It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To. Christopher John Rogers Pre-Fall 2023

January 7, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Christopher John Rogers, a designer for whom rainbow stripes are a defining signature, put together half a dozen looks for pre-fall 2023 devoid of color. The title he gave the collection, “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to,” offers a hint about his new direction. Having captured the fashion world’s attention, Rogers seems to have set out to upend expectations. “What I’m after is autonomy, the ability to do what I want,” he said. “The idea of play is paramount.” Cue the plastic clown noses and the towering silk clown hats created in collaboration with the milliner Piers Atkinson. There’s even a Pierrot jumpsuit in the first grouping, with silk flowers in place of the characteristic pompons, though this isn’t so much a novelty as it is a callback. A pre-pandemic runway show closed with a different take on the look. In the end, this wasn’t the volta face that those first looks augured. It’s just as colorful as any other CJR lineup, just as extroverted, but there is a commitment to pushing at the limits of his well-known signatures. In the studio, Rogers pointed out the porthole cutout in a boxy knit top bordered with the rainbow stripes – “it takes a lot of work to get it to lay flat,” he explained. Also complex: the sweaters that hybridized two crewnecks into one, and a sweater dress with both long sleeves and arm slits. The playfulness has a purpose; those knits can be worn in multiple ways. And the experimentation is balanced by an easy-wearing sensibility. Rogers’s new suits are oversized and unstructured; cut from recycled polyester in zesty shades of grape and crawfish, they’re the fresh, modern flipside of the more formal tailoring on his June runway. Rogers doesn’t want to get boxed into any one category, but evening wear, inevitably, is his calling card. With award season ramping up, there’s bound to be some incoming calls for the tulip gown in floral printed faille and a harlequin embroidered black column with pouf sleeves, both of which nod with flair back to mid-century couture shapes.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Quiet, The Winter Harbor. Yohji Yamamoto AW98

January 6, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

You could say that Yohji Yamamoto‘s sublime autumn-winter 1998 lineup was about stretch. There were a lot of knits, both of the loving-hands-made-at-home variety and luxurious jerseys. Yamamoto explored the draping possibilities of the latter, but he also combined jerseys with more static woven materials. Post-show the designer told The Daily Telegraph that his idea was “to experiment with the ‘delayed’ reaction of certain fabrics contesting the movements of the body.” With the exception of the finale, bridal look, this was a relatively sporty show, even when it came to dressing for evening. To highlight that, Vogue photographed Angela Lindvall leaping through the Irish countryside in a knit ball skirt and ribbed turtleneck from the collection (obsessed). For the most part Yamamoto’s historicisms referenced the 20th century (the cargo-pocket peplums looked like a pre–World War II silhouette) rather than earlier periods. The caged finale gown, with its hyper-exaggerated 19th-century proportions, was the exception – and exceptional in every way. It was even accessorized with Doc Martens. Sally Brampton, reporting on the show for The Guardian in 1998, recounted that “the bride billowed down the catwalk in a cream skirt so huge that journalists in the front rows had to duck down below the skirt, only to discover a bamboo cage strapped around her waist with canes radiating out from it. Four men held up the vast My Fair Lady picture hat that floated like a snowdrift over her.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Simply Precious. Jil Sander Pre-Fall 2023

January 4, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Hello in 2023!

The mood Luke and Lucie Meier were after for Jil Sander‘s pre-fall 2023 was that of “couture mixed with a sportier feel. We like the attitude of elevated functionality, without compromising on interesting volumes and high-quality fabrics and execution.” A clear message indeed, one which they explored in their rainy spring show. The Meiers are inquisitive, soul-searching designers, and questioning their practice is part of the equation. Highlighting the ‘opposites attract’ tension intrinsic to their aesthetic, they asked, “how do you make things that feel very immediate, fresh-feeling, and modern but also have this inherent couture rigor of technique and shape?” The dynamic between precision and glamour, or utility and sensuality played out throughout the collection, with silhouettes alternating between the voluminous and airy, and the slender and close to the body. Classic couture volumes like the cape, the balloon dress, and the opera coat were given a sporty twist and a comforting feel of ease through the counterintuitive use of high-end fabrics. A cape dress was made in thick jersey; a poufy floral-printed and pleated-plastron minidress was cut from papery recycled polyester. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a slender silhouette conveyed a more athletic, agile language in long silk ribbed knit dresses with racerback tops. Remarkable examples of their obsession with the hand-feel of materials were in evidence throughout. A fringed backless top in hand-knitted open-stitch with geometric motifs looked rather striking, as did both a sinuous ivory slip dress with embroidered ajour details and an asymmetrical floral-patterned guipure skirt. On a similar note, four different fabrics were cut into petal-shaped feathers, and then applied decoratively over a miniskirt and a sleeveless top. The effect was both light and luxurious. “Precious in a simple way,” was how the designers’ summarized the allure of the collection.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Sleek. Ferragamo Pre-Fall 2023

