Men’s: Douillet. Loewe SS15

June 28, 2014August 21, 2016 | Design & Culture by Ed

For few days before the presentation, the new Loewe ads were sent all around the Parisian billboards, presenting vintage Steven Meisel photographs curated by Jonathan Anderson. Jonathan, designer of J.W. Anderson and the new creative director of Spanish luxury fashion house, Loewe, debuted with a menswear SS15 look-book yesterday: full of warmth and youth, the clothes are modern, but keep up with the legacy of the house. The leather Amazona bags, the cozy sweaters with new M/M logos, the origami sharp cotton t-shirts and foulard like tops look fresh and innovative! It was also quite obvious how much of Anderson himself there was in the new Loewe. He played with Meccano blocks in his childhood, and the Meccano references in the new collection were, he said, representative of “a naive approach to rebuilding a brand” and the small leather goods. They led to a Pop-y, primary-colored touch. And, the naive aside, there was a jolt of Andersonian ambiguity in a piece as frankly feminine as the two striped silk scarves sewn together to create a top. I am really curious how will Anderson continue his journey at Loewe- because it starts really good!

Inspirations: Meccano blocks, Alex Katz beach paintings. The shoes, bag, keyholder and purse from new collection.

Men’s: Perverse. Maison Martin Margiela SS15

June 28, 2014June 28, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jeans mixed with sweatpants; coat worn with a sweater (without anything else under, except tattoos); artisanal embroideries taped all over the torso. That was possibly one of the most elusive and difficult to understand collection served by Maison Martin Margiela. But you could be sure of one thing: nothing had one sense. Even these orange coats or wool, brown socks worn with sneakers.

Men’s. Indie Rock. Yohji Yamamoto SS15

June 27, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

LOST written in french as PERDU was written on the backs of the models at Yohji Yamamoto’s new collection. The collection was one of the most commercial throughout the seasons: missing a bit the manga coats or gorgeous trousers I would enjoy wearing, we had pajama jacquards covered in a faded motif of old, stained-glass rosettes; faux bleach splotches stitched onto suiting; jailhouse-striped pants that appeared counterintuitively gentlemanly. The denim grouping was most interesting of all. Yohji said he was tired of seeing jeans that looked “out of fashion.” His solution: trompe l’oeil holes, roomy gaucho pants, and a dramatic denim cape. Not that I am disapointed with this collection, but feel it’s a little break for Yohji Yamamoto- and that we soon will see something good.

Men’s: Faun. Rick Owens SS15

June 27, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

“I was thinking about the ballet Afternoon of a Faun, choreographed by Nijinsky. It basically all culminates with this faun masturbating on a nymph’s scarf, so everybody in the audience, with all their jewels, are just waiting for this guy to hump the scarf. I love that!” – Rick Owens said before the show. Intresting interpretation… just like his SS15 show dedicated to duality of futurism and primitivism. Few models were painted white to look more fantasy like. The models wore these cavemen like skirts uncovering their torsos while the shoes felt outer space. The solemn faces of the models were pale and solemn… it was all a very interesting fairy-tale. Thoughts?

Men’s: Memories. Raf Simons SS15

June 27, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

Raf Simons got really sentimental this season. In an industrial space, with guests standing instead of seating, the designer served a portion of unexplained things. And as he said, they are hard to analyse. But first of all, the backs of the coats and tops “Like mood boards you’d pin your favorite images to,” Raf said backstage. Friends, family, a fluffy kitty, a roller coaster, Mt. Fuji painted by Hokusai, a koi pond, a shark, a swimmer in peril, an astronaut…it seemed furiously random until Simons parsed the images. And these were all his memories and inspirations that he thought of while putting them live, on the models. Sharks- he loves Jaw movie and horrors. The astronaut was isolation. Roller coaster, the one he rode with his friends Olivier Rizzo and Willy Vanderperre decades ago. The Japanese influence was his thank-you to the first retailers who ever supported him. That was a truly psychological idea, too. In other words, Raf Simons made us all a bit shaky after the show. And the clothes were very him! The sneakers, the sophisticated suits, colourful tops and sharp tailored trousers. The AW14 collaboration with artist Sterling Ruby was a sweet surrender that Simons said, “I could only go deep into myself to find another challenge.” He’s a supremely organized individual, but maybe Ruby left him with an appetite for chaos. “It’s interesting to let go,” he agreed.