Old World, Vampy Glamour. Schiaprelli AW24 Couture

June 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This haute couture week started with a regal twist as Daniel Roseberry took us back in time. “I had this dream of finding a forgotten couture collection in the basement of Elsa’s country house,” he said backstage at his Schiaparelli fashion show. This is a couture label that flourished in the 1920s and ’30s. Its contemporary creative director has never seemed hemmed in by that era, but this season he made his gaze more explicit. “I wanted people to feel the collection was referencing a different time… and there was something about the ’50s that felt so fresh and simple. You’ll find homages to those silhouettes.” The show was staged in a basement – the basement of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, whose upper salons have long been used for couture shows. In the dark, chandelier-lit space Roseberry conjured something of the haute couture shows of old, with models emerging at a stately, almost reverential pace, and making eye contact with the audience. Maybe it felt stuffy and history-heavy at some moments, even archaic, but there’s an irresistible charm of that old world, vampy glamour. Who wouldn’t want to indulge in wearing the show-opening cape, with the broad shoulders of an eagle with silver lozenge embroidery arranged to look like gleaming feathered wings? Or a black party dress, with its tulle skirt in a permanent can-can kick flip exposing an underside lavishly embellished with pink rhinestones? Or spiral in some mirrored hall, covered in millefeuille circles that trimmed the arabesque hems of an hourglass dress? Couture is a dreamworld, and Roseberry has no shame about it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Shape-Shifting. Hed Mayner SS25

June 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Hed Mayner keeps on delivering some of the most intriguing, form-defeating menswear in Paris. “There is this idea of attacking the proportion, from an angle that is more related to textile and from that textile creating the shape,” he explained. Collarless bomber jackets were puffed to perfection but crafted in lightweight linens for the summertime. Leather button-downs exaggerated the human form with striking, cocooning outlines, while buttoned vests revealed chiseled torsos beneath. Leather motorcycle vests were upgraded with tripled belts, followed by broad-shouldered pinstriped suiting and voluminous trench coats rolled at the cuffs to reveal checkered lining. Crinkled fabrics enclose the sense of pre-loved garments on multi-faceted outerwear, accompanied by the designer’s oversized version of Canadian tuxedos. You want to dance, jump, live in Mayner’s tactile and evocative garments.

Here are my beloved Hed Mayner pieces you can shop now.

ED’s DISPATCH:

Hed Mayner Bonded Cotton Oversized Cardigan

Hed Mayner Cargo Tactical Vest

Hed Mayner Cotton Poplin Pinstripe Pleated Shorts

Hed Mayner Oversized Double-Breasted Sport Coat

Hed Mayner Pinstripe Poplin Oversized Sport Shirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Civilization. Rick Owens SS25

June 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

With this collection, Rick Owens definitely passes the audition for designing costumes to the next part of “Dune“. I would so watch it! But the idea behind his spring-summer 2025 fashion show – or rather, fashion performance – was focused on humanity rather than otherwordly travels. “We need civilization”, the designer said. This season he delivered 10 looks, each repeated 20 times, on a total of 200 models. It was a mass that culminated in a human-installation: barrel-chested strongmen in wrapped knit shirts, side-split shorts, and Geobasket sneakers acted as stern litter-bearers to a trio of contorting corseted gymnasts who flew a flag on which was printed two forearms, clasped together. Owens was inspired by epically choreographed spectacles of Hollywood’s Golden Age: the kaleidoscopic choreography of Busby Berkeley and the swords and sandals splendor of Cecil B. DeMille. “Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra has always been my favorite idiosyncrasy,” said Owens. This show’s format was also an auto-response to the designer’s intimate approach from last season. “After I had the shows in the house last season, I realized it was so restrictive. I ended up excluding so many people. So I thought this season, we’ll invite everybody. And all the fashion students who are usually outside the fence, we’re going to have them in the show.” This, he added, made the show “a great exercise in thinking about body types. Because I’m thinking we have 10 looks that have to accommodate every single body. So how do we do that? How do we make it convincingly look like Rick Owens looks? And I think we came up with an answer to that.” To witness such a broad spectrum of individuals marching as one in uniforms proclaiming allegiance to non-conformity was a wonderful display of humanity in the middle of Paris Fashion Week.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Greatest. Dries Van Noten SS25

