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Dancing Silhouettes. Rosie Assoulin Pre-Fall 2022

| Design & Culture by Ed

Dancing and the beauty of the body in motion definitely had to be on Rosie Assoulin‘s mind for pre-fall 2022. The pleated celery green ensemble looks even more phenomenal when you’re twirling in it, while the watercolour blue ball-skirt in plaid just begs to dance the night away. These ultra-feminine silhouettes feel so light and expressive, but are far from non-sense. Actually, this collection is a harmonious balance of the dramatic and functional. Even though she’s known primarily as an evening wear expert, Assoulin is a master of convertibility. “I like the idea that a woman might at some point change her mind later on,” the designer said. Examples? The white cloqué henley dress with a black bra insert can be buttoned up or down to show as much of the undergarment as you wish. A plaid blazer comes with removable sleeves that can give the look of opera gloves. Assoulin’s commitment to convertibility and adaptability under all the glamour prevails in her new season designs. “The appetite I have is definitely for exciting graphic, dramatic pieces, but it’s not my life,” she said. “So I have to find how I can bring [ease and drama] together.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

E-Girl Knitwear. Paolina Russo AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

“When I started this collection I was reflecting on who I wanted to be as a designer,” reflects Paolina Russo. “In the past I’ve been the sporty colorful girl, but I didn’t really get to show the breadth of my world.” Google Russo’s name and the sporty, colorful ethos definitely dominates her results. It’s what has made retailers like Ssense buy into her collection and megabrands like Adidas seek her out for collaborations. But there’s more than meets the eye to Russo’s oeuvre. Born to a family of collectors in Canada, Russo inherited a certains sentimentality and nostalgia. For autumn-winter 2022, she’s plumbing her youth, morphing video game heroines with aloof suburban teens. Knitwear is a main focus, with fully fashioned wool pieces in tonal colorways. Russo is a master of the stitch, turning cable knits into corset boning and draping a midi-skirt to hang from slinky hip bone cutouts. She’s pulled on her snowboarding past to create padded sleeve jackets that evoke ski gear. The few cut-and-sew pieces have a video game look, with neon insets and pleated skirts. On the whole, her collection pushes the Paolina Russo brand to a more essential level – not just show pieces but real everyday clothes. Let’s see where she goes next.

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Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Tropiques. Diotima Pre-Fall 2022

| Design & Culture by Ed

Barely a year old, Rachel Scott’s brand, Diotima, is both a rich collaboration with and an homage to her home country, Jamaica. At her hands, crochet – crafted by a group of female artisans in Jamaica – is reimagined to unique effect and paired with coolly slouched tailoring. One thing that’s impressive about Scott is how she manages to make an oversized grandpa suit fit in with a barely-there crochet dress akin to a fishing net. She blends sexy and prim to interesting effect. This season, her new crochet dress is basically a tank top with really elongated straps, a waistband, and hand-applied crystals. The model wears it with nothing underneath, but a slip skirt would fit in just fine. The best suit is made from a laminated woven textile with a crochet appliqué on the leg; you get both a clash of textures and a flash of upper thigh. Scott has collaborated with Nadia Huggins, an artist from St. Vincent who takes arresting underwater photographs. They created a “Tropiques” print featuring a sea urchin, sand dollar, and snake on a soft woven fabric. “She thinks of her whole project as creating a new Caribbean archive and one that has a new subjectivity,” Scott says. In a typically cheeky move, one of the dresses totally covers the model from neck to wrist to ankle, save for a crochet panel across the bust and a super-high leg slit, but she also offers the print in more demure button-downs and a shin-length skirt. The sea motif continues in the use of moire and a sea urchin corset. Scott describes a pair of pants modeled after cricket uniforms, with shell-like pads on the knees, as a continuation of the Caribbean influences.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Purity. Maison Rabih Kayrouz AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

There’s always something spiritual, even sacred about Maison Rabih Kayrouz’s collections – it’s all about those poetic volumes, architectural lines and richness of textures. Coming off a collection that was informed by the romance of reemergence, Rabih Kayrouz was interested in sharp cuts and “cleaned up” silhouettes for this season. “When I draw,” he said, “I usually draw in different layers, but what’s essential are the lines. I like this purity.” Kayrouz achieved his sharp lines in a number of ways – materials played a key role, followed closely by manner of construction. He worked with both vinyl and a thick jersey for his new tailoring. Adding seams at the front and back of the body of jackets and on the sleeves gave them a graphic, architectural shape. They’ll cut a striking figure without dating as quickly as many of the eccentric suits we’ve seen on recent runways. A pair of long strapless dresses that look destined for the Oscars red carpet had sculptural proportions too. The basque-like curves at their hips are the result of pattern-making, Kayrouz said, not padding. Even grander were a pair of gowns whose volumes were achieved by stitching individual rings of different lengths of cord between two layers of tulle. Other dresses reproduced those couture-like shapes, but rendered as they were in a techy water repellent taffeta, with ripcord detailing or the elasticized hems of athletic wear, they leaned more towards a relaxed aesthetic – not sharp, per se, but easy-wearing in a way that met Kayrouz’s “cleaned up” criteria. A third evening look in a deep shade of chocolate combined the sleekness of a jersey column with ballooning taffeta sleeves.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Hot Glam. Blumarine Pre-Fall 2022

| Design & Culture by Ed

Hello baby gorgeous, here’s some hot Blumarine pre-fall 2022! Having catapulted the Italian label in just three seasons from oblivion to the firmament of hot fashion brands, creative director Nicola Brognano keeps on fueling the craze for the 2000s – and he isn’t planning to change that anytime soon. “It’s a territory I feel very confident exploring,” said the designer, who was born in 1990 and thus is quite knowledgeable on the matter. So, apart from the Paris-Britney-Lindsay trifecta, who’s the new high-wattage 2000s muse? “Gisele Bündchen,” he answered. “Gisele was stratospheric, gorgeousness incarnate, she still is. That sexiness brasileira. Who’s the woman who doesn’t want to be her, yesterday, today, or tomorrow?” The thing is, the Blumarine girl isn’t such a naughty teenager anymore: “She doesn’t sit in her bedroom combing her hair in front of the mirror listening to Shakira or Beyoncé,” Brognano said. “Now she wants to get out of the house, basta.” Teenager or not, she’s very much the agent provocateur. Enveloped in a flame-red cashmere fur with a leopard-print lining, worn over a flame-red tightly draped miniskirt not wider than a belt, and a matching ribbed brassiere, she’s ready to stop traffic the minute she bids goodbye to her bedroom. For pre-fall, Brognano provided variations on the theme: plenty of exposed midriffs, bare legs, and alluring décolletage options. He also upped the dramatic ante a notch. Tight cargo pants were cut in pink, low-slung bell bottoms were made in brash golden leather; stretchy, drapey, slinky minidresses with asymmetrical, slashed hems were rendered in both black and “mean florals.” Glamorous faux furs in icy white were printed with a lynx spot, giving off a luxurious, sexy vibe. That’s hot.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.