Men’s – Motopapi. Courrèges SS23

August 10, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

The energy of the concise, item-driven modernity Nicolas di Felice brings to Courrèges is all over the spring-summer 2023 collection. “You know, back in the day, Andre [Courrèges] was speaking to the young generation. I knew from my first week that it was part of the house,” said Di Felice. “So I really want young people to be able to afford the clothes; to make it, let’s say, more accessible.” He grabbed a vintage zip-up scuba-fabric jacket which Courrèges had designed for men in the 1970s as an introduction to how he got started. “I found this in the archive, and thought, ‘This shape is amazing,’ but there’s no point in doing it again. So I wanted to mix this silhouette with a biker vibe, because I had a motorbike when I was young. I thought about how it feels to drive to the beach, or to a festival in the summer, or something,” he laughed. “I’ve been at the house for two years now, so I feel more comfortable to explore a bit more of who I am.” One thing about Di Felice is his knack for filtering lived experience into his minimal-seductive design. His collection captures all the features of young masculine body-con display that’s taken off this summer: tight-to-the torso leather jackets, twisted, cutaway T-shirts, slick moto pants in the house’s heritage-look black vinyl, gabardine polyester trousers and denims with a hint of bootcut flare. It’s his addition of the faux leather bondage straps across the front of jackets that adds a clever utilitarian twist. He demonstrated: “So what you can do is take off your jacket or poncho and hang them off your shoulder by the strap, like this. It came to me simply when I was one more time in a party, and it’s hot and there are not enough cloakrooms. I was like, ‘OK, um, so when I go in on Monday – I’m going do that in the collection!’” The lookbook shows the device in action – clothes gradually becoming cool-looking drapes toted from shoulders, until the last guy ends up naked, carrying all of his clothes. “Like he’s just come out of the water on the beach,” Di Felice grinned.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Je Ne Sais Quoi. Officine Générale SS23

August 7, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

In the courtyard of Hotel de Soubise, Officine Générale‘s spring-summer 2023 looks came out languidly, arranged in color stories that shifted slowly across the cobbles in the waning evening sunshine. This was the brand’s 10th anniversary show, and yet so many people discover it just now. It was also one of those shows where you end up playing fantasy personal shopping, because this was less an impactful fashion pop song than carefully conducted piece of apparel mood music. After this gentle show had come to its end, founder Pierre Mahéo emerged to deserved applause. Backstage, the designer pointed out that around 80% of sales are currently outside France, and was refreshingly pragmatic about the formula he’s found. He said: “I think there is an evolution in what we show today in terms of styling, and in terms of putting things together, but the base is the fit, the cut, and the fabrics… The formula is being fair by offering good material at a very decent price, manufactured in Portugal and Italy.” You can’t argue with that. Pretty much, this collection is perfect. Just take a look at all these great cotton knits, chino pants, effortless tailoring, quilted marine jackets and timeless trench coats.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

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Always In The Sun. Maryam Nassir Zadeh Resort 2023

August 1, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maryam Nassir Zadeh‘s resort 2023 collection looks like the inside of a well-packed luggage that’s on the way to a summer-perfect, beachy, breezy, always-sunny destination. Sheer camisole tops and slouchy pants that feel just the right kind of vintage-y. Over-sized t-shirts, wrap skirts and denim bermudas in faded neutral colours, looking as if left exposed to sunlight for days. Charming accessories that seem off-and-odd-but-oh-so-good, like the blue taffeta bracelet-scrunchie, funky ornate belts and necklaces with big, ceramic beads. Groovy, hand-made macrame appeared in form of sachets and eclectic inserts, (not) randomly placed on a men’s leather biker jacket’s back or at the pants’ waist. And of course the latest addition to Nassir Zadeh’s brand: the blue towel with MNZ’s logo, made from the finest frotte, resembling the one that would lie by the pool in some lovely, off-the-track boutique hotel by the French Riviera or somewhere in Sicily.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Balance. Jil Sander Resort 2023

July 28, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

The creative dynamic Luke and Lucie Meier have brought to Jil Sander isn’t just a reflection of the two of them sharing art and life, but also an echo of the big-picture conversation about the redefinition of identities around the intersection of masculine and feminine codes. “In our designs there’s always this tension between the masculine and the feminine,” they mused in their studio in Milan. “It’s always there in some form or another.” The husband and wife pair complement each other with the same easy flair that they give their experiments between rigor and plasticity, severity and fluidity. They describe their process as an exercise in “searching and finding that right pull, whether it’s an artisanal gesture breaking something very strict, or something soft being broken by something very rigid and structured. That play is always there.” For resort their search for a point of symmetric repose between opposites played out in what they called “deflating couture,” a turn of phrase defining sculptural, elegant volumes “collapsing” into softer, gentler, fluid shapes. Seen through this lens, their suiting consisted of sharp-cut, narrow-shouldered, and fitted jackets worn over ultra-voluminous trousers, almost like next-generation palazzo pants. The sartorial is a territory the Meiers navigate skillfully, favoring extreme precision in cutting and construction as well as a romantic feel for the handcrafted; a case in point was a sharp-structured, overcoat in a pale mauve, without lapels, fastened with a single hand-blown glass jewel button, and worn over a black tunic with a feminine ruffled collar. The play between fluidity and structure gave the collection character and appeal, and was consistent throughout. An elongated dress of voluminous couture construction was made in delicate white cotton voile, a rather humble material; straight-cut tunics and tops with plunging necklines were given a transformable twist with the addition of turtlenecks or t-shirts in contrasting colors worn underneath. The season’s version of the tuxedo had a similar versatile approach; it was proposed as a fluid combination of a pleated-bib black chemise and a pair of billowy, liquid trousers. You cannot take the sense of rigorous chic out of the Meiers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Cowboy, Reconstructed. Greg Lauren SS23

July 26, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Greg Lauren started the spring-summer 2023 collection by thinking about the cowboy: the archetype, the myth, and the real deal. It’s not all boots, denim, and big hats (though there is plenty of that). Instead, his collection, titled “Re-construct”, taps into his muse’s renegade spirit. “There’s something at the core of the idea of the cowboy that resonates with people that has to do with individualism, and the idea of the figure that doesn’t conform and has the courage to draw their own path,” he says. That individualism expresses itself in unexpected ways. The spring 2023 lookbook opens with a pale pink trucker jacket. It’s made from scraps of fabric that were discarded to make last season’s pink tuxedos. Through a process called stitchwork, these teensy bits of fabrics are patched together to make a textile that can be used to make a pink jacket for a cowboy. There’s a nice cyclical energy to that, which Lauren clearly relishes, after all, repurposing pre-loved materials is what put him on the map. The most interesting developments here are the contrasts. Consider baggy cargo pants and a relaxed blazer made out of herringbone fabric, or the many jackets with tails Lauren created this season out of denim, ivory satin, and, spectacularly, leather. Lauren had fun picking apart black- and white-tie dress codoes, playing with ways to make a tuxedo jacket or tails casual through fabrics. Make no mistake, it’s still elegant. The craftiness running through the collection – the continued collaboration with Gee’s Bend quilters, the top made of vintage Cub Scout shirts, the stitch work fair isle sweater – only underscores the designer’s maverick qualities.