Acts of Light. Colleen Allen AW24

February 9, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

If there’s one debut collection that you’ve got to see this New York Fashion Week, then it’s Colleen Allen‘s autumn-winter 2024 line-up. A former Vogue assistant who cut her teeth at Raf Simons’s Calvin Klein and The Row, Allen can be hardly called an emerging designer with such impressive portfolio. Her first collection proves she’s got a certain design-maturity that many, many names in New York are still having a hard time in finding. Kept in a vibrant color palette of deep red and cardinal purple, Allen offers a wardrobe filled with body-wrapping knits and jerseys. The draped, flowing dress makes you think of Halston’s 1980s costumes for modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, particularly the ones created for the “Acts of Light” performances. The velvet-y, floor-sweeping, red opera coat makes the collection turn an even more theatrical direction, but not overly, we’re still grounded in reality. You can definitely picture the entire offering in IRL circumstances, especially the wonderfully tailored blazers, poet vests, and multi-layered tops. With confidence, Colleen Allen brings much-needed spirit to New York’s league of minimalism.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Streamlined. Toteme AW24

February 6, 2024February 6, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

I’ve never really put my finger on Toteme until its first runway show in Paris presented during the last haute couture week. In the words of the Swedish brand’s creative directors Elin Kling and Karl Lindman, the autumn-winter 2024 line-up is “designed for real-life situations”, and it certainly delivered such hero-pieces. Toteme is all about feminine minimalism that sits somewhere between The Row, Khaite and Fforme, but at (a bit) more affordable price point. The strong-shouldered silhouettes play out best with masculine-inspired outerwear and tailoring, offset with sheer knits and streamlined, soirée dresses – creating a subdued yet self-assured effect. Texture comes to the fore with shearling, cashmere, wool bouclé and feather-like fil-coupé, all rendered in restrained colourways. The pieces are familiar yet elevated enough to make the brand seem right at home as it took its first steps on the Parisian circuit.

And now here are a couple of Toteme pieces you can get right now…

ED’s SELECTION:

The Mid Heel Croc-effect Leather Ankle Boots

Embroidered Silk Shirt

Draped Fringed Wool-blend Jacket

Croc-effect Leather Knee Boots

Organic Denim Skirt

Striped Organic Cotton-blend Mini Dress

The Peep-toe Satin Point-toe Flats

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Marc’s Swans. Marc Jacobs SS24

February 3, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Although Marc Jacobs presented his latest collection off-schedule, a couple of days before NYFW officially starts, yesterday’s line-up brought hope and optimism to the city’s state of the industry. Jacobs celebrates 40 years (!) of his brand, but the spring-summer 2024 line-up doesn’t read us a retrospective, but rather an exuberant, lively love letter to fashion. Walking tall, strong and gracious, like swans (both, the Central Park ones and the Truman Capote ones), in bouffant wigs, the models and the entire doll-house scene (featuring XXL table and chairs by artist Robert Therrien) felt like some sort of twisted fairy-tale. The collection itself was an exercise in exaggerated proportions. Knit sweaters abruptly cinched at the waist; floor-length mirrored ballgowns – those could definitely be worn by modern-day C.Z. Guests and Babe Paleys; supersized Venetia bags (the 2000s Marc Jacobs best-seller is back, better than ever); fluffy-looking tailoring. This is for the dollllllls! The designer sneaked a couple of references to his finest work (and a couple of Louis Vuitton nods are also here), but he also combined his design language with his subtle signifiers of his ultimate fashion heroes: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada. Jacobs never feared to admit he’s a fashion fan. To the tune of Philip Glass, the show ended dramatically as it started, with the doll-models walking out of open door at the end of the runway into the street. There was no finale – and we got a two-second glimpse of Jacobs before the vast space of Park Avenue Armory plunged into darkness. Here’s to next decades and decades of F-A-S-H-I-O-N!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Back In South of France. Jacquemus SS24

January 29, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jacquemus once again picked a signature, French location for his see-now-buy-now fashion show. I, personally, adore Fondation Maeght: when I visited it a couple of years ago, I was so entranced by the beauty of this art institution I never wanted to leave. Seasons ago, Nicolas Ghesquière of Louis Vuitton chose the Saint-Paul-de-Vence museum and its yards as his cruise venue, and he showed there some of his finest work ever. This place is a perfect location for a fashion show, yes – but only when the clothes match up to it, to all the Giacomettis and Matisses and Chagalls. Or at least build an intriguing, contextual, visual dialogue. I missed that part about Simon Porte Jacquemus‘ spring-summer 2024 collection. The rigid, overly statuesque silhouettes read and felt flat, some looks were even unflattering. The tailoring was just OK, just like the simplistic eveningwear. A pop of fringes here, a bit of leopard print there… it was all Insta-photogenic, but nothing else. A collection that would do much better in a white-cube setting in Paris. Although Jacquemus is repeatedly called a “marketing genius“, I still can’t grasp the connection between this line-up and the Kristin-Davis-as-Charlotte-York promo. And then Kylie Jenner and Julia Roberts in the f-row. Make it make sense.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Futurism. Fendi SS24 Couture

January 26, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“I wanted the collection to feel quite graphic rather than romantic because I was thinking about Fendi and how, under Karl, there was always an element of ‘futurism,’” Kim Jones said of his latest haute couture collection. “I didn’t go back to look at what Karl did, but I like to take the essence of it.” This couture collection landed especially well, because Jones didn’t base his concept on a specific Karl Lagerfeld collection that much. This was finally a Jones for Fendi collection, not a dig into the archives. The designer developed trompe l’oeil decorativeness of an unexpected kind, which appeared to be one of the biggest highlight from this very streamlined, sharp collection. “We wanted to do fur, but without using fur or fake fur,” he said. “So we’ve done it with embroidery instead.” Embroidered with miniscule filaments, and sewn in densely overlapping rippling formations, the results are feather-like and feather-light to wear, be it as a coat, dress, or pencil-skirt. There’s also something for the couture-minimalists: the opening look was as spare and reduced as could be, specifically a black, strapless calf-length column Jones called “a box-dress.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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