Lighthearted Feeling. Rosie Assoulin Resort 2025

July 1, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

What I love about Rosie Assoulin is the fact she doesn’t follow trends and always does her own, distinct, joyful thing at her namesake brand. There’s just so much radiance and optimism in her clothes, and they also please with their day-to-night versatility. Her resort 2025 offering is “light and unserious, but with real construction, and subtle fabrics,” she said. “We are trying to still appeal to our luxury tastes, but with a more approachable, lighthearted feeling.” That ethos is encapsulated in the tangerine, floral-print column “Banana” dress affixed with two padded crescents at the neckline and hanging off the shoulder. Or in the entrance-making flamenco-inspired number with a vibrantly ruffled hem. It’s intriguing how Assoulin effortlessly matches (and clashes) gingham checks in canary-yellow and turquoise with florals in contrasting colours; not many designers would pull it off so gracefully. No wonder why: the New York-based designer is a colorist of the ranks of Dries Van Noten and Alber Elbaz. Her unique approach to garment-construction is phenomenally reflected in the beige, ruffled midi-skirt that opens the collection and in the same-colour peplum top with striped cuffs and collar; its hourglass shape resembles vintage jugs and vases that have a cameo throughout the lookbook. And this takes us to the theme of home that often inspires Rosie in her work. “The home is a very interesting place for me. Domestic life feels very rich: what are the things we’re surrounding ourselves with, wanting to surround ourselves with? It feels like a philosophy for us“, she summed up.

Garden parties and summer occasions ahead, I’ve got you covered with some amazing pieces by Rosie Assoulin you can shop now!

ED’s DISPATCH:

Rosie Assoulin Patchwork Satin Jacquard Midi Slip Dress

Rosie Assoulin Mixed Print Ruched Buttoned Vest

Rosie Assoulin Organza Quartered A-Line Midi Skirt

Rosie Assoulin In Full Bloom Colorblock Dress

Rosie Assoulin Whoopsy Daisy Two-Tone Floral Dress

Rosie Assoulin Stripe Colorblock French Cuff Button Up Blouse

Rosie Assoulin Swivel Stripe Colorblock Godet Midi Skirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Haute Sharpness. Jean Paul Gaultier AW24 Couture

June 27, 2024June 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The rather mild haute couture week in Paris suddenly heated up near its end, all thanks to Nicolas Di Felice‘s guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. It was absolutely refreshing to see the designer outside the context of Courrèges, and with the tools of couture in his hands. The French enfant terrible of fashion made a strong impression on the Belgian designer when he was a teen: “for me and for so many queer, different people from the countryside – from everywhere in the world – he represented Paris, a city where everything is possible. He was really the first one to celebrate different people. Everybody remembers this about him and it’s a good thing, because he actually did it.” The collection told a story about a Paris arriviste, who wears covered up clothes: jackets and dresses with long sleeves, long skirts, and necklines that climb up the face. Slowly, as the show progressed, the head emerged, then the shoulders, and by the end, dresses were peeling off the hips and hands were tucked into the gaps in the fabric in an erotic gesture. The motif of adaptability-to-the-body returned throughout the collection, and it was masterfully applied in a gorgeous slip dress that was worn undone to the waist, exposing a sleeveless shell underneath on which hooks-and-eyes were applied like studs. Di Felice chose to reference Gaultier’s subtler moments, especially his precise technique of cut and sharp, yet feminine tailoring. Everything synced so well. Now imagine Di Felice do haute couture at Courrèges!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Beauty For Beauty’s Sake. Thom Browne AW24 Couture

June 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Beauty is pain. Too much beauty can be lethal. That’s a thought that returns to my mind every single Thom Browne show, this season especially. The New York-designer designer has two contrasting qualities: he’s both a maximalist and a comfort-zone-lover. I think we will never see him emerge from the vocabulary of regal tailoring he’s so well-known for. But the maximalist side of him makes him overthink his own style, making his most splendor-filled collections feel suffocating. Even the models walking in his corsets, voluminous, multi-layered coats and statuesque gowns seem to have problems with breathing – and moving. Since he’s doing couture in Paris, Browne is doing extremely technique-demanding, yet absolutely superfluous collections, so tedious and overburdened with embroideries, embellishments and other pretty details. Yes, it’s impressive that the entire, latest collection is made from muslin, but what of it when the overall line-up looks like a big, amorphous blur of ecru? Beauty for beauty’s sake is important in our lives, but with Thom I wish he would fuck it up a little from time to time and do something… rougher?

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Potent. Courrèges SS25

June 22, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s an incredibly potent, sensual energy about this latest Courrèges collection by Nicolas Di Felice. While the spring-summer 2025 menswear collection drew in part from a series of illustrations of a Courrèges summer 1970 collection of groovy cut-out tunics and banded detailing on short dresses, the contemporary designer is far from being a nostalgia-ist, pushing the brand into future, not futurism. “I really need to work the clothes on the body. Something might seem simple,” he went on to say, “but we really do fit everything; we work on them – the jackets, the skirts, the trenches, even the simplest pieces – from A to Z.” And it really shows this season, especially in the masterfully engineered bibbed tops (the front panels of fabric supported by a body of invisible mesh) worn with killer, kicky pants. Then, there’s all the scuba-inspired leatherwork that’s dangerously chic. Also, note the collars of Di Felice’s trenches in cotton and leather (just soooooo good) falling onto one shoulder and sleeve; the same detailing gets added to roomier, blouson versions cropped at the hips. And that 1970 collection of Andre Courrèges’ provides the motif of a looped band over the chest, which delivers a geometric flash of skin on tanks and dresses that work right across the gender spectrum.

Scoop some Courrèges from my shopping edit!

ED’s DISPATCH:

Courreges Open-back Coated Cotton-blend Mini Dress

Courreges Reedition Appliquéd Ribbed-knit Tank

Courreges Belted Coated Cotton-blend Midi Skirt

Courreges Hyperbole Off-the-shoulder Ribbed Stretch Cotton-jersey Maxi Dress

Courreges Cocoon Convertible Coated Cotton-blend Jacket

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Big Time Sensuality. Lemaire SS25

June 22, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Lemaire‘s spring-summer 2025 collection was galore of understated sensuality. Soft tailoring revisited in light, supple fabrics, workwear imagined in refined materials, loose-fitting cuts following fitted lines and slender attitudes that enrich the wardrobe with a new sense of seductiveness. Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran played with sexy straps: they transformed outerwear into nonchalantly gestured shoulder accessory; they were integrated with knitted mini-dresses in form of garters that held up matching thigh-highs. I love to see these cheeky moments the brand surprises its loyal fan-base with (remember the butt bags?). The designers indulged in more quirky, flirty details, like the beaded body jewelry adorning a fluid dress or a guy’s cowboy black shirt pierced with small rings.