Gimme More. Balenciaga SS25

October 4, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Something was definitely off about this Balenciaga outing by Demna. Not in a conceptual or ironic way – this would be make the collection spark with the designer’s signature knack for disruptiveness. What worries me is spring-summer 2025’s flatness of meaning behind the clothes. The models – who walked on an extra-long, wooden table – opened the show with lingerie, which was actually an illusionist layering of bras and garters on flesh-colored body stockings. Then, the collection shifted to Demna’s well-known twisted take on streetwear. Shrunken polos, garments made out of stitched together hoodies, well-worn baggy jeans… we all know this story. The finale was about eveningwear that was totally mild and whatever. The show was accompanied by a remix of Britney Spears’ “Gimme More“, the ultimate anthem of over-consumption of mass media and pop culture. When I heard it, my first thought was: Demna’s exhausted. We kind of all are.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Nostalgia. Valentino SS25

October 4, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

I found Alessandro Michele‘s runway debut for Valentino a disappointment on many levels. I don’t get the reasoning behind sending down the runway over 80 looks that are so terrifically archaic and deadly retro. Yes, it’s Michele’s prime aesthetic, but it can easily (and quickly) get exhausting. Near the end of his tenure at Gucci, you literally felt an overdose of nostalgia. I really hoped Michele would channel his quirk for the past it in a contemporary-looking way. Let’s remember his Gucci debut was an unexpected gender revolution. But at Valentino, he totally missed the opportunity to show a breakthrough. Also, what’s the actual point of remaking Valentino Garavani’s 1970s and 80s garments in 2024? First, there’s a vintage market for that. Second, it looks absolutely stuffy and dusty without even a drop of irony in the styling.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Contemporary. Loewe SS25

October 4, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

In his 10th anniversary show for Loewe, Jonathan Anderson wasn’t looking back at his all-time hits. It’s Jonathan: he’s a designer that is always looking forward. The delightfully surreal, but not overly on-the-nose collection began with a bouncingly light, flowered, off-the-shoulder crinoline dress. Corseting-free and hands in pockets, the look – which reappearead a couple of times in the show – felt absolutely contemporary and cool (unlike the stuffy prettiness at Alessandro Michele’s Valentino debut). Anderson finds sheer pleasure in messing with classicism. References to classical composers and painters on T-shirts – made in feathers – pictured Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and a Manet soldier boy. “I like this idea that they’re kind of like pinup rock stars,” Anderson said. “Like when you go to a museum or you go to a concert: experiential things that you want to take a memento of with you. The idea that music reminds us of moments in our lives.” Then there were his multiple reimagined French golden age couture dresses, all hoops and semisheer flower prints and trapeze-line silhouettes abbreviated to very short minis. Worn with sneakers, there was nothing fussy about his take on eveningwear. Again, a contemporary feel that many, many designers had a hard time grasping this season.

And to celebrate Jonathan Anderson’s victorious decade at Loewe…

ED’s SELECTION:

Loewe Orange Blossom Scented Candle

Loewe Toy Paneled Denim Ankle Boots

Loewe Argyle Wool Sweater

Loewe Leather-trimmed Padded Shell Bomber Jacket

Loewe Puzzle Fold Convertible Medium Leather Tote

Loewe Leopard-print Calf Hair Pumps

Loewe Asymmetric Floral-print Silk Dress

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Girls (And Willem). Miu Miu SS25

October 3, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Miu Miu‘s spring-summer 2025 collection was a post-post-modern collage of various notions of femininity, seen through the lens of Miuccia Prada‘s absolutely distinct Miu-isms. This girl was certainly interrupted – the Miuccia way, with styling help of Lotta Volkova. To start, there were underthings worn as outer things, such as white cotton slips; some had graphic sequined embroideries. Sporty track separates and cutout bathing suits were also in the mix, along with private-school uniforms 1970s-ish geometric prints lifted from a spring 2005 collection (that’s the thing about Prada: 20 years later, her concepts feel like new). It was a wild juxtaposition of things that don’t belong together yet somehow work together. Western belts and waitress dresses, well-worn shirting and sporty bikini tops… but in the end, there was method to this chaos. And then you had Willem Dafoe closing the show.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Hope? Comme Des Garçons SS25

October 3, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“With the state of the world as it is, the future as uncertain as it is, if you put air and transparency into the mix of things, there could be the possibility of hope” is Rei Kawakubo‘s thought behind her spring-summer 2025 collection, paraphrased by her husband Adrian Joffe. Comme Des Garçons shows during Paris Fashion Week are moments of transcendence, like a slit to another reality. This season, the voluptuous, ecstatic, erratic, bubbling, unsettling and vibrant forms, some as if splattered with blood, hit different. Just a couple of days before the show, I watched Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” starring Demi Moore, and in a way this film dialogues with Kawakubo’s subversive take on contemporary women: their emotions, struggles, bodies (just think about her “Lumps & Bumps” collection). Then, seeing these runway garments IRL during a re-see at Comme Des Garçons’ showroom, in attendance of Rei herself and Michele Lamy, felt like a very bold, fever dream (in fact I was sick that day – the Parisian cold!). An experience to remember and cherish forever.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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