Deja Vu. Valentino Resort 2025

June 18, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s a new dawn for Valentino. Gone are the days of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s minimalist sensibility and sharpness of cut. Alessandro Michele’s “surprise” debut collection for resort 2025 is an unabashed return to Valentino Garavani’s 1960s and 1970s opulence and over-the-topness. Is this nostalgia something people really want in 2024? Many wrongfully described the collection as “so Gucci”. The deja vu feeling is valid, but rather it’s “so Alessandro Michele”. But let’s be honest, this line-up could easily pass as any of Michele’s previous collections for the other Italian brand, and you’re really not the only one constantly mistyping Gucci instead of Valentino. More than 170 looks, none really memorable or distinct, is either a result of Michele’s prolificness or his overt maximalism – something I thought he would rethink and refine during his hiatus. When the designer arrived at Gucci, his debut collection – contrived at light speed pace – was a revolution-in-the-making and it shifted the way people dress for seasons ahead. His Valentino debut lacks that radicalness, and feels like a missed opportunity in making a strong point. The dense, thick retromania of this collection makes one feel simply tired.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Bourgeois Chic. Chloé Resort 2025

June 13, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Resort 2025 is the third collection we see from Chemena Kamali at Chloé, and so far we know for a fact that she really has a knack for revisiting and refreshing the maison‘s codes, from Gaby Aghion’s liberating femininity to Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo’s early 2000s frivolity. For spring, Kamali is taking a closer look at bourgeois chic from Karl Lagerfeld’s era. “There are all these stories to explore that haven’t really been told yet that are part of our history,” she said. This time her mood-board was covered with images of “the Art Deco years of Karl in the 1970s. He furnished the entire apartment he lived in, in Saint Germain, as this Deco masterpiece – everything was in black and gold, and white, cream and gold, and he used to lend it to Vogue and others for shoots. Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, David Bailey, and Deborah Turbeville all shot there.” The billowing, floating volumes, off-the shoulder dresses, balloon-sleeved blouses, and square-necked smocks in diaphanous coin-dot lamé and swirling, pleated metallic florals swiftly teleport you to these days. But there’s also a breath of contemporary air. The boxer-ballet shoe hybrid wedged sneakers Chloé is launching this season (similar walked in a couple of Hannah McGibbon’s runways). “I wanted something that was soft, feminine, comfortable,” Kamali summed up. “And they had to be real. All the women in the office have been test-wearing them.” Collaged from a myriad soft pastel colors in hi-top and low versions, they look like a Chloé hit in the making. Also worth noting: the reissuing of Square Camera handbag with chain handle from Philo’s winter 2003 collection. Whoever still has it in their wardrobe, lucky you!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Villa Malaparte. Jacquemus AW24

June 11, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Another season, another postcard show by Jacquemus presented in a very Jacquemus-esque location. We’ve had lavender fields in the south of Provence, we went to a beach in Hawaii and visited Fondation Maeght near the idyllic Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Yesterday, the French designer flew his muses and friends to Capri and drove them to the flame-red Villa Malaparte to be exact. Designed by Adalberto Libera for Curzio Malaparte, starring in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Le Mépris” and once photographed by Karl Lagerfeld for a coffee-table book, this place is charged with history and a certain art-centric aura. Did Simon Porte Jacquemus do this place justice via his new season clothes? The designer has a tendency to scout highly-photogenic locations and create a masterful marketing ploy around it that certainly fuels an instant selling boost of his brand. If that strategy didn’t do commercial wonders, he wouldn’t repeat it each season. But the actual clothes tend to meander and stumble, being largely disconnected from the location except for a couple of architectural, yet flat-looking silhouettes, and the fluffy coat-dress that visually reassembled the bathrobe Brigitte Bardot wore in the aforementioned Godard film. I also didn’t feel Capri-ness in this collection. Everything looked quite stiff, even over-calculated, lacking a sense of sprezzatura. While menswear had daring moments – like tops derived from sailor’s smocks or really good looking pants with sharp pleats – womenswear was rather uninspiring and repetitive, focusing on flowing sack-dresses and hourglass silhouette that made the models look too covered-up. One can’t not respect what Jacquemus built: a successful, independent brand that’s based on a childhood dream. But I wish the designer was more of a designer when it comes to his fashion.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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COS x Tabata Shibori

June 5, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

COS really nailed it with their new capsule collaboration by celebrating the art of shibori – and giving long-deserved recognition to Kazuki Tabata and his traditional workshop. Shibori, the Japanese term meaning to squeeze or wring, originates from the simple practice of resist-dyeing to create a mesmerizing array of colors, designs and patterns.

