From Dakar With Love. Chanel Pre-Fall 2023

December 10, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Chanel‘s Métiers d’Art collection shown in Dakar was a thoroughly considered, deep dialogue between the brand and the Senegalese culture and community. Best testimony to that were Virginie Viard‘s words: “This conversation is not going to end here today. And it’s not a question that we have to continue it – we don’t. We are going to do it because we like it very much.” For Chanel to choose to present its first-ever show in Africa – and simultaneously the first show to be presented by any European or US house anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa – was an ambitious move. At a fittings appointment pre-show, backstage in the Senegalese capital’s former Palais de Justice (now home to its art Biennale), Viard said that the idea first took hold three years ago. Two years of Covid-enforced hiatus followed, before scouting began. “When we first came to this place, Dakar, it was really incredible, and we knew,” she said. The Métiers d’Art event felt like a respectful exploration of cultural affinities – an interweaving of the pre-existing to create something entirely new. Much of that atmosphere was generated by all of the many Senegal-facing activities, but it was also inherent – albeit more discreetly – in the fabric of the collection itself. The lion motif that reappeared on jewelry and bags was a dual reference to the emblem of Senegal and the sign of Coco Chanel. Viard also looked beyond Senegal. The tailoring and menswear shapes were informed by Congo’s sartorialist Sapeur subculture, as were the heftily commando-soled shoes. Almost invisible after long and complex processes of fabric development, some of the beading materials and patterns were rooted in source material from Africa. Talking drums and surfboards were other talismanic symbols of place and connection integrated into the language of the pieces. The broader context was 1970s-inflected: casual, unpretentious, and free. Michel Gaubert’s soundtrack of freshly-released Sault tracks provided a dreamy dimension. At the end of this show guests lingered and the hubbub of conversation steadily increased. Those guests included Senegal’s first lady, Madame Marième Sall, and four government ministers (three of them female). The models changed into their off-duty clothes and joined the party. This collection was Viard’s most bold and reflective move since her appointment as the maison‘s creative director.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Bling Bling. Area Resort 2023

December 9, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

A proper dose of bling-bling and show-girl-attitude keeps the doctor away. For all that, go to Area. Piotrek Panszczyk and his team began thinking about the label’s resort collection from a very literal place – the word resort itself. “If you look through history at people like Yves Saint Laurent, Ungaro, Jean Paul Gaultier, there’s always this idea of going back to a marinier, a rope, an anchor…these symbolic tropes, basically,” he said. “We wanted to dissect these ideas and kind of turn them on their head“. He chose the mussel (“something quite erotic and not really glamorous”) as his starting point, because it reminded him of hometown. “I was raised in Holland, on the Belgium border and that area has a really big mussel-fishing industry,” he explained. He cast the mussel shells in metal and paired them together in a floral pattern that adorned skimpy glamazon-ready bras, bustiers, and bodysuits. They are highly editorial pieces ready to be photographed for magazines and record covers. Garments that are 100% Area. Although his sculptural pieces are certainly works of art, his “more approachable” pieces carry just as much of his energy. Like the pink leather car coat decorated with laser cutouts and embellished with the metal mussel flowers, which manages to be both practical and completely fantastical, and a black column gown whose bodice is draped to resemble two mussel shells, trimmed in crystals. He also cut and quilted leather to resemble mussel shells, which he whipped into a mini skirt (shown with a matching mussel-shell-flower bra, of course). Also successful were explorations around rope, which resulted in intricately constructed tailored pieces – squiggly strips of fabric cut and hand-woven to look like strands of material wrapping around each other – that showed off Panszczyk’s talent. In an open-work coat done in Area’s signature houndstooth print in contrasting shades of black and pink, it hinted at the demi-couture the label is known for; in white crepe, it was a sexy-yet-easy dress suitable for red carpets and parties alike. “If you look at our brand, it evolves, but it never really changes, you know?” Panszczyk said. “Some of these techniques are actual couture techniques that we began exploring during our first show, and no one ever thought we could actually commercialize them, but it’s because we did it like nine times after that. It takes a lot of research and development.” He continues, “I love to see them used in major pieces, but I really love them also in utility pieces; when we can have an amazing denim that can actually be in the closets of a way-broader group of people. It doesn’t really say anything about our creativity, it says something about the way we see our business growing.”

Check out some of my favourite Area bling-blings, ready to kick off the festive season:

Area Cropped Embellished Denim Top

Area Strapless Draped Sequined Tulle Mini Dress

AREA Cropped Open-back Embellished Cotton Top

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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P.S. In this post, I happen to endorse products I genuinely love. If you end up buying something through the links, my site might earn an affiliate commission – which is always nice!

