Modern Femininity. Area SS16

September 11, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

I feel proud to see a Polish accent in New York. AREA is the brainchild of Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk – a brand, which changes the meaning of femininity. Their signature Braille-effect textiles made over-sized ruffles, elongated sleeves and glamorous gowns look lady-like, but not totally. It had a lot to do with the 70’s glamorama – the make-up, the hair, the whole “eponymous” bling. But from the other side, AREA makes it specific femininity look alien. Is it because of the embossed texture? Or the over-the-knee leg covers? And then, we’ve got the pilgrim shoes with buckles that are a totally diffrent story. It seems to me, that AREA has a lot to say… and I am really interested how will it evolve!

Every Woman. Rachel Comey SS16

September 11, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Rachel Comey is a female fashion designer who designs for woman. It’s tempting to say, that she is Phoebe Philo of New York. Although her very wearable clothes are more affordable, her philosophy is very close to woman’s perfect wardrobe. And rather than having a classical model casting, the “models” of the show were diverse, different-age women. All of these “models” were dancers from the Robbins Childs company, with which Comey collaborated on a video presentation for Resort 2016. They were dresses in easy silhouettes, that suited their various sizes and shapes; slouchy cotton blazers, baggy dresses with flesh-exposing cuts, signature culottes and the wooden wedges were the highlights – however, the distressed denim won everybody’s heart. The mini-dress with a Corbusier-inspired pattern and high-waisted, over-sized pants will definitely sell first when they hit the stores in New York.

The Names To Know

August 29, 2015August 29, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Stella Jean AW15

SS16 is coming with big steps, guys! The fashion month will begin really soon. The first week of September will be all about New York’s bliss and sophistication. Then, we will all have a jet-lag in London. Have a large plate of pasta in Milan and eat breakfasts at the new Fondazione Prada. Go to the sleaziest night-clubs of Paris for fashion shows. Also, this means a constant Instagram overload, long evenings spent on writing reviews and this fabulous / exhausting feeling you have during the fashion month. As we are all still charging our batteries on these last days of summer, here is my list of designers to KNOW & WATCH during the spring-summer 2016 marathon.

Eckhaus Latta / Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta from Los Angeles don’t care about their model’s size, age, gender. Their street casting and friend-models wear their clothes on runway as if they were having a stroll around Downtown. Raw domesticity is explored and modified, as imperfections are made beautiful and comfort found in the most unexpected of places, due to spontaneous fittings and very soft textiles.

Rosie Assoulin / Many designer who do evening-wear think that an excessive amount of Swarovski and flesh-exposing-cuts is just it. But thankfully, Rosie Assoulin is the woman who says a loud “NO” to that. The New York-based designer creates dresses which are mostly categorised as “evening” ones, but surprisingly look as good with white sneakers as with heels. By looking at her previous, autumn-winter collection by Rosie, it’s easy to conclude, that these simply cut, boldly coloured dresses look at their best with sweatpants and yes, even with hoodies.

Marques Almeida / They were the ones who discreetly made frayed and cut denim cool again; they made 90’s vibe strong and most noticeable this season. And there is something about their cool, ghetto attitude. The Portuguese duo rocked London just a few years ago and from the beginning smelled with success. Winning the LVMH Prize Award this year, Marques Almeida is now excepted to be really IT, after the luxury group, LVMH, takes them under their wings.

Faustine Steinmetz / In Steinmetz’s label, each textile is solely hand-woven by one person using their traditional hand looms.
And, each piece is meticulously made by hand, with some pieces taking over a week to weave. “In our East London studio we spin, dye and weave all our own fabrics. We reproduce iconic pieces, the kind everyone has or has had in their wardrobe at one stage, except we make them all by hand.” Faustine Steinmetz creates and designs denim which isn’t really denim- it’s a new apparel vision, but on upper level. And I just can’t wait to see how her amazing vision is going to evolve.

Stella Jean / The brightest star of Milan Fashion Week, I must admit. Stella was born in Rome, however its her Creole roots that make her fashion so unique and open-minded. From season to season, she offers her clients a mix of ethnic prints and references with a chic, Italian heritage. Although this might sound quite avant-garde, her clothes are a combination of “hand-made” tradition and European comfort – beautifully embroidered trousers evoke the warmth of India; a kimono from Tibet looks like a dream. Stella Jean should be praised not only for her breath-taking clothes, but for her idea of giving women and men around the world a chance to do their craft, work in good conditions and being paid for their talents.

Vetements / Lately, I have written a long post about this eponymous, yet provoking label from Paris. Vetements in French means clothes – but Vetements goes far beyond the meaning of clothes in today’s fashion industry. It exaggerates clothes. It elongates the sleeves, gives volume to cowboy boots and makes floral grandma dresses look scandalous, and kind of sexy. Led by Demna Gvasalia and six other anonymous designers, who met while working as design team at Maison (Martin) Margiela, Vetements is the new force which makes fashion rules feel even more useless than ever. Even their AW15 fashion show wasn’t a typical event where clothes were celebrated in a traditional way. But don’t think it was done in a buzzy, Chanel way – oh no. The “creative network” of the brand took their guests to Le Depot, a dark sex-club, where everybody felt a mood of anti-fashion. At first sight, you might not really understand the collection – but in reality, it is not that deep in its meaning as you might think. These clothes, even though look pretty grotesque, are wearable. Gvasalia claims “as long as we can make clothes that people want to wear and they find them cool and relevant, that’s my understanding of hype”.

Eckhaus Latta vibe. Forget the fashion rules, it says.

This is my list of designer “to watch out for” during the SS16 season. Would you add anybody else?

Dance. Rachel Comey Resort’16

July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Dance! Use your body language! Resort 2016 by the New York-based favourite, Rachel Comey, is a blast. The looks were documented through a dance performance from the Robbins Child company – women who love dancing simply showed the clothes they wore through movement. While listening to various music on their headphones, the dancers looked more than refreshing in colours of curcuma, lemon and red chilli… Comey said that she’d been looking at shots from Kingston, Jamaica circa the 1970s as a way of exploring a loose “street style” theme, and though her homage was indirect, the collection’s prints and colors made the reference clear. With a cool 70’s twist, these dresses are definitely the ones you want to try out at Saturday night dance-club.

HC – Great Beauty. Valentino AW15

July 11, 2015July 11, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

In the heart of Rome, the Italian house of Valentino presented its haute couture collection which just showed us, that this specific season is all about eponymous splendour. In 1960, Valentino Garavani founded his brand in the eternal city – now, its a label which can be called a fashion empire. But what’s most interesting in this collection is the fact that the creative directors, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, had it presented in Valentino’s hometown and not as usual, in Paris. The venue of the fashion show was bulit on Piazza Mignanelli – the place where Valentino himself staged his shows in the past.

The colour of black is ususally misunderstood. But in reality, black is poetic, elusive and mysterious. These words precisely describe this collection for AW15. “Rome is just a little bit noir, a little sinister” said Pierpaolo before the show, giving us the idea behind the city and the collection’s connection. Leather flowers trellised a sheer tulle cape, while minuscule beads added character to a gladiator minidress. And the repeating arch motif on a floor-sweeping, wool and velvet cape? A treasure. This is one of these collections you are going to remember for a long time.