Emerging in Japan during the 8th century, its popularity grew exponentially in the city of Kyoto, in the country’s largest island of Honshu, where clean water and large surrounding rivers are said to have inspired many of its residents to start local shibori workshops. Centuries later, that includes Mr Kazuki Tabata, who prides himself on practicing Kyoto’s distinctive hand-dyeing methods through his maison, Tabata Shibori.

A former salary man specializing in sound engineering, Kazuki began his career in shibori after the passing of his uncle who worked in the family business as a traditional craftsman, which the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry certifies after at least 12 years of experience and succeeding written and practical exams. Kazuki, meanwhile, self-taught using the dyeing tools that were nearly thrown away, applying the technical skills of his formative studies in sound and lighting, its disciplines and aspects of collaboration, to inform his shibori creations. The artisan describes the compatibility between shibori dyeing and fabric as ‘necessary’, often favoring fibers such as cotton, linen and silk with character and depths best suited for effective dye penetration. Distinguished by the patterns or forms created from tying fabric, Kazuki specializes in methods such as kasa maki shibori, which resembles a wrapped umbrella, boshi shibori, resembling a hat, yukihana shibori, resembling snowflakes, and a unique technique known as tako boshi shibori, where the tied shape resembles an octopus. The dyes draw from traditional Japanese colours and hues found in nature throughout the four seasons.

Through this collaboration, the London-based brand and the artisan workshop co-created summer-perfect pieces for women and men that showcase exceptional craftsmanship while reflecting the rich cultural heritage and innovative spirit of Japan. The collection is available starting today!

Here are my favorite pieces from the capsule which you can shop now…

ED’s DISPATCH:

Elasticated Wide-Leg Trousers in Beige

Oversized Silk Kaftan Dress

Longline Single-Breasted Blazer

Collared Shirt Jacket in Beige

Elasticated Bermuda Shorts

Relaxed Short-Sleeved Shirt

Haute Consumption. Balenciaga Resort 2025

May 31, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Balenciaga went to Shanghai for resort 2025, and while looking at the show unfold on Museum of Art Pudong’s riverside pier, I couldn’t help but wonder: are the far-fetched destination cruise shows as exciting as they used to be a decade ago? The heavy rain that started pouring on the show’s evening was the actual star of the event. It brought a sense of grit and urgency to the rather very schematic Demna collection. It mostly consisted of his Balenciaga classics: all-black, all-goth apparel, a bit of bourgeoisie chic (seen through a “Shanghai noir” lens) and Cristobal Balenciaga couture riffs in the larger-than-life eveningwear. There were extreme platform “metalhead” boots, worn with overlong coats that would have dragged well along the floor if not for the extreme creepers. “I made this collection on a very instinctive level of what I like, what excites me, what creates desire in me,” he said. “Where I’m bringing Balenciaga with this show is finding a new type of balance between all these different facets of my aesthetic and style.” But isn’t that already a routine at the brand?

At least the final series of experimental semi-couture and couture dresses had something to say. They orbited around the idea of materialism and (over)consumption – ironic, noting that China has over fifty Balenciaga stores in total. A cocoon column-like dress was pieced together from travel bags, another was cut from gift packaging gold foil, and a third was made from Tyvek paper, a subtle nod to one of China’s inventions. The closing gown was constructed from a collection of pink plastic bags over a decade old, the strips cut by hand and pierced with wires to create feathers that resembled a piece from the house’s archive. While Demna’s ready-to-wear collections lag lately, I so can’t wait for his haute couture show later in the summer.