For this festive season, Isabel Marant, the eternal Parisienne, offers a capsule of 1980s-centric chic, suspended somewhere between Saint-Germain and Manhattan, with extra sheen and shine. Her carefree and bohemian style is reflected by refined LBDs, metallic scuffed ankle boots and timeless leathers. “For me, fashion is about enjoying life,” she explains. “It has to be positive. It’s a release of energy to people, putting bad vibes behind.” Your New Year’s Eve look, splashed in Marant’s sequins, will definitely attract good vibes for 2024!
The precisely crafted designs of A.P.C. showcase the French label’s refined and understated aesthetic that ages like wine. These are gifts that keep on giving: iconic bags, ultra-chic wool accessories (made in collaboration with JW Anderson!), fantastic candles and eternal denim. No fillers, pure (French) magic.
Here are couple of my A.P.C. picks for this festive season:
Remember that SNL skit about candle-gifting? Well. Candles are candles. But Loewe candles are another level. I had the beetroot one and I must admit it was the best candle I ever used. It’s really a gift that keeps on giving – it not only smells great, but looks chic. The Loewe Home Scents range includes delicately scented candles inspired by floral fragrances and fresh foliage poured into colorful terracotta earthenware pots, nostalgic scented sticks and deliciously fresh room sprays that are perfect for spritzing onto bed linens. Explore my favorites here just in time for the festive season!
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram! By the way, did you know that I’ve started a newsletter called Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!
At first glance, Thom Browne‘s pre-fall 2023 collection has a much more sober spirit than spring, with its shades of navy and gray, and its more typically Browneian silhouettes. But Thom’s clothes typically reward close inspection – and you’ll find humor in them too. See the intarsia’d double-breasted coat in which a lifeboat full of sailors is dwarfed by the giant sperm whale, or the tailored skirt suit in a wallpaper print depicting the final battle at sea between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick. On the accessories front, Hector the bag has made some new friends in the form of not just the victorious whale, but also the Pequod, the doomed ship. About this season’s silhouettes. Though there’s a’60s-short shift or two, Browne’s instinct was to cut his tailoring lean and long, often layering pants underneath skirt shapes to extend the line. Accessorizing the tweed separates with tweed tights created a similar elongating effect. Remarkable.
For a long while, Loro Piana has been a fashion-insider favorite because it exists outside of fashion, its silhouettes are unchanging despite shifts in trends and its materials are always made at the highest levels. Understated luxury has always been the story for this Italian brand. But as the company makes efforts to grow, it’s adopting some of the industry’s ways. The spring 2023 collection was designed around the theme of an Italian grand tour, beginning in Piedmont and making stops in Tuscany and Portofino, before ending up in the Aeolian Islands, with clothes designed for each destination. Piedmont, Loro Piana’s home base, yielded cold-weather outerwear: a shearling bomber; a bouclé camel hair and silk poncho; an alpaca wool coat with a subtle stripe; and a mohair, cashmere, and technical fabric coat whose weightlessness has to be felt to be believed. As the tour progressed south with the season, the clothes became more summery. A navy and yellow anorak and a shirt with rope embroidery spelling out the house logo both said “seaside,” and linen dresses like a loosely belted smock and a striped linen and cotton caftan were direct tickets to August holidays in the country. A sorbet-striped caftan in silk was a bit loud by Loro Piana standards. Handbags are a main focus for the company. The large bale bag in a warm brown leather with white topstitching and a bucket in striped woven cotton with leather trim are two worthy investments. Loro Piana already stands apart from the sexiness and flash of the Italian fashion, but to this insider’s eye, the best of the collection were the house icons, the unchanging “winter voyager” and “horsey short” jacket, both in cashmere; the cotton and linen “traveler”; and a bomber in water-repellant microfiber. No theme, no concept, and just great.
And now here are my festive picks from the brand! Who wouldn’t want to find some timeless Loro under the Christmas tree…
Design & Culture by Ed 