Tropical Escape. No21 Resort’16

June 9, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Alessandro Dell’Acqua is the rising star of Milan and there no wonder why – his collections for No21 are always fresh and cool, but in Itlalian way. For Resort 2016, Alessandro fused many themes at a time – the marine chic which involved stripes; ethnic prints; oriental textiles (look at the canvas shoes!). All of that brought on the idea of perfect “tropical escape” wardrobe. The midi skirt with a sexy cut looked truly gorgeous with that over-sized chunky sweater while the warm colour of curcuma gave a laid-back mood. In overall, Dell’Acqua is known for his talent of mixing feminine silhouttes with masculine forms – the sailor jacket is the must-have of the collection, combined with one of these crispe checked skirts. This collection is an essential highlight of Alessandro’s fashion career becuase it smartly shows No21’s signatures in a very refreshing order.

Comfort Zones. Creatures of Comfort Resort’16

June 9, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Creatures of Comfort as a brand, concentrates on edgy clothes which, as the name suggests, are comfortable. Jade Lai, the designer of the brand, shared cropped, wide-leg trousers; boxy outerwear and fantastic, artsy layers. Among other ideas, we had a clash of two denims: a snowy fabrication from the storied American Cone Mills and a Japanese deep indigo. Both were used in a way that was pure Creatures of Comfort: Lai made the American fabric into a tank with a “fraying” peplum detail, while the Japanese denim became an oversize jacket and pants.

Panama & Spring. Altuzarra Resort’16

June 2, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Joseph Altuzarra has his ups and downs. This time, it is definitely an up. For Resort 2016, the New York-based designer offered his women a heat-wave of bold shirts and beach-worthy skirts. That’s definitely essential to mention what he had put on his lovely dresses – stitches with swags of beads strung in the style of the Kuna tribe in Panama. Each string showed a different order of beads, but when they were arrayed next to each other creating a graphic pattern. “A black-and-white woven leather coat with color-blocked, chevron suede pockets required an equally astounding amount of handwork.” Altuzarra explained that it was the result of a branding project with the French art director Thomas Lenthal in which they stacked all the letters of A-L-T-U-Z-A-R-R-A into squares, creating a new dimension for the logomania trend.

Although it might be to early to tell, but the bags seem to be already the must-haves of Resort 2016 (note: we will see them really not soon in stores). They have that sophisticated luxury touch, combined with leather fringes. And the shoes, appliqued with feathers, were there too to make the entire collection be even more interesting than usual at Altuzarra.

Ryan Roche

May 29, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

Ryan Roche is the go-to label if speaking of luxe knitwear. Her fabulous AW15 look-book is filled with a perfect amount of fleecy cardigans, fluffy dresses, warm socks and cloudy v-cut sweaters. Roche works predominantly in a palette of pinks lovely enough to seduce even the most pink-resistant people, with an eye for wearable, tonal dressing. The New York-based designer perfectly masters the “chic-everywhere-I-am” look – Ryan’s knitted piece could be worn with grace by a fashion journalist just like by a rural loving woman. Ryan Roche is the name, which should rather be added to the list of new favourites!

Wear The Dream

May 16, 2015 | Design & Culture by Ed

I used to think that I am the only one, who yawns when sees Elie Saab’s boring evening gowns. Many designer who do evening-wear think that an excessive amount of Swarovski and flesh-exposing-cuts is just it. But thankfully, Rosie Assoulin is the woman to say a loud “NO” to that. The New York-based designer creates dresses which are mostly categorised as “evenining” ones, but surprisingly look as good with white sneakers as with heels. By looking at the latest, AW15 collection by Rosie, it’s easy to conclude, that these simply cut, boldly-coloured dresses look at their best with sweatpants and yes, even with hoodies. Her clothes are like cameleons – they fit into nearly each occasion. The stand-out pieces are definitely the signature cropped tops worn over white shirts, corduroy pants and of course, the dreamy maxi-gowns. Somehow, with Assoulin, the statement “wear the dream” becomes real.