Woman

Comfort Zone. Isabel Marant AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

For autumn-winter 2020, Isabel Marant stayed in her comfort zone. Her signature, hourglass silhouette came in knitted dresses with over-sized shoulders and quilted varsity jackets with a sharp cut. Her trademark styling trick – in which a belt is used to cinch a voluminous jacket – was in full effect on shaggy camel-colored shearling and all-enveloping blanket coats. Mostly kept in layered neutrals, the collection pleases with its balance between minimalism and nomadic chic – something we all know Marant for. It’s one of those collections that comes nearly unnoticed, but when it hits the stores, everyone wants it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Rework The Past. Paco Rabanne AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Paco Rabanne is the industry’s – and specifically, the buyers’ – current obsession in Paris. And one thing is for sure: Julien Dossena‘s collections aren’t intentionally commercial. But somehow, his ultra-light chain-mail dresses and accessories sell like hot buns. For some time now, Dossena has been exploring ways to extend the 1960s space-age limits that the house of Paco Rabanne is associated with. His own tastes have traveled, to much critical acclaim, toward a look that modernizes a glamour appropriated from the 1970s. But for autumn-winter 2020, there was something deeper and more subversive going on: a placing of the symbolism of spiritual-religious garb – allusions to clerical robes, monklike habits, and Joan of Arc armor – firmly within the female domain. “I don’t want to say that they’re a cult, exactly,” he said. “I’m not a believer at all, but I’m interested in how thinking about something that’s beyond still drives everyone, even in the age of technology.” The show was presented in an underground chamber of the Conciergerie (the place where Marie Antoinette once languished as a prisoner of the French Revolution, before she was hauled off to be guillotined), a perfect location for the mystical, magical procession of mysterious female priests. Hoods and ruffs, capes and slender maxi-coats, voluminous brocade dresses and fragile lace and flower embroideries – it all made so much sense. Dossena has the rare talent of reworking the symbolism and craft of the past in order to take them into the future.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Women. Chloé AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

The Chloé invitation came with a mini poster of a Rita Ackermann painting. The artist provided access to five additional pieces from the ’90s and ’00s at Natacha Ramsay-Levi’s request, and the designer used them as patches on the front and back of a button-down shirt, as a design on a blanket shawl (Leave Me Alone, 1995), and as an actual-size print for a flowing shirtdress. Golden totem sculptures by Marion Verboom decorated the runway, and Marianne Faithfull smokily read Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” and other poems on the soundtrack. Still more women creatives joined the models on the catwalk. “It’s about a community of creative spirits,” Ramsay-Levi stated. “Yes, clothes are great, but I love creative women.” After three years at the helm of the brand, Natacha accumulated her biggest Chloé signatures for autumn-winter 2020: the tailoring, the soft blouses, the romantic dresses. She infused them with personal touches that made them even more special. Suits leaned ’70s, with easy flaring pants and rolled-sleeve jackets. Her blouses had delicately jeweled buttons and cuff links, and her romantic dresses were alternately inset with bands of crochet at the hem or decorated with enamel embroidery at their peekaboo necklines. The Rita Ackermann prints worked their charm too. Natacha Ramsay-Levi is one of those “woman for women” designers, and since Phoebe Philo still hasn’t come back yet, she leads the pack.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Sensational. Mugler AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Casey Cadwallader‘s Mugler is sensational. His vision of the brand is compatible with Thierry Mugler’s dramatic, super sexual vision of the brand, but makes it look contemporary and fit for women of all sizes and generations. A good many of the looks on his fall runway weren’t even street legal. Wearing the body stockings – sheer save for black insets echoing Mugler’s famously dangerous curves – would require a bodyguard. Mesh dresses studded with a grid-like precision were somewhat more discreet and a shade more democratic for that reason. Cadwallader adopted a similarly fierce attitude for his tailoring. Much of it was cut from leather. He also continues in mastering his stretch pieces. Jackets were shaped by integral corsets, or else they came with portrait necklines that framed the bust. He even went so far as to build garter belts into the waistbands of a couple of leather skirts. Cadwallader is one of the few designers that sees sexy in all sizes. There “are 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, 10s,” he said of his lineup. “You feel them turning on when they put on these clothes.” Big yes.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Restorative. Maison Margiela AW20

| Design & Culture by Ed

Rember John Galliano‘s recent Maison Margiela couture collection? It was all about creating beauty out of upcycling. For autumn-winter 2020, the designer continued that concept, with joyful effects. “Restorative!” Galliano declaimed. “The idea of giving something a new life… kick-starting a new consciousness.” These were some of the resoundingly enthusiastic phrases Galliano poured into ears via the post-show podcast he’s started to release in lieu of backstage interviews. “Recicla! Retch-ee-cla!” he cried. “The joy, the joy that we will be able to sell these pieces among the rest of the collection just thrills me.” The collection was beautiful to look at: his mastership in cutting up and re-sectioning of “bourgeois” classics is just insanely good. Galliano has talked of wanting to retrieve and hold onto the fragments of meaning that remain in the fading memories of the 20th-century wardrobe. The finale dress, a delicate thing made from laser-stamped lavender chiffon, was the “ghost” of a 1920s flapper dress floating back from a century ago. This season, Galliano also reopens “Replica” reeditions of vintage clothing that Martin Margiela originated at the house, making sure to print the date of provenance on the label. Galliano’s purpose in studying vintage pieces is different, though: he lops and excavates structures to discover new forms, often “freeze-framing” work in progress. And so, with this collection, “instead of slavishly copying” he decided that studio-reworked charity shop finds deserve to be sold as they are. “Now I’m feeling a little braver,” he said. “The idea is that this voyage of discovery supports this feeling of being inventive with a conscience.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.