Apocalyptic. Balenciaga AW20

March 11, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

No other show in Paris left such a vivid expression as Balenciaga. You still keep on thinking about this collection (which already means something…). The audience entered the darkened Balenciaga venue and suddenly realized that the first two rows were inundated with water. It was a chilly setting for Demna Gvasalia‘s procession of sinister characters, walking on a vast stretch of water beneath an apocalyptic, digital sky filled with fire, lightning and Hitchcockian birds. “It’s the blackest show I ever did,” the designer said. Gvasalia’s route is always freighted with social observation on the state of the world, power politics, dress codes, fetishism. His intense parade of priests and priestesses in long black robes, with their “religious purity, minimalism, austerity” arose from memories of the Orthodox church in Georgia, and looking at the Spanish Catholic origins of Cristóbal Balenciaga. “He made his first dresses from black velvet, for a Marquesa to wear to church,” Gvasalia concluded. “I had a lot of clerical wear in my research. I come from a country where the Orthodox religion has been so predominant,” he said. “I went to church to confess every Saturday. Back then, I remember looking at all these young priests and monks, wearing these long robes and thinking, ‘How beautiful.’ You see them around Europe with their beards, hair knotted back and backpacks. I don’t know, I find it quite hot – but that’s my fetish.” On closer inspection, they were wearing demonic red or black contact lenses; their faces brutally augmented with protheses. “Religious dress codes are all about hiding the body, about being ashamed – body and sex is the taboo. Whereas when you look into it, some of these people are the nastiest perverts”. Holding that thought – about constraint, rules and belonging to sects – set him off, designing neoprene suits with tiny compressed waists for women and black leather “Pantaboots” with padlocked “chastity belts” and a whole series of leather biker suits. This collection is in a way painful to look at, but that is its real power. On the other note, I think Demna is the only person in fashion who really pushes the topic of silhouette and form, creating some of the most transformative garments. I can’t wait for his debut haute couture show coming this July.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Neo Future. Comme Des Garçons AW20

March 10, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Is it impossible to make something completely and utterly new, since we are all living in this world?”, Rei Kawakubo asked rhetorically in the press notes of her autumn-winter 2020 Comme Des Garçons collection. Looking at some “big” designers for a couple of seasons, this question is an actual punch with a fist. At this stage in her legendary career, what’s still driving Kawakubo is the tantalizing goal of being able to make work that relates to nothing else; that triggers no associations; is devoid of storytelling and free of history, politics, or satire; and is incapable of being interpreted as belonging to any culture or subconscious brew of any of the above. Among the 20 looks she sent out – bubbles, ledged pieces apparently made for furniture, towering headpieces – it felt like she was aiming to design for some post-world state. There appeared to be echoes of Comme Des Garçons collections from the past – the Flat collection; the ones rotated around the idea of weddings and funerals; fragmented reminders of the Lumps and Bumps presentation. Kawakubo admitted it was true – she really let herself remix some of her past works. “Continuing my work as a perpetual futurist, I worked from within the CDG world.” But when you’re having such a well-formed, complex and distinct vocabulary – Miuccia Prada as well comes up to my mind as one of those designers – then there’s no wonder you want to recycle some of those concepts from time to time.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Poetry. Haider Ackermann AW20

March 2, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Timothée Chalamet attended Haider Ackermann‘s autumn-winter 2020, but that of course wasn’t the sole highlight of the entire event. Although there was no real explanation regarding the line-up (“I don’t like to define,” said the designer), the keys to unlocking the thought behind the collection appeared to reside in the track list upon the cotton quilt coat in one of the men’s looks. Under Ackermann’s signature and the headline “Private Dancer” was a list of songs, including Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” David Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners,” Yoko Ono’s “I Want My Love to Rest Tonight,” Underworld’s “Born Slippy,” Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. “These are all my favorite songs,” Haider told the press. “It was just an ode to everything I love.” The collection was also a mix that unfolded in groups of looks for both women (sometimes under space-age beehive hats that elevated the silhouettes even more) and men. From wearing shades of ecru to rich velvets to black, the models walked in packs. What united them was the Ackermann eye for the romantic, the poetic and the sensual. At the back of jackets, vents bled into extra folds of material that caressed the silhouette. Long and lean overcoats were contoured with collars and buttons in a series of masterfully produced arrangements. This show was a painstakingly tailored mixtape of all of Ackermann’s wearable passions and signatures. Simply speaking: beautiful.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Dress To Impress. Loewe AW20

March 1, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Dressing to impress—I think that’s an exciting thing,” Jonathan Anderson declared backstage of his latest Loewe show. “Looking at building new types of silhouettes that can work in an abstract way. Trying to take a risk, maybe in my own self.” Taking risks is a trouble for many designers in Paris, so it’s great to see at least someone addressing that. What he began with – the volumized “entrance-making” shapes he showed in his JW Anderson collection in London – was followed through with inspirational conviction at Loewe. The collection at some points looked odd, but in a good, refreshing way. This line-up wasn’t obvious. What were these brocade dresses, gathered by Takuro Kuwata’s ceramic works? How to capture the shoulder-extending device from which caped-back sleeves were suspended? Anderson said he didn’t quite know exactly how he’d arrived at those ideas. “But sometimes it’s nice to feel vulnerable when you’re doing a collection – that you don’t know what the outcome is going to be before you start.” In pushing across the frontiers of the norm, Anderson relies partly on spontaneous curation. “Exaggerating by illusion” is one way he described the process. Yet the thing about Anderson is that his creative push is also part of his incredibly prescient long-term strategy to turn Loewe into what he’s called “a cultural brand” (he’s reconstructed it into a fashion home for the art-owning and gallery-going international clientele). This as well gets reflected in Jonathan’s fashion. Echoes of 17th century Spanish art – especially Zurburan and Velasquez – come in the subtle Spanish semiotics Anderson embeded in the collection. Maybe there was a hint of flamenco in the raw-edge tiers in a gray flannel coat and the triple-fluted sparkle-dusted sleeves of a ribbed-knit dress. But then, some of the dresses had volumes that made you think of medieval-wear we know from miniature illustrations.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Comfort Zone. Isabel Marant AW20

March 1, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

For autumn-winter 2020, Isabel Marant stayed in her comfort zone. Her signature, hourglass silhouette came in knitted dresses with over-sized shoulders and quilted varsity jackets with a sharp cut. Her trademark styling trick – in which a belt is used to cinch a voluminous jacket – was in full effect on shaggy camel-colored shearling and all-enveloping blanket coats. Mostly kept in layered neutrals, the collection pleases with its balance between minimalism and nomadic chic – something we all know Marant for. It’s one of those collections that comes nearly unnoticed, but when it hits the stores, everyone wants it.