Spotlight On Bally

August 9, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Since its founding in 1851, Swiss brand Bally has been committed to creating quality, luxurious collections. The label is renowned for its handcrafted leather goods and ready-to-wear that effortlessly combine modern details with traditional techniques. The brand is going through a renaissance with its new creative director, Simone Bellotti, who mindfully emphasizes the brand’s Switzerland-based roots in his designs. Think studded leather ballet flats reminiscing Alps folklore-wear, outdoor-perfect outerwear and investment bags that stun with versatility and craft. The heritage brand offers an array of smart staples, and here are my picks from the now-arriving season!

ED’s SELECTION:

Bally Belle Large Leather Tote

Bally Banya Leather Mary Jane Ballet Flats

Bally Cashmere Sweater

Bally Klemp Shearling-trimmed Suede Loafers

Bally Embellished Leather Mini Skirt

Bally Embellished Studded Leather Ballet Flats

Bally Shearling Jacket

Bally Belle Small Leather Tote

Bally Grena Leather Knee Boots

Bally Appliquéd Cashmere T-shirt

Bally Clover Twill-trimmed Coated-leather Knee Boots

Bally Leather Coat

Bally Banya Leather Mary Jane Ballet Flats

Bally Embroidered Cotton-poplin Shirt

Bally Wool-blend Mini Skirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Obsessed: Prada AW24 Menswear

July 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Some of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons‘ ideas might not resonate immediately when seen on the runway. But six months later, the moment they arrive to the stores, these concepts become more approachable – and turn into obsessions. A menacing tension felt palpable once the models, dressed as corporate commuters, walked on the raised glass floor with a stream running through a meadow beneath. But when you put Prada‘s autumn-winter 2024 venue aside, you see great, great menswear – and accessories, like the wool caps in the most striking shades of green, yellow and red. The collection itself consisted of ultimate classics of menswear, as Simons listed for “the businessman, the working man, the thinking man.” The Prada twist was about touches that subverted these safe spaces of identity, enticing the wearer to surround himself with nature. Narrow-fit raincoats, tweed chore jackets, three-button gray topcoats, and gold buttoned naval outerwear all offered a route outdoors. This is a Prada outing that offers safeness and quintessence, clothes-wise.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Joy, Period! Marc Jacobs AW24

July 2, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This week started with a sensational Marc Jacobs fashion show in New York. The designer is in such a great creative place right now: he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone, doesn’t engage in New York Fashion Week, and just creates at his own pace some of the finest work in his career. As he wrote in the latest collection’s powerful note, “we use fashion to embrace bold and courageous self-expression to articulate and showcase our inner selves, allowing us to freely explore and display our thoughts, desires, and identities in a deeper pursuit of joy, beauty and personal transformation“. This isn’t another press release talk; this absolutely and truthfully sums up not only Marc’s work and contribution to fashion, but himself.

The show lasted just six minutes. Jacobs fancies this short, sharp-shock format, starkly contrasting to his past, excessive outings that featured entire runway productions. This “less is more” approach really gives so much more – intensely more. On the runway, a mosaic of all-time American symbols, hyperbolised and exaggerated as if they were Claes Oldenburg sculptures: Marilyn Monroe in her iconic subway grate dress from “The Seven Year Itch“, Minnie Mouse in her red and white polka dots (they also felt very Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist Marc collaborated with at Louis Vuitton), and princess gowns out of a fairy tale. Hyper-pop and vivacious: a bold act of resistance towards all the socio-political disasters going on in the world – and especially, in the U.S.? Maybe. But maybe the designer wanted to rebelliously commit himself to pure joy. And then you had the yellow polka dot bikini, several sizes too big. The proportions in this collection were distorted to perfection. The miniskirts’ ultra-short lengths, and the arcing hemlines of knee-length skirts, especially when they were higher in front than in the back, made models look like giants. “The future remains unwritten,” the designer concluded in his note. And maybe that’s a good thing?

How about some of my beloved pieces from past Jacobs’ Runway collections?

ED’s SELECTION:

Marc Jacobs Bustier Linen Wool Strapless Mini Dress with Scarf

Marc Jacobs High-Neck Draped Sequin Mini Dress

Marc Jacobs Leather Engineered Draped Mini Skirt

Marc Jacobs Prince Of Wales Wool Cropped Blazer Jacket

Marc Jacobs High-Waist Lace Briefs

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Haute Sharpness. Jean Paul Gaultier AW24 Couture

June 27, 2024June 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The rather mild haute couture week in Paris suddenly heated up near its end, all thanks to Nicolas Di Felice‘s guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. It was absolutely refreshing to see the designer outside the context of Courrèges, and with the tools of couture in his hands. The French enfant terrible of fashion made a strong impression on the Belgian designer when he was a teen: “for me and for so many queer, different people from the countryside – from everywhere in the world – he represented Paris, a city where everything is possible. He was really the first one to celebrate different people. Everybody remembers this about him and it’s a good thing, because he actually did it.” The collection told a story about a Paris arriviste, who wears covered up clothes: jackets and dresses with long sleeves, long skirts, and necklines that climb up the face. Slowly, as the show progressed, the head emerged, then the shoulders, and by the end, dresses were peeling off the hips and hands were tucked into the gaps in the fabric in an erotic gesture. The motif of adaptability-to-the-body returned throughout the collection, and it was masterfully applied in a gorgeous slip dress that was worn undone to the waist, exposing a sleeveless shell underneath on which hooks-and-eyes were applied like studs. Di Felice chose to reference Gaultier’s subtler moments, especially his precise technique of cut and sharp, yet feminine tailoring. Everything synced so well. Now imagine Di Felice do haute couture at Courrèges!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Reject The Rules. Balenciaga AW24 Couture

June 26, 2024June 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This was Demna‘s fourth haute couture collection for Balenciaga, and his most subversive in its rejection of the formality of this exclusive, highly-elite discipline. The designer is also returning to his Vetements roots via his shaping years at Margiela, which as a result gives a collection that riffs on subcultures and plays with garment (de)construction. “I wanted to create a fusion or a tribute to my personal vocabulary as a designer, which is subcultures… but I needed to bring in that kind of equilibrium with Cristóbal, obviously, because this is couture,” he said. The first mashup combined a sculpted oversize gray tee and slouchy faded jeans engineered to look like a jacket was tied around the waist, with a saucer hat of the kind he introduced in his memorable couture debut. As the show progressed, it moved from haute lumberjack shirts and hand-painted faux merch t-shirts styled with hysterical butterfly-wings masks (an IYKYK reference to Janine Janet’s 1950s and 60s window display installations for Cristobal Balenciaga’s Avenue George V salon – which today happens to be the brand’s couture boutique and show venue) into the fancy evening silhouettes associated with couture, only they were patchworked together from denim and colorful parkas that looked like they could’ve been repurposed from Demna’s earlier collections for the house. Or he constructed them with new fabrics and techniques; one column dress was made from melted plastic shopping bags molded onto the body and a strapless number was constructed with golden aluminum foil. It seems that the designer questions couture’s preciousness and the certain, imposed obligation of using the finest materials and the most fragile decoration – a stereotypical trap that literally engulfs couture work of such designers as Thom Browne. The final look was a swirling mass of black nylon, chosen because it best evoked Cristóbal’s precious gazar. It was constructed just prior to the show, a one-off piece of “ephemeral couture” that will come with three Balenciaga staffers for its assembly for the client who buys it. Love it or hate it, Demna still has it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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