Men’s – Youthful Optimism. Prada SS25

June 17, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

After a couple of seasons dedicated to tackling problems of our contemporary times, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons maybe aren’t in an entirely optimistic mood, but they are hopeful for the future – and the young generation. The spring-summer 2025 menswear Prada collection was dedicated to the feeling of “just going” with your guts when you’re young and not overthinking it too much. That was reflected in the seemingly pre-loved clothes, crumpled and creased, mismatched and cropped as if a couple of sizes too small. Simons explained: “There are elements that are female, masculine, coming from mom, dad, grandad, grandmother. Maybe things from your memories… and fantasy!”, interjected Prada. Although the designers didn’t want their new season effects look too constricted or contrived, it a bit was the case with the Lego-colored boiler suits (Simons just can’t help but return to them. Maybe he will get it right one day?). But there were also pieces in this collection that truly feel investment-worthy: pony-hair black coat with short sleeves, tops illustrated with graphic artworks by Bernard Buffet, cool wind-jackets in rave tones, slinky cardigans. The first look’s blonde-haired model who opened the door of the show venue’s toy-ish, white house wore a very Milan-coded outfit: a thin, v-neck navy sweater, sartorially-elegant grey pants with pleats and a pair of vintage-y sneakers. How Prada!

Need a Prada wardrobe fix?

ED’s SELECTION:

Men’s Saffiano Leather Logo Triangle Crossbody Bag

Men’s Denim Trucker Jacket

Men’s Silk Bermuda Shorts

Men’s Silk-Cotton Sweater

Men’s Show Nylon Bomber Jacket

Men’s Gingham Poplin Sport Shirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Life’s A Journey. Moschino SS25

June 16, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Life is an unexpected journey: that’s the morale conveyed by Adrian Appiolaza‘s first menswear show for Moschino. Before he left Argentina for Europe, the designer once held down a job selling insurance. To present a respectable façade to potential clients, his employer obliged him to wear a company-provided suit. He felt like a prisoner of that ill-fitting, sad suit. That formative trauma collided with something once said by Franco Moschino himself: “it’s better to dress as you wish than as you should.” Appiolaza began his spring-summer 2025 story of resilience and traveling through life with ironic takes on corporate attire. A shirt skirt worn with a real shirt but unreal suspenders and a four-button suit teamed with three hats were amongst the first of many cheeky, archival references. The soccer-ball sweater teamed with a tri-starred baseball cap was a salute back to Argentina, while the Italian flag soccer couple – one with an authentic red sauce splattering! – was a gesture to Appiolaza’s new creative home. Franco Moschino’s recurring goose motif returned in prints on skirts and shirting in a hokey, bucolic countrywear duet. The closing looks reminisced something accidental lovers would wear – and get married in – on a nameless island after a ship wreck. The all-white heavy linen suit with a sleeve skirt is a fresh take on groomswear. The models walked their finale around piles of lost luggage that symbolized the tangle of transformational journey narratives. This designer is really on to something with his vision for Moschino.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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ERL: Made In California

April 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

No one does California story-telling like Eli Russell Linnetz. Now, the ERL designer has taken a step further, and dropped a capsule collection entirely produced in the Golden State. Key shearling pieces came from sheared sheep that roam around the ERL studio alongside shearling waste from local farmers. In tandem with the California-made production, the collection leans into quintessential Americana styles – whether it be through denim or something as simple as plaid boxer shorts. I literally lost my mind for the cowboy sweater. The entire wardrobe is laden with jackets, flared bottoms, shin-length shorts, plaid shirts, heavyweight zip-ups with matching sweatpants, pocket tees and accessories. But the clear standout of the collection are the canary yellow shearling pieces that extend to an oversized jacket, bags and standout $28,000 chaps (hot). With its American-influenced aesthetic, the collection still channels the gritty-meets-sensual sentiments the brand is also known for.

