style

Re-Emergence. Christopher John Rogers Resort 2022

| Design & Culture by Ed

Christopher John Rogers‘ ecstatically bold clothes make you smile. They are also perfect for all sorts of celebratory moments. So no wonder why the New York-based designer’s resort 2022 collection is the ultimate re-emergence wardrobe. “I wanted it to be visceral and come from my heart. I felt like we’ve developed so many house signatures we didn’t need to reference a specific era or themes. This was more about cutting clothes and providing people with opportunities to enjoy dressing up,” Rogers told Vogue. “Last year, as I was designing it, I thought if I’m only going to make one more collection, what would it look like? And the answer wasn’t informed by the past or what I thought buyers might want. I love fashion, and I’m a fan of fashion, so that came through in the clothes.” By focusing on enjoyment and reinventing customer favorites, Rogers was able to deep dive into several motifs. Sections of the collection were devoted to variations of punchy colors like slime green and tangerine orange, while rainbow prints with an optical illusion vibe made their way onto various separates. This gradual exploration of specific colors and patterns kept things playful. When you have multiple looks in similar shades, the little things become paramount, and Rogers went out of his way to make each piece feel special. He doesn’t just give you a sequined slip dress or puffer coat; he’ll throw geometric diamonds on the dress’s bustline line and make the outerwear a reversible cocoon with one side covered in a Dippin’ Dots-worthy circle print. Rogers wants his pieces to trigger an emotional response in those who wear them, one that challenges the ephemerality of fashion’s seasonal cycle. “We want these to be things our customers cherish, that they can wear and live in,” he says. “These aren’t pieces you wear once and forget; they’re meant to be treasured, clothes that can grow and evolve with you over time.” The focus on wearability and construction meant that some of the proportions here were subdued compared to what we’ve come to expect from the label. No one does extreme volume and color the way Rogers does, and it’s made him an eveningwear fixture for forward-thinking women (big hopes the Sex & The City reboot will feauture Rogers’ pieces along other New York-based designers!). While there were several red carpet-worthy looks – a technicolor paillette-covered dress with flapper flair and a ballgown with an artsy barbecue theme print were two standouts – this season daywear almost eclipsed the after-hours fare. Casual suits that mixed pinstripes and plaid, LBDs with hints of rainbow knit worked into their pleats, and sweater dresses with candy-hued stripes were lighthearted fun that managed to feel polished and grown-up. After a year in confinement that played out in shades of gray, reemergence demands office wear with oomph, and Rogers offered an example of how that might look.

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Total Magic. Rodarte AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

The autumn-winter 2021 collection by Rodarte, with a look-book photographed on a breezy beach, has a magical, witchy aura about it with a 1990s style twist. And it also feautures Alicia Silverstone, the actress behind Cher Horowitz’s wholesome persona, sun-kissed and smiling, alongside Aurora James, Heather Kemesky, and other models. The campy, kitschy teen world of Amy Heckerling’s 1995 classic might seem miles away from the broody gothicism often associated with Rodarte, but Kate and Laura Mulleavy grew up on Clueless. They saw it in theaters in their native California – and then rented it “hundreds” of times from their local video store. However, he plaid suits and slip dresses Cher wears in the film aren’t recut one-to-one in the Mulleavys’ interpretation. Theirs has always been a more abstract aesthetic. This season, they started with a bias-cut halter midi-dress in cartoon hibiscus prints or vixen sequins held up with a ribbon bow at the neck. They learned last season that waft-y, comfortable dresses do well and extrapolated on them with V-neck dresses and flutter-sleeve maxis in a mix of vintage-store pastel florals and grungy black. For going out, they built up their sequined offering, and for staying in they translated their floral prints into stretch dresses, tops, and pants. There’s also a big varsity jacket, an evolution of their popular souvenir style, worn by models of all genders. One of the crucial lessons of Clueless is that the right outfit can change your stature, your mood, even your life. The Mulleavys understand this, and they imbue that cinematic sense of dressing up for who you aspire to be into their collections. They’re famous for their extraordinary red carpet dresses, but the Mulleavys do make clothing for people’s actual, beautiful, and mundane lives. “We are thinking about how people want to wear things,” Laura says. It’s definitely good to see the designers come back with a optymistic collection after the tumultuous year of lockdowns and crisis.

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Look – JW Anderson AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Flowing, ethereal, somewhat ephemeral… this elegant jumpsuit-dress from JW Anderson‘s autumn-winter 2021 line-up (lensed by Juergen Teller) is so dreamy. Just like the weaved bag worn with it. A beatiful dialogue between silhouettes and textures. Take a look back at the phenomenal collection here!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Wasteless Fashion Is Not A Myth. Duran Lantink AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

They say that fashion will never be 100% sustainable. A brand can do its best to keep things eco-friendly, but in the end, clothes are still being produced. But Duran Lantink‘s method proves the industry that there’s a revolutionary (and very witty) way of making fashion as wasteless as possible. His upcycling methods – repurposing unsold designer-label clothes in his pioneering, cheeky way – date back to 2013, but only now seem to fully resonate with a wider audience. Autumn-winter 2021 season is the designer’s first (of course digital) fashion show collection. “Basically, during lockdown, I had time to work with my assistant, Thibault, on all the materials I had left over from collaborations with stores and brands, and to come up with this, our first runway collection.” Thibault is in the show, wearing, in one of his exits, a swishing lemon yellow dress that is reconstructed from another dress which had been left over from Lantink’s collaboration with Ellery last year. The point was to give him free rein to recycle and give new life to their unsold inventory. Lantink pointed out to Vogue how he’s unpicked, restyled, and refashioned multiple piles of clothes lying around his studio which “used to be” garments by Balmain, Balenciaga, Prada, Proenza Schouler, Vetements, Marine Serre, and many more. “In the beginning, we started with stores to see how we could work with their deadstock to see how we could stop their clothes going into landfill. And that was the beginning of thinking how we could create a completely new form of business.” The collection is like an aethetical 2000s-style remix of sexy revealing, sparkle and sharp minimalism. There’s a zigzaggy sparkly dress – one breast out – remade from something unsold from Balmain, and naked illusion half-dresses sewn onto stretchy body pieces. A flash of a diamanté thong (made from recycled materials) is homage to Tom Ford’s Gucci 1997 moment, but with a Duran Lantink logo planted in the crucial place. Yet Lantink has also now come up with an ingenious plan for extending the buzzy fashion “moment” so that it can morph into potentially infinite new shapes for his followers. He announced the launch of a service on his new direct-to-wearer website. “When you’re fed up with something, you can click on two tabs. One, where you can resell. On the other, we will work with you to remake what you have to become whatever you like. So a coat can become a dress. A dress can become a shirt. A shirt can be trousers. Whatever you want!” People who are up for engaging with Lantink’s process are destined to be the happy recipients of fully documented online records of where their clothes originated, and how they’ve been altered over time: a personalized archive. That redefinition of being able to love and re-love clothes in a never-ending cycle restyled by a designer is something truly, truly innovative.

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Très Cool. Lacoste AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Louise Trotter‘s sustainable-meets-chic-meets-smart vision of Lacoste keeps on delivering with every season. Lacoste has the benefit of being a brand at the nexus of athleisure and luxury, offering pieces that are at once trop sportif and trop française. That’s a clutch position for a fashion house in these times. It also has the benefit of the well-dressed Trotter at its helm. She is the woman in a slouchy polo, mannish trousers, white sneakers, and aviator glasses that makes you pinch yourself in a jealous rage when you pass her on the street or are seated next to her at a dinner. Someone who is calmly unstudied, comfortable, and totally not try-hard. Suffice to say, Trotter has long understood the benefits of generous, easy-to-wear clothing with arty touches in the form of a funny, albeit small, graphic or the juxtaposition of sorbet colors. So when it came time to design Lacoste’s second collection of the lockdowns, she knew exactly what to do: “Capture the active lifestyle that we share today and that blurs between home life, work, and play.” The backbone of Trotter’s autumn-winter 2021 offering is Lacoste’s famous piqué cotton, cut into lively hued polos, but also groovy tracksuits and cardigans. Some are intarsia’d with crocodile claws and flaming tennis balls – sort of silly patterns Trotter found in the brand’s archive. They are all, she notes, unisex – as is almost everything else in the collection. If the varsity jackets and cool puffers read a little on-the-nose in terms of branding, Trotter’s continuation of spring 2021’s upcycled and collaged windbreakers, trousers, and coats offer a more cerebral take. The Lacoste archive is rich with both heritage inspirations and unused or vintage materials; Trotter has married them nicely in these upcycled pieces. They will pair well with the collection’s piqué tracksuits and cartoon colored pool slides. That’s exactly how Trotter would wear them. In a time when everyone is questioning how to dress, a sure-footed and stylish creative director with a singular vision is a good guide.

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.