Sport De Luxe. Koché SS18

September 27, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

L’Église Saint-Merry, one of the most liberally oriented churches in Paris, was the show venue for Koché‘s spring-summer 2018 collection. But that’s not the first time when the brand chooses an extraordinary venue for their show – once it was an old passage, another time a huge city mall. Mostly places that don’t attract these fashionable Parisians, but certainly do breath with the ‘real’ Parisian air. But Koché isn’t just about unusual venues. Christelle Kocher‘s label rotates around the idea of twisting streetwear with couture sensibility – and her offer keeps on growing organically, from season to season. What’s new this time around from that emerging, talented designer? The most genuine idea of reusing football shirts and jerseys for a high fashion statement I’ve seen so far. Emirate Airlines logo and Chantilly lace were all there, in a spliced-together mid-length dress. Comparing to her last seasons, Kocher looks forward to more feminine silhouettes, adding more elegant gowns in geometrical silhouettes (the black one was especially very Cristobal Balenciaga) to her brand. Going new directions and experimenting is always a fine idea – but I think keeping true to Koché’s primary aesthetic sense is a good decision to take for the designer, as she progresses.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Men’s – Kaliningrad. Gosha Rubchinskiy AW17

January 13, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

During men’s fashion month, Florence’ Pitti Uomo and Milan are the sure go-to destinations after London. However, the new-gen designers coming from the former Soviet Union are here to break fashion’s conventions. Gosha Rubchinskiy, skater-loving photographer and designer from the bloc, used to present his collections in Paris; for spring-summer 2017 he took us to Italy; and for autumn-winter 2017, he invited a couple of key editors and buyers to Kaliningrad. If someone’s unsure about the geographical position of the show’s location, that’s the capital of Russian province divided by Lithuania and Poland.

While Soccer World Cup 2018 is taking place here, Rubchinskiy had a perfect reason to take the industry to this rather off-fashion’s-radar place. Now, streetwear fanatics, prepare for jaw-dropping news: Gosha presented his Adidas Football collaboration, which is purely symbolic in regards of the country’s Cold War-era black market history, and Russian’s football team gear. The collaboration consists of pieces ranging from football shirts to hoodies and accessories, all baring the world ‘football’ in Cyrillic script. The clothes were styled in a classical, Gosha way – skate-fit sportswear, boy-from-the-hood tracksuits and ironically masculine suits. Synthetic-white sneakers and a blue shirt – Russian guy look from the 90s, just like the geometric, post-modern prints on the slouchy knits. So, are you in the team?

#TBT: Helmut Lang SS04

April 16, 2015July 28, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Although nobody knows what’s happening with Helmut Lang at the moment, still, the label’s archives are rich in remarkable bits. The moment when Elise Crombez wore that sporty tank-top, polished skirt and nude stilettos in 2004, it stroke all New Yorkers and Lang fans. Like an intense ray of light. Or sudden arrival of summer. Happy Throwback Thursday!

Men’s – Russia / China. Gosha Rubchinskiy AW15

January 23, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

After Walter Van Beirendock, Gosh Rubchinskiy is the second designer of the day which brings politics to fashion. This time, we leave Paris and we go to Putin’s Russia, where everything’s strongly connected with Chinese market. Presented in an old Orthodox church, the models wore SPORT sweatshirts, “ugly” white socks and soviet-Russia inspired fur varsity jackets.This entertaining collection saw street-cast models—some as young as 13—transformed into brand-hungry Russian youths of the immediate post-glasnost years, as seen through a Rubchinskiy prism. That’s amazing how Gosha found a way to critisize Putin’s political influenece in today’s Russia. Definitely, if Rubchinskiy presented his collection in Moscow, the next day he would sit in jail – the parody and sense of the whole thing seems to be very visible.

Matrix. Balenciaga SS15

September 26, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

New 8 p.m. time slot, new Palais de Tokyo location, and a state-of-the-art glass and grid-work runway under which dry ice machines pumped smoke. And the new mood appears: matrix and sci-fi. Narrow glasses, long, dark power coats, mesh and cosmic embroideries. At a glance, it was tempting to see signs of Wang’s early work in New York—the way he blended sport and the street. But that’s only part of the story. Wang was in Paris this summer during the Tour de France, and it was the world of cycling—the competitors’ second-skin kits, the shoes that clamp into pedals—that influenced the built-for-speed feeling of this collection. Silhouettes were lean and athletic: the pants leggings-tight, shirts clingy, and dresses cut like a glove. As you might know, from the beginning of Wang’s career at Balenciaga, I didn’t really feel “him” here. But this is the first collection (since AW13) which I pretty much enjoyed. And those lilac elements are simply too good to be true.