Disco Noir. Junya Watanabe SS21

October 22, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Disco is having a rebirth in music – just think of Jessie Ware, Róisín Murphy or Dua Lipa’s latest records. During lockdown, we’ve all dreamed of a care-free party, so no wonder why some designers chose this escapist, joyful theme for the spring-summer 2021 collections. Discussing his latest outing, Junya Watanabe’s press notes said, “It is a collection that reproduces the costumes worn by the stars in my memories. My memories are monochrome, and I created a photo session with four fictional stars.” The black and white images feature an assortment of apparently black or white looks, plus one or two more in silver. Nearly all of them are sparkling with sequins dresses that get the party started. The 1960s A-line gowns that close the look book, but also the trenchcoats that are integral to Watanabe’s oeuvre, have a disco noir feeling about them. Last season Watanabe paid punkish tribute to Debbie Harry. Though the Spangles may owe a debt to the Supremes, these muses are more abstract. In its spotlighting of sequins, the collection feels of a piece with earlier Watanabe shows that had singular focal points of their own, like army fatigues and puffers. His new season clothes have an easy-to-wear aspect that many have keyed into in this COVID year. I’s a whole lot of caftan-like shapes and leggings, essentially and a stripped-down outing by house standards. The most complex shapes were the coats whose hems looped up, creating generous volumes. But in tricking everything out in spangles Watanabe turned the concept of #WFH-wear on its head. Comfort, he gets. Hibernation? Not so much. Sequins are associated with happier times. If and when the world opens up, Watanabe’s women will be ready to loose themselves on the dancefloor.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Dissonance. Comme Des Garçons SS21

October 21, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Paris Fashion Week felt incomplete without the Japanese avant-garde. From Tokyo, where all the Comme des Garçons family of designers have been showing, an email suggested that Rei Kawakubo has been striving to arrive at a creative resolution for designing in the midst of the existential plight that we’re all suffering. Dissonance was her theme: “The human brain always looks for harmony and logic. When logic is denied, when there is dissonance a powerful moment is created which leads you to feel an inner turmoil and tension that can lead to finding positive change and progress.” Any note of hope is gratefully received in these times of chaos. Discerned through the red light of her set – surely a signifier of the hellish state of the world, which at the same time made it hard to look at the garments in detail – her prescription for survival seemed threaded through with a playful, ironic sense of humor. Voluminous shapes, crinolines, bubbles, cloaks, and trapezoid coats came covered in plastic film. Then, what was Kawakubo up to, playing with Mickey Mouse and the Japanese Bearbrick teddy bear toy? Cutely reassuring representations of childhood innocence to cling to in our times of trouble, perhaps. The designer even messed around with the CdG heart logo, designed by Filip Pagowski back in the 1980s. The thing about Kawakubo is that her work brilliantly captures so many dissonant ideas at the same time. A phrase in her notes said she was interested in disrupting “the spirit of couture” with “illogical combinations and juxtapositions.” You sense she likes both the romance and glitter of couture and being punk with it, though – and this time, it almost felt like she’d had fun with it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Jeanne in Shanghai. Lanvin SS21

