Men’s – Overstimulation. Loewe AW24

January 21, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

News. Fake news. Deep fakes. AI. Images. No one interprets the Internet – and contemporary (non)reality – like Loewe‘s Jonathan Anderson. We are bombarded with sensations, information, visuals, screens, all sorts of media, day-to-night. This over-stimulation was the designer’s key point behind the autumn-winter 2024 collection. Anderson reflects on how everything is leveled up today: celebrity culture, social media, pop culture, and art history, all forming one single collage. Fittingly, the collection was also inspired by the collage art of Richard Hawkins, who explores the male body and its representation in various cultural contexts. The new season offering challenges the notion of a uniform or a signature style, and instead presents a range of characters that embody different expressions of masculinity. The clothes combine classic elements of menswear with more casual and edgy pieces, creating a layered, spontaneous, even random looks. Some of the pieces were also attached to each other (like a couple of coats with sticking out layers of colorful shirts), reflecting the collaged reality we live in. The line-up also features Hawkins’ artworks, which are incorporated into the accessories and garments as prints, jacquards, embroideries, and embellishments.

However, what truly stood out in the outing was the runway setting. Hawkins collaborated with Loewe to create a series of 12 video collages that were displayed on large screens in the show venue, a white cube that evoked the stained glass windows of Loewe’s 1960s window designs by José Pérez de Rozas. The videos featured Loewe’s brand ambassadors (from Josh O’Connor to Jamie Dornan) along with elements from Hawkins’ eclectic sources.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – A Lesson In Proportions. Hed Mayner AW24

January 21, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

I started watching the new “Cristóbal Balenciaga” series yesterday, and one thing stuck in my mind. When Balenciaga had a hard time finding his design language in Paris, he realized that a designer’s signature cut and style should be that accentuated and sharp, that it should be distinct for the viewer even through squinted eyes. I have an impression that Hed Mayner is one of the few contemporary designers who have reached that level of distinction in their work. To that extent that you see his XXL volumes copied all over the Parisian runways.

Mayner’s idea behind the autumn-winter 2024 collection was to make clothes that look like there had already been a body inside them, as if the wearer were donning someone else’s proportions. “I wanted to have it be like 3D without cutting too much,” he said, noting that he tries not to work around themes and mood boards. “There’s no reference or history or culture, there’s the thing itself, and you work inside,” he said. A gray four-way stretch fabric was printed with pinstripes to look like suiting, but actually takes on “a human form” when cut into an overcoat or trousers. “It lets me wear tailoring without feeling that I belong to a certain group or have a certain status in society,” the designer observed. True to form, trousers skewed ample and fluid. For shirting, Mayner found himself studying vintage Brooks Brothers styles. “I’m obsessed with diving into something, changing it completely, but keeping it as it is,” he said. One result was an almost crunchy striped shirt in a bonded cotton-aluminum fabric that holds its wrinkles artily. That one may resonate with loyalists, but in a seriously strong coat season Mayner showed that he can hold his own.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Nureyev Would Approve. Dior Men AW24

January 21, 2024January 21, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Autumn-winter 2024 collection might be Kim Jones‘ finest endeavor to date at Dior Men. There were 40 ready-to-wear looks and 20 couture, and according to the show notes, through the idea Rudolf Nureyev’s personal life and onstage persona, Jones explored an “idea of two lives lived … the world of the couture reflects the extravagance of his stage presence, of Nureyev’s flamboyance, insolence and elegance”. With the theatrical staging and dramatic soundtrack – a “revisiting” of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet, courtesy of modern day composer Max Richter – in the background, Jones delivered a line-up that not only mused on Nureyev’s style, but also yet again gracefully told a story of queer experience. The ballet dancer’s off-duty, 70s style of zip-up suits was replicated in zipped wool jumpsuits in shades of dove-grey. The magnificent silver uchikake kimono was based on one Nureyev – a collector of vintage textiles – owned. It apparently took 10 craftspeople in Japan three months to complete. The garments were embellished with pearls or awed with the richness of croc-embossed leather. Sheer, metallic mesh tops with floor-sweeping veils were worn with louchely tailored trousers and overcoats with crystal embroideries. Some models wore velvet headwraps; the footwear was all about, you guessed it, ballet shoes. Interestingly, Jones and Nureyev have a brief, yet crucial family connection: Jones’s uncle was the ballet dancer and photographer Colin Jones, whose pictures of Nureyev, driving, reading, chatting on the phone, as well as dancing, formed a book left on each seat for the show’s guests. This outing was definitely one of the most enchanting moments of the menswear Paris Fashion Week, along with phenomenal Rick Owens’ at-home show.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – In The Artist’s Studio. Yohji Yamamoto AW24

January 20, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Yohji Yamamoto is designer with an endless fascination for artists – the individualism, the impulses, and the archetypes. From the loosely knotted poets’ blouse and a coat with peaked shoulders, to the sumptuous attire in velvet and brocade, this was a collection for that certain “genius working in the studio” person. Uniform of loose jackets and utility vests; shirts covered in vivid brushwork tucked into suspendered trousers. Dressed in these ensembles were some of his longtime artist collaborators – Wim Wenders and Max Vadukul – along with Warren Ellis, Norman Reedus, and the dancer Brandon Miel Masele. And while they appeared like distinctive personages, they also conjured some essence of the designer himself. For one of his two strolls down the runway, Vadakul donned a coat with “old bohemian” along the back. Would men consider this a badge of pride, a way of confronting reality with a smirk? “We’re older but that’s the only thing that changes,” the photographer acknowledged backstage. “What we create is still the same.” The show closed with Wenders in trousers printed with his name. Yamamoto and the filmmaker worked together in 1989 when the director made Notebook, a documentary about cities and clothes. Yamamoto noted how they were both children born in the aftermath of war-torn cities and have alchemized that darkness into work that has a poetic resonance. If the collection unleashed ideas with a sort of feisty enthusiasm, the pace was calm, and the mood was poignant.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Unexpected Elegance. Dries Van Noten AW24

January 19, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Dries Van Noten proves that the ultimate recipe for timeless, yet unexpected elegance consists of the following: classic, slightly over-sized clothes that you can make the most of styling-wise, a little play with textures, and a color palette consisting of black and a couple of surprises. “An elegant look for young guys, but combining things sometimes in a rather strange way,” is how the beloved Belgian designer described his intention backstage. There were oddities, mostly in the aforementioned styling: the way chunky ribbed-knit sweaters with an arching side zip were half worn: one sleeve filled, the other wound around the neck like a scarf. Ribbed knit details recurred as wide cuffs on all manner of coats. Denim shirts were bunched up and caught with big safety pins – a punk touch – and a camel polo shirt stretched to the fingertips. Striking but never jarring, Van Noten’s knack for combining colors and prints, and matching trouser volumes to a diverse array of tailored toppers, warrants closer study for anyone interested in pursuing great style.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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