Men’s – Prim And Perverse. JW Anderson AW24

January 15, 2024January 17, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jonathan Anderson said in his autumn-winter 2024 preview: “Eyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite films, and I actually think it’s a great Christmas film.” It was, however, two viewings last summer that led to this JW Anderson collection. “I’ve never made anything about a film before,” said Anderson. “This is also the sexiest we’ve ever gone – as far as I can go.” Fashion world has a great affection for this Stanley Kubrick fim. Lately, Puppets & Puppets had an entire collection dedicated to this spicy romance-thriller. In case of Anderson, the result was a diverse design range, spanning from prim to perverse: both in menswear and women’s pre-fall, at moments in a Prada-ist manner (fun fact: in the 2000s, the Irish designer used to work around Prada at Brown Thomas in Dublin; there he met Manuela Pavesi, Miuccia’s right-hand, where she consulted the brand’s merchandising). For the collection’s hero print, Anderson contacted Christiane, Kubrick’s widow, regarding her paintings that the director used in his films (including A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut). These paintings were what spanned the triptych knit jersey dresses: other pieces featured a portrait of a family cat, a pot plant with a barcode still on its tub, and a car interior. Said Anderson: “I thought what was interesting is the psychology of this idea of bringing someone from the background to the foreground.” This was about as literal as Anderson got. The collection contained neither Christmas trees nor masks – although Nicole Kidman was on the soundtrack, delivering the near-to-last line of dialogue – however a palpable spirit of twisted bourgeois eroticism ran through the darkened runway as fil rouge. Red, with all its implications, headlined in an oversized velvet evening jacket for men. The jacket’s womenswear counterpoint was a red velvet jumpsuit with one disordered, asymmetrically cut leg that seemed at the intersection of sleepwear and evening wear. Anderson’s own recurring predilection for shorts was satisfied afresh via some wonderful rib knit pieces – sometimes partnered with cardigans, sometimes not – from whose edges oozed suggestive, unsettlingly domestic whorls of satin. Dressing his female and male models in tights over panties gave a less figure-skating aspect to the trophy underwear trend.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Synthetic Environments. Prada AW24

January 15, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“In this moment you can’t avoid talking about subjects that are relevant. For instance, nature.” As Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons jointly explained, the thinking behind their Prada autumn-winter 2024 menswear collection was intimately entangled with the notion of our natural environment – how we are insulated from it, and how to go back to it. Simons addeded: “Most people’s screensavers are nature but then at the end we sit in this very synthetic human made environment.” A menacing tension felt palpable once the models, dressed as corporate commuters, walked on the raised glass floor with a stream running through a meadow beneath. The patches of highland greens contrasted with the synthetic green of the wool caps worn on the runway. The collection itself consisted of ultimate classics of menswear, as Simons listed for “the businessman, the working man, the thinking man.” Most wore ties. The Prada twist was touches that subverted these safe spaces of identity, enticing the wearer to surround himself with nature. Narrow-fit raincoats, tweed chore jackets, three-button gray topcoats, and gold buttoned naval outerwear all offered a route outdoors. This was a Prada outing that offered safeness and quintessence, clothes-wise.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Dirty Glam. DsQuared2 AW24

January 13, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

No one does a show in Milan like Dean and Dan Caten. Their autumn-winter 2024 DsQuared2 show was about the idea of twins. Who better than the Canadian brothers should have a say in the representation of “the two sides of the coin,” as they said backstage? Drawing upon their own reality of being a sort of day-and-night double version of each other offered the Catens the occasion for an entertaining show – fun, uplifting, with the right amount of camp and lots of maximalist mashed-up styling. The cast was obviously made of sets of twins, one of which was dressed in Dsquared2’s typical grungy daywear; upon entering a “makeover machine,” the other twin emerged glammed up in the evening version of what the first was wearing. The set, a shiny white box, served as glossy backdrop for the finale coup-de-théâtre, with the Catens taking their bow – Dan looking macho in fitted black jeans and an alluring see-through glittery chiffon shirt, and Dean playing the diva in a flame-red hairdo and black corset dress slashed at the front revealing a great pair of legs, teetering with consummate confidence on ultra-high stilettos. They brought the house down. As for the clothes in the co-ed show, there was great outerwear of the outdoorsy, furry, and fringed variety; fabulous distressed and patched denim; fair isle knits, cargos, destroyed tees, trapper hats, and sequined chaps, all jumbled together and styled with slinky abandon. For evening, black dominated, with body-skimming and plunging necklines for the girls, and sultry slim tuxes with femme undertones for the boys. Haley Wollens’ styling makes DsQuared2 look hotter than ever. Fashion for the Catens is going in just one direction: sexy, sassy, with humor to spare, and entirely guilt-free.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – In Search Of A Spark. Gucci AW24

