Safe From Harm. Willy Chavarría AW24

February 11, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Willy Chavarría‘s fashion show was so far the strongest moment of this New York Fashion Week. It started with a film, titled Safe from Harm, played on a screen behind a long table covered in a white lace tablecloth and filled with altar and votive candles like an offering. Directed by Chavarría, the film told a story of support and safety. As a diverse array of characters moved from space to space in an old house, working out, cooking, dressing up, letting emotions out, and comforting one another, it was a family affair. As the film came to a close, models emerged on the runway, seemingly stepping straight off the screen. This was a much-needed moment of action amidst all the overly minimalist, dead-serious shows in New York. For autumn-winter 2024, Chavarría expanded his sartorial vocabulary, borrowing from the particular glamour of the 1980s British upper crust, especially through his use of luxe plaid and houndstooth wools which he contrasted with leather jackets and biker details. The way the designer executed his signature jacket with an extra-wide shoulder worn with a houndstooth pussy bow blouse is just sublime. Highlights of the collection: black and white lace veils worn under caps and styled with either a black, over-sized coat or an all-white tracksuit. Chavarría subverts the codes of Catholic imagination like no other contemporary designer. As the models reached the end of the runway, they arranged themselves behind the aforementioned table, like an updated version of The Last Supper, with Chavarría himself taking the final position in the middle after the finale bow. After the applause died down and the models exited the runway, there was a sudden silence, and everyone remained in their seats, as if expecting an encore. Then, a second round of rapturous applause erupted. The reign of Willy Chavarría is really just getting started.

Need some Willy Chavarría action in your wardrobe?

ED’s SELECTION:

Satin Track Bomber Jacket

Skin of Night Buffalo T-Shirt

Chachi Wide-Leg Jeans

Tie-Neck Cotton Poplin Shirt

Cool Virgin Collab Crewneck Tee

Chachi Oversized Denim Trucker Jacket

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Safe. Helmut Lang AW24

February 10, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s visible that Peter Do had great intentions and is doing his best to revive Helmut Lang. But with his sophomore collection for the brand, the New York-based designer falls into the trap all his predecessors stepped into: digging into the archives too much. Helmut Lang, the person, never looked back, nor did his fashion. He was always looking forward to new solutions for building a wardrobe fit for modern-day women and men. So why do contemporary designers taking helm of the brand think its the best idea to operate solely on references to Lang’s past work? Except for the fact that this Do collection is heavily inspired with Lang’s spring-summer 2003 “Chinatown bag” print and bubble wrap jackets, I see no novelty here. Also, do we really need another New York brand doing proper outerwear and proper tailoring? This market is already way too over-saturated by brands like Proenza Schouler, Khaite, Marina Moscone, and ironically, Peter Do, the brand.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Meditation. CDLM AW24

February 9, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

CDLM keeps on being a fascinating enigma. You can’t quite categorize or entirely put your finger on this New York-based brand, but with every season it gets just better… and even more elusive. Chris Peters‘ process behind the autumn-winter 2024 collection is rooted in his newly found love for meditation practice. “I never really understood what meditation did, but it’s given me such a sense of who I am and being really present in the moment,” he said. “On top of that, it made me feel more a part of the universe than I ever have; I feel more complete in the way that I live and the way that I act and the way I make things. A lot of the clothing is sort of an extension of this process that’s given me the confidence and clarity to execute ideas that would’ve been a little overwhelming or kind of scary previously.” Taking his words literally, there was indeed a sense of interconnectedness evident in this collection. A vintage fur stole that used to belong to Peters’s grandmother was attached to a bunch of vintage cotton t-shirts to create a snood of sorts that could work as both a top and an accessory. Elsewhere, a simple jersey tank had an undulating cutout across the rib cage and was shown over a vintage embroidered gown that was draped over the shoulder, its bottom half pulled through the slit. The designer has always been fond of exploring the full physicality of his materials and the possibilities of “wearing” something, but such experiments are never at the expense of beauty or desirability. For instance, take the long jersey t-shirt dress worn with the wide waistband of a pair of white wide legged trousers. Its ease gave way to an unimpeachable elegance. Elegance, in fact, may be the best word for Peters’s latest offering. It was certainly there in the white lace dress put together with pieces of intricately beaded fabric in gradient shades of gray to white. “I would say this piece is definitely representative of this collection,” he noted, describing the process of making it, which included taking apart a beaded jacket (that also used to belong to his grandmother), and re-working and re-beading parts of it, as a meditation in itself.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Acts of Light. Colleen Allen AW24

February 9, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

If there’s one debut collection that you’ve got to see this New York Fashion Week, then it’s Colleen Allen‘s autumn-winter 2024 line-up. A former Vogue assistant who cut her teeth at Raf Simons’s Calvin Klein and The Row, Allen can be hardly called an emerging designer with such impressive portfolio. Her first collection proves she’s got a certain design-maturity that many, many names in New York are still having a hard time in finding. Kept in a vibrant color palette of deep red and cardinal purple, Allen offers a wardrobe filled with body-wrapping knits and jerseys. The draped, flowing dress makes you think of Halston’s 1980s costumes for modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, particularly the ones created for the “Acts of Light” performances. The velvet-y, floor-sweeping, red opera coat makes the collection turn an even more theatrical direction, but not overly, we’re still grounded in reality. You can definitely picture the entire offering in IRL circumstances, especially the wonderfully tailored blazers, poet vests, and multi-layered tops. With confidence, Colleen Allen brings much-needed spirit to New York’s league of minimalism.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Marc’s Swans. Marc Jacobs SS24

February 3, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Although Marc Jacobs presented his latest collection off-schedule, a couple of days before NYFW officially starts, yesterday’s line-up brought hope and optimism to the city’s state of the industry. Jacobs celebrates 40 years (!) of his brand, but the spring-summer 2024 line-up doesn’t read us a retrospective, but rather an exuberant, lively love letter to fashion. Walking tall, strong and gracious, like swans (both, the Central Park ones and the Truman Capote ones), in bouffant wigs, the models and the entire doll-house scene (featuring XXL table and chairs by artist Robert Therrien) felt like some sort of twisted fairy-tale. The collection itself was an exercise in exaggerated proportions. Knit sweaters abruptly cinched at the waist; floor-length mirrored ballgowns – those could definitely be worn by modern-day C.Z. Guests and Babe Paleys; supersized Venetia bags (the 2000s Marc Jacobs best-seller is back, better than ever); fluffy-looking tailoring. This is for the dollllllls! The designer sneaked a couple of references to his finest work (and a couple of Louis Vuitton nods are also here), but he also combined his design language with his subtle signifiers of his ultimate fashion heroes: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada. Jacobs never feared to admit he’s a fashion fan. To the tune of Philip Glass, the show ended dramatically as it started, with the doll-models walking out of open door at the end of the runway into the street. There was no finale – and we got a two-second glimpse of Jacobs before the vast space of Park Avenue Armory plunged into darkness. Here’s to next decades and decades of F-A-S-H-I-O-N!