IRL. ERL SS24

June 16, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Eli Russell Linnetz is the Sam Levinson of fashion. He knows how to stir a controversy and lure the audience with aesthetics. The ERL lookbooks from the past seasons are great examples of that. But does the Californian designer know how to sustain a plot? His first IRL runway show at Pitti Uomo’s Palazzo Corsini in Florence make you question that. The juvenile faced Linnetz-cast cadre of real-life surfers from his real-life Venice Beach neighborhood walked down the neon-green venue in stardust-sequinned tailoring and silver lurex knits. The Uncle Sam-meets-Slash top hats and ’70s shaped tailored topcoats and shirts worn over starrily-spangled “wetsuits” created an impression in clothing that was only reinforced by the thwup-thwup of Huey rotors and Jim Morrison predicting “The End” on the soundtrack. As Linnetz concedes, his experience and instinct both lean towards costume as a form of messaging. It did feel like on set of David Lynch’s set of “Dune“. Accessories included hyper swollen reimaginings of the Etnies/Emerica/Globe style of early ’90s puffy skate shoes, plus some very Linnetz-specific rubber-framed eyewear that looked more like goggles than sunglasses. There was an irony embedded in ERL’s first real-world collection being so hyper-unreal; beneath that lurked a point of view about American masculine identities, hang-ups, and brittle wearable projections of power. But the general vision felt too misty and too Vetements-y.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Restrained Elegance. Ferragamo Resort 2024

June 12, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maximilian Davis seems to be on his way of grasping what his Ferragamo is all about. The Milanese way of dressing has made an impression on the young designer, and he translates it through a contemporary Hollywood lens (the heritage brand has an important history with the entertainment industry and shaping its original stars’ style). Davis picked up on the sense of restrained elegance, but he was also perceptive of that subtly seductive side. What he brings to today’s version of Ferragamo is a sort of rigorous sensualism, pivoting on exact, modern tailoring inflected with a luxe indulgence. Worryingly, the resort 2024 offering dangerously reminds of Bottega Veneta – both Daniel Lee and Matthieu Blazy-era – in a couple of places. Still, Davis has an affinity for the label’s timeless codes, to which he’s adding clarity and edge, leaning on the craftsmanship and resources the house can provide for high-end execution. That fashion temperatures now are lowered to minimalism’s cool weather also seems to work in favor of his Ferragamo treatment. For resort, his tailoring was slim and straight-cut or nip-waisted and sculpted, sustained by compact fabrications. A standout in the outerwear offer was a strong-shouldered yet hourglass-y black city coat with Davis’s signature askew buttoning; smooth and velvety to the touch, it was actually made in flocked denim. Like other staple pieces in the collection, it was offered for both genders. What makes Davis’s approach individual are the subtly “perverse undertones,” as he calls them, that he adds to his collections. Here some of the looks were teamed with shiny black patent leather stretch boots with a curved high heel, giving off a fetishistic edge. That’s a signifier the designer should definitely focus on, and implement more confidently in his work at Ferragamo.

Performance-Wear. Diesel Resort 2024

June 7, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“We are continually evolving, it is about continuity,” said Glenn Martens regarding his process of reviving Diesel, and the democratic aspect of his resort 2024 offering. He added: “Perhaps more than anything I can say that what we did better this time was to take more carryover stories from the runway and industrialize them to create easier access price points for all of our stores and customers.” Another evolution, he said, was that his ambition to present Diesel collections as fluid, every-gender products on the shop floors has begun to manifest in certain flagship outlets – and that this lookbook was shot to reflect that. In other words, if February’s sultry, Durex-strewn Diesel show emphasized sex, then this follow-up collection was concerned with performance. The last-show iterations of Martens’ three Diesel pillars – denim, utility, and pop – were all harmniously diffused. Denim-wise, we saw the core material cut into jersey, leather, or bouclé panels on tough sportswear, trimmed with lace in easy-wearing little dresses, overlaid with oily or stonewashed color treatments, and used as a fabric for shoe uppers. The mainline collection’s intricate indigo dyed denim knits were reformulated in a fabrication designed to be color-fast as well as eye-catching. The designer emphasized that his foundational pivot to sustainability continues: “around 70% of all the denim here is produced through more sustainable processes,” he said. Elsewhere collegiate lettering on jerseys amusingly declared “Lies,” but this designer’s determination to green Diesel is no fib.

