I started watching the new “Cristóbal Balenciaga” series yesterday, and one thing stuck in my mind. When Balenciaga had a hard time finding his design language in Paris, he realized that a designer’s signature cut and style should be that accentuated and sharp, that it should be distinct for the viewer even through squinted eyes. I have an impression that Hed Mayner is one of the few contemporary designers who have reached that level of distinction in their work. To that extent that you see his XXL volumes copied all over the Parisian runways.

Mayner’s idea behind the autumn-winter 2024 collection was to make clothes that look like there had already been a body inside them, as if the wearer were donning someone else’s proportions. “I wanted to have it be like 3D without cutting too much,” he said, noting that he tries not to work around themes and mood boards. “There’s no reference or history or culture, there’s the thing itself, and you work inside,” he said. A gray four-way stretch fabric was printed with pinstripes to look like suiting, but actually takes on “a human form” when cut into an overcoat or trousers. “It lets me wear tailoring without feeling that I belong to a certain group or have a certain status in society,” the designer observed. True to form, trousers skewed ample and fluid. For shirting, Mayner found himself studying vintage Brooks Brothers styles. “I’m obsessed with diving into something, changing it completely, but keeping it as it is,” he said. One result was an almost crunchy striped shirt in a bonded cotton-aluminum fabric that holds its wrinkles artily. That one may resonate with loyalists, but in a seriously strong coat season Mayner showed that he can hold his own.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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