Art

All About The Silhouette. Roksanda AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Roksanda is another London-based brand that I haven’t mentioned for a while on my site. This might be the biggest advantage of slower, extended fashion months – going through more shows, without a bigger rush. The autumn-winter 2021 collection coming from Roksanda Ilincic is fabulous. The new season offering was presented today in two formats: a look-book and video. Nothing shocking here, as it’s the new showing standard in COVID times. But the video part was especially done well, and it elevated the garments in a beautiful, considered way. Listening to Vanessa Redgrave softly recite William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is without a doubt the most soothing thing you’ll hear today. Watch her gaze out the window of her daughter Joely Richardson’s countryside home as her granddaughter Daisy Bevan brings the family’s winter garden back to life via voluminous ruffle and bow-adorned gowns in shades of honeycomb, vermillion, meadow blush, sienna and celadon, and you’ll start plotting your escape from the city. In a short yet wonderfully transportive insight into the lives of three generations of incredible women, Roksanda communicates fashion’s inextricable link to familial bonds in all their fragility, strength and tenderness. The new season pieces are all about entrance-making silhouettes, which are not only bold, but comfortable – not your usual pairing. Intricate pintucks help to create dramatic volume on dresses that cocoon their wearers, while tailoring – a big focus for the brand this season – is made as impactful as the dresses via bold colour blocking and modular sleeves that can be worn open, draped or closed. Additionally, Ilincic’s sensual illustrations worked as subtle, well-balanced prints that contributed to this very personal collection.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Regal. Emilia Wickstead AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

I’ve slept on most of Emilia Wickstead‘s career – majority of her collections felt too preppy, too controlled for me – but the autumn-winter 2021 line-up is quite something. This season, I feel like most brands and designer lean on styling too much, and in case of Wickstead, we see actual clothes, which are proof of excellent cut and tailoring. From the caped coats and suits to wonderfully refined eveningwear filled with couture-ish, lady-like silhouttes for day and evening, this is a regal, yet contemporary wardrobe for a modern-day dame. You know, that kind of Agatha Christie character, but living in social media times. And really, that woman doesn’t have a single pair of sweats on her racks. She will wear one of those shoulder-revealing dresses, in classy black or timeless florals, to a Zoom meeting (or a socially distanced five o’clock). I sense some Prada influences here and there, like the cut-out, pleated skirts especially, and that sort of elegant strictness, but those are equally signatures original to Wickstead.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Joy Of Dressing Up. Molly Goddard AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Finally – a collection I genuinely loved this season! Despite the obvious limitations of the moment, Molly Goddard delivered a phenomenal collection. Since the UK went into lockdown for the second time this winter, the designer has been forging ahead with her eponymous label, recently dropping a capsule of exquisite bridal dresses that’s primed for the current boom in micro weddings. And all that at eight-and-half months pregnant (congratulations!). “This collection was maybe the toughest to put together because of all the restrictions,” said Goddard, speaking via Zoom with Vogue from her home in West London. “There was so much uncertainty even in the logistics, but that didn’t stop us from taking risks. In a way, I think we really went for it.” Goddard is well known for her daring otherworldly confections, though this season she took to honing the down-to-earth signatures in her repertoire. She leaned into the quirky Britishisms that make her work sing, starting with an extended offering of her adorable Fair Isle sweaters for both men and women. Goddard takes pride in the fact that much of the collection is manufactured in the UK, and for autumn-winter 2021 she worked with a Scottish factory to produce traditional tartan kilts that looked especially good on the male model in her virtual fashion show, paired with colorful knits. Though it was hard to ignore the joyful exuberance of the tulle evening dresses in her lineup – she opened and closed the show with two especially flirty strapless numbers – the dry, taffeta frocks with angular bows were just as attention-grabbing layered over raw denim pants for day or with knee-high metallic boots for party time.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Green Power. Gabriela Hearst AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

There’s an unofficial trend circulating this season: finding inspiration in powerful women from the past, often with a religiously-charged background. First, Bevza‘s designer mentioned Olga of Kiev as a reference for her knitted hoods and elongated silhouettes; yesterday, Gabriela Hearst talked about Hildegard of Bingen. A writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, and Benedictine abbess, Hildegard was a regular Renaissance woman, except that she predated the Renaissance by about two centuries. “I’m convinced,” Hearst said, “that if she had been a man we’d know her name like we do Leonardo da Vinci’s.” In fact, Hildegard sketched a Universal Man, not unlike Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, only hers was completed 300 years earlier. Hildegard resonates with Hearst because among her other polymath pursuits, she was an herbalist, a woman really at one with nature. “She believed in ‘green power,’” said the designer. The environment is a passion of Hearst’s too. Fashion isn’t the greenest of industries, but her company is making strides. She reported that last year 40% of the materials used in the production of her collections were repurposed and deadstock. Her 2021 goal is 50%. Hearst’s efforts around responsible design are at least partly why she was hired as Chloé’s new creative director in December (looking forward to her debut this Paris Fashion Week!). Hearst’s autumn-winter 2021 line-up is all about timeless, beautifully-crafted design that actually needs no further explanantions or mood-boards behind. Still, those behind-the-scenes details are intriguing. Hearst’s 12-year-old daughter Mia’s interpretations of Hildegard’s painted flowers appear as a print on a silk shirtdress and as crocheted appliqués on knit sweater and skirt sets. They also inspired a pair of extraordinary ruanas, hand-knit by the Manos del Uruguay women’s collective in Hearst’s native country. Hearst’s own renditions of Hildegard’s flowers were transformed into hand-painted belt buckles at the center of which she placed mano figas, talismans signifying fertility and, by extension, female power. As usual, the designer offers a well-edited wardrobe of soft, yet empowering tailoring, gorgeous dresses that can be both for the day and night and remarkable outerwear (knotting details at the shoulders softened the lines of a trench and the hem of another coat was finished with a deep band of macramé lace).

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Balance. Proenza Schouler AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Ella Emhoff’s (Vice President Kamala Harris’s step daughter) modelling debut (she was signed by IMG Models not long after her stylish presence at the Inauguration) was probably the biggest, clickbait moment of this very plain New York Fashion Week. She had her cameo appearance in Proenza Schoulder‘s autumn-winter 2021 look-book and video, and definitely delivered some spotlight to those level-headed, a bit monotonous garments. Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough are the old hands (the brand is celebrating its 20th anniversary… yes, time flies!) on the local fashion week calendar, with many establishment brands showing later (or not all) this season. Maybe not coincidentally, they mentioned the word “balance” to Vogue: balancing the work-from-home moment we’re currently in with the optimism they feel sure is coming; balancing softness with structure, and minimalism with a more crafted aesthetic. The result is a collection that feels of a piece with their recent, consistenly minimalist work. They still favor an earthy palette and they continue to work their repertoire of lean, confident pant suits and fluid midi-dresses, a particularly striking one in chartreuse and brown tie-dye. But where a year ago, jackets and dresses were tugged off shoulders, this season that “attitude,” as they called it, was built into their patterns, be it a spongy knit dress with an askew head hole or a top with a swooping asymmetrical hem. The former snaked around the body, while the latter had a buoyant sculptural volume. Clothes that work harder while also being easier to wear – the new investment pieces, which make sense in COVID times.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.