June 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Who would have known a fashion heartbreak could hurt so badly? Yesterday, in anticipation of Dries Van Noten‘s last show ever, the fashion industry was going through a collective mourning. Today, it’s a collective hungover, and not the most uplifting one. The thought that spring-summer 2025 collection was the last Dries show by Dries, and that there won’t be a Dries moment every Paris Fashion Week is just way too much to handle. I can hardly imagine how will this brand operate without its founder, and please, whoever takes it over – don’t dare to remove “Dries” from the brand name. And I really hope it’s true that Van Noten will quietly advise the design team or the still unknown successor for the next couple of seasons. Still, I want to own every single piece from the Belgian designer’s final outing, his 120th one (he held his first ever Paris runway show back in 1991), as it’s absolutely, quintessentially DVN. The show was opened by Alain Gossuin, silver-fox model who walked Van Noten’s first show. The celebration of the designer’s maverick work was closed by a parade of his all-time favourite models – Małgosia Bela, Debra Shaw, Kirsten Owen – as well as new faces. This wasn’t a collection of literal “greatest hits”, but it had all ingredients that made Dries Van Noten a space for people who didn’t want fashion, but style. No dramatic gowns or somber eveningwear, but highly wearable garments for everyday life. Dries was really committed to innovation here, experimenting with unlikely fabrics like brushed wool fused to neoprene or a crinkled polyamide that he likened to glass. “I didn’t want to make old clothes, and things which are looking old,” he said backstage. “But you have the transparent tops which sometimes catch some memories, and that for me was important.” Then, the color palette. The transition across shiny ripe purples, that incredible pink silk overcoat, the apricot mohairs, and pistachio lurex… this was Dries in full bloom, and a reminder he’s the ultimate colorist in fashion. The runway laid out with silver foil was later on replaced with a huge disco-ball for the after-party. The designer didn’t want to make his good-bye a teary one (still, many tears were dropped, at the show and in front of screens), but rather joyous. He’s about to start a fresh phase of life, leaving fashion on his own terms. That’s what the greatest do!

Now we all need a Dries wardrobe fix.

ED’s SELECTION:

Dries Van Noten Oversized Double-breasted Denim Blazer

Dries Van Noten Wrap-effect Ruffled Floral-print Crepe Skirt

Dries Van Noten Embellished Silk Clutch

Dries Van Noten Checked Cotton Bralette

Dries Van Noten Ruffled Floral-print Silk-blend Chiffon Midi Dress

Dries Van Noten Padded Velvet Thong Platform Sandals

Dries Van Noten Curled Gold-tone Pearl Earrings

Collages by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Potent. Courrèges SS25

June 22, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s an incredibly potent, sensual energy about this latest Courrèges collection by Nicolas Di Felice. While the spring-summer 2025 menswear collection drew in part from a series of illustrations of a Courrèges summer 1970 collection of groovy cut-out tunics and banded detailing on short dresses, the contemporary designer is far from being a nostalgia-ist, pushing the brand into future, not futurism. “I really need to work the clothes on the body. Something might seem simple,” he went on to say, “but we really do fit everything; we work on them – the jackets, the skirts, the trenches, even the simplest pieces – from A to Z.” And it really shows this season, especially in the masterfully engineered bibbed tops (the front panels of fabric supported by a body of invisible mesh) worn with killer, kicky pants. Then, there’s all the scuba-inspired leatherwork that’s dangerously chic. Also, note the collars of Di Felice’s trenches in cotton and leather (just soooooo good) falling onto one shoulder and sleeve; the same detailing gets added to roomier, blouson versions cropped at the hips. And that 1970 collection of Andre Courrèges’ provides the motif of a looped band over the chest, which delivers a geometric flash of skin on tanks and dresses that work right across the gender spectrum.