December 29, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

A century after it’s launch, Ferragamo, the brand, has dropped the Salvatore from its name but nonetheless is looking at Hollywood just as its founder once did – in the hope of expansion, improvement, and scope. Following his quite promising debut in Milan in September, Maximilian Davis presented this first pre-fall collection for the brand in its headquarters there. He said: “There’s an image of LA and Hollywood where you kind of pan away from the city and you see the mountains, so you see the contrast of the mountains with the palm trees. So there was this idea of mixing hot and cold.” There was also the idea of insinuating Western dress into Davis’s Ferragamo mix, literally inspired by Salvatore’s work designing and making the footwear for 1923 silent movie The Covered Wagon. This translated into boots, of course, as well as some handsome denim pieces, some with a flocked, velvet finish which were occasionally translated into reproductions in dyed rib jersey. Davis further ruggedized his cleaner, minimal spring template with shaggy shearlings. Checks were used on viscose cady in scarf-dresses and shirting; along with the pleated minis these pieces were playing to audience demand. His eye for jewel-like embellishments and patches of minimal space landed this season upon polished metal or leather buckles, leather patches on leather skirting, as well as a fearsome gold handbag strap. Several stories from that debut season enjoyed sequel outings here, including the nylon casual outerwear looks and others accented in the fiery red which this designer is working to corral for the house. Eel skin was used to fashion sleek, overtly sensual pieces with a hint of kink that softly squeaked with movement. Davis said that building a VIP clientele, as Salvatore once did, is a key part of his strategy at Ferragamo.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Personal. Bode SS23

December 28, 2022December 28, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

For spring-summer 2023, Emily Adams Bode Aujla continued to explore 29 Clinton Street – the apartment in the Lower East Side where she founded her brand. But whereas last season she had sought inspiration in the memories of the space, the things she collected, and the parties she threw, this time she focused on something more abstract: the feeling of home itself. “We really honed in on more of the concept of the interior, the feeling of comfort from the old apartment,” she said on a frigid morning in her studio in Brooklyn. “There’s a lot more knits, crochets, and pajamas.” Not actually meant to be worn while sleeping, the pajama sets have become something of a staple for the designer for a few seasons. “I have always made pajamas, but I feel like people really started gravitating towards them after the wedding collection,” she said. A set in cream came adorned with white piping cord embroidery detail, and was worn with a white and cream crochet vest over it. Other versions in lavender (worn with a purple striped crochet polo) and a white-on-black windowpane check (worn with Bode’s take on a souvenir shirt, emblazoned with a map print) showed the versatility of the idea. Another set in the form of a hunter green velvet track-style jacket and matching trousers had the same ease as pajamas, but was made for those who may need to actually dress up for work. It was worn with a shirt and tie underneath. Adams Bode Aujla’s knitwear was a standout this season, especially the floral intarsia cardigans with latticed edges, and the breezy open crochet navy polo with red and white stripes, and another crochet cardigan in orange with white crochet appliqué flowers. Many of these were inspired by pieces from the designer’s vintage archive, but remade with comfortable, breathable yarns, “so they won’t itch and won’t combust.” She embraced her love of novelty items with a sweater that read EVERYONE NEEDS SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN RIGHT NOW I BELIEVE I’LL HAVE ANOTHER BEER, alongside a variety of horse-themed items: a short-sleeve button-down shirt with red piping, and an intarsia knit sweater and pants set in royal blue with yellow stripes. It makes sense that she is indulging in all the things that are so close and personal to her; next season she will return to Paris to stage a show, her first one since 2020.