London

Toughened Up. Supriya Lele AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Supriya Lele, the London-based designer, is known for her skimpy silhouettes and flesh-revealing cuts. For autumn-winter 2024, her decidedly female viewpoint takes a toughened up direction. “I started thinking about what I was actually wearing,” Lele said. “Every day, I’ve been wearing this baseball coat and slim jeans. And so we started by working into this idea with a really nice kind of leather piece.” It turned out as an over-the-head leather hoodie. The slim jeans part became fine-gauge leggings. “Then obviously, we started exploring the draping that I love to do so much, which I think has now become sort of more of a signature of mine. I wanted to create fabrics that looked wet, almost iridescent.” That effect is definitely conveyed by one of the dresses in white paisley lace, hand-foiled with pearlized paint, subtly underlining the designer’s Indian heritage. What worked in favor of the collection was the way it got captured: at an an ex-pharmacy, with a busy street glimpsed outside and a corner pub over the road (fun fact: Lele’s studio is located on an upper floor in the same building). The spontaneous, uncontrived poses – or rather walks – of the models and the raw surroundings make these hot clothes feel grounded in reality.

Here’s a summer-ready Supriya Lele piece you can scoop right now!

ED’s SELECTION:


Backless Cutout Ruched Mesh Halterneck Bodysuit

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The More You Mess Around, The More You Know. Phoebe Philo Edit 2, Delivery 2!

| Design & Culture by Ed

Phoebe Philo fans, rejoice! The second delivery of the second edit is here. The idea of “continuity” is key in the designer’s eponymous venture: Philo keeps on building THE wardrobe, making her primary ideas as valid as the new ones. The fresh set of pictures – by Talia Chetrit – stun with their simplicity yet commanding allure. Looking at them, you just really desire all these dropped-waist leathers and outerwear pieces, no matter what the price for them is (disclaimer: h i g h, but after reading Philo’s silence-breaker piece by Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times, I really get it, and if I had a money tree, I would indulge and indulge in the brand’s offering without any doubt in the quality and uniqueness of these pieces). There are gorgeous trench coat iterations with attachable scarves; wrap-skirts in butter-smooth leather; very, very handsome cargo coats with huge pockets; a leg -wrapping ribbed skirt. Basically speaking, garments you buy once and wear forever. The latest delivery also offers basket cabas bags à la Old Céline and the brand’s going-gently-viral “Bean” bag covered in rough-cut, XL leather fringes; hot, retro-tinged sunglasses in cool narrow shape; and lethally chic open-toed pumps in oxblood. According to the aforementioned piece, Phoebe likes to tell her kids: “the more you mess around, the more you find out“. She actually uses the more colloquial, raw version of this saying. It seems to perfectly captures the spirit of her quite revolutionary, assertive endeavor.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Anti-Fashion. Phoebe Philo Edit 2

| Design & Culture by Ed

Phoebe Philo‘s feverishly anticipated Edit 2 – second collection under her namesake, London-based label – is the perfect detox moment after the long, long, looooong fashion month. No gimmicks, no overstyling, no oversaturation of product, no… fashion. This is an anti-fashion line-up, one that absolutely focuses on style and gives real tools for building an intelligent wardrobe. That’s the real power of Philo’s venture, visually narrated by Talia Chetrit in a low-key, yet commanding way. Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest‘s actress Sandra Hüller stars in the latest campaign, sporting the line’s turtlenecks, tailored trousers and sharp eyewear. In her notes, Philo called the actress “one of the most accomplished talents of her generation, renowned for her intimate, intelligent and fearless performances on stage and screen.” This is a collaboration that only the stars could align.

The designer characterized her brand’s latest offering – available now in her on-line shop – “from the get-go as a continuous body of work”. If you look at the store, you will notice that images from Edit 1 are still up there, mixed with the new ones. This is revolutionary: we’ve got used to the fact that brands usually wipe out their entire websites every three months for new deliveries. The latest “edit” (the brand avoids the word “collection” in its elusive communication) experiments with proportions, setting a dropped-waist leather jacket in a dark berry tone against an ultra-cropped bomber in a mastic hue. We’ve got oversized trousers, doused in “salt and pepper” colors, and upright collared shirts button tight at the neck with raised collars. Double-breasted Milanese jackets flaunt the designer’s crisp tailoring expertise. As for accessories, the popular “MUM” necklace is back. Scarves are constructed as pillows, wrapping around their wearers’ heads with an avant-garde facade; and sunglasses, including the “Peak” and “Bombé” frames, make statements with face-shielding builds. Bags are Philo’s speciality, with the Cabas, Bean Bag and Drive Bag arriving in all sorts of finishes, spanning cheetah print and plushy purple to lipstick red and strong neutrals.

Honestly, you can’t imagine a better collection to review on International Women’s Day. Women rule!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Finding Ground. Burberry AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Daniel Lee is finding his ground at Burberry. Well, it’s high-time: the sales don’t look good at the British brand, and the plans of making Burberry a high-class-luxury player seem to be too ambitious. But what Lee presented under the tent in Victoria Park yesterday was quite convincing. To the tune of Amy Winehouse’s biggest hits, London’s O.G. models – Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson, Karen Elson, Lily Cole, Nomi Campbell – marched in desirably-looking outerwear, no-nonsense knitwear and plaid flannels. Maya Wigram – Phoebe Philo’s daughter! – closed the show. This gesture felt like a blessing from the fellow London-based designer who schooled Lee at her Céline studio. The styling of the show was persuasive as well: maxi-skirts styled with short varsity jackets, slouchy shearling coats mixed with super-oversized pants, and of course, a range of revisited moleskin trenches in shades of earthy greens and browns. Echoes of Christopher Bailey-era Burberry were heard and seen all around. All this certainly felt good to watch, but will it actually lure the clients to invest in Burberry just as they did in the early 2010s? Time will tell.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Femme Vortex. Dilara Findikoglu AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

“It’s about toxic masculinity – and being beyond it: I feel like tonight we are doing a mass ritual to end it. The collection is called Femme Vortex because I wanted to create a different reality, outside politics, borders, gender norms, any kind of systematic rules that have been created by hetero-patriarchal men. My previous collections were about fighting, about resistance. But I’m not fighting any more: I wanted to express divine feminine power somewhere beyond time, beyond reality, and beyond what is happening.” That’s the manifesto behind Dilara Findikoglu‘s autumn-winter 2024 show presented at a moody church in London. All 37 looks had a title, and were crafted to encapsulate the spirit of a Findikoglu-conceived character through costume. The models then inhabited them, accepting the possession of that spirit through the prism of their own individuality. Hari Nef, being “Female Territory“, wore a corporate suit, usurped and transformed. Its pinstripe wool and cotton shirting was deployed as a split skirt worn beneath corseting, latex opera gloves, and a BDSM bow headpiece. Other looks, including number three’s “Man License“, were accessorized with a tabloid newspaper whose splash headline ran: “OMG Dilara Is Doing a Satanic Orgy at a London Church.” Others, such as “Fragile Ego“, and the final two looks were made of stiffened fabric apparently mid-flutter (or wrenched) as if to appear frozen in time. We still have to see what’s cooking at Sean McGirr’s Alexander McQueen debut collection, but I feel like Dilara would do absolute wonders under Lee’s name.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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