It All Makes Perfect Sense. Alaïa AW24

January 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Alaïa collection is about simplicity and purity. It’s about intimacy, about reducing to an essence, about finding a freedom and invention in that. At the same time, Pieter Mulier managed to keep it sensual and tactile, not brutally minimal. The entire autumn-winter 2024 collection was created using a single merino wool yarn, reinvented over and again with the maison’s textile and knitwear suppliers, who have worked with Azzedine Alaïa, the late designer and his brand, for decades. Mulier’s take on the part-ready-to-wear, part-haute–couture collection is predominantly based on the curve, on the circle – the curves of women, and circles of friends, of chosen family, an idea essential to the essence of Alaïa. “For this show, I wanted to bring us all together, to view everything up close – close together, close to the clothes“. Draped tops fell asymmetrically in supremely elegant folds; minimalist skirts and dresses were looped and wrapped, sarong-like, to show a leg. A black jumpsuit seemed to be made of one continuous piece, gathered into a halter in front, leaving the back bared. Knitted turtleneck tabard sweaters showed slivers of naked torsos in passing. “I love that you’re covered, you’re covered completely – but then you show something”, the designer mused. The two-storied show space integrated the collection with design objects that are signifiers of the Alaïa boutique on rue de Marignan: the Pelota lamps, created by Marc Newson, and the Mollo sofas by Philippe Malouin. It all made sense.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Margaret. Chanel SS24 Couture

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“He met Margaret on a rooftop, she was wearin’ white,

And he was like, ‘I might be in trouble'”.

Of course, the moment I saw Margaret Qualley stepping out on the Chanel haute couture runway dressed in all-white, I had this Lana Del Rey song on my mind. Dedicated to Jack Antonoff, her friend and long-time collaborator, and his wife, Margaret, the song is an ode to hope and love, and finding answers for big questions in the right time. This Virginie Viard couture line-up, very unfairly hated by most of the critics, encapsulated that mood very well, and was yet another endeavor into a sort of unhinged femininity that isn’t exactly what the mass media keep on expecting from her Chanel. Largely inspired by ballet and the zsa zsa zsou feeling of falling in love, the collection ran from white to fondant pastels and back again. The connection to dance was flickering through the silhouette of a tweed twinset of sorts – a cropped jacket whose matching under-piece was shaped like a leotard. Other highlight: a nipped-waist, full-skirted black coat-dress puffed out on a stiff white ballerina tutu. Then, a pink chiffon dress with a shirred bodice and flyaway, textile-arty bows mixed up in its skirts. The Chanel woman is a girl at heart, but not definitely not because of a TikTok trend, but in a Sofia Coppola-kind-of-way. The finale, of course, was the Chanel bride. She had on a tiny silver-white tunic for a dress with poetic balloon chiffon sleeves and was trailing yards of white tulle as a train. Romantic, decorative, but grounded in a kind of contemporary reality. That’s Virginie Viard’s style all over.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Schiapar-alien. Schiaparelli SS24 Couture

January 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Couture season has started, baby! Schiaparelli kicked of the haute week in Paris with musings on sci-fi and the future. The final result of Daniel Roseberry‘s plunge into all things Alien and Elsa Schiaparelli was, however, more about retro-tech with grand, surreal gestures. Huge funnel-like necklines disguised the face behind screens of lace; champagne-hued ballgowns with silk bows that jutted out near-endlessly appeared to defy gravity; and floor-length beaded fringes that moved energetically as if from Planet Glam all conjured astronomical flourishes of high-art-meets-high-fashion. Elsewhere, silver spine-like bijoux (a nod to Schiaparelli’s 1938 skeleton dress) that sprouted from the back of a black corset paired with a latex skirt and a polished parure, and a perfectly curved cream jacket offered all the alienistic edge a line of space-ready silhouettes could need. The mini-dress made out of discarded technology relics can be read as a comment on tech-waste, a problem that we face globally. But you can also perceive it as a new take on embellishments and embroideries. “Now, the technology I grew up with is so antiquated that it’s almost as difficult to source as certain vintage fabrics and embellishments,” said Roseberry in his show notes. Model Maggie Maurer – an IRL freshly-baked mother – carried a baby doll made from motherboards and microchips. That all might have felt quite too much for a Monday morning, but at Schiaparelli there seems no such thing as restraint.

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Stripped Back. The row AW24

January 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

From one side, it’s a great pity The Row isn’t on New York Fashion Week’s schedule. From the other side, their presence in Paris in that brief moment between menswear and haute couture just works so well. Moving their operations here, they surely breathe down the local “minimal” brands’ necks. This season, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen delivered a very stripped back collection that did the talking through sublime tailoring, sculptural silhouettes and a mostly-black color palette. A short, contoured jacket worn with a slim pant and rounded pumps; a dress belted for waist emphasis (and bright red tights for leg emphasis); an ultra-smooth, leaned-out leather jacket; a three-button jacket, wingtip tuxedo shirt and trousers that slightly recalibrate how we envision the brand. Even new bags were downsized and compact. What might this say about where the Olsen are in their lives? An evolving style? A changing relationship with the body? One answer could be that there are considerations towards an ever-changing wardrobe – one that accommodates greater ways of dressing while maintaining maximum ease.

Some The Row pieces that are on my mind right now…

ED’s SELECTION:

Simon Leather Gloves

Moon Oversized Cotton-poplin Shirt

Tasseled Leather Loafers

Leather Waist Belt

Bartelle Grain De Poudre Wool And Mohair-blend Maxi Skirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Overstimulation. Loewe AW24

January 21, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

News. Fake news. Deep fakes. AI. Images. No one interprets the Internet – and contemporary (non)reality – like Loewe‘s Jonathan Anderson. We are bombarded with sensations, information, visuals, screens, all sorts of media, day-to-night. This over-stimulation was the designer’s key point behind the autumn-winter 2024 collection. Anderson reflects on how everything is leveled up today: celebrity culture, social media, pop culture, and art history, all forming one single collage. Fittingly, the collection was also inspired by the collage art of Richard Hawkins, who explores the male body and its representation in various cultural contexts. The new season offering challenges the notion of a uniform or a signature style, and instead presents a range of characters that embody different expressions of masculinity. The clothes combine classic elements of menswear with more casual and edgy pieces, creating a layered, spontaneous, even random looks. Some of the pieces were also attached to each other (like a couple of coats with sticking out layers of colorful shirts), reflecting the collaged reality we live in. The line-up also features Hawkins’ artworks, which are incorporated into the accessories and garments as prints, jacquards, embroideries, and embellishments.

However, what truly stood out in the outing was the runway setting. Hawkins collaborated with Loewe to create a series of 12 video collages that were displayed on large screens in the show venue, a white cube that evoked the stained glass windows of Loewe’s 1960s window designs by José Pérez de Rozas. The videos featured Loewe’s brand ambassadors (from Josh O’Connor to Jamie Dornan) along with elements from Hawkins’ eclectic sources.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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