Big Feelings. Danielle Frankel AW22

April 3, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

I’m not into bridewear, but there’s one designer in this field that I always pay attention to. It’s been a year since Danielle Frankel, a go-to designer for fashion-forward brides, unveiled a new collection. Not a long time in terms of creative productivity, but a considerable hiatus by the standards of the fashion calendar. “When you’re talking about an evergreen product, you don’t need a collection every six months,” Frankel says. “These collections take so much to produce, and because the business is growing at the same time, we have to wedge in when we’re doing the development.” There’s certainly no shortage of clientele. Though she designs ready-to-wear as well as bridal, the latter is her bread-and-butter. She developed many of her brand signatures this season, including corsetry, bubble hems, and silk-wool pleated gowns. But everything is a bit bigger than 2021 collection‘s streamlined and sculptural offerings. “There’s a lot of the same DNA that you see in our work, but I wanted something a little bit more grand this season,” Frankel says. “Before we were known for those effortless, simple, cool styles, but for me it’s important to go bigger and move it forward.” Inspired by 1950s Vogue fashion illustrations, mid-century elegance, and surrealism, her new collection is photographed in a deliberately hazy way. Though this method of photography obscures the fine details of the clothing, it underscores the feelings Danielle hopes to evoke. That said, her designs tend to reveal themselves on the human form. The Leith gown, for instance, has a showstopping corseted bust that projects off the body and open back, but the pleats at the waist may just be the special detail that convinces the customer that this is the one. Hirsch also introduced several styles with Watteau drapes at the back, offering a more low-key kind of drama than the Leith does, while still delivering mid-century glamour. Aside from the fact that the most classic ballgown silhouette is hand-painted and hand-fringed in shades of brown, many of the tops Hirsch designed feel like true ready-to-wear. Paired with wide-leg trousers, the two bandeaus made to look like flowers are festive and relaxed.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Viable Garments. Commission AW22

April 2, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Commission, the New York-based label, is about garments, not gimmicks. For autumn-winter 2022 season, Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong were thinking about non-American perspectives on America (all three designers were born and raised in Asia) and classic American fashion. Jeans, leather pants, Western belt buckles, and star-patched tees are the most obvious elements of Americana here. Look deeper than the hand-distressed unisex leather jacket, and you’ll find lush “cloud knits,” sporty tracksuits with blouson tops, trad office shirting with underbreast cut-outs, and a brown wool skirt suit with a schoolgirl vest inset into the blazer. A slash motif, which could read as a little try-hard, worked mostly well, exposing an ab, a clavicle, or a sliver of forearm. “It’s about an eclectic combo,” summed up Cao. Evocative layering made the brand’s separates look even more viable – especially in an asymmetric dress over pants look. The moment the designers posted a lookbook image it was swiftly consumed by social media, followers chiming in with “Aaaaaaaah!” and cascades of flame emojis. Sometimes, simple and straightforward clothes do the ultimate work.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Love Among The Ruins. Interior AW22

March 30, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Lily Miesmer and Jack Miner tarted Interior last year as a collection of clothing with an artistic bent. A gown made of tied scraps of fabric. A jacket inspired by 14th century armor. A pajama suit adorned with dangling fruits and vegetables. Their autumn-winter 2022 season is a little bit darker but retains the hints of absurdity and off-kilter-ness that makes their New York-based brand exciting. “The clothes are familiar but they’re a little fucked up,” Miesmer says, going on to describe their statement outerwear for the season as, “a mangy shearling. Not a perfect Upper East Side shearling.” The models at the Waverly Inn presentation (which took place during New York Fashion Week) conversed at their tables, which were decorated with martinis, oysters, shrimp cocktails, and a jiggly jello. Taper candles burned down, lending a lived-in quality to the atmosphere. The models almost didn’t look out of place, save for the pair wearing see-through gowns – one of a sheer metallic fabric, and one in black netting with a hood. Echoes of Mario Fortuny’s rich textures and Romeo Gigli’s soft-baroque chic are all over the collection – which is excellent. But by and large, Interior’s clothing already looks at home in New York institutions, worn by beautiful people in a familial setting. The most playful offering of the season was a tailored suit with trompe l’oeil illustrations by Richard Haines. The creases on the front of the trousers, as well as the darts on the jacket, are also drawn on. So is the button seemingly holding the jacket together – a hidden snap is doing all the work. Meismer calls the headline for the collection “love among the ruins.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Cheerful Vibrance. Rosie Assoulin AW22

