Paris

5 Things To Love From Dries Van Noten’s SS20 Sale

| Design & Culture by Ed

I rarely write such posts (maybe I should change that?), but this is an exception. Taking one last look at my favourite collection of spring-summer 2020 season – the historic Dries Van Noten x Christian Lacroix line-up – and picking the ultimate five things to love from its sale. Why? Well, this collection continues to be my obsession. The details, textures, colours, Dries’ style combined with Christian’s sense of couture… it’s one of the dreamiest collections we’ve seen in years. You might not know that during the lockdown, Dries Van Noten opened two on-line stores, which are the digital versions of the label’s two flagship stores: Quai Malaquais location in Paris and Het Modepaleis in Antwerp. There, you can find nearly every item from this collection, plus get inspired by all the styling tricks from the look-book photos. So, here are my picks (note that a lot of other gems are already sold out!):

Embellished oversized coat with multicoloured sequin detailing thoughout. I had a chance to see it IRL in the Paris store (a week before corona became official in Europe…) and it’s a masterpiece.

Embroidered, cropped bolero jacket in black – it’s so rich! And you can style it in multiple of ways, pretty much with anything. That’s the magic of Dries (with a pinch of Lacroix!).

Love a big polka dot. This mid-rise one (with a foldover waist and grograin tie) is brilliant.

The collection’s signature florals made it to these denim pants. Again, wear them with anything!

Not sure if these boots are made for walking, but platforms and jacquard are always a good idea.

/

Want more Dries? Click here!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Photos from 7-9quaimalaquais.com. 

The Look – Miu Miu Resort 2020

| Design & Culture by Ed

Remember Miu Miu‘s resort 2020 collection? And those floppy-brimmed sun hats layered over baseball caps? Assembled one on top of the other, their proportions conjured a vision of Ascot. A tweaked version of Ascot; Miuccia Prada said back then she’s never attended one. Here, the beautiful Ugbad Abdi wearing one of those in the enchanted, hydrangea-blooming secret garden…

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Back To Office (Someday). Louis Vuitton Resort 2021

| Design & Culture by Ed

For many people still working from home, the word “office” sounds abstract. Tailoring isn’t a novelty in the resort 2021 collections, but only the Louis Vuitton line-up by Nicholas Ghesquière makes you think that some day, the “business” dress-code will come back to our lives and replace the lazy Zoom homewear. Emphasizing the more everyday, less editorial aspect of his ready-to-wear, the look-book was shot on location in Louis Vuitton’s Paris headquarters. A photocopier stands at attention in the opening shot, and exit signs and fire doors appear in the background of others. The promise of gorgeous hourglass blazers and chic silk blouses makes the longing for “back to life” life even more intense… but this wasn’t the only aspect of the collection (which, by the way, was good without any far-fetched venue location). “I looked somewhere that has been calling out to me for a long time, somewhere I hadn’t taken the time to go back to. It was like a reset to uncover one inspiration after another, to imagine the next steps and how to create and work within this new context. I took the time to explore my creative identity and prepare the future.” Confronted with the unknowns of the coronavirus and the crushing recession it precipitated, designers have been revisiting their past successes. Nicolas Ghesquière is among them, though the search for lost time is not only a quarantine pursuit for him. On his autumn-winter 2020 runway, with the then as-yet uncanceled Met Gala and its theme of “Fashion and Duration” still on the horizon, Ghesquière held up a mirror to his own work. For this resort collection, he followed similar guidelines – lifting cargo pants from one collection and frilly rococo collars from another, and reuniting with the blouson shapes of the 1980s he likes – with results that read more easier than his runway outings typically do. Additionally, running through the collection is a playing-card leitmotif. When asked, Ghesquière claimed “the tarot” as his favorite card game, “because it can be used in many different ways. And the cards are full of symbols.” Nonetheless, he made effective use of the clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades of the playing-card deck. They bear more than a passing resemblance to the elements of the Louis Vuitton monogram, which Ghesquière made the most of by hybridizing them and then either adding them as decorative details on bags, or supersizing them as color-blocked patterns on streamlined mini and maxi dresses.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

As Always, It’s Perfect. Lemaire SS21

| Design & Culture by Ed

I don’t know how Christophe Lemaire and Sarah Linh Tran do it, but their collections always reasonate with me the most in terms of ready-to-wear. I can be obsessed with the most over-the-top dress and feel inspired by the most thoroughly planned visual production. But in terms of clothes, my heart belongs to Lemaire. Their spring-summer 2021 presentation, of course audience-less, is co-ed, as the designers depart from men’s and women’s division. Also, from now on, we will see their collections twice a year, during men’s fashion weeks. “We’ve been frustrated for a while by the timing of the schedule,” said Lemaire. “You know, showing the pre-collection for women together with the men’s and then waiting two months to show the second half of the women’s collection. For many different reasons it was complicated and frustrating for production and also buyers. So it’s obvious that this was an opportunity to show everything together, even though it was a big challenge for the team to develop the collection in time.” Well, it’s as effortlessly refined as usual – no marks of backstage rush visible. One of the ways they met that challenge, said Tran, was by working more closely than ever before. She added: “The men’s team and the women’s team worked hand-in-hand, choosing fabrics and colors in common… we focused on what was common between the man and the woman, and then we added more specifically women’s volumes and more specific men’s volumes.” The result was a highly coherent collection in which that commonality was evident but resulted in subtle gradations and hints of contrast, rather than the monotony of a monogamously unisex collection. As evinced in the lookbook shots where womenswear and menswear looks are shown in the same frame, a close affinity looks like complementary dressing rather than couple-coupling. There was a stirring marine green, a palest of yellow, a dash of denim. Many of the garments were in a kaleidoscope of neutrals – shades of clay, ochre, wheat – whose delicate differences became apparent and increasingly rich the more attention you paid to them. Men wore smocks and women boxy suiting either plain or in a beautiful Martin Ramirez landscape print. Tran concluded: “we build the collection as a wardrobe. The idea of being able to enrich the wardrobe is very pertinent to us.” Lemaire’s newly co-ed articulation shows that the designers do what they realy feel like is the most suitable for them – and this even more strenghtens mine – and other fans’ – love for the Parisian label.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.