The “Made in California” collection is available now online.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – In The Artist’s Studio. Yohji Yamamoto AW24

January 20, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Yohji Yamamoto is designer with an endless fascination for artists – the individualism, the impulses, and the archetypes. From the loosely knotted poets’ blouse and a coat with peaked shoulders, to the sumptuous attire in velvet and brocade, this was a collection for that certain “genius working in the studio” person. Uniform of loose jackets and utility vests; shirts covered in vivid brushwork tucked into suspendered trousers. Dressed in these ensembles were some of his longtime artist collaborators – Wim Wenders and Max Vadukul – along with Warren Ellis, Norman Reedus, and the dancer Brandon Miel Masele. And while they appeared like distinctive personages, they also conjured some essence of the designer himself. For one of his two strolls down the runway, Vadakul donned a coat with “old bohemian” along the back. Would men consider this a badge of pride, a way of confronting reality with a smirk? “We’re older but that’s the only thing that changes,” the photographer acknowledged backstage. “What we create is still the same.” The show closed with Wenders in trousers printed with his name. Yamamoto and the filmmaker worked together in 1989 when the director made Notebook, a documentary about cities and clothes. Yamamoto noted how they were both children born in the aftermath of war-torn cities and have alchemized that darkness into work that has a poetic resonance. If the collection unleashed ideas with a sort of feisty enthusiasm, the pace was calm, and the mood was poignant.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – The Beauty of Resistance. Rick Owens AW24

January 19, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

When Rick Owens speaks, you better listen. The designer’s autumn-winter 2024 fashion show, entitled “Porterville“, wasn’t only a visually mind-blowing experience and wholesome food for thought, but an act of resistance.

The starting point of this brilliant collection was the tedious circumstance of transiting through airport retail. “We are herded through that gauntlet of a very specific beauty and aspiration: of a certain kind of sexuality, a certain kind of face shape, a certain kind of body shape – and it’s unattainable.” For Owens, this experience sums up contemporary mass luxury and what he observes as an intolerance of difference that is the result of its function to sell a dream of sameness – a homogenized standard. “I call that standard ‘airport beauty.’ And I oppose it. And when I wear my platform boots as I go through the airport it is to oppose airport beauty. This is my resistance.” Subverting enforced conformity – that’s actual beauty.

For this very personal show, Owens opened his house in Paris, instead presenting the collection at the Palais De Tokyo courtyard. “That standard is dishonest… but this is a fully resolved Rick Owens experience. It can’t get any more honest or authentic than this. And that was my basic urge this season: to be sincere.” He added: “I’m trying to participate in and contribute to all alternative beauties: to bombastic beauty, sometimes, but also kind and soft beauty.” And what is “Porterville” about? The show’s name is after the California town in which Owens was raised. “Bleak,” is how he describes it. “I remember it for its intolerance – although the intolerance I experienced was mild, obviously, compared to any intolerance that we’re seeing today.” By contrast this house – which Michele Lamy secured when she and Owens moved to Paris just over two decades ago – is a sanctuary. “I want to be a haven. A force of anti-intolerance.” The clothes reflected all that. The designer honored creative collectivism by inviting multiple collaborators to share his platform. The fantastically insectoid inflatable rubber boots that puckered and popped as the models walked in them were by London based designer Straytukay. Owens said he saw another Londoner, Leo Prothman, posting his take on Rick’s signature Kiss boots and asked him to add them to today’s collection. Challenging to manufacture but fantastic to watch were the jackets and pants made by rubber couturier Matisse Di Maggio. The family of Owens models were this time joined by the Russian trans artist (and exile) Gena Marvin.

The collection was also a retrospective look at some of Owens’ all-time classics, now magnified, even more elongated and subverted. The almost ecclesiastically spiked shoulders of his duvet jackets, the airbag embrace of his balled body wrappings, and the beastly toughness of his fluffed jumpsuits and capes both projected and protected character. The leather perfecto, in hands of Rick, is an entire cathedral architecture.

This is a fashion moment that reminds you, during the endless fashion month cycle, that it’s all worth it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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