March 19, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Rosie Assoulin‘s autumn-winter 2022 collection radiates with cheerful vibrance and off-kilter charm. The new season offering is driven by experimental silhouettes and idiosyncratic details that make the designer’s clothes always so compelling. The biggest surprise is the play with big hips, inspired by 19th century panniers. But in case of Assoulin, such fashion statements never feel “too” evening or “too” red carpet – those are charismatic garments for a bold personality that loves the process of dressing up on the daily basis. What makes the New York-based designer stand out is her ability to transform everyday life observations into fashion. The opening look, in powder blue moire accented by caramel-colored gloves, is a crop top with a jutting ruffle inspired by the silicone bib Assoulin’s young daughter wears while eating. The skirt mirrors the top’s 3-D shape, but while the latter feels futuristic, the former is historical. Still, they work together, the sweeping fabric with the sculptural accents. The folkish patterns feel lively and naive in a good way: nature-inspired watercolor prints run throughout the collection, and on the vegan shearling coats (obsessed!) they look straight out of the 1970s. In our turbulent and highly disturbing times, the simple message behind the top with an oval front depicting a blossoming tree and its roots speaks volumes. The tree’s symbolism of constant evolution was crucial to Assoulin’s conception of the collection. P.S. Pay attention to the accessories: the label’s signature jug hand-bags are back!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Mycelium. Alexander McQueen AW22

March 18, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Showing in New York somehow made Sarah Burton‘s Alexander McQueen feel more compelling and… fresh. Lee Alexander McQueen brought his show to New York twice, first in 1996 with Dante and again in 1999 for Eye. Sarah Burton was with him on both trips, and she was back in the Big Apple to present her autumn-winter 2022 collection for the label. “America and New York have always been so much a part of McQueen,” she said backstage. “It feels part of our creative community. It’s great to honor that.” Piles of mulch made from fallen trees gave off a peaty tang in the Brooklyn warehouse venue (it’ll be reused in plantings, she said), and birds and insects chirped on the speakers before the soundtrack settled into the groove of “A Forest” by The Cure. Backstage Burton was talking about mycelium, the underground fungal network that’s sometimes called nature’s “wood wide web,” connecting trees with one another and transferring nutrients and minerals plant-to-plant. The humble mushroom has taken on a new vogue in recent years with the mainstreaming of psychedelics, but Burton laughed off a question about microdosing. “What I really love is that the trees talk to each other and they sort of heal each other,” she began. “The thing is, they’re healing, but they’re toxic as well. There’s a danger to them.” A pair of dresses were fantastically embroidered in mushrooms whose vivid colors Burton said were lifted from real life, their mycelia represented by long skeins of silk fringe. A couple of unraveling sweaters were almost as trippy. Burton’s McQueen is a thoughtful balance of hand craft and haute tailleur. She was in New York City, after all, so she didn’t neglect to show off the label’s sartorialism. A smoking with a crystal-embellished back panel and a spangled bandeau in place of a shirt would be a glamorously restrained red carpet look for what’s likely to be a sober Oscars ceremony at the end of the month. Other sharply cut pantsuits picked up the psychedelic colors of those mushrooms – acid green and yellow, electric blue, bright red. “I wanted it to have a pace to it and an energy to it… and there to be color,” Burton said. “I wanted it to have a vibrancy.” Most notable were the suits that looked like they’d been spray-painted with the shadow of a rushing body. Burton said these were inspired by yet another archival McQueen collection, Number 13, the show in which the model Shalom Harlow and her strapless white dress were painted by a pair of robots normally used in the automotive industry in a sort of erotic dance. McQueen would’ve likely dug the mycelium theme; he was always intrigued by the elements, always finding his way back to a nature vs. machine theme. Many years on, that struggle is more real than ever. Burton brings that awareness and a woman-centered approach to what she’s doing here.