solution, Victoria Beckham and her brand embody a decidedly contemporary aspect of consumer fashion: styling. Her design propositions don’t simply make their case on a runway, but when she is actually photographed by the paparazzi wearing them herself, showcasing how she would personally style her collection. It’s a way of proposing product entirely in tune with a social media age focused on the dress sense of the individual. To Beckham, playing with the functions of clothes is second nature, and she can’t resist getting in there, wrapping and tying and layering whatever look is standing in front of her. She demonstrated that on house models in her Paris showroom (a rather strange decision – Beckham’s brand feels 100% London, while in Paris it gets lost in the crowd) for her new collection, which exemplified the idea of clothes made to be styled. While it had all the beautifully cut coats and blouses, the collection’s cleverness was to be found in garments purpose-made for layering or wrapping. In the case of a finely knitted onesie, for instance, Beckham said she would never wear it on its own. “I would wear it with a dress over the top. I would wear it with a skirt over the top,” she explained. “We’ve been doing polo-neck bodies for a while, and they’re great layering pieces. They really can finish off an outfit and make it very considered. With this knitted one, you’d absolutely put a dress over the top.” Body-conscious and sensual, it created a silhouette at once sexy and fully covered from head to toe, an idea reflected in sequined dresses layered with skin-tight transparent organza dresses on top for a filtrage effect that also helped to define the shape Beckham wanted to achieve. “I always love sequins, but it’s about finding a new, fresh way of doing them by either putting the organza or knitwear over the top. It’s a refined superhero sequin,” she said. The season’s biggest addition is a new bag line. “We had bags before, but that came from working on the catwalk collection and wanting to finish off a silhouette. This time we’re much more strategic about it, making sure that everything is functional and every detail is taken care of,” the designer summed up. Her proposal ranged from bucket bags to disc-shaped pouches and more classic handbags, some emblazoned with the VB monogram she launched as part of her last pre-collection. A clutch bag was adorned with the golden chain of a men’s wristwatch as a nod to a personal memory. “When I got my OBE, my husband bought me a watch, and I love masculine watches, and I loved the bracelet detail,” she said, echoing the idea of injecting a product’s design with the styling properties of accessories.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Pop It Up. Loewe AW22

March 6, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jonathan Anderson is in his surrealist element, and his work has never felt so liberated and full of expression as now. The autumn-winter 2022 collection for Loewe, which has caused a stir on social media, is an intriguing and confident take on all things erotic and kinky, conveyed through impeccable and innovative craftsmanship. But also, in times when reality becomes outrageous and nonsensical, it’s only logical that fashion should start to reflect illogicality. Anderson’s new season clothes included the following: a mini trapeze dress with a car trapped in the hem; tube dresses with high-heel pumps stuffed down them; rough-cut shearling pervily butting against latex; shoes entirely sunk in some sort of drawstring-bag galoshes; and lots of balloons: red ones squeezed between shoe straps and oozing from bandage-dress drapery; brown and beige ones blown up as bras, the knots bobbling along as obscene parodies of nipples. “A balloon creates tension,” Anderson observed. “It will pop. It won’t last forever.”

Surrealism – the art movement that turned pre–WW II mass psychological tension into art in the late 1930s – has never been more relevant. But Anderson was already going surreal-ward last season – reveling in the freedom of being unshackled from fashion rules, doing things instinctively, without reason. It parallels a time when it was only human to respond dementedly to the trampling of order all around us. But there’s plenty of method in Anderson’s madness. His opening series of short leather, cap-sleeve dresses, the skirts molded to seem as if swishing in the wind, had a lot of Réne Magritte about them. The polish and luxurious colors also had a lot to say about Loewe’s fundamental materials and skills as a leather-based house. Anderson mentioned that he’d also been looking at feminist art. There were references to the surrealist Meret Oppenheim (all the fluffy fur) and Lynda Benglis, who uses poured latex (the rubber tanks and mini-dresses), that art-knowledgeable people would clock as footnotes. Still, the biggest art-Anderson-Loewe connection was set out before the audience in the center of the show: a series of squashes by Anthea Hamilton. The British sculptor and Anderson have already got together on Hamilton’s art performances at the Tate. The squashes, it turns out, were constructed for her in leather by craftspeople at Loewe. There’s clever marketing in all of these interconnections, these compliments to the intelligence of avant-garde, art-appreciating Loewe women of the world. They buy fashion for such things as gallery openings and art fairs: Loewe, in all its wild eccentricities, is a uniform for them.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Reassuring Stability. Isabel Marant AW22

March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Some things just don’t change. Like Isabel Marant collections. They always give… Isabel Marant. And that’s not a bad thing – in our turbulent and ever-changing world, at least she offers us some reassuring stability. “For me, this season was about this ballad of a girl, she’s really going to the essentials; she wears a knitted dress with a huge coat over it. I wanted to do something very evident and very cozy, and easy to wear, and being naively sexy. She’s very discreet and at the same time very powerful,” said the eternal Parisian woman. There were indeed little sweater dresses worn under big coats, accompanied by the over-the-knee boots that have become one of the season’s key trends. Another combination that in the before times of the pre-pandemic might’ve seemed surprising, but now looks like the new normal: the glam sport of a sexy evening top (here in stretch panné velvet) and shell pants. Beyond the boots and oversize outerwear, this show told us definitely that cargo pants will be big next autumn, and that pants in general are going to be lower-slung and longer of leg, likely with a little kick flare. If this designer has anything to do with it, we’ll all be in baggy jeans, too. Rianne Van Rompaey closed the show in a faded black pair with drop pockets and, as promised, a super-relaxed slouch.