Frazzled Tweedy Woman. Chanel Pre-Fall 2024

December 9, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

When Virginie Viard is inspired, she nails it. Her latest Chanel métiers d’art collection presented in Manchester was just brilliant and full of wit. It’s clear that the city and its culture has truly stimulated the designer. Alive with a vibrant pop spirit born in Manchester and kept alive across the decades, the show embraced the creative dialogue between Great Britain and the brand – a dialogue that was started by Coco Chanel herself when she brought British tweed to Paris. The collection shimmers and shines with playful nods to British music culture, and it’s also an ode to the frazzled British woman all layered up in chunky knits and long scarves. Legendary bands like Oasis and Joy Division call Manchester home, after all, and the models – with their pearls, slept-in black eyeliner and side bangs – appeared as though they might have just washed off a hand stamp after sneaking back from a show at Pip’s Disco. “Manchester is the basis of a music culture that has changed the face of the world,” sais Viard. To play off of the “vibrant pop spirit” that she infused in the house’s tweeds and quilted leather, models were given smudged-up reverse eyeliner that read like slept-in makeup after a night of chasing afterparties. At dusk, as the looks strolled down the umbrella-dotted outdoor runway on Thomas Street to the sounds of Soft Cell and New Order, this appeared to be one of the finest Chanel collections by Viard to date.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Day & Night. Chloé (by Phoebe Philo) SS02

December 8, 2023December 7, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Since Phoebe Philo‘s big comeback that we’ve all experienced during the late autumn, I love digging into her work at Chloé – an underrated era from early 2000s, before reinventing Céline. What I find truly intriguing is that Philo subtly refers to her Chloé days in her new work. For her spring-summer 2002 debut , avoiding in-your-face rock ’n’ roll attitude, the British designer blurred the distinction between day and evening wear with breezy separates inspired by ’70s Saint Tropez, Brigitte Bardot, and Talitha Getty. A sense of easygoing elegance permeated everything from fitted tops with intricately worked sleeves to lace-trimmed camisoles and fabulous monkey-appliqué bathing suits. A long suede skirt with blush gray and black panels exuded earthy chic, as did the Moroccan-style beaded bags and sandal-boots in aged gold leather. There were also plenty of high-impact sexy staples, a category Philo and Stella McCartney introduced to the brand during the latter’s tenure (Phoebe was Stella’s right-hand at that time). The low-slung flared pants with flirty cutouts at the hips, pinafore shorts, summery minidresses and punchy T-shirts with net backs could easily pass in 2023 and look absolutely HOT.

P.S. I also happen to have an amazing macramé blouse from this collection, waiting for a new owner in my vintage shop!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Body-Celebratory. Xuly.Bët SS24

December 5, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s well-known wizardry with pantyhose dates to the 1990s. For spring-summer 2024, the designer revived the signature red-stitched nylon tops with which he first made his name. Cut into a sleeved bandeau that can be worn Flashdance style, or pieced into a minidress with elongated sleeves, these stretchy Xuly.Bët wonders had a second-skin fit that goes with Kouyaté’s body-conscious and body-celebratory dressing. Their flexibility also spoke more broadly to the designer’s generous and innovative approach to fashion, which is influenced by his experiences with second hand clothes in Mali, and can now also be framed within current discussions about sustainability. Also back in action were Kouyaté’s sporty jackets and tops made using upcycled American football jerseys. Some looks were styled with vintage basketball shorts, whose bagginess provided a nice contrast to the tight fits of leggings and micro minis. The gold-on-denim pieces – some modeled by the designer’s son – were part of a collaboration between Xuly.Bët and artist Smaïl Kanouté. Kouyaté used Kanouté prints on pieces worn in a performance of “Yasuke (The Black Samurai),” which is about bringing together diverse traditions, choreographed by Kanouté. Kouyaté still believes in the power of fashion to evoke joy; he also thinks it can be used as a platform for change.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Everybody Comes To Hollywood. Balenciaga Pre-Fall 2024

December 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Balenciaga‘s first-ever fashion show in Los Angeles had it all: the Kardashian-Calabasas flagship style, some Hitchcockian drama with a Lynchian twist, the taste of an Erewhon smoothie and even the H of the Hollywood sign as the backdrop. Demna called LA “my favorite city in the world,” saying, “all my cultural evolution, when I was a teenager growing up in this kind of post-Soviet vacuum, it really came from here, through movies, music – I mean, everything that I kind of absorbed, that later on started to kind of become my fashion references.” There was certainly something surreal about Balenciaga’s gothy black clad guests turning up en masse on a well manicured stretch of Windsor Boulevard in Hancock Park. The collection skewed SoCal, starting with the exercise clothes, gym bags, and souped-up sneakers of the first few looks. The circa Y2K velour jumpsuits and giant high-heeled shearling boots that came next will be familiar to readers of US Magazine, which would’ve been another way the young Demna got his celebrity content.

Back in those pre-social media days, the paparazzi lurked outside hipster coffee-shops. Circa 2023, it’s Erewhon smoothies that the stars are clutching. Timed to yesterday’s event, Balenciaga collaborated with the LA grocer on a juice. Made in part with activated charcoal powder, it’s as black as the stretchy turtleneck and tight jeans worn in the show by Brigitte Nielsen. “I don’t know what’s in it,” Demna said. “I just wanted it to be black.” The designer (officially) rejected the idea that he approached the collection – or LA itself – with irony, but there’s something comically perverse about a paper grocery bag made in leather. The sensational evening clothes were as Hollywood as the rest of the show, but it was easier to read earnestness in their elegance and drama. There was a respectful nod to Cristobal Balenciaga in the grand volumes of a white wedding gown whose funnel neck extended to just below the model’s eyes. Two other dresses conjured post-coital bed sheets tied at the bust, if bed sheets came in patent leather. These were pure Demna.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Ultra-Femininity. Mirror Palais SS24

November 17, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marcelo Gaia’s Mirror Palais is a cult worth giving in to. Since 2019 the stylist turned designer has been whipping up sensual ready-to-wear, which has done quite well due to his keen eye for fit. For his spring-summer 2024 collection, presented during New York Fashion Week in September, the designer aimed to find a balance between fantasy and wearability, which worked well through his glam lens. Inspired by a love of vintage, the line offered a modern ode to flirty, feminine and sexy decade-spanning nostalgia with craftsmanship to match. “Definitely the late 18th century – there’s a little bit of Marie Antoinette, then a little bit of 1950s Audrey Hepburn and the 1990s supermodels. Eras when women were in their most flowering, and they’re fun,” Gaia said of the season’s inspirations. Looks spanned from flounced taffeta skirts with little tops to a strong assortment of corsetry (a cream blazer with little shorts; a polka-dotted strapless top with ‘50s capris, or laced up numbers) as well as pretty white day dresses, mushroom-like knife-pleated dresses and ‘90s bodycon bandage styles. Whether leaning into ladylike sensibility with a fluid polka-dot gown or going full femme fatale with sheer, ruffled frocks, Gaia emphasized the importance of offering styles for all body types, utilizing more stretch fabrics, adjustable waist details and a mix of sheer and lined silhouettes throughout.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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