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Skinny. Prada SS27

| Design & Culture by Ed

Prada’s latest collection left me feeling a bit unnerved. It wasn’t that Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’s offering was “bad” – honestly, can they ever get it wrong? – but the collection’s near-fixation on extreme skinniness felt genuinely discomforting. I’m an XL; I’m never, ever fitting into those cropped denim jackets or hyper-slim trousers. But this isn’t about me – it’s about the message the collection sends. If you don’t possess the frame of an adolescent, forget about being invited to this party.

While I can perhaps forgive the romanticization – and even the fetishization – of youth in, say, Hedi Slimane’s work, I hold Prada to a higher standard. Prada is so much more than that. Where is the nuance? READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Artifice. Saint Laurent SS27

| Design & Culture by Ed

Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent menswear collection seemed to have it all: a perfectly orchestrated front row amid a Paris heatwave, a new kinky shoe with an elongated toe and transparent construction, and a Fujiko Nakaya water-vapor installation as the show’s backdrop. Yet the clothes themselves felt inflated – not with substance, but with artifice.

It increasingly feels as though Vaccarello is repeating the same tropes: exaggerated shoulders on virtually everything, nylon-like windbreakers paired with tailored trousers, and trench coats rendered stuffy for no discernible reason. The flashes of eroticism are there, certainly, but they can’t speak for themselves; they get choked – though not in a sexy way – by relentless overediting.

I remember reading a few years ago that Vaccarello fantasized about doing an all-gold collection but couldn’t find a way to make it look chic. Well, he still hasn’t. The three final looks in slightly antiqued gold fabric failed to make much of an impact. Perhaps too much gold is inevitably tacky after all.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Villain Teen. Valentino Resort 2027

| Design & Culture by Ed

Valentino and teen-inspired coolness aren’t exactly two concepts you’d expect to find in the same sentence, but Alessandro Michele somehow makes the combination feel entirely natural. The designer has long been fond of punctuating his own eclectic wardrobe with a slogan cap – often sourced from Idea Ltd – and for resort 2027, he decided to bring the trick to Valentino.

The result? His “Villain Teen” caps look surprisingly chic paired with heavily embroidered jackets worn over ripped jeans, floor-sweeping retro dresses, heirloom furs, and all the glorious shoulder-padded excess of 1980s glamorama. You can easily imagine the Valentino girl and boy spending their parents’ money on antiques at Paul Bert Serpette, draped in their grandmother’s jewels, wrapped in bourgeois silk scarves, and indulging in a touch of aristocratic cosplay.

These are modern-day villains, but the kind who know how to have fun. The cap is the crucial ingredient: it stops everything from feeling like costume and makes it read as genuine personal style. Michele has been gradually loosening Valentino’s collar with each outing, and this feels like the most convincing expression of that approach yet. It’s a direction he should continue to pursue.

ED’s SELECTION:


Valentino Garavani Striped Metallic Knitted Poncho



Valentino Garavani Bow-embellished Ruched Wool Jacket



Valentino Garavani Vlogo Signature Mini Bow-detailed Velvet Shoulder Bag



Valentino Garavani Bowow 45 Bow-embellished Leather Pumps



Valentino Garavani Panthea Small Patchwork Leather And Suede Shoulder Bag

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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