October 19, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Is Lanvin‘s choice of showing it’s spring-summer 2021 collection in Shanghai a surprise? Not really. It’s financially and commercially a wise thing to do. Lanvin is owned by Fosun International, the Chinese conglomerate with such eclectic subsidiaries as the Wolverhampton Wanderers and Cirque du Soleil. Also, as far as fashion is concerned, there’s beautiful irony to the fact that China was the first country to return to a sense of normalcy after the coronavirus outbreak. Pre-pandemic, China was the new shopping center of the world. Post-pandemic, staging your fashion show there is pretty much a win-win scenario. “We can do a proper event there with hundreds of people,” Bruno Sialelli, Lanvin’s creative director, said during a preview in Paris, two weeks before he shipped his pre-styled Lanvin show to Shanghai and live-streamed it from the historic Yu Garden. “And to be very pragmatic, this is the market that is going to drive growth in luxury in general. It’s good for us to federate our community there.” What about the collection? The designer seems to be leaving behind his Loewe style and induldges in Jeanne Lanvin’s rich, Art Deco heritage. The opening looks were sublime: from those golden trinkets to the reimagined Jean Dunand motifs that graced garments and accessories, and the Armand-Albert Rateau pieces and Georges Lepape illustrations that inspired them. The show started with Sialelli’s interpretations of Lanvin’s robe de style, the dainty drop-waist silhouette she loosely revived from the 19th century. The first – black with a crystal bow across the hip – was virtually a replica of its 1920s embodiment. Somehow, it looks relevant in 2020. “Lanvin was at its strongest in between the World Wars. It became a huge company with hundreds of employees, ateliers, cosmetics, and everything. It’s interesting to observe the pendants between the 1920s and the 2020s,” Sialelli reflected. “Art Deco’s three words were order, geometry, and color. I think it expresses something that’s interesting to re-contextualize today.” Discussing his silhouettes, he mentioned “a certain rigidity,” explaining, “from the beginning, I’ve thought about characters like Maggie Cheung or Anna May Wong, who have this put-together attitude; very neat. I want to translate that character.” The collection has its ups and downs (the daywear felt whatever…), but finally, the new Lanvin takes shape.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

For Her, For Him, For Us. Maryam Nassir Zadeh SS21

October 16, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

And just like that, it’s mid-autumn, and we all dream of (a care-free, mask-less, never-ending) summer. Maryam Nassir Zadeh made that desire even more burning with her spring-summer 2021 look-book, which she shot in Turkey this September (skipping New York Fashion Week altogether). But this season is different for one more reason: there’s Nassir Zadeh’s debut menswear, which is as good as her womenswear. Which basically translates to ultimate heaven. In general, the designer has been feeling a more relaxed, unprecious look these days, usually involving a men’s button-down, silver jewelry and her dad’s vintage leather jacket. It’s an easy, just-odd-enough mix that feels right for the moment. Surely there are guys (me!!!!!) who want that, too – vintage-tinged treasures and refined basics, without logos or sky-rocket price tags. She explained that she’s long been inspired by the men in her life – her father, boyfriends, husband, and longtime stylist Thistle Brown, whom she worked with this season – and dreamed of making men’s clothes for years. The uncertainty of the pandemic made her stop waiting for the “right” moment. The debut line is fundamentally MNZ – the tweaked proportions, soft fabrics, and touches of sensuality – but without the occasional metallic flash or neon blazer of her women’s line. It’s quiet, almost delicate menswear, the kind you’d like to swipe from your boyfriend’s closet and keep forever. That was intentional, of course: Zadeh designed it with guys in mind, but also her close female friends. What kind of shirt or pant or jean could live in both closets?A few pieces were shown on both her female and male models to drive the message home: she wore the hip-slung pleated khakis with a baby tee and shell bra; he wore them with a beige button-down and sandals. Both wore the V-neck sweater vests with nothing underneath: her with a mini skirt, him with over-sized pants. And those enveloping leather jackets were tossed over jeans and lace dresses alike. Buttery-soft, free of hardware, and perfectly anonymous, they might be the ultimate investment piece of 2021. The best part: You can split the cost with your partner.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Mask Up!

October 15, 2020 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marine Serre

New lockdown is hitting Poland (just as many other countries in Europe) and I can’t help, but wonder… why just about ten brands come to my mind with masks (or any other accessory that has something to do with provisional face-covering) for spring-summer 2021? I honestly though every third brand would do a mask, even the simplest one, without a commercial plot behind it. I realise brands and designers might not find mask aesthetically pleasing (I don’t, for instance), but it’s such a statement of our times, a symbol. An ultimate necessity, most of all. A sign that you’ve got a brain and care for others. Even one mask in the collection already makes a difference, brings this super important stance to the front. And this fashion month, it was so awkward to see all designers taking a bow in their masks, while the models were just out there, wearing clothes, as if it’s business as usual… here are some brands (a minority!) that at least tried to bite into the masks/face-coverings repertoire: