The Beach. ERL SS25

June 30, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

ERL, next to Bode and Greg Lauren, is the future American classic of fashion. What Eli Russell Linnetz so painstakingly and consistently returns to at his brand is so much more than only about clothes; it’s a feeling, crafted from 2000s nostalgia, unique male-on-male-gaze and a certain theatrical sensitivity. His clothes are Bruce Weber and Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, blues and surf-rock, Venice Beach and John F. Kennedy Jr. (and also John Schlossberg – JFK and Jackie’s grandson, the internet’s latest obsession). And yet they feel so good – and relevant – in 2024. “I like going back to these benchmark things, even from a historical point of view,” he said, “Where did this outfit come from? I want to solidify the narrative of this look,” he continued, explaining that this season was about defining his take on his forever beloved theme, Americana. The spring-summer 2025 collection is titled “The Beach,” in a nod to the 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an all-American backpacker. Linnetz said that his narrative for the season was four boys, Tyler, Jason, Brad, and Chad, leaving water polo practice and stumbling upon a mysterious beach party. Though the looks could also be nods to the people he saw every day growing up in California. “A lot of those movies are just what people wore around me, so I never saw them as film costuming,” he said. “But this season I was reexamining all the athletes, the jocks, and what they wore.” So he made tiny swim shorts and cozy terry knits and transformed his popular swirl jacket into a loose gauge knit with a mohair insert. He made zip-off cargos and sherpa zip-ups. He also turned ’70s posters into charming ’90s airbrush tees, and produced dense and comfy striped tees with extra long-sleeves (“just like a surfer would have”). All that crafted in ERL’s studio (@whitepicketfence) and made in California, from most durable and high-end materials. This is the American dream.

Here are the pieces I would so get to ERL-ify my wardrobe.

ED’s SELECTION:

ERL Multicolor Lurex Argyle Sweater Vest

ERL Coca-Cola Flare Jeans

ERL Striped Appliquéd Wool-blend Sweater

ERL Gradient Rainbow Mohair-Blend Sweater

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Birds of a Feather. Loewe SS25

June 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

When you’ve got Paul Thek’s “Spinning Top” installation, Peter Hujar’s “Shoe for Elizabeth” photograph, a Charles Rennie Mackintosh “Argyle” chair and Carlo Scarpa’ “Easel” scattered around the runway, then you know it must be a Jonathan Anderson fashion show. No other designer has such a sensitivity towards contemporary art like Loewe‘s creative director, who often works and creates like a curator. This season, however, Anderson resorted to radical restraint in regards of his menswear. “Razor looks” is how he described his approach. It indeed was sharp. Slim silhouette, very French C-suite tailoring with almond-toe leather oxfords in black opened the show. Shorts and t-shirts were painted with a cable knit shaped finish. Edged in golden piping and emanating a shiny gleam, they appeared almost ceramic. A short-sleeve shirt was fabricated in sections of tonal fringe that resembled a hairy houndstooth, while a long brown coat was made in nappa leather on its right side that gradually transitioned into ostrich on its left. Anderson said the gold or monochrome feathers were there to divide our view of the faces beneath them as part of his consideration of forced perspective. This was a collection that stimulated you to question exactly what it was you were seeing, without going for chaotic eclecticism that Anderson has been channeling lately.

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!