January 13, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Sabato De Sarno‘s vision for Gucci is taking shape of a formula. His debut womenswear collection was a product-centric, straightforward parade of unoffensive clothes; the ad campaigns operate on blank backgrounds and offer no visual risks; and his first menswear collection for the brand is also moving in that generic, business-is-business direction. Except for one kinky, taken-out-of-the-Tom-Ford-book look where the model wore nothing but a pair of tailored pants, a tie-leash and a pair of leather gloves, this Gucci outing left you with no bold impression. Maybe because most of the looks were the same as in De Sarno’s September debut – like the opening over-sized coat, or the navy v-neck knit with embellished collar, or the color palette consisting of pops of cherry red? It’s actually quite surprising the designer has such confidence in these couple of looks that he’s already mirroring them. It’s probably to early to call, but De Sarno’s Gucci feels like mash-up of your favorite Italian brands: a bit Prada there, bit of Valentino here (where the designer worked before his Gucci appointment). The only signifiers that make it Gucci are the monogram logo, placed on belts and backpacks, and bag re-issues. Don’t get me wrong: those are really good clothes, there’s nothing wrong about all these timeless pea-coats and loafers. But I don’t think De Sarno is giving us enough reasons to be invested in his new Gucci. The designer gives big statements on “artisanship“, “Italianity“, “beauty“, even “good taste“. But as he says himself, “I don’t have a narrative for my collections at the moment”. That shows.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Eye Has To Travel. Bottega Veneta SS24

September 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“The eye has to travel“. Matthieu Blazy‘s sumptuous spring-summer 2024 collection for Bottega Veneta seemed to be a visual response to that phrase, coined by Diana Vreeland, the legendary fashion editor who happened to love the noisy jewellery around her employees’ necks to know where they were at all times. The collection was an audacious, charismatic and bold journey, but not inspired by specific locations or geographies. It’s a travel seen through a rather philosophical lens, as Blazy said, “it’s about what you can become after this journey as well; everything you get from a journey transforms you.” Leather wrap poncho topping a leather trench. Shaggy salt-and-pepper coat. Crocheted raffia dresses with the giant pompom embellishments. A large “straw” bag made from leather intrecciato. Those were just a couple of instances when you really want a run-of-show listing the garments’ textile information and the techniques employed to create them, like a map legend. Blazy’s aim was to “create some kind of new culture”, and he succeeded (interestingly, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons investigated the topic of “culture about clothing” this Milan Fashion Week). The Belgian designer who reinvents Bottega believes in the transportive possibilities of fashion. Wear those “banana leaf” sandals or carry the bag and “you escape.” Rachel Tashjian of Washington Post summed it up perfectly: it’s a “very Roland Barthes way of seeing as a form of social exchange, in which every passing person is a jumble of signals and symbols, and you put together a narrative in your head that’s half-reliable assumption, half-fictional fantasia“. But you can extract the backstory, and this was still an extraordinary collection, more like couture than ready-to-wear when it comes to the craftsmanship that went into individual pieces, from the cowl neck top and “bias-cut” skirt made from strips of different colored leather to the chunky woven jacquard coat that read almost like fur. “Where people call craft dusty, I think it’s the opposite,” said Blazy. “It’s a world of possibilities.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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