Boutique Pleasures. Abra AW25

April 9, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Abra – the brand name, but also Abraham Ortuño Perez‘s widely-known nick among industry insiders – grew from an accessory label to a ready-to-wear obsession. The designer, who did some of the biggest footwear hits for the likes of JW Anderson, Loewe and Jacquemus, is on a roll with his (very) personal endeavor. The autumn-winter 2025 collection is dedicated to the very pleasurable feeling of wanting to dress and look like those mythical, sophisticated city folk do in big fashion capitals, that he and his mother used to dream up in “fashion boutiques” when he was a child. “It’s this whole feeling of being from a small town and buying something imported, something from Paris!”, he mused. A nostalgic spark ignited Ortuño Perez’s whimsical yet sincere collection – a cheeky ode to peripheral boutique “hits” reimagined for the woman who dreams in fashion, not trends. His muse? Storefront mannequins of the late ’80s and early ’90s, dolled up in glitzy metallic lamés and over-the-top wigs. Perez gave us all that – and more. The show kicked off with faux-fur coats sculpted into giant roses. Only Perez’s playful lens could render them so fantastically offbeat. Then came hybrid coats – fur, gabardine, and suiting – riffing on “Working Girl” power dressing, now with rounded shoulders and leggings replacing pencil skirts. Closing the show was a trio of lamé dream dresses: one unraveling in fluid drapes, another with an off-kilter crinoline, and a third bursting with ruffled tiers. These were certainly THE boutique showstoppers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Coarse Sensuality. Rick Owens AW25

April 1, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s something definitely intriguing about Rick Owens’ recent collection. The designer dialed down on the performative and returned back to his core, dating back to his 1998 debut, “Monsters” – his first complete collection, a pre-runway line-up that marked the birth of a new era in fashion. Not that the designer is retrospective in any way (although he take over the Palais Galliera from June with a retrospective exhibition). But you can see and sense that certain coarse, undone beauty of his long, draped jersey dresses reflected in the new season evenigwear, covered with thin laser-cut leather fringes that rippled like gills as the models moved down the runway. Rough sensuality was also embedded in the breath-taking mille feuille tops (that looked as easy to wear as a t-shirt) and the oversized, fringed leather jacket worn by Kristina Nagel (have you seen her recent shoot for i-D featuring Rick and Michele Lamy? Obsessed). On the collection’s ambiguous power-dynamic between the elusive and the bold, quiet and loud, he said: “it’s a constant, trying to keep that balance: of shock and wonder, but you can’t let people dismiss you as just being out of the question.”

ED’s SELECTION:

Rick Owens Wool-felt Cape

Rick Owens Luna Draped Crepe-jersey Mini Dress

Rick Owens Twisted Cantilever Suede Wedge Mules

Rick Owens Bias Ribbed-knit Trimmed Satin Wide-leg Pants

Rick Owens Sahara Asymmetric Paneled Gathered Jersey Gown

Rick Owens Minimal Grill Beatle Leather Platform Ankle Boots

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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New Softness. Balmain AW25

March 29, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Olivier Rousteing‘s Balmain collection was one of the most intriguing and pleasing surprises of the season. You might have noticed that I might not be the brand’s number one fan and I barely ever write about it, but the new energy that pulsates in Rousteing’s autumn-winter 2025 line-up can’t go unnoticed. No shoulder pads in sight. Instead, sensual gray melange, layers of fleecy knits and body-wrapping cashmere. “I want to make a new softness, with shapes that are cocooning,” the designer mused. An unexpected color palette, consisting of bold orange, and a splash of zebra print made the largely understated, yet still charismatic and vivacious Balmain collection feel Balmain… but not in the old way. I want more of the new Olivier.

Ed’s SELECTION:

Balmain Embellished Double-breasted Leather Jacket

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Small Can Be Mighty. Comme Des Garçons AW25

March 25, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Let me tell you.. fashion month exhausted me to such extent I had to take a teeny-tiny break and I’ve missed a couple of shows in my usual reporting. This also made me realize, why the hurry? Before Instagram, you had to wait at least a month for any (printed) magazine to deliver a proper fashion month coverage. I remember those times, so I officially feel old.

Comme Des Garçons was an important moment. Rei Kawakubo’s wearable shapes and constructions were slightly (just slightly) getting daunting in the past few seasons with their amorphism and assamblage-ness, but for autumn-winter 2025, the designer went back to making clothes – or rather, concepts of clothes. Not that they were in any way normative. But you could see substantial ideas behind multiple cocktail dresses topping a black tutu base, or in the massive velvet crinolines. There were many layers of pink, red, and watermelon duchess satin bodices and skirts, smashed and clashed together, looking like some kind of couture godzilla. Meanwhile, on the soundtrack, the recording of the Bulgarian singers – as Adrian Joffe, Rei’s husband, shared – was of “workers in the fields, harvest, families, getting things done together.” This holds symbolism for Rei Kawakubo and for Joffe about the independence of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market – the two rare, assertive, yet thriving enterprises in an increasingly mega-corporation-dominated world.

Small can be mighty.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Out Of Comfort Zone. Victoria Beckham AW25

March 15, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Victoria Beckham, one of the few female designers leading an independent brand, is in her very-daring, experimental mode. Not all ideas she presented on her autumn-winter 2025 runway were resolved – especially the foldings and rollings – but at least the collection didn’t feel like yet another iteration of The Row or Old Céline. Her closing look, a white top made from bathrobe frotte, felt utterly cool and nonchalantly elegant. Two notions that Beckham should definitely try explore more in her future endeavors. Many women really resonated with that moment – and the gorgeous, maxi-length coats she did.