Men’s – Corporate Cannibal. Balenciaga AW17

January 18, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Paris Fashion Week started very well with Demna Gvasalia‘s second menswear collection for Balenciaga. The anticipation was unbearable and the Georgian designer’s outing was worth a wait. Last season, Demna focused on subverted, masculine version of couture – the custom-made jackets and Cristobal Balenciaga’s archival male coats were the starting point of the theme’s exploration. For autumn-winter 2017, Gvasalia continued revisiting men’s elegance, but in even more off-beat away.

Corporate dressing is something the designer likes to tease and reconstruct a lot – the first looks were ankle-lenght coats with big shoulder pads, strict white-shirt-and-tie looks and leather blazers (torso revealing, of course). But don’t expect neat and business-perfect: the models had nothing, but super-long socks under their coats – à la Soviet ‘sexual maniacs’, who used to scare children in the parks. ‘Corporate’ also relates to those terrificly ugly post-office jackets, which were revamped into covettable puffas and distorted bombers. The bags were pure irony – post-office boys carried huge, Ikea-like totes, mature ‘businessmen’ had their little clutches, while the twisted-entrepreneur types – Balenciaga shopping bags (in leather). Maybe, the last ones had some Balenciaga gifts for their after-hours, secret lovers. Who knows. But that’s a different story.

Men’s – Peace Scouts. Prada AW17

January 16, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

“My inspirations are so many and so complex that to summarize is impossible. But I would say that the main sentiment that I had is going from bigness to smallness; from the big deal of the installation—big architecture and construction—the big deal of fashion, the big deal of art, the big deal of everything. And to go opposite. More human, more simple, more real . . . the desire for reality, humanity, and simpleness.” Miuccia Prada is one of the most consciously thinking person in the entire fashion industry, exploring a number of ideas at a time and conveying them into a visual and, of course, wearable concept.

Looking at her autumn-winter 2017 collection for men (and pre-fall 2017 for women), you had a feeling something intense, yet mind-feeding was going on in Prada‘s mind. Even more personal than usual, yet relating to 21st century’s society, Miuccia let calm earthy colour palette and natural materials into her collection. Leaving behind hi-tech of men’s SS17 and elegant decadence of women’s SS17, her boys and girls were the peaceful scouts; soldiers of love. Existentionalist black turtlenecks and biker hats (although Prada didn’t want to straightly reference the 70s) took us back to 1968’s student strikes in Paris, and in entire Europe, where the youth opposed to traditionalist values, like capitalism or imperialism. Fight for yours’ and others’ well-being pacifically. Go against the system, by breaking it as a laid-back modern-day hippie. Little details, like sea-shell necklaces and wooden pendants symbolised coming back to the roots, the nature; slouchy beards and unbrushed hair were the everyday reality, which is still full of beauty.

Although Prada, as a brand, is struggling financially due to falling revenue, Miuccia isn’t going commercial. Corduroy trousers (she loves corduroy, as you can see, and I’m starting to love it, too), psychedelic prints on bags, fur shoes. While the guys wore suede and cognac leather, female models took a spin on boldly-coloured floral mohair skirts, cardigans and socks. Going normal, and settling down mentally (or at least, in a remote forest house) is on Prada’s agenda.

Men’s – Francesco Risso. Marni AW17

January 15, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

In the fashion industry, and precisely in Milan, there are two types of debuts. Like Alessandro Michele at Gucci, where he scored ten marks out of ten from the editors and buyers; and like, for example, at Roberto Cavalli or Jil Sander, where even the term ‘debut’ doesn’t make anyone ecctatic. Francesco Risso‘s debut collection at Marni falls into the latter camp – in fact, some of the least-informed guests could have thought it’s just another great Marni collection, without any big changes going on. A Prada alumni, who was raised on Miuccia Prada’s and Consuelo Castiglioni’s (Marni’s founder) neo-Italian aesthetic, presented his first collection for the conceptual brand in form of a menswear show. Lanky-looking models with long hair wore fluffy shearling coats, checked sweatpants, too-big trousers and 70s striped knits. Lemon-yellow sweatshirt with a fur lining looked equally Marni-geek, as the colourful beanies and pajama shirts. You can’t judge a designer by his first collection, but I’m quite sure Risso’s Marni won’t go through collossal rebranding and major advertising campaign, like Gucci or Balenciaga did in the past months. It’s quintessentially Marni – and who doesn’t love Marni as it is?

Men’s – Kaliningrad. Gosha Rubchinskiy AW17

January 13, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

During men’s fashion month, Florence’ Pitti Uomo and Milan are the sure go-to destinations after London. However, the new-gen designers coming from the former Soviet Union are here to break fashion’s conventions. Gosha Rubchinskiy, skater-loving photographer and designer from the bloc, used to present his collections in Paris; for spring-summer 2017 he took us to Italy; and for autumn-winter 2017, he invited a couple of key editors and buyers to Kaliningrad. If someone’s unsure about the geographical position of the show’s location, that’s the capital of Russian province divided by Lithuania and Poland.

While Soccer World Cup 2018 is taking place here, Rubchinskiy had a perfect reason to take the industry to this rather off-fashion’s-radar place. Now, streetwear fanatics, prepare for jaw-dropping news: Gosha presented his Adidas Football collaboration, which is purely symbolic in regards of the country’s Cold War-era black market history, and Russian’s football team gear. The collaboration consists of pieces ranging from football shirts to hoodies and accessories, all baring the world ‘football’ in Cyrillic script. The clothes were styled in a classical, Gosha way – skate-fit sportswear, boy-from-the-hood tracksuits and ironically masculine suits. Synthetic-white sneakers and a blue shirt – Russian guy look from the 90s, just like the geometric, post-modern prints on the slouchy knits. So, are you in the team?

Men’s – Seven Sisters Bankers. Martine Rose AW17

January 11, 2017January 24, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Martine Rose took London’s fashion scene to an indoor market in Seven Sisters, presenting her first runway collection, with nail salons and vegetable stalls in the background. Martine’s day-to-day job is consultancy at Balenciaga under Demna Gvasalia, but for her eponymous menswear line, she takes a fresh look at clothing essentials. For autumn-winter 2017, the daring designer explored different, quite unusual for the fashion industry male characters – the banker, the bus driver, the office worker to name just a few. People, who rather don’t care about fashion, and their unawareness of how they look lead Rose to reinterpreting tailored jackets, dresscode-wise shirts and voluminous suit trousers. With their hands in pockets, the models seemed to come straight from a some kind of subverted reality. Minutes after the show, Martine told Dazed & Confused that her idea was focused on “polished, mid-town, almost American Psycho-style bankers”. Instead of taking her aesthetically-forward bank boys to a CBD location, she took another path. “I’ve been in Tottenham for ten years, so it was time to do something here – I wanted people to come to the market to see how amazing it is. But I really enjoy when things are slightly off – so I wanted to have this weird show inside it.”