Art

Bourgeois Chic. Lanvin AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Bruno Sialelli grows up at Lanvin. His autumn-winter 2020 outing was his most convincing outing yet and might be the right starting point for the new Lanvin image. The designer approached the beautiful value of Jeanne Lanvin’s legacy, creating an elegant, bourgeois-chic collection. There were plenty of Sialelli’s favorite tailored outerwear pieces with oversized or fur-textured collars – that’s the part he just can’t skip in his post-Loewe work. However, these were less oversophisticated with overelaborate styling. What else pleased? Some “playful” accessories that will surely attract a young customer: a lipstick pendant, a ceramic fox face bracelet, the patisserie-box bags. The clothes are refined and definitely will be cherished by more mature ones. Big bravos for casting Paloma Elsesser – seeing an over-sized model in Paris is great, and I hope it will be the new norm since this season.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The New Business Look. Coperni AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Here’s the business look of the future, delivered by Coperni. A troop of hacker replicants took over Station F, a startup campus on Paris’s east side. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant staged their Coperni runway show in the campus’s expansive atrium. The venue suited their vision – the look of the new collection is as sharp, sexy, and futuristic. The Coperni boys spent two years at Courrèges, whose founder André Courrèges laid the foundations for Space Age style. That DNA continues in their work. This was a highly persuasive outing: confident in its minimal concision. Pants suits were cut close to the body with very little in the way of excess, save for the flourish here and there of extra-long split sleeves or a jacket hem that swooshed to one side in a gesture suggestive of movement. A gorgeous little black dress cut asymmetrically at the neckline was just as lean.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

On Another Planet. Marine Serre AW19

| Design & Culture by Ed

Marine Serre predicts the future. Last season, the sight of masked models might have felt sligtly too dark and painfully dystopian. Today, the threat of corona virus paralyses Europe, and people go crazy for masks. For autumn-winter 2020, Serre also sent out a number of “protection-wear” looks, but this time, some rays of bright future are seen on the horizon. “It’s quite stormy right now,” she said, “yet we have to see a future in that. It’s about finding ourselves there—understanding it and embracing it.” The designer tumbled deep down into the futurist wormhole, exploring fashion on a distant future planet. Her every-age-imaginable model cast, even feauturing the models’ actual kids, underscored that it’s about more than her own generation: we are really all in this together. There was a series of sandy denim pieces with a distressed scorched effect, allowing some new kind of warped beauty to emerge; their hue also riffed back to Frank Herbert’s “Dune”, which Serre quoted on her invitation, inspired, she said, by its depiction of new communities emerging in a radically different world. Much of the collection was about perfecting existing silhouettes and focusing on Serre’s commitment to upcycling, which, she said, now accounts for fifty percent of her business (other brands, take notes!). The weaving of past, present and future together was there all the time: you could see it in the hourglass shape of a trio of collaged houndstooth coats for any gender; intricately constructed outerwear conjured out of leather and fake fur bedspreads; a passage of looks utilizing white lace trim tablecloths; the jewellery was made from pre-used stuff like vintage rings. Serre’s collection was a powerful celebration of what could come out of today’s state of the world.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

 

Soft Geometry. Missoni AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

The spotlight of the last days of Milan fashion week was stolen by the abrupt spread of corona virus in multiple of Italian regions near the city. Still, one of those closing shows just can’t be ignored: I’m speaking of the beautiful Missoni line-up. The organizing principle was geometry. Press notes made reference to the 1884 book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, in which its author, Edwin A. Abbott, made squares sexy. Angela Missoni‘s take on geometric patterns of all kinds were collaged on every manner of knit, from the most generous of belted cardigans to body-clinging ribbed tops and tube skirts. The palette was dark and moody and shot through with metallic Lurex, and as ever the patchworking of different motifs was a highlight. The navy and gold intarsia coat with slouched-on ’80s proportions is the must-have, just as all the gorgeous blazers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Never Obvious. Bottega Veneta AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

With today’s breaking news of Raf Simons co-designing Prada with Miuccia Prada (!!!!!) since next season, Daniel Lee‘s Bottega Veneta might not have that much attention it had for a while in Milan this coming September. Still, Lee evidently tries to win with the mainstream hype that started to abruptly surround the brand he shook up, and tries risky things. Painful colour combinations that look so bad they’re actually good. Volume plays that aren’t the easiest to pull off. Accessories which are distant to regular “it” bags and “it” shoes (fringed octopus clutches, rubber boots in neons). I’m aware that the audience’s memory span is too small for noticing all the Phoebe Philo and Céline references (really, every single look reminded me of a specific collection – and especially Philo’s now iconic swan song line-up, which was also the last for Daniel), so no surprise the collection’s edginess is this electrifying. For autumn-winter 2020, Lee decided to examine softness – something he has missed in his debut last year. “When you look at the brand’s beginnings, everything it made was so soft. I find that super inspiring.” That thinking informed the ready-to-wear he put on the runway. But equally, so did the fact that at the age of 34, Lee is part of the street wear generation that’s wearing trainers, sweatshirts with prints and any piece of clothing that puts an emphasis on cool and comfort. He asked himself, “How do we put ourselves together in a considered, elegant way but still feel comfortable?”. His answer was simple: stretch. Even the refined men’s tailoring was built with stretch in it, he said, so it moves with the wearer. He also put big emphasis on both knit dressing and jersey, for both day and evening. Movement is his other obsession. He said he’s been spending a lot of time at La Scala watching dance performances; he likes all kinds, from ballet to modern. No wonder why those sequinned maxi-dresses and coats with floor-sweaping XXL-fringes look so amazingly vibrant and energetic once they are worn and presented in motion. Expect this collection to sell out within hours once the pieces arrive to the stores.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.