Comfort Zone. The Row AW25

| Design & Culture by Ed

The Row‘s autumn-winter 2025 outing feels like Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen‘s comfort zone. There’s evidently less experimentation with form and a radical return to minimalism they have already polished to perfection years ago.

The new season images were photographed by Mark Borthwick, whose artful direction of movement and split-frame compositions lead around the season’s more straightforward silhouettes. Some are deceptively simple; see the rounded sleeves of a blouse that ripple down the arms when worn, or the double-layered coat with an exposed lining. Some are legitimately simple, such as the relaxed cuts of several men’s pieces. Meanwhile, tailoring is treated with a fluid touch.

What worries is the Olsens’ obsession with Martin Margiela’s Hermès: they love this moment in fashion so much that they forget the line between inspiration and imitation. And that’s not a very The Row thing to do.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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New Age. Dries Van Noten AW25

| Design & Culture by Ed

The new age has begun at Dries Van Noten under Julian Klausner‘s creative direction. One good thing: his debut menswear collection doesn’t feel as plain as the studio-designed womenswear we’ve seen back in September.

But his autumn-winter 2025 confusingly feels like a collection that could come from another Antwerp-originating brand: Maison Margiela (seen through John Galliano lens) or Ann Demeulemeester (black coat cinched at waist with thin string-belt and black feathers). The Willy Vanderperre-shot lookbook gives yet another Belgian designer’s distinct vibe: Raf Simons.

I hope that in the proper runway debut come March, Klausner will somehow show us what Dries Van Noten means without Dries. This outing doesn’t say much.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Maestro. Giorgio Armani AW25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Let’s be honest: 99.9% of menswear designers in Milan this season look up to the Italian maestro: Giorgio Armani. As they should. He’s one of the last living legends. And he just doesn’t stop.

The designer’s autumn-winter 2025 collection was just sublime. Gorgeously weathered leather jackets looked as if they could have been adapted straight from Armani’s archive on display in his Silos space in Milan, worn this season against ruby velvet shirting and roomy gray trousers in loden-thick wool. Oh, the velvet! The best kind of: meaty, but cascading. Just sumptuous, whether in electric ocean-blue or deep, deep burgundy.

Armani’s clothes look credibly contemporary and quintessentially Milan. Forever.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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