Art

Technique. Standing Ground SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Standing Ground‘s Michael Stewart was named the inaugural winner in a savoir faire category of the LVMH Prize. His label’s first solo runway outing during London Fashion Week proved how much he deserves that award. The way Stewart approaches dress-making is truly one-of-a-kind. It’s so powerful and haute in craftsmanship that you can easily imagine the designer taking helm of a brand like Alaïa. Spring-summer 2025’s closing khaki dress was the supreme example of Stewart’s celebrated technique (a term so rare used – and practiced – by emerging designers). Two layers of jersey had been draped and cut over the wearer’s body, before Stewart drew the contours his instinct told him to apply. These drawings were then digitized to make the design symmetrical and applied as stitching to the layers of jersey, before hundreds of micro-beads were inserted in the pockets of space that remained. Yes, that’s magic, and it echoed down to every single detail of the line-up, from the sublime, sculpted leather jacket to a hooded, velvet maxi-number.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Flamboyance Revived. S.S. Daley SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

S.S. Daley kicked off the unexpectedly good and brisky London Fashion Week (pardon my review delay – been busy for a couple of days!). This is Steven Stokey-Daley‘s first full womenswear collection, and it’s clear from the very first look that the designer knows what he wants to bring to this very overfilled table with his offering. The collection was inspired with the life of the British painter Gluck, who presented as a man in the 1920s and ’30s, and Constance Spry, the hugely fashionable high society florist, who was one of her many lovers. What makes this collection standout is that it didn’t read historically labored or archaic, but gracefully conveyed the idea of dandy-ish flamboyance, a very British thing, and quite rare to see in women’s collections. Spring-summer 2025 was a contemporary combination of Stokey-Daley’s English handcrafty talent, his spirited tailoring, and quirk for off-kilter details (think the silk floral side-ripple to his signature Oxford bags). “People are asking me, ‘why are you doing womenswear right now?’” the designer stated. “It’s like, the economy’s crashed, everyone’s struggling. But I think there’s one simple answer. I began this brand in a pandemic, and it does feel like quite a bleak time in the universe right now. But I’ve had an idea simmering for a while. And London’s a resilient place.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Femininity, Dissected. Tory Burch SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

This season, Tory Burch dissects the contrasts of femininity. It can be lady-like and sweet. The other second it can turn into something more tough and sharp. Her spring-summer 2025 collection felt like a dynamic clash between these different notions. The most unexpected pieces were the skirts with malleable wire waistbands, which arced out, rather than gripped the midsection – surprising because the waist is rarely an area that women want to add volume to. Marc Jacobs orbits around a similar idea lately. In contrast, the narrow flecked wool pants with full breaks over chic peep toe pumps looked elegant with both shrunken quilted wool and silk jackets and traditional wrap jacket styles. The show closed with a trio of looks combining sleeveless “muscle” tees and softly draped and ruffled asymmetric jersey chiffon skirts that lived up to Burch’s “power and grace” concept.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Sacrum & Profanum. Colleen Allen SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Emerging brands like Colleen Allen keep New York Fashion Week’s heart beating. But lets note that Allen can be hardly called an emerging designer with an impressive portfolio of working at some of New York’s finest institutions: Raf Simons’s Calvin Klein and The Row. But these two aren’t defining her aesthetically, as Colleen has proved in her debut collection and also in her sophomore season. Spring-summer 2025 offering is all about a play with lightness and draping. You’ve got very sensual, sheer numbers, and then you’ve got stunning, velvet-y drapings that hug the body. Some of the pieces – like the ankle-length, white dress with turtleneck – have a pastoral, even clerical feel about them, but then then the ecclesiastical regality is twisted and subverted with sexy lace of hemlines and body-revealing slits of blouses and jackets. It’s also worth noting that Colleen has a brilliant sense of color: just look the the opening shade of tangerine. Retailers, here’s a brand to buy into.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Austere Chic. Phoebe Philo Edit 3

| Design & Culture by Ed

Phoebe Philo is back with her Edit 3 collection, which launched today in form of first, capsule delivery. The latest, autumnal offering isn’t distant from Philo’s earlier design ventures at her eponymous, highly elusive label, but surely does deliver a sense of sophisticated chic – and style. Those are two things that one could hardly navigate anywhere during the on-going New York Fashion Week. But in case of Philo, there’s also the feeling of rough austerity that makes her designs look commanding and important. And distinct. The coats with detachable capes and leather jackets are investment pieces for many, many years ahead, just like white, crisp shirting and chunky, black sweater with leather inserts on the sleeves. The designer lets in some experimental twist to a tie-dyed dress that seems to be constructed out of two sweatshirts. One might say that the brand and its designer seem to be stuck in one place – many items from the edit are slightly reworked versions of garments from previous collections. But in the world of ever-changing and endlessly-generated content, content and content, the sense of continuity that Phoebe channels is truly comforting.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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