What’s Hot (6.3.20)

March 6, 2020February 29, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Elevating Silhouettes. Rick Owens AW20

March 1, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Nobody does a big shoulder like Rick Owens. Not speaking of silhouettes that completely elevate the wearer, making them look like goddesses and gods. In a season in which fashion has often come up short against growing coronavirus anxiety, Owens made it look easy. “It’s a collection about play,” he said backstage. “I see myself balancing out a world that can be kind of very strict in its aesthetics. There have to be people like me that have other suggestions.”Among those he had for autumn-winter 2020 were the above mentioned shoulders so peaked on a leather moto jacket, and so “monstrous” on puffer coats and pilled knits, that they grazed the earlobes, and recycled plastic platform boots that inched up near the hips. The one-leg Kansai Yamamoto by way of David Bowie jumpsuits that made such a major impact at Owens’s men’s show a month ago were transformed here into clingy dresses whose asymmetrical hems curved around the models’ legs as they slinked. Owens also has floor-sweeping sleeping bag capes in black, sky blue and silver for all the cosmic empresses out there. Out of this world!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Men’s – Performa. Rick Owens AW20

January 18, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Rick Owens‘ show has always been a hot ticket in Paris. But in the last few seasons, his collections are receiving rave, nearly fanatic response. No wonder why – both his menswear and womenswear line-ups take you to another dimension. Tyrone Dylan Susman, Australian jewellery artist, Rick Owens’ studio designer and the brand’s face, opened the show in a one-legged, one-shouldered jumpsuit modeled after one made by Kansai Yamamoto for David Bowie in 1973. But where Yamamoto’s was a vivid pattern drawn from yakuza tattoos and kimonos, Owens’s was drably dun, and in the felty, blanket-like cashmere. Another highlights of this collection, which was all about elevated forms: the “monstrous” shoulders and the huge steel-fronted platforms (they might soon be selling as well in the men’s sector as all the Owens sneakers – if they aren’t already!). The designer talked about “graphics of exposed flesh” carved by his cut-out cashmere layers, and alongside those were the graphics of silhouette. Acidic colors on shearlings and motocross pants, screaming striped prints and hints of cleavage delivered via the deep-V tees so recently beloved by Rick himself were as well the big takeaways from the line-up. “I was a lot more introspective 10 years ago. And, you know, I think as you get older, you just get a little more reckless, more comfortable, more confident, more playful.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Dream Buys in Milan

January 10, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Other than lots of pasta, art and Prada, Milan is of course fashion. It’s refreshing to see brands like Thom Browne emerge in Europe and labels like Balenciaga shaking up the vision of a retail space. Here’s a little dream shopping tour in the ‘fashion quartet’ of Milan’s Brera quartet… and it’s getting even better when you know that it’s 50% discount everywhere since the beginning of January!

What shocks you the most at Balenciaga are the mannequins standing at the entrance. Or rather two human corpses, which are hyperreal wax figures of two models of the brand. They are disturbing and even spooky. But it’s Demna Gvasalia’s world, so there’s no such thing as „basic”.

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Of course, Bottega Veneta is the busiest store in Milan. I overheard two women literally killing themselves for the last pair of block pumps in blue. That’s the Daniel Lee factor standing behind the brand’s accessories. Still, my heart belongs to the orange intrecciato shoulder bag.

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Off to the mountains for the holidays but still need a ball gown? The Moncler x Pierpaolo Piccioli duvet coat-dress is the only option.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II 11/12

While everybody went crazy for the Mickey Mouse capsule that hit all the Gucci stores that day, I went mad for this faux fur coat. So dramatic.

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The killer heeled boots from Rick Owens. Not sure if they are made for walking, but they will elevate any silhouette. And those amazingly draped gowns in burgundy… they look incredible.

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Thom Browne’s preppy tailoring and quirky elegance is expanding in Europe. The Milan store – kept in the brand’s signature retro office style – is filled with Thom’s classics, as well as his fashion show garments (like the blazer with Una Troubridge intarsia illustration). My favourite item? The puppy slides.

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