Indulgences. Bottega Veneta Pre-Fall 2023

May 27, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“At the end of the day, we had a lot of pleasure just making clothes that we want to wear ourselves,” Matthieu Blazy summed up the creative process behind his Bottega Veneta‘s pre-fall 2023 collection. “But it’s not just me. It’s the studio, and it’s the woman who works on fabric.” As it has been from his start at Bottega Veneta, material is a major preoccupation. The boxy t-shirt and denim pencil skirt pictured in the first photo are actually leather, but additionally the leather button-downs that have fast become brand icons have also been made in silk so they’re wearable year-round. Blazy said the development of the collection was a reaction to what he sees as a preponderance of heavy fabrics in the market. “To build up volume, it’s easy to take a heavy fabric and sculpt; we did the opposite, we tried to lighten everything in order for people to move and not be constrained at all.” That came across most clearly in a pair of special dresses, one with volume at the hips created by exposed fabric knots, and another with slits cut into puffy sleeves that draped from high shoulders. That quest for lightness doesn’t mean the clothes lacked indulgences. A bronze sequin coat is bound to feel as good to the touch as it is attractive to gaze upon. Same for a lilac crushed velvet dress with a cool zippered neckline. The ultimate indulgence may be the leather jeans woven in the house intreccio style; this season they come in a silver chrome. They’re trophies of a kind. Other Bottega Veneta customers might be tempted by the cozy hand knits, one of which features Blazy’s dog John John. I need it in my life!

Style, Not Fashion. Quira AW23

April 5, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Veronica Leoni, the founder and designer behind Quira, is one of this year’s LVMH Prize finalists. No wonder why. The designer’s Italian roots give the three-year-old Quira its spirited quality, an expressive, instinctual peculiarity that translates into a “maximal minimalism,” as Leoni calls it. Her pedigree comes from having worked in close proximity with Jil Sander and Celine’s Phoebe Philo; for both she was head designer of the knitwear line. Moncler’s Remo Ruffini put Leoni in the top creative position for womenswear at Moncler 1952; currently she’s consulting with The Row for both men’s and women’s collections, working closely with the Olsens. “In Quira, there’s a sort of coexistence of all the differences, both geographic and stylistic, of the creative directors I’ve had the privilege to collaborate with,” she said. “But it’s a coexistence of experiences, rather than of aesthetics.” The sensibilities of her mentors have been distilled into a “guerrilla project” that embodies her personal take on contemporary femininity – rigorous yet spontaneous, sensuously severe, simplified and essential with hints of audacity. Her “devotion to Made in Italy” supports an imaginative complexity of construction that doesn’t detract from a strict, almost exacting approach. There’s inventive freedom in her disciplined design, although “the leash is quite tight,” she said, “when it comes to editing and to respecting the essentiality of the ingredients of my style. I’d call it equilibrium rather than minimalism.”

In the autumn-winter 2023 collection, Leoni further honed her take on the modern wardrobe, infusing it with a sense of poised newness while staying eminently wearable. An undercurrent of Philo’s unconventional artistic classicism and of Sander’s classy purity can be felt, but the overall look is Leoni’s. The clarity of shapes is twisted with intriguing plays on cut and construction, while considered details provide each piece with edge and a unique character. “Challenging my creativity, allowing moments of discomfort to happen helps push the process towards unpredictable solutions,” the designer explained. One of the best looks in the collection – a deceptively classic skirt suit – provided a template for Leoni’s modus operandi. The masculine strong-shouldered jacket was cut in a spiral shape to accommodate the hips in a soft, almost drapey movement; the box-pleated skirt was vertical and strict, made from dense, compact wool in a severe shade of uniform-gray. “I wanted something that recalled ’50s couture, and also 18th century volumes, and to inject some unexpected folk into the silhouette,” she offered. “What I’m after – it’s style, not fashion.”