Timeless, Artisan and Beautiful. Tuinch SS20

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

I’ve discovered Veronique Vermussche‘s label Tuinch last season and I tell you, this is love at first sight! Each season, Vermussche travels from Belgium, where she lives, to the mountains of Kashmir and Tibet on to procure world-class cashmere from local artisans she’s built long-standing relationships with. For spring-summer 2020, meet some of the most luxurious knitwear goods you’ve ever seen. The collection brings hand-knitted skirts and dresses to the line-up of timeless sweaters that will serve you for years to come. The open-weave wrap-knit sarong skirt, complete with leather detailing, is the collection’s biggest highlight, just as the tasseled cotton-wool cape. It’s a summer look-book, so no wonder why the designer tries mixing linen and silks with her ribbed cashmere knits and wool maxi dresses. The warm, earthy colour palette is eventually contrasted with pastel shades that pop up in the details. Artisan, top notch quality and seasonless: that’s sustainability, too.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Cool Folk. Chopova Lowena SS20

October 19, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

Chopova Lowena is currently one of the most fascinating, emerging labels from London. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena‘s Central Saint Martins MA graduate collection began with them looking at Bulgaria’s mountain dwellers, particularly the women, and the way they dressed. There, they found all the contrasting elements they felt so intrigued with, like intricate handmade folk costumes worn with secondhand western sneakers and sunglasses. Chopova Lowena is beloved for its juxtapositions, subtly combining modernity and nostalgia, luxury and kitsch, craftsmanship and humour. The same spirit of new and old, rare and mainstream, is reflected in their spring-summer 2020 lookbook. Skin-tight layers of tartan-checks printed mesh are paired with their signature Bulgarian pleats in wool and nylon (they sell out super fast and you’ve surely seen them gracing street style slideshows this fashion month). Big, punk-ish belts double as mini-skirts underneath delicate harnesses made from metal hardware. The folky, peasant dresses and blouses with theatrical sleeves are another highlights. Chopova Lowena has an anthropological approach to design, observing traditional customs and revisiting them through a contemporary lens – often through collaborating with craftsmen in small Eastern European and English communities.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Generations. Commission SS20

October 17, 2019March 22, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Meet Commission, a brand that you’ve got to have on your radar right now. The New York-based co-founders Huy Luong, Dylan Cao and Jin Kay set out to redefine their Asian heritage using Western style codes. Their third season – spring-summer 2020 collection – is a modern reinterpretation of what their mothers wore to work in the ‘80s – think boxy shirts, tailored jackets and retro prints. When Kay, Cao and Luong met a few years ago, they were all getting different commissions for work at various brands. When the three found that they shared a visual language, they decided to commission their own work. “It was time to commission something for ourselves,” said Luong. “For our culture.” And so they created Commission, a label that wins hearts with sophisticated, yet unpretentious clothing born of the 1980s and ’90s nostalgia. Kay grew up in Korea, while Cao and Luong hail from Vietnam. As Cao tells Paper, “we’re first-generation immigrants to the US. So around the time that we started there was this conversation we wanted to have, about Asian, especially East Asian, culture and representation in the visual world, and especially in the fashion industry. And for a long time we found it really limiting, and really literal.” When looking at family photos, all three designers realized that their mothers styled themselves in a similar manner to go to work in the late ’80s and early ’90s, dressing with the same “visual code,” as Cao put it. “The ’80s and ’90s, that’s sort of a period when not a lot of people talk about Asia, because there’s less to romanticize” he continued. “By then there were a lot of Western influences in the way people dressed in Asia. Growing up we’d see our parents go to work and tweak the Western-style codes in their own way. And just looking at our moms and the way they dressed – the big suits, the shoulder pads, the pants – but adding their own personal flares to the way they styled the clothes, that’s what kind of connected us.” Commission’s spring-summer 2020 line-up’s highlights? To be honest, I love everything, from the refined tailoring to the ‘ugly chic’ colour palette. To discover more, check out their site.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Look – Dries Van Noten SS20

October 14, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

The remarkable Dries Van Noten & Christian Lacroix collection for spring-summer 2020 is still on my mind. It was a true fashion fairy-tale that you never thought would happen (or even expect to happen!). One of the most spectacular looks? The fuchsia parachute dress worn non-chalantly over a polka-dots shirt and brocade shorts. Here, it’s remixed with John Baldessari’s take on Alberto Giacometti, Marlene Dietrich photographed by Irving Penn and Isabelle Huppert as Orlando at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne in 1993.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Slavic Romance. Magda Butrym SS20

October 12, 2019October 12, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

For spring-summer 2020, Magda Butrym does her thing in the best possible way. The Polish designer looks at the East through her own, idiosyncratic perspective, creating the modern-day “Slavic romance” – even suited for a client who not necessarily has much to do with the region. Her signature, sharp-shouldered silhouettes beautifully define her mini dresses and vintage-y tailoring (just take a look at the masculine, silk coat in polished white to see the sharpness I’m talking about). Florals take center stage, either as reworked folk prints or an incredible 3-D sculptural bodice that stands away from the body to resemble a rose in full bloom. The pleated, long-sleeved dress in bold pink is equally appealing. Butrym’s love for folk is never too literal in her work, but the previously mentioned Slavic romance she manages to incorporate in her fashion is always charming and heart-warming (especially for Poles like me who really wish Polish labels embraced its local heritage – without falling into folklore clichées, of course).