Jeans mixed with sweatpants; coat worn with a sweater (without anything else under, except tattoos); artisanal embroideries taped all over the torso. That was possibly one of the most elusive and difficult to understand collection served by Maison Martin Margiela. But you could be sure of one thing: nothing had one sense. Even these orange coats or wool, brown socks worn with sneakers.
LOST written in french as PERDU was written on the backs of the models at Yohji Yamamoto’s new collection. The collection was one of the most commercial throughout the seasons: missing a bit the manga coats or gorgeous trousers I would enjoy wearing, we had pajama jacquards covered in a faded motif of old, stained-glass rosettes; faux bleach splotches stitched onto suiting; jailhouse-striped pants that appeared counterintuitively gentlemanly. The denim grouping was most interesting of all. Yohji said he was tired of seeing jeans that looked “out of fashion.” His solution: trompe l’oeil holes, roomy gaucho pants, and a dramatic denim cape. Not that I am disapointed with this collection, but feel it’s a little break for Yohji Yamamoto- and that we soon will see something good.
“I was thinking about the ballet Afternoon of a Faun, choreographed by Nijinsky. It basically all culminates with this faun masturbating on a nymph’s scarf, so everybody in the audience, with all their jewels, are just waiting for this guy to hump the scarf. I love that!” – Rick Owens said before the show. Intresting interpretation… just like his SS15 show dedicated to duality of futurism and primitivism. Few models were painted white to look more fantasy like. The models wore these cavemen like skirts uncovering their torsos while the shoes felt outer space. The solemn faces of the models were pale and solemn… it was all a very interesting fairy-tale. Thoughts?
Raf Simons got really sentimental this season. In an industrial space, with guests standing instead of seating, the designer served a portion of unexplained things. And as he said, they are hard to analyse. But first of all, the backs of the coats and tops “Like mood boards you’d pin your favorite images to,” Raf said backstage. Friends, family, a fluffy kitty, a roller coaster, Mt. Fuji painted by Hokusai, a koi pond, a shark, a swimmer in peril, an astronaut…it seemed furiously random until Simons parsed the images. And these were all his memories and inspirations that he thought of while putting them live, on the models. Sharks- he loves Jaw movie and horrors. The astronaut was isolation. Roller coaster, the one he rode with his friends Olivier Rizzo and Willy Vanderperre decades ago. The Japanese influence was his thank-you to the first retailers who ever supported him. That was a truly psychological idea, too. In other words, Raf Simons made us all a bit shaky after the show. And the clothes were very him! The sneakers, the sophisticated suits, colourful tops and sharp tailored trousers. The AW14 collaboration with artist Sterling Ruby was a sweet surrender that Simons said, “I could only go deep into myself to find another challenge.” He’s a supremely organized individual, but maybe Ruby left him with an appetite for chaos. “It’s interesting to let go,” he agreed.
Pleasingly, Haider Ackermann didn’t dissapoint us with his recent men collection. The male boheme continues and for good! Knowing well Andalusian-gypsy style Haider gives us each season in his presentation, the SS15 is just the cherry on the top of a cake. A rich yet dusty, jewel-hued color palette of pieces layered together in a nonchalant way that must have taken hours to get just right. All the velvet varsity jackets, jacquard drop crotch pants, fitted vests over loose shirting, chinoiserie silk dressing gown coats, and long looping scarves closely echoed the personal style of the designer himself. Although, the easy inclusion of Saskia de Brauw and Liya Kebede into the mix of male models proved that the pieces had real cross over potential.
Design & Culture by Ed 