RetroFuture. Dior Pre-Fall 2023

December 7, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

This was a pretty good Dior Men collection that would do just fine in a studio-shot look-book or a chic, dove-grey Parisian venue. Why Kim Jones took the collection to Egypt? Well, that’s a secret of the Sphinx. During the show, in the middle-distance, a long line of men began to trek over a desert bluff, with the Great Pyramid of Giza as their backdrop. The desert wind cooperated by whipping up their pale, trailing chiffon scarves, asymmetrical capes, and half-kilts as they marched up the incline. Clad in clothes which felt coolly, elegantly avant-garde, sensibly utilitarian, each model embodied Kim Jones’s multiply-coded, yet highly salable method of menswear design for Dior Men. But the collection had pretty much no context related to the Egyptian culture and heritage. Moreover, it felt as if the pyramids became a decontextualized setting. Jones chose to sidestep any obvious references to Pharoahs or Egyptian archaeology. Instead, he was talking about how he was looking upwards to the sky for various star-related references. “Really, I was looking at two things. The ancient Egyptians were obsessed by astronomy, and Monsieur Dior was obsessed by stars and astrology. And,” he added, “when I go into the desert, I look at the sky.” That’s a very odd parallel, but OK. From there, he’d stirred in elements of retro-futurism and up-to-date science interests into a kind of ‘elevation’ of his own. “I’ve always loved Dune, which was really the first of sci-fi. And we’ve worked with NASA on some of the more technical prints.” There were desert boots with 3-D printed foot-guards that looked as if they’d manifested from a computer game. A couple of multimedia helmets with tinted visors looked as if they’d been constructed with future Space X travel to Mars in mind. All the leggings he showed might theoretically complete the kit. The designer has been intent on infusing his menswear with ideas from Dior’s women’s archive for a good while now. There’s an obvious transfer from Dior’s famous petalled ballgown ‘Junon’ into a couple of beaded-edge embroidered vests. Less obvious, but very chic, are all of Jones’s transferences from Dior’s signature gray tailoring. All the gray half-kilts he showed are bias-cut, worn over narrow tailored trousers. The collection didn’t risk any cultural appropriation controversy, clothes-wise. But with such stunning and monumental location, it felt like a missed chance for a truly inventive dialogue that could involve local artists and craftsmen.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Reality Through Play. Marni Resort 2023

December 5, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Please pardon my blog absence – first had a very busy schedule, and then, just like that, Miss ‘Rona hit me. Slowly, but steadily, after a couple of days living in another dimension, I’m returning to reality. The Marni resort 2023 collection feels like a sweet thing to look at first. In keeping with his increasingly radical practice, with its implicit critique of today’s fashion system, Francesco Risso is taking the concept of collaboration to the next level at the Italian brand. He’s doing so not just by testing the perimeter between fashion and art, but also by questioning the boundaries of authorship. Risk-taking is obviously included in such a journey, but Risso seems to enjoy meeting the challenges head-on. And what’s more fearless than luring into Marni’s inner sanctum not a fellow designer, as other brands are doing, but a true artist – and a painter, no less? This see-now, buy-now resort collection marked the inception of this new direction, with Flaminia Veronesi taking up a long term role at the label. Risso introduced Veronesi, a longtime friend whose imaginative allegorical drawings have true affinity with the sensibility he has introduced at Marni. “We are connected by a similar way of dealing creatively with reality through play,” she explained, “a play which happens through tactility, is activated by the touch of the hand, and which is expressive of a feminine, no-gender ingenuity bringing us back to our instinctual, creatural side.” Risso chimed in: “In the path towards the definition of Marni, the backbone for me has always been the concept of play, so it seemed natural that Flaminia’s vision opened doors onto landscapes where we share the same delight in exploring the simple, childlike playfulness I believe is crucial to shaping Marni’s aesthetic.” Risso and Veronesi’s interaction feels as smooth as one of her swirling, fluid drawings of aquatic creatures, which have been transposed for resort onto bias-cut dresses, oversized cargos, low-slung trousers, and jumpers. But beyond the obvious visual appeal of their ‘creatures,’ what Risso wanted to highlight is how the new integrated practice serves to add integrity to the items they’re creating. “I did not invite Flaminia to just make a couple of drawings to print on a series of disposable hoodies,” he explained. “There’s too much fake creativity around, plastered surreptitiously onto zillions of products. What I want to achieve is an authentic, generative artistic partnership which makes us both grow, and which adds intrinsic value even to the less visually conspicuous items of a collection. All the hyper-branded, status-driven logoed products out there reveal such poverty of thought, it’s an appalling way of depleting our work as creatives of any meaning.” The collaboration with Veronesi has triggered a counterintuitive stripping-down approach to the hybridized flamboyance of previous Marni collections. For resort, silhouettes had a clarity and purity that only enhanced by contrast the poetic intensity of the prints based on Veronesi’s drawings. Even the clashing-striped knitwear looks had a more streamlined energy to them. For now, Risso is keen on keeping shapes, volumes, and decorations from overwhelming the personality of the wearer. Maximizing self-expressive potential through reworked classics is what he’s after. That said, “I’m not a minimalist in the least,” he concluded. “Quite the contrary.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Techno Mermaid. Ottolinger SS23

November 20, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Ottolinger designers Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient opened their spring-summer 2023 fashion show with a sharp look: a deconstructed belt–meets–bra top whose straps covered the nipples and little else, paired with low-slung leather-look trousers made from recycled polyester. Gen Z’s love of near nudity knows no bounds, and the fan base that lounged on the show venue’s mattress seats wearing skin-baring looks from the Berlin-based label would think nothing of wearing a crop top to talk shop. The designers recently launched a pre-collection that they said had allowed them to tackle more conceptual ideas in their runway shows. No longer beholden to showing denim and mesh dresses, which are their big commercial hits, this freed them up to present deconstructed biker jackets and skintight bodysuits. Ironically, though, the strongest pieces were arguably the most commercial, especially the dresses that draped and hugged the body with some rubbery-looking embellishments. Dipping items in rubber is a trait that reads recognizably Ottolinger: The punked-up court shoes, which saw a classic pump wrapped in a futuristic rubber-like casing, were as covetable as the diamanté jewelry dipped in brightly colored rubber that currently sells well on the label’s website. They’d do well to continue hammering home those codes as the Y2K trend keeps rolling and numerous other labels look to replicate their success with the